George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four showed us just how bad it could get. Orwell’s novel catapulted the dystopian genre to enormous proportions with dystopian movies still nuking the box-office every year. George Orwell really lay down the groundwork for political dystopia that came after it, such as Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, later adapted into the 1982 movie classic “Blade Runner”. Although the setting is drastically different between these two works, the methods used by the fictional greater power to control the population are almost identical.

Part I – Fear

“Pain reminds that that the joy you felt was real. More joy then! Do not be afraid” – Niander Wallace.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, bustling O’Brien breaks down Winston to a shell in order to turn him into a double-thinking do-gooder. Deckhard is sent off-world torture even if he “kept himself empty of information”. So why did the thought-police bother closely watching over Winston for 7 whole years? And why didn’t Niander Wallace just “off” Deckhard when he had the chance? Both Deckhard and Winston are “dead” and “vaporised” men after all. An explanation for this is perfectly put by O’Brien:

“They’re are no marytrdoms”

It must be made impossible for a resident of Oceania to disapprove of the party and hold it secret to their grave. “…if you clung against the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” Torturing and turning enemies of the state into devout followers is a more sustainable approach to running a totalitarian regime. Allowing free thought discredits double-think, therefore the ability for the party to control truth itself.

We can draw a similar conclusion from Blade Runner 2049. Niander Wallace knows well if he were to kill Deckhard outright, he would be giving credibility to the memories and values of the remaining replicant rebels, thus their belief of the possibility for a fairer world.

“Are you telling me no?”- Lt. Joshi

“I wasn’t aware that was an option ma’am” – K

“K” is a replicant working under the LA police department. He is subject to daily tests to assure he doesn’t stray from his original purpose, and if he shows signs of disobedience he will be have to go through a rigorous rehabilitation program, or he will be killed. (the coorporations deem it unsafe to have stray replicants unmonitored or unserving) Winston is also under perpetual test conditions by virtue of the telescreens, where even a rapid heart beat or a murmur in your sleep could reveal unorthodoxy. More population prying; cameras seem to be everywhere in Blade Runner’s LA, and in the original Blade Runner movie, cops seem to show up many times uninvited, with second to none response times. Both Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Blade Runner movies have a very oppressive atmosphere, with the protagonist always on the verge of revealing their identity.

In the very beginning of the original Blade Runner movie, we get a shot of the Tyrell corporation building followed by an extreme closeup shot of an eye. Reflecting from the eye we can make out that it’s overlooking the city, presumably from inside the building. Who this eye belongs to is left up to speculation, and no character specifically fits the bill. For this reason, I believe it’s a direct reference to the pyramidal ministries of Nineteen Eighty-Four and ever-watching Big Brother.

Big brother is never seen in human form and is rather used as a symbol to represent pure statism or authoritarianism. Having an unseen, unknown character be the driving force behind a corrupt system is alienating and more unnerving than if the role was assigned to a specific character. This is why there is posters and statues of Big Brother and not of our tangible villain; O’Brian. This is also why this “all seeing” eye is left to speculation as opposed to being Roy Batty’s or Doctor Tyrell’s.

Part II – Sex and Drugs

Not dissimilar to Winston’s Victory Gin, Deckhard is always seen with a glass of scotch. Deckhard is also seen buying a bottle of whiskey at a black market. In both dystopia, alcohol is used to dull the senses and encourage unconciousness.

The black markets of Blade Runner and Nineteen Eighty-Four, are more or less made illegal, yet they aren’t properly regulated, as they play an essential role to the governing body. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, common commodities are accounted for and rationed out by the government, but outer party members are forced to go into stores and black markets if they wanted to buy razor blades, shoelaces and other small but essential commodities.

“The party was even inclined to encourage prostitution, as an outlet for instincts which could not be altogether suppressed.”

In Blade Runner we hear that one of Deckhard’s targets, Pris, is a “basic pleasure model”. In the first movie, sex robots are definitely present, but the idea isn’t developed any further. The sequel, Blade Runner 2049 goes much more in depth about the role of sexuality in indoctrinating a population. We get a scene where K has his lunch on a plaza, right next to a translucent robo-brothel. The fact that people can eat lunch at midday next to a robot brothels shows that any and all stigma and intimacy has been removed from the act. The personal aspect of sex is squashed and it just becomes an annoyance or a commodity to buy just as you would food or transport.

Why would the state wan’t this? In Nineteen Eighty-Four: “Sex is an act of outright rebellion, as all enjoyable sex must be in a society where the act is supposed to be free of pleasure. In this sense Winston’s affair with Julia is a political act against the Party, which is part of the attraction”.

Part III – Deception

“The world is built on a wall that separates kind. Tell either sides there’s no wall, and you’ve bought a war. Or a slaughter.”

Having a “Soul” according to Lt. Joshi, is defined by being birthed “of woman born”. This odd detail is made moral code to justify the LAPD killing of replicants, no matter how human-like. The discovery of a replicant-born child throws this system into jeopardy, a once trivial fact now turned against the LAPD bringing forth questions, and forcing the population to rethink the moral implications of “retiring” replicants.

In political dystopia the power of words is often used to embellish and make inhumane acts seems passable, by putting it under the veil of deceptive language. For example the word choice “retiring” instead of killing the fugitive replicants. In Nineteen Eighty-Four this is taken to an extreme with satirical names such as the Ministry Of Love being a place of torture. Moreover with the introduction of “Newspeak” where the government aims to reduce the scope of language in hopes to eradicate free thought completely.

The writing of the Blade Runner universe was undoubtedly affected by ideas originating from Nineteen Eighty-Four. Either ideas were directly inspired, or they were inadvertently added due to Orwell’s impact on the development of the genre as a whole. Both have a disturbing, claustrophobic atmosphere, and a population controlled with Fear, Sex, Drugs, and Deception.