Warning: This article contains a major spoiler for Blade Runner 2049.
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One of Blade Runner 2049's biggest moments comes in an otherwise small scene, but it took a LOT of work.
In case you still haven't seen Denis Villeneuve's brilliant sci-fi sequel, turn away now and don't read on past the trailer. Seriously, don't.
Still here? Good. Visual effects supervisor John Nelson has been talking to EW about how they managed to bring Rachael back, basically unchanged since we last saw her in the 1982 original.
Her appearance happens when Deckard (Harrison Ford) is taken to speak to Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), who brings out a replicant that looks exactly like Rachael to get him to talk about how she became pregnant with their child.
Deckard refuses and Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) then executes the Rachael clone. It's a short scene of two minutes, but it took Nelson a whole year to do.
"Digital humans are sort of like the holy grail – they're really hard. I knew it would be one of the hardest things I've done in my career. We had many challenges in this movie but this one was definitely the hardest one we did," he explained.
English actress Loren Peta shot the scene, complete with dots on her face so it could be replaced with CG, with original Rachael actress Sean Young on set as she later delivered the lines in a facial motion-capture rig.
(Deckard and Rachael in original movie)
Rachael's mannerisms from the first movie were incorporated into the CG, and Nelson is particularly proud of the Rachael clone's "flyaway hairs". "Digital hair is really beautiful but sometimes it can be too perfect," Nelson noted.
It may have been a lot of work, but it's among the best digital recreation work we've seen recently, so we reckon it was worth it.
Blade Runner 2049 is still in cinemas.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
