Blade Runner 2049 Hi-Res Stills Show Off The Year’s Most Beautiful Film

Warner Bros. has today summoned a massive gallery of hi-res stills for Blade Runner 2049 that shine the spotlight on what’s shaping up to be the year’s most gorgeous film.

Whisking viewers off to far-future Los Angeles, these photos serve up a haunting peek at Denis Villeneuve’s long-in-development sequel. It’s the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi classic of ’84, so it’ll be interesting to see how 2049 fares in just over a month. Will it be good enough to honor the Blade Runner name? Or, in the worst case scenario, will Villeneuve’s stunningly beautiful effort be written off as yet another unnecessary sequel? Time will tell.

If nothing else though, Blade Runner 2049 is shaping up to be a feast for the eyes. From the skyscraping advertisements for Atari – yes, in the warped future, business is booming for the dormant video game giant – to the purple glow illuminating the face of Ryan Gosling’s K, Villeneuve and frequent collaborator Roger Deakins (Sicario, Prisoners) have pulled out all the stops to craft a sequel that excels in the visual department. And that’s a feat you’ll be able to see on display below

Also starring Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Edward James Olmos and Jared Leto as the downright creepy Wallace, 2049 certainly boasts all of the Blade Runner hallmarks: beautiful, sci-fi vistas, unreliable protagonists, and profound existential themes. But will it be able to carve out an audience of its own? We’ll find out soon enough.

Blade Runner 2049 has been earmarked for release on October 6th, and if Ridley Scott has his way, it won’t be another 30 years before we’re invited back to future Los Angeles to experience another high-concept story of neon dystopias and Replicants gone rogue.