Plot

Young Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.

Thirty years after the events of Blade Runner (1982), a new Blade Runner, L.A.P.D. Officer "K" (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former L.A.P.D. Blade Runner, who has been missing for thirty years.—Warner Bros. Pictures

Los Angeles, 2049. With idealistic scientist Niander Wallace now in control of the powerful Tyrell Corporation, the innovative, bio-engineered Nexus-9 replicants seem to have integrated into society. As a result, outdated Nexus models threaten the community. Now, the latest generation of bounty hunters is on a crucial mission: seek and destroy the rebellious androids. And as LAPD's Officer K stumbles upon a dangerous secret hidden in plain sight, the taciturn agent must piece the evidence together to locate a ghost, the most vital element in this knotty case. However, is K destined to find the truth and the long-lost Blade Runner (1982)?—Nick Riganas

Rick Deckard has vanished. The notorious Blade Runner has been missing since 2019 when he and Rachael escaped from the authorities, and in the process, also avoided the economic and social downfalls of the early 2020s. It's now 2049. Replicants are now closer to humans than ever before, and Blade Runners are still used to "retire" the older models that went into hiding from the notorious "Blackout" of 2022. In Deckard's place, "K" has taken the mantle of Los Angeles' top Blade Runner. However, his world turns upside down when he discovers a box.—Johnny

2049. It's been approximately two decades since the Tyrell Corporation, the creators and original manufacturers of replicants (bioengineered superhumans), went bankrupt, a new generation of replicants manufactured by industrialist Niander Wallace who saved the world with his replicants in establishing synthetic farming in light of collapsing natural ecosystems. While the replicants of the Tyrell era are now outlawed in they having violently rebelled, they "retired" (aka destroyed) by blade runners, the Wallace era replicants, which have been programmed to obey, are seen as necessary to society. Many current day blade runners are Wallace era replicants. K, short for his serial number KD6-3.7, is one such blade runner working for the LAPD under Lieutenant Joshi. On one of his assignments, K discovers what he believes are human remains, but on forensic examination are actually the remains of a female replicant who has signs of having given birth during her life, presumably to a human baby. Joshi, fearing the worst of what this finding actually means and it getting into the wrong hands, orders K to discover and destroy any evidence of this finding, which includes locating the baby, probably now grown, and destroying him/her. As K discovers some further evidence to this story concerning his own history (each replicant which is implanted with a manufactured and thus not real history), K begins to suspect that this story may be a little more than just a professional assignment to him and which may jeopardize his future beyond that information getting into the wrong hands with which he will also have to deal.—Huggo

30 years after the events of Blade Runner, in 2049, replicates-bio engineered humans-remain employed as slave labor. The Los Angeles Police Department employs a Nexus-9 replicate named K (short for serial number, KD6-3.7) as a "blade runner," an officer who hunts and "retires" (kills) rogue replicate models.

After Sapper Morton retires, K discovers a box at Morton's farm, buried beneath a tree. A female replicate who passed away during a Cesarean section was buried there. This proves what was previously believed to be impossible-that replicates could reproduce biologically. Lt. Joshi, K's superior, orders K to retire the replicate child because she believes this information could spark a conflict between humans and replicates.

K goes to the Wallace Corporation, which made replicates and was the Tyrell Corporation's successor. Rachael, an experimental Nexus 7 replicate, is identified as the deceased female by DNA archives. Rachael's romantic relationships with former Blade Runner Rick Deckard are revealed to K. In order to increase interstellar colonization, CEO Niander Wallace is seeking the replication secret. To keep an eye on K, he dispatches Luv, his replicate enforcer.

K recognizes the date 6.10.21 carved into the tree trunk at Morton's farm because it reminds him of a wooden toy horse from his early years. Joi, K's holographic A.I. girlfriend, thinks this proves that K was born, not made, because replicate memories are fake. K finds that only the boy is listed as alive in the LAPD records, despite the fact that two children born on that date have identical DNA except for the sex chromosome. Although the records from that year are missing, K finds the child and takes him to an orphanage. K remembers hiding the toy horse in the furnace, and he finds it there after recognizing the orphanage from his memories. K comes to the conclusion that he is Rachael's son after replica memory designer Dr. Ana Stelline verifies that his recollection of the orphanage is real. K is then classified as a rogue after failing a baseline test. Joshi gives him 48 hours to pass the test or he will be "retired" after he suggests to her that he killed the replicate child.

In order to have sex with K, Joi uses replicate prostitute Mariette as a surrogate. The next morning, Mariette attaches a tracker to K's jacket before a resentful Joi sends her away. K discovers the remains of a radioactive Las Vegas after analyzing the toy horse. He discovers Deckard there, who tells him that he is Rachael's child's father and that he jumbled the birth certificates to conceal the identity of their child. The child was left in the care of the Replicant Freedom Movement by Deckard. After killing Joshi, Luv follows K to Las Vegas. She destroys Joi, kidnaps Deckard, and abandons a weak K. K is rescued by the replicate freedom movement using Mariette's tracker. K concludes that Stelline is Rachael's daughter and that the toy horse memory belongs to her after their leader, Freysa, tells him that Rachael had a girl child. Freysa begs K to murder Deckard because she fears he might hand over Stelline or the freedom movement to Wallace.

Luv brings Deckard to meet Wallace, who offers Deckard a replica Rachael in return for details regarding the location of his child. When he declines, Luv murders the duplicate. K steps in as Luv takes Deckard to be tortured Off-World. He battles Luv until he drowns him, but he suffers serious injuries in the process.

K takes Deckard to Stelline's office and gives him her toy horse after staging Deckard's death to shield him from Wallace and the replicate freedom movement. Deckard enters the building and first sees his daughter with tears in his eyes as K passes away on the steps while gazing up at the snow falling.