Ode to Joi: Blade Runner 2049!

The character of Joi played by Ana di Armas in Blade Runner 2049 is interesting.  She is something identified as a DiJi, a digital companion created by the Wallace Corporation, and we see that K played by Ryan Gosling has modified the program to simulate something that is missing in his life.  He is a Replicant, an artificially created being, who works as a Blade Runner hunting down older model Replicants.  Artificial companions have been explored before, most recently in Spike Jonze’s her (2013) which had an operating system that names herself Samantha voiced by Scarlett Johansson.  In that film, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a writer struggling with a divorce and has difficulty with everyday relationships.  He finds solace with Samantha whom of course is programmed to be supportive and understanding.  This is also covered with Joi in Blade Runner 2049, but with the novel twist in that neither persons are human, but both want a human experience.  Spoilers ahead!   

Let’s break down Joi’s introduction.  K has been hunting a Replicant and returns to his apartment.  There is the side of a digital billboard that announces “Joi goes anywhere you want to go.”  Off screen in K’s apartment, Joi says K is early and that he should “go scrub”, showering and patching up his wound using super glue.  Then, she asks about his “meeting.”  He asks about her day and she says, “I’m getting cabin fever.” She says she is preparing dinner, a new recipe, the holographic emitter swings and then, we see Joi in a 50’s dress.  This is a scene what you might seen in any movie about everyday life, but this is a routine, they are role-playing husband and wife especially Joi’s outfit.  The world has humans, but they are just background players except Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright) fascinated by K and Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), the blind, eccentric owner of the Wallace Corporation that now manufactures Replicants.  Joi places the holographic dish over the real one, kisses his cheek, and lights his cigarette with her finger.  He exhales blowing smoke through her holographic body.  It seems like K is amused at the situation and destroys the illusion by blowing the smoke, a possible ending of the program?  

She sits and regards him before shifting into a black outfit.  There seems to be a short hand, both K and Joi are intelligent artificial beings, one assumes that K has gone through this scenario so many times that Joi uses the instant costume change though they may have gone through moment by moment at the beginning.  She asks for K to read to her.  Joi picks up a holographic copy of Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (K’s baseline test is lines from this book/poem).  K says she hates the book so she tosses it and shifts into a silver dress with short, blond wig.  Joi keeps shifting to interest K, he is calm, but his mind is restless.  Still, her regular form that she returns to is the same, K doesn’t alter it.  She asks him to dance, but he brings up her present and Joi shifts back to the black outfit.  K opens the present which he says is for their “anniversary.”  She sees that it is an emanator.  We have seen programs moving in holographic rooms and projected in other places in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He opens the system on the side of the wall and instantly her profile appears; Height, Body Type, and Ethnicity.  K starts the unit and Joi fades to the Wallace logo.  This reminds viewers she is a program.  He activates the hand held emulator and we can hear the opening of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.”  

Joi reappears in a simple, blue dress.  K tells her that she can now go anywhere and then we get the rainy rooftop at night.  There is the haunting voice of a Korean ad.  Joi walks and sees the rain drops distorting her form.  She holds out her hand, raindrops flicker, until they fall into her hand.  She walks up to him, the light of a passing spinner goes through her.  This is a scene of beauty especially considering the freedom that K has given to Joi.  K’s conflict is that he has memories, but they are implanted so the question is is he real, does he have real feelings or are they programmed like Joi?  K accesses police records, before he views them he activates the portable emulator.  While he views the slideshow of the records flashing by, Joi moves through his face, she is amazed at the DNA rendered as numbers.  She is in a black shirt and plastic, yellow raincoat, Joi shows him the toy horse from his memory, in her hands.  We know that she is monitoring everything in K’s presence. Joi says, “I always knew you were special.”  This is the compelling theme for K. Later, K returns to his apartment, to find Joi in her metallic Chinese dress.  She shushes him with a worried look as they hear the door opening.  It is Mariette (Mackenzie Davis) who earlier tried to solicit him, now contacted by Joi, she says, “It’s ok, she’s real.”  

Joi walks over to Mariette and their forms merge, her face, Mariette’s hair, it is an impressive visual effect.  Their forms double, it’s Mariette’s face, then Joi’s, then a merging of the two together.  Joi has decided to contact Mariette because K needs something physical in their relationship, it reminds me of the scene in her.  This is when we get the Joi neon billboard with “Everything You Want to Hear.” Later, when K discovers Deckard, he is sleeping when Joi looks around the room.  Deckard’s dog comes up to him, he hears a beeping, and deactivates her.  K is wounded in an explosion of Deckard’s spinner.  He shoots several of the men, but is kicked by Luv (Sylvia Hoeks).  She sees the emulator dropped by K.  Joi shows herself and pleads, “Stop!”, but Luv stomps on the emulator.  He has lost Joi.  Alone, K is walking in the rain, hears the Peter and the Wolf theme, and a voice says, “Hello, handsome.”  The massive, naked form of Joi in blue wig and black eyes points to him and says, “You look lonely. I can fix that.  You look like a good Joe.”  Joe is the name she K gave to him to feel human.  The holographic Joi returns to her billboard.  He could try to recreate everything he lost with his program, but decides to leave her behind.  This is a complex relationship, one of the many themes in the movie, all emphasizing what it is to be human.   

#Joi, #AnadeArmas, #BladeRunner2049, #Diji.