Fires have been raging along the west coast recently, with blazes breaking out from Southern California to Washington. And while all of the footage of the fires has been ominous, some glimpses have been beyond bleakOpens in a new tab. Like the below drone footage of San Francisco amidst the Bay Area fires, which just so happens work perfectly with the score from Blade Runner 2049.
GizmodoOpens in a new tab picked up on the above video, which Terry TsaiOpens in a new tab recently posted to YouTube. Tsai doesn’t provide much information about himself—this is his only video on YouTube—but he obviously has mad drone videography skills. In fact, Roger Deakins should probably get Tsai’s number.
People really don’t know what to do right now. Everyone on the Embarcadero is stopping to record the sky and chit chatting in a way I haven’t seen since pre-pandemic @sfchronicleOpens in a new tab pic.twitter.com/ueKQ4g7WTDOpens in a new tab
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 9, 2020Opens in a new tab
Tsai recorded the drone video on September 9, amidst a dark-orange, and occasionally demonic-red, sky. Those Martian huesOpens in a new tab, incidentally, are the result of the way smoke particles in the atmosphere scatter sunlight. Unlike a clear sky, which we perceive as blue thanks to Rayleigh scatteringOpens in a new tab, a smoky sky appears red and orange; this is because smoke particles scatter—or reflect—wavelengths of light in the red portion of the visible spectrum. (Red light has a lower frequencyOpens in a new tab than blue light, and therefore scatters less frequently than blue light when the sky is clear.)
Cool science aside, Tsai’s video of smoky San Francisco does look exactly like a landscape out of Blade Runner 2049Opens in a new tab. So much so that Tsai had to pair it with a portion of the film’s score—written by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch—dubbed “Alcon Sleeping Giant.”
San Francisco right now. Color from all the fires pic.twitter.com/jc1zRAnjc9Opens in a new tab
— elevate 🤍✨ (@supernovagir11) September 9, 2020Opens in a new tab
Above are some other images and video of the current Blade Runner 2049-ish atmosphere in San Francisco. Compare them to the film’s trailer below for a sense of their shocking similarities.
What do you think about this drone footage of the Bay Area fires set to Blade Runner 2049 music? And are you as over 2020 as we are? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Feature image: Terry TsaiOpens in a new tab
