Season One CINEOPOLIS hosts Dante and Christian reach the season finale of CINEOPOLIS feeling more human than human in a super-sized discussion of Ridley Scott’s stone-cold classic Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 classic-in-the-making sequel, Blade Runner 2049.

We’ve visited lots of cities in this inaugural season of CINEOPOLIS, both real and imaginary, but there’s no way to talk about movie places and spaces without visiting the used-future dystopia of Blade Runner, arguably the seminal cinematic urban experience. And there are a lot of stops on that tour — from the Bradbury Building to the Tyrell Corporation’s corporate pyramid — but some of the most interesting stuff happens on the neon-and-rain-drenched streets of Los Angeles circa 2019 (as imagined in 1982). It’s an experience that has influenced designers, artists, and architects, to say nothing of other filmmakers, people like Villeneuve, who drew heavily on — and built up from — the world imagined by Scott and futurist Syd Mead to create a 2049 L.A. that feels more dystopian and, disconcertingly, familiar to our lived experience in real 21st century cities. Memories might disappear like tears in the rain, but the influence of Blade Runner endures well beyond the expiration date placed on it by short-sighted Hollywood executives nearly 40 years ago.