We’re going to ask you a series of questions. Please just relax and answer them as simply as you can. 1. It’s your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. 2. You’ve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. 3. You’re watching television. Suddenly you realize there’s a wasp crawling on your arm.
If you don’t have any immediate responses to these Voight-Kampff test prompts, you’d best start thinking of some before the world of Blade Runner 2099 comes to New York. The Prime Video series set in the canon of Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner (based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and its brilliant Denis Villeneuve-directed 2017 follow-up Blade Runner 2049 will be hosting an immersive activation during New York Comic Con to separate the blade runners from the replicants once and for all.
Taking place Saturday, October 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET, Prime Video’s “Blade Runner 2099 Immersive Fan Experience” will turn Meatpacking Collective (412 West 14th Street) into the futuristic L.A. of the streamer’s eight-episode TV series starring Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer. And based on Prime’s description of the activation it sounds like much more than the usual “walk in, wander around, and see a prop or two” affair.
Visitors to the experience will take on the role of a human being going undercover as a replicant, similar to Schafer’s lead character Cora, who is a human trying to survive in a 2099 Los Angeles in which Replicants have become the dominant species and human beings are second class citizens.
Things start in a highly-restricted area of 2099’s Los Angeles Police Department where attendees are subjected to a “bone scanner” by a vigilant LAPD future cop.
Then, on the second floor, all undercover humans will take in the Replicant Birthing Center and Memory Lab, where newly born replicants receive implanted memories. Guests are also welcome to undergo a memory scan of their own to receive a bespoke fabricated memory implant. That certainly beats the hell out of having to memorize Voight-Kampff answers.
Finally, after successfully passing as a replicant, visitors can kick back at and relax at La Paloma, an in-world nightclub-inspired space. We don’t know if androids dream of electric sheep or not, but they sure do love a futuristic nightclub.
The Blade Runner 2099 Immersive Fan Experience is open to the 18+ general public and free to attend. Den of Geek readers can reserve a 30-minute time slot to take in the event here. A limited number of tickets are available for each time slot.
In addition to the activation,Blade Runner 2099 will be hosting a panel Saturday, October 10 at 6:45 p.m. ET at the Javitz Center’s Empire Stage. Stars Michelle Yeoh, Hunter Schafer, Dimitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, and Matthew Needham are slated to attend alongside producers Silka Luisa, Andrew Kosove, and Broderick Johnson.
Blade Runner 2099 premieres all eight episodes on Wednesday, November 25 on Prime Video.
