Los Angeles Police Department Blade Runners and their colleagues.
open/close all folders
2019 LAPD
Rick Deckard
Rick Deckard
"Replicants are like any other machine, they're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem."
"I had your job once. I was good at it."
Played By: Harrison Ford Other Languages
Appears In: Blade Runner | Blade Runner 2049
"I've had people walk out on me before, but not when I was being so charming."
A "Blade Runner," a special member of the Los Angeles Police Department whose job is to hunt and "retire" replicants which have been declared illegal on Earth.
Deckard has gone missing between 2019 and 2049, hiding in a dilapidated and empty Las Vegas.
Tropes for Deckard in Blade Runner:
- Action Survivor: While Deckard's reputation is that of a Living Legend, he shows monumental difficulty in his fights against the replicants. A Justified Trope, as they are top of the line, highly advanced cyborgs with three designed for military use, while Deckard has drinking problems and is tired of his job by the time they meet. Not to mention, Deckard's reputation may just be implanted memories.note
- The Alcoholic: It's much faster to count the scenes in which Deckard isn't drinking. And if you can still drink with a split lip, then you are an überholic. This goes right toward Deckard as a Film Noir detective. Notice also that Bryant never drinks: he pours two glasses while discussing the skin-jobs loose on the street, but never touches his glass, just watches while Deckard drinks his. Later, he tells him "Drink some for me, huh?" The implication is that he is an alcoholic in recovery and derives vicarious pleasure from watching others drink, but won't drink himself.
- Ambiguously Human: The original movie implies that he might be a Replicant as one of its central themes. There's plenty of evidence either way. And the sequel does little to actually resolve said mystery, yet see below for 2049 entry.
- Anti-Hero: Deckard isn't the most likeable of guys, and his job of executing the Ambiguously Human replicants is ambiguously moral.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Fitting for a detective, Deckard is very good at looking over evidence. It's how he catches a glimpse of Zhora in a reflection with the help of a photo enhancing machine, leading him straight to her.
- Badass Bookworm: He has spent years between the films reading, by his own admission, and now quotes literature and stockpiles art.
- Badass Longcoat: Zig Zagged.
- Deckard's single-breasted brown trenchcoat, which he wears in almost every scene he's in, has become so iconic you can easily find replicas of it online. In addition to giving him the classic Hardboiled Detective look, it's practical in a city where it never stops raining.
- Not-So-Badass Longcoat: As cool as that coat makes him look, Deckard is more of an Action Survivor than a badass.
- Badass Normal: Unlike Leon or Roy Batty, Rick Deckard doesn't have Super-Strength or immunity to pain. Doesn't stop him from fighting back as much as any Replicant.
- Born Lucky: Luck is what ultimately saves him from the Replicants: he would have been killed by Zhora had witnesses not stepped in, by Leon had Rachael not intervened, and Roy if he hadn't taken pity on him.
- Combat Pragmatist: Deckard has to fight dirty when going against the high grade military Replicants. He tries to ambush Batty with a gunshot, shoots Zhora in the back and goes for his gun when Leon fights him.
- Damsel in Distress: In the second movie. Due to being old and outdated, he gets captured without resistance by Luv. K then has to save him from drowning in a submerged spinner.
- Defective Detective: Not only is he plagued with self-loathing and doubt, he becomes increasingly unsure that his role as a Blade Runner is ethical, and eventually becomes a fugitive with Rachael.
- Determinator: For as much as he hates his job, and for as many times as he almost gets killed, at no point does he ever give up on his assignment.
- Drowning My Sorrows: His excessive drinking is largely a coping mechanism, probably to help him deal with the carnage he's witnessed during the course of his career. It's no mistake that we see him drinking in the immediate aftermaths of replicant killings.
- Guile Hero: Deckard is quick to come up with lies when dealing with Replicants, pretending to be a friend of Sebastian when dealing with Pris and posing as a bureaucrat when dealing with Zhora.
- Hardboiled Detective: He is more of a deconstruction, being an Anti-Hero with some serious psychological conflicts.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: His default response to any kind of emotional trauma, not just in himself either. The only way he can think of to help Rachael during her emotional breakdown is to offer booze.
- Informed Ability: A partially justified example. Deckard is hyped by Bryant as pretty much the ultimate Blade Runner, to the point where he's willing to intimidate him in to coming out of retirement to deal with the rogue Nexus 6 Replicants. If Deckard was as good as Bryant claims, it's pretty clear that alcoholism and burnout have diminished whatever abilities he had in his prime. As such the newer, faster and stronger Nexus 6 Replicants are consistently able to outsmart him and get the drop on him. His two kills in the entire movie are women that he shot in the back, including one who was fleeing from him, and his fights with Leon and Roy involve him getting curbstomped until he's saved by factors outside of his control. Also, while he shows some investigating skills and guts, his behavior sometimes becomes quite unprofessional or even downright unstable, especially around Rachael.
- Irony: While hunting Replicants, he often lies and pretends to be people he isn't to further his goals, much like the androids he pursues.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's cold and stoic, but has a conscience underneath it all.
- Knight in Sour Armour: Despite his contempt for his job and just about everyone around him, he still agrees to retire Roy's gang, who are mostly hardened killers. He eventually falls in love with Rachael, and becomes a fugitive to keep her safe at the end of the film.
- Made of Iron: For as questionably competent as Deckard is, he can take one hell of a pounding.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he shoots and kills a female replicant, Deckard is visibly horrified and disturbed by what he's done, showing he doesn't enjoy killing people, even if it is part of his job.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Deckard is prone to this. Whenever he gets into a fight with any of the replicants, he takes one hell of a beating.
- One Last Job: Bryant convinces him to come out of retirement on the grounds that he's the most capable man who's available at the time. He grudgingly agrees to do it.
- Perma-Stubble: He is a noirish Anti-Hero played by Harrison Ford, after all—it's basically part of the uniform. The film takes place over the course of several nights, and he doesn't stop to shave.
- Pragmatic Hero: His methods are questionable as he uses threats and lies but he takes no pleasure in killing and feels genuine remorse for his targets.
- Punch-Clock Hero: He doesn't particularly like his job as a police officer who's more or less a bounty hunter. His reason for taking on the assignment in the film is because Bryant implied that he'd have him killed if he didn't and because he's the best man for the job.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Gets the shakes after killing Replicants. It's probably the reason he left the police.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Brown spirits. He also seems to like ramen, since he's very insistent on which dish he wants in his introductory scene.
Tropes for Deckard in Blade Runner 2049:
- Action Survivor: Like before, Deckard is still able to kick the asses of Replicants, but he is older and a bit slower than he used to be; justified in that he hasn't seen active service as a Blade Runner in 30 years and still drinks.
- Advertised Extra: Trailers and posters made no secret of his presence in the film. He only appears in the third act.
- Ambiguously Human: The movie doesn't bother addressing the debate whether Deckard is a Long-Lived Replicant or not. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher and Harrison Ford himself have always considered him as human, though Ridley Scott hasn't.
- Still, Wallace implies that Deckard was meant to fall in love with Rachael some 30-ish years ago, suggesting that he may have been, indeed, a Replicant from the very start. Or Tyrell deliberately chose him for his experiment.
- The movie never draws attention to it, but when he and K are attacked by Wallace's men in Vegas, Luv's two human henchmen have to wear gas masks, while Deckard himself doesn't bother with one. It could just have been that the radiation levels have gone down enough over time that protection isn't necessary, but...
- Badass Bookworm: He's spent much of the 30-year gap between films reading and learned how to set traps, keep bees, and run all sorts of surveillance technology.
- Born Lucky: His luck continues in 2049, where K saves his life multiple times. And he is ultimately able to reunite with his daughter.
- Call to Agriculture: He turned to beekeeping while living alone in a dilapidated and empty Las Vegas.
- Character Aged with the Actor: Deckard has aged almost as much as Harrison Ford — the character is 30 years older while 2049 comes out 35 years after the original.
- Cool Old Guy: While the passage of time has taken a bit of a toll on him, he can still hold his own in a fight.
- Glory Days: He tells K he had the same job as him once, and that he was good at it.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: after serving as a Replicant punching bag in the original, Deckard at least manages to get in a few good hits agains Niander Wallace's mooks... and he does so by throwing trademark IndianaJones-esque haymakers from last decade. It comes off as hilarious and awesome at the same time.
- The Hermit: He chose to live isolated in the Ghost Town Las Vegas has become.
- Loving Details: Fondly recalls how Rachael had green eyes when a brown-eyed Replicant clone of Rachael is brought to him by Wallace as an attempt to make him cooperate.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: At the end, K brings him to his daughter, Ana Stelline.
- Old Soldier: Harrison Ford was 74 when he filmed 2049, and Deckard definitely has the beefy arms of a man who looks like he could hold his own against much younger replicants. Which he does.
- Pet the Dog: Deckard appears to have gotten a little softer with age, he keeps a Post-Apocalyptic Dog as his only companion (even pouring beer onto the floor for him to drink) and remembers Rachael with what seems to be genuine love.
- Retired Badass: Even in his 70s he's still capable of throwing a punch or two, and he survived on his own in the ruins of Las Vegas for the last couple of decades.
- Trap Master: He set up various explosive traps inside the abandoned Las Vegas casino in which he lives.
Eduardo Gaff
Eduardo Gaff
"It's too bad she won't live! But then again who does?"
Played By: Edward James Olmos Other Languages
Appears In: Blade Runner | Black Out 2022 | Blade Runner 2049
"Lófaszt! Nehogy már! Te vagy a Blade, Blade Runner!"note
An enigmatic officer in the L.A. police department who detains Deckard, and fills the role of his "partner" of sorts on Deckard's quest for the Nexus-Six replicants.
- Ambiguous Situation: All of his screentime qualifies as such; Gaff's role in the narrative goes clearly beyond a simple colleague cop, but we are never revealed which role he plays. The only safe thing to say about him is that he knows more about Deckard and his secrets than what Deckard seems to think.
- Badass Longcoat: He wears one.
- The Cameo: He makes a brief reappearance in 2049, when K tracks him down to a retirees' home to learn more about Deckard.
- Classy Cane: Carries one, likely due to his noticeable limp.
- Creepy Blue Eyes: As seen in the image, his blue eyes are pretty distinctive and give him an otherwordly look.
- Creepy Good: He seems to be on Deckard's side about Rachael at the end of the film, and nothing in the film itself indicates Gaff is not a dutiful cop, but his weird appearance and traits, mixed with his seemingly snarky attitude, make him vaguely unsettling.
- Deadpan Snarker: While he doesn't speak a whole lot, a few scenes do have Gaff seem like he is silently mocking Deckard. He manages to get some snark in via origami, of all things, making a model of a chicken and of a man sporting a huge erection as commentary on Deckard's state of mind at the time. It could just be he doesn't like him all that much, but it's really hard to say given how little we see or know about him. He's still at it in the sequel.
- Enigmatic Minion: Again, Gaff doesn't talk that much, and when he talks, he clearly doesn't let out everything he knows. Given the nature of this movie, this has led to a great deal of Wild Mass Guessing as to what role exactly he plays in the movie's narrative.
- Hidden Depths: In a deleted scene from the DVD aptly named "A Real Dandy," Deckard mentions that Gaff is new in the police station and hungry for promotion. This is never addressed in the actual film, however, so its canonicity is up to debate.
- Non-Action Guy: Zig-zagged. He is never seen in a fight scene or merely drawing a weapon, as he isn't assigned to fight during the events of Blade Runner (and because he never gets entangled in any fight anyways). Then again, his limp is presumably a service injury, and in Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human he is mentioned to have been killed in action, which means he is a full-fledged cop whose fighting we simply don't get to see.
- The Quiet One: What is not spoken in LA's futuristic 'Cityspeak' dialect (which Olmos has confirmed to be an offshoot of Hungarian mixed with several other languages, mainly born of cultural convergence within the future city of L.A.) is spoken through his origami figurines. And those open up a whole bunch of Epileptic Trees all by themselves...
- Secret-Keeper:
- Whatever else is debatable, Gaff is strongly implied to know about Rachael, but for some reason, lets her and Deckard escape together. It could have been a moment of compassion on Gaff's part, since he knows Rachael will not live past her expiration date...note or it could be his motive is more sinister, or quite simply he knows something we don't.
- In the voice over of the theatrical cut, Deckard explains that Gaff was gunning for his job and wouldn't raise too much of a fuss if Deckard just took off later. This is borne out when Gaff looks the other way while Deckard and Rachael leave.
- As of 2049, in his brief cameo Gaff maintains his loyalty, as it were, to Deckard by lying about his death.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: If he really does know the truth about Deckard and Rachael, as heavily implied by the ending of the first movie and his cameo in the second, it doesn't appear that Deckard himself knows it.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: As noted above, he has a definitely interesting-looking appearance. Bonus points for wearing a flower on his jacket in one scene.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The sequel novel Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human informs Gaff died during a mission and shows his funeral and grave, but in Blade Runner 2049 he is alive and retired.
- Smug Snake: So very much.
- Troll: Gaff talks to Deckard solely in Cityspeak, even though Deckard barely speaks it. However, the ending indicates Gaff speaks English perfectly fine (which is further backed up by his brief appearances in the video game and 2049), suggesting he does this purely to screw with him.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He doesn't stick out very much in a futuristic city in which fashion tends to be outrageous, but compared to Deckard, Bryant and the rest of the sternly dressed police department, Gaff displays some rather eccentric attire choices, and still nobody bats an eye.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Gaff's accent in the first movie is... weird. It's implied to be the effect of his Cityspeak dialectical background, and comes out as a kind of strange, hissing bark. Especially odd in the sequel, where Eddie Olmos just speaks in his natural voice.
Captain Harry Bryant
Captain Harry Bryant
"I need ya, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old Blade Runner, I need your magic."
Played By: M. Emmet Walsh
Appears In: Blade Runner
"Stop right where you are! You know the score pal! If you're not a cop, you're little people."
Rick Deckard's former supervisor from his time as a Blade Runner, who calls him in for One Last Job.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Much more affable in the book, to the point where he shows genuine concern about collateral damage and even recommends Deckard for a citation at the very end.
- Da Chief: An Inspector in the LAPD who appears to be in charge of Blade Runner units. Deckard does not appear to like or respect him very much.
- Dirty Cop: Very minor case. For whatever reason he is clearly keen on no one else finding out about the Replicants being on Earth. Though that might well be simply because of pressure from his superiors. When Deckard initially refuses to take the assignment, Bryant subtly threatens his life. See the above quote on little people.
- Fantastic Racist:Deckard's narration: "Skinjob; that's Bryant's word for Replicants. In history books, he's the kind of cop that used to call black men niggers."
- Fat Bastard: Is noticeably overweight and forces Deckard to hunt the Replicants with thinly-veiled threats.
- Jerkass: Pulls Deckard in with both threats on him and compliments on his killing ability. He doesn't really grasp that Deckard is clearly mentally struggling with the job, and probably wouldn't care.
- Mr. Exposition: He explains the situation regarding the Nexus-6 Replicant fugitives on Earth to Deckard, and thus to the audience. He is also the first character in the film to mention that said Replicants have a limited lifespan of four years.
Dave Holden
Dave Holden
"Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about...your mother."
Played By: Morgan Paull
Appears In: Blade Runner
"You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down."
Another "Blade Runner." It was originally his job to retire the Nexus-Six replicants who defected to Earth. His task is cut short when Leon shoots Holden and leaves him for dead, so the task ultimately falls to Deckard.
- Almost Dead Guy: Bryant mentions that Holden is alive, so long as nobody "unplugs him," implying he's on life support (confirmed in deleted scenes where he imparts knowledge to Deckard).
- Ambiguously Human: In The Edge Of Human, Roy Batty tells him that he and all other blade runners are actually replicants, Batty even shows him a female version of himself. He discusses the idea with Deckard at the end and they have no idea if Batty was lying or not.
- Artificial Human: Possibly. A deleted scene shows Bryant and Gaff watching footage of him and Deckard talking from their direct VOP — suggesting the Bladerunners have cameras in their heads.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: In contrast to Deckard's private eye longcoat look, Holden is neatly groomed and well-dressed in a business suit. Visually, this has the effect of making him look more like a classic straight-laced LAPD detective from a cop show while Deckard would be more fitting in a noir story.
- Break Them by Talking: He takes the Voight-Kampff test to a whole new level of psychological torment by giving rhetorical and loaded questions. Telling Leon he was allowing an overturned turtle to suffer a prolonged death in agony, and was unwilling to help. Leon's heart-rate by this point is sky-rocketing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Very much so. He was testing new employees at the Tyrell Corporation on the premise that they might try to infiltrate the company. Interviewing dozens of employees all day long, with no results, made him quite irritable with Leon.
- Informed Ability: He's a Blade Runner, a police officer trained to find and kill Replicants trying to pass as humans, and the first name Deckard throws out when he suggests someone else to deal with the case. The moment he finds one (using a test designed specifically for the purpose), he's taken by surprise and gunned down by the suspect. However, if he’d been running the tests for a while, he may have gotten careless due to fatigue.
- Smoking Is Cool: As per the futuristic Film Noir context.
2049 LAPD
Officer K / "Joe"
Officer K / "Joe"
"I have memories, but I can't tell if they are real."
Played By: Ryan Gosling Other Languages
Appears In: Blade Runner 2049
K: "I've never retired something that was born."
Joshi: "What does that mean?"
K: "To be born...Means you have a soul, I guess."
Joshi: "What does that mean?"
K: "To be born...Means you have a soul, I guess."
A Blade Runner who tracks down and eliminates pre-Nexus-9 Replicants (as only the latter models are legal on Earth due to their perfect subservience). In 2049, he unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos, and that discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years.
- Alone in a Crowd: Any scene out in the city shows him as being completely isolated even in the packed city.
- Androids and Detectives: He is one of few Replicant detectives in the cyberpunk world, working with a great deal of cynical humans.
- Badass Longcoat: His shearling leather jacket surely looks cool. And it comes with a fur collar that can zip up to protect his face.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to the burnt out, semi-retired Deckard, K is still very active on the job, as well as much more effective. Also, unlike the Ambiguously Human Deckard, the question of K's humanity is definitively answered; he's unquestionably a Replicant.
- Defective Detective: He was nicknamed "Constant K" for never varying from his emotional baseline, regardless of his cases. As the plot progresses he becomes increasingly emotionally invested and secretly rebellious. Further, he's shown from the very start to have no friends beyond a holographic girlfriend who is installed in his apartment.
- Dented Iron: He takes an absolutely grueling amount of punishment over the course of the film (which itself maybe covers a week) and by the end it's starting to catch up with him.
- Face Death with Dignity: He spends his final moments in the film ensuring that Deckard can meet his daughter, before calmly staring into the sky as the wounds he sustained fighting Luv continue to bleed. The film cuts just before we see if he bleeds out or not, but it's not looking good, especially when you consider that both the music and visuals deliberately echo Roy Batty's famous death scene at the climax of the first film. In fact, if you look very closely at the end of that scene, K goes very still and appears to stop breathing.
- Fantastic Racism: Due to K's status as a late-gen Replicant, people throw slurs at him like "skinjob" as he walks past. Even the other Replicants hates his guts for being a Blade Runner type Replicant. He himself views Tyrell Replicants as defective.
- First-Episode Twist: Well, first five minutes spoiler. He is established to be a Replicant early on, a fact which was left out of marketing.
- Friendless Background: Implied to be the case as his only friend appears to be AI Joi and he seems to have suffered a lifetime of neglect and bullying for being a replicant.
- Healing Factor: Appears to be one of the benefits of being a late generation Replicant, as demonstrated during a brief scene in which he treats a deep stab wound with nothing more than what looks like a small tube of super glue. The wound closes up completely after only a couple of seconds and doesn't trouble him again for the rest of the film.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: He is an advanced Replicant that is employed as a Blade Runner. He initially rationalizes this by claiming that the older models are defective, whereas he is obedient to the LAPD.
- I Just Want to Be Special: K is strongly motivated by the belief that he is Rachael and Rick's son, and he is devastated to learn that he isn't.
- Loners Are Freaks: Inverted; K is alone because he's a replicant.
- Loving a Shadow: Towards Joi, probably. He loves her very much, and she appears to reciprocate...but the third act implies that this was mostly all part of her basic programming. How much she ever genuinely returned his deep love (and could do) is an open question.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: He spends a good portion of the movie thinking he might be the missing half-Replicant child of Deckard and Rachael. He isn't.
- Made of Iron: He can take quite a lot of punishment. Being a Replicant helps.
- Meaningful Name: They get a lot of connotations out of "Joe":
- Combining his common name with Joi's nickname for him gives you Joe K, as in Josef K from Franz Kafka's The Trial.
- Joe also as in average Joe, as if to say there isn't anything inherently special about him.
- There's also Joseph from the Book of Genesis, who was a son of a woman named Rach(a)el. Joe K isn't, but for a few minutes he believes he might be.
- It can also be in reference to St. Joseph, due to St. Joseph's role as a protector of Jesus and his wife Mary the mother of Jesus, considering K/Joe ends up becoming the protector of a miracle baby that is seen as a sort of messiah and that child's parent.
- Messianic Archetype: The driving question of the film is whether he's an impossible son of a Replicant and human, much like Jesus was both God and human. He makes the choice to save Deckard (and possibly the world) and reject Joi's worldly temptation while he's covered in water, a symbolic "baptism" in a high place. During his final fight with Luv, he gets a "halo" behind his head, fights an evil "angel", gets pierced in the side and hands, and he dies in a heroic sacrifice soon after.
- Mr. Fanservice: Often shot at flattering angles and lighting, with many a lingering shot of his silhouette in that awesome trenchcoat, and plenty of lingering shots of his pretty blue eyes. No less than five women hit on him, too, all quite blatantly. Also, it's Ryan Gosling.
- Musical Spoiler: K's final moments in the film as he lies bleeding on the steps of Ana's building are underscored by "Tears in Rain," the same music that played during Roy Batty's famous death scene in the first film, as well as sharing further visual and thematic similarities with that scene. While we never see K's ultimate fate on screen, good money is that he's dead, quietly "fading away" just like Batty did.
- Nice Guy: K is polite, mild-mannered, good-natured and clearly loves Joi very much.
- Neck Lift: At the end of his climatic battle with Luv, K grabs her by the throat and lifts her up with one hand before forcibly submerging her in the water, drowning her before she could kill Deckard.
- Not So Stoic: The only time he shows extreme emotion is after being able to confirm that his memories are truly real memories. Prior to that he hesitates and shows signs of remorse when his soulless nature is commented on, or is genuinely surprised by Joi's actions.
- Oblivious to Love: Luv tries to flirt with him by asking him if he knows what it's like to be desired. He either doesn't hear or pretends that never happens.
- One-Letter Name: He's commonly known as "K," although Joi decides to call him "Joe." His full Replicant designation is KD6-3.7.
- One-Man Army: As a replicant Blade Runner, his specs are clearly built to allow him to defeat older models of replicants which include incredible strength and resiliency. The few times he engages with humans, he tears through them with ease.
- One-Steve Limit: Invoked. Joi enthusiastically names him Joe as a special name his "mother" gave him. However, after going through the grinder and stumbling upon an interactive Joi advertisement, he realizes that just about any other Joi would have dubbed him "Joe" too, hinting that her programming may have been just pandering to him to say what he wanted to hear.
- Perma-Stubble: Sports a solid one.
- Photographic Memory: He has one since he's a Replicant.
- Red Herring: Even though he is apparently a replicant, he has memories which turn out to be very real, making him think that perhaps he was the son of Deckard and Rachael somehow. It turns out that he is not their child and just one of many replicants who received those memories. The memories belonged to the woman who creates the fake memories all replicants have, which contain various elements of her own real life experiences.
- The Quiet One: He never says much more than he needs too.
- Snow Means Death: His death takes place outside in snow.
- Super-Strength: Like all other Nexus-9 Replicants. Exemplified when he easily rams through a marble wall blocking his path.
- The Stoic: He's generally quite calm and composed.
- Tin Man: As a replicant, he is meant to be completely emotionless and professional, but over the course of the film he displays a great deal of emotional range and Not So Stoic moments, not the least of which being his emotionally intimate relationship with the AI Joi.
- Tragic Dream: His belief that he is Deckard and Rachael's son motivates him throughout, and it utterly breaks him when he learns that he isn't.
- Transferable Memory: He is aware that he had no "childhood" so to speak and that the few memories he has of a childhood are someone else's. Then he finds the small wooden horse in the old, depleted furnace and starts believing he is Deckard's/Rachael's son. Only to find out he isn't, Rachael had a daughter actually. The memories of hiding the wooden horse were hers.
- The Unchosen One: After finding a link in his memories, he believes that he is the Replicant child of Rick Deckard and Rachael Tyrell that he's been searching for. But as it turns out he's just a regular Replicant, and the memories he had that supposedly proved he was the real child belonged to the woman who makes memories for all Nexus-9 Replicants. In the end, though, it just drives his decision to be more than just a machine by fighting for Rick Deckard, even though Deckard is not his father, laying down his own life in the process.Freysa: You imagined it was you? You did? You did! We all wish it was us. That's why we believe.
- Unskilled, but Strong: While Luv clearly outmatches K in terms of fighting technique and knife handling, K demonstrates he has the upper hand on pure raw strength. Best exemplified in their final fight, where Luv initially has the upper hand on land and manages to mortally wound K by stabbing him. Once K surprises her in the submerged shuttle and successfully grabs her by the throat however she's completely unable to break free of his hold, leading to him forcing her underwater and drowning her.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to K's status as a Replicant, a fact which wasn't revealed in the marketing itself. The film does explain this early on, however.
- What You Are in the Dark: Corporate Cog. Terrorist Assassin. Gutless Pawn. K is given a smattering of awful choices as to what he can choose to be in the film's final act. He chooses Cowboy Cop, and fights to reunite Deckard with his daughter, because it's the right thing to do.
- You Are Number 6: His name is just an abbreviation of KD6-3.7, his serial number.
Lieutenant Joshi
Lieutenant Joshi
"What you saw didn't happen. It is our job to keep order."
Played By: Robin Wright
Appears In: Blade Runner 2049
"If this gets out, we've bought ourselves a war!"
K's LAPD superior.
- A Glass in the Hand: How Luv tortures her. Joshi doesn't give in, but it's obvious that she's in agonizing pain as Luv's grip grows tighter and tighter.
- The Alcoholic: She's often seen with a glass in hand. Considering the stress and responsibilities of her job, it's understandable.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: After killing Joshi, Luv finds out there's a facial recognition security system on Joshi's PC, and lifts the dead body of the police officer and places Joshi's face in front of the system's facial detector to get through it. Then she callously lets Joshi's body fall on the ground.
- Da Chief: She berates K on several instances although she's mostly a Reasonable Authority Figure.
- Defiant to the End: Despite Luv torturing her by crushing her hand (with a broken glass in it), Joshi doesn't reveal anything to the Replicant.
- Face Death with Dignity: Luv calmly tells her that she's going to kill her, and Joshi responds in kind, telling her to do what she has to do.
- Foil: To Captain Bryant; they serve similar roles in the story, but unlike the slovenly and manipulative Fantastic Racist, Smug Snake Bryant, whom Deckard has little respect for, Joshi is well-groomed and reasonable, and K holds her in genuine esteem. Joshi also seems to be somewhat sympathetic towards K and she evidently sees him as human as anyone else.
- Lonely at the Top: Downplayed, but she's the boss of the entire department and seems lonely.
- Married to the Job: It's implied her job makes her just as lonely as K is; while in K's apartment Joshi implies that things might go a bit further if she helps herself to his bottle. K pretends not to notice the hint and she leaves quickly.
- Meaningful Name: Joshi is an Indian name meaning roughly astrologist but more obscurely, in Japanese, (Jōshi, 上士) refers to a higher-ranking Samurai who had a right to abuse and dismiss low-ranking onesnote . Curiously enough, Joshi indeed does treat K as a high-handed superior, but she treats with him way more humanely and compassionately (if a bit blunt), contrasting her name-sake Samurai of old.
- A Mother to Her Men: Zigzagged. When K gets beaten up by Sapper she says he has to pay for his own repairs. But when K fails his baseline Joshi could have him legally killed, but she dismisses his guards and lets him go, so he can get his act together for the next baseline test (or run for it, though she doesn't say that of course). When Luv turns up demanding his location, she refuses to help her whatsoever even under torture.
- Power Hair: Wears her short blonde hair slicked back in a tight gel haircut.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She has Da Chief traits but also recognizes when K does things right. She wants K to assassinate a natural-born replicant, but sees this as Necessarily Evil to stop chaos and destruction from a replicant/human war. And when K tells her that he completed the job, she helps him avoid immediate termination for failing the emotions test he's regularly subjected to as a replicant.
- Sacrificial Lion: She gets killed by Luv, showing the extent to which Niander Wallace is willing to go to find Deckard's secret.
- Ship Tease: She is interested in K and even makes a pass at him during the film, but he declines.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She orders K to find and kill the born Replicant to avoid a war between replicants and humans and maintain a status quo. She is right as the Replicants aware of the child are readying a revolution.
Nandez
Nandez
Played By: Wood Harris
Appears In: Blade Runner 2049
Another police investigator. He is disdainful of Coco's conclusion that Sapper Morton must have cared for Rachael's baby, though Coco points out that Morton clearly cared enough to give her a proper burial.
- Fantastic Racism: He scoffs at the idea that a Replicant is capable of caring.
Coco
Coco
"You can't take those!"
Played By: David Dastmalchian
Appears In: Blade Runner 2049
An LAPD forensic officer.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He stumbles into Luv stealing Rachael's bones at the morgue. He gets distracted by a fake document just long enough for Luv to hit him in the back of the head. This isn't instantly fatal. It leaves his neck broken and he chokes in his own blood, bleeding from most orifices in his head.
- Fantastic Racism: He makes a slur about "skin-jobs," although he does apologise, if somewhat half-heartedly, for making the remark in front of K.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He appears in two scenes, and gets killed in the second one.
