Blade Runner: Black Out 2022

Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 is an animated short directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. It is one of three prologue shorts released ahead of the feature film Blade Runner 2049, and it fills in a key event in the thirty-year gap between the two live-action films.

The story takes place in 2022, in a Los Angeles where replicants, the artificial humans built to serve mankind, are hunted and persecuted. A group of replicants plans a drastic act of resistance: an EMP detonation meant to wipe out the records used to track them down.

The blast triggers a worldwide blackout. Power fails, data is erased and the consequences are massive and destructive all across the globe, reshaping society and the future of replicant production. The short presents this turning point in a moody, action-heavy style, giving viewers the backstory that sets up the world of Blade Runner 2049 without retelling the film itself.