I Chased A Replicant In The 'Blade Runner 2049' Experience [Comic-Con 2017]

I'm flying around LAPD headquarters, in pursuit of a replicant. We're both in spinners. For the most part, it keeps its distance as we fly through the rain and neon lights of Los Angeles. It's kind of exhilarating, the kind of VR trip you absolutely want to experience if you're in San Diego for this year's Comic-Con.

If you're not, then read all about my experience with the Blade Runner 2049 VR – which will be made available later this year – and more.

The Blade Runner experience is a can't-miss for fans of Ridley Scott's film. Before you even enter the tent, there's smoke coming out of the door. Lots of smoke at this event. After entering the tent, there's some Blade Runner 2049 concept art hanging from the walls. They're placed next to finished shots from the movie. There's K's (Ryan Gosling) apartment's balcony, where you see him approaching Ana De Armas in the trailer (seen in the photo above). Outside of his apartment, the snowy streets are cleared by a large snowplow.

Next up, the VR experience. For a couple of minutes, you get to chase after a replicant in an aerial battle, where spinners fly through holograms and around the massive LAPD headquarters. The neon lights, the snow on the ground – it's detailed, dreary, and vibrant. When the chase comes to an end and the door opens, the reflections of the neon lights are so clearly visible in the slushy snow. It's exactly what you'd expect and hope from a VR experience in the world of Blade Runner. It gets the atmosphere and world right, and by the end, as someone who hasn't really enjoyed VR in the past, I wanted more. More specifically, I wanted to get back in a spinner and explore the snowy, lit up streets of Los Angeles again.

Once the chase is over, in the next (smoky) room there's a massive spinner, folks dressed up as cops, and extras in dirty clubwear asking if you're a replicant as some rain falls from above. "Nothing to see here," the cop says, protecting the abandoned spinner. In the next room, there are some great props in a recreation of Bib's Bar:

And here's some official photos from the event:

Getting to see Rick Deckard's gun up close is quite a treat. The same one used in the original film is the one he carries in the sequel. Officer K's (Ryan Gosling) weapon is notably sleeker. But what stood out was the copy of Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire. Nabokov's 999-line poem deals with reality and delusion, which seems to align with the themes in the new movie. Whether it's a prominent part of the sequel, we'll see in a couple of months. In the coming days, however, you expect more coverage of Blade Runner 2049 from this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

Blade Runner 2049 opens in theaters October 6.