Blade Runner: Black Out 2022

Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 (2017) is an anime short you can watch online on iFILM. Sixteen minutes that bridge Ridley Scott's original and Blade Runner 2049.

The year is 2022. Replicants are increasingly hunted as enemies, so a small group sets out to erase the databases used to track them down. Their method is drastic: detonate an EMP bomb high above Los Angeles and crash the entire West Coast power grid. Cities go dark, markets collapse, food supplies thin out — and no one can prove who triggered the blackout. At its core are two replicants, Iggy and Trixie, and a single night that resets the world.

Director Shinichiro Watanabe, the mind behind Cowboy Bebop, makes his style felt at once: hand-drawn animation, drenched neon, a melancholy jazz pulse. Edward James Olmos reprises Gaff from the original film. It's one of three prequel shorts commissioned ahead of Denis Villeneuve's feature, and the most fully realized of the set. Essential for fans of the universe. Stream Black Out 2022 (2017) online on iFILM.