Blade Runner 2049 aims to keep you in your seat for 163 minutes

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There are, famously, multiple different cuts of Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi noir classic BLADE RUNNER, but they all fall within a reasonable running time range of 113 to 117 minutes. Director Denis Villeneuve's upcoming sequel BLADE RUNNER 2049 isn't going to be nearly as reasonable.

Variety has learned that 2049 clocks in at a running time of 152 minutes, not including an 11 minute long credit sequence. That's a total of 163 minutes. This movie is going to be asking you to endure sitting in your theatre seat for 2 hours and 43 minutes straight, if you're the type of viewer who sticks around for all of the credits.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, David Dastmalchian, Lennie James, Sylvia Hoeks, Carla Juri, Hiam Abbass, Barkhad Abdi, and Edward James Olmos, the sequel tells the following story: 

Officer K (Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Ford), a former blade runner who's been missing for 30 years.

Original BLADE RUNNER co-writer Hampton Fancher also co-wrote this film, working with Michael Green from a story Fancher crafted with Scott.

The 163 minute running time pretty much guarantees that I won't be seeing BLADE RUNNER 2049 during its theatrical run. I'm not a big enough fan of the first movie to spend three hours watching the sequel, at least not without a pause button close at hand.