On October 6, 2017, the highly anticipated sequel to Blade Runner will be released in theaters. In an unconventional marking move, Warner Bros. Pictures and director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) have commissioned several short films made set in the same world, but a few years preceding the events depicted in Blade Runner 2049.

The first short, 2036: Nexus Dawn, premiered on Collider in August, and centers Jared Leto's character Niander Wallace - the man responsible for creating a new generation of replicants.

Directed by Luke Scott, 2048: Nowhere To Run is the next short in the series. It stars Dave Bautista (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as a fugitive replicant named Sapper.

Bautista is a revelation as the world-weary, soft-spoken, bookish replicant, trudging his way through the seedy underbelly of 2048 Los Angeles.

It is only when a woman and her young daughter he befriended are threatened that Sapper's rage is unleashed, exposing him.

Again, Bautista's performance is the highlight of this short film. In just under six minutes, he displays astonishing prowess as a dramatic actor.

Frankly, I'm extremely skeptical about Blade Runner 2049. When the original was released in 1982, it was a visionary dystopian-noir odyssey unlike anything before it.

However, in the decades since, the genre has seen countless iterations of the theme onscreen. It also doesn't help that director/executive producer Ridley Scott's latest cinematic forays have been major missteps.

From the whitewashed fiasco of Gods of Egypt, to the misguided and poorly conceived Alien prequels, Scott seems to have lost his Midas touch at the theaters.

Still, Bautista's magnetic performance has me extremely intrigued about his character, and the arc of his journey in Blade Runner 2049.

Watch 2048: Nowhere To Run here ...

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