Joseph

Joseph
Biographical information
Alias	J
Died	October 2032 C4 explosion
Occupation	Blade Runner Junkyard owner
Physical description
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	Will Yun Lee (English) Shinshu Fuji (Japanese) Takahiro Araki (motion capture)

Joseph was a high-ranking Los Angeles Police Department Blade Runner. He had quit the job by 2032, during which time he became a junk dealer.

Biography

Joseph served as a Blade Runner with the Los Angeles Police Department for a time. He set a record for the highest number of replicants retired, potentially 100 or 200. He came to be considered a legend among law enforcement.

At one point in his career, Joseph was assigned to retire ten targets, identifying the last one as Selene, a singer at a local bar. One evening, he reported her identification to his precinct and followed her to her dressing room. There, she immediately figured that he was a policeman and that she had not run from him because she was always curious of what would happen next in her brief life. She then told Joseph to come back the next night to see what would happen.

Joseph returned to the bar for the next several nights, each time neglecting to retire Selene. During one of these visits, he encountered Brook Marlowe, a fellow Blade Runner who had taken notice of his failure to complete his assignment. Quickly surmising that Selene was the target and that Joseph had become infatuated with her, Marlowe gave an ultimatum that if Joseph did not retire her that night, Marlowe would do it himself.

After Selene performed one final song, Joseph met with her outside and they embraced each other, kissing before Marlowe shot her. Weakly, Selene said "I can almost hear..." as she died in Joseph's arms.

In October 2032, Joseph lived on the top floor of the Bradbury Apartments and held a career in junk dealing. He had entered into an arrangement with Niander Wallace, Jr. to ensure a rogue replicant named Elle would carry out the assassination of his father. One evening, Doc Badger brought Elle to him, but he was passed out on his couch. Elle managed to wake Joseph by pouring a bottle of liquor on him. Doc then introduced the two and noted an encrypted device Elle had, and that Elle had lost her memory. Noting the situation looked like "trouble," Joseph reluctantly agreed to help decrypt the device.

As Joseph began the progress, Elle took notice of Joseph's television, which showed a broadcast of Senator Arthur Bannister and Niander Wallace, Sr.. When Elle asked how to find Bannister, Joseph noted this would be impossible. Elle then left, taking the device with her.

Upon hearing of Bannister's death over his apartment's police radio, Joseph found Elle in an alley and shot her, remarking "Definitely trouble." He then took her to his apartment, where she later awoke him and he explained how he found her and continued working on her data device. Joseph offered her a drink, but she refused and he noted that the beverage did not taste as it did before the Blackout. Elle had no apparent memory of the Blackout, prompting Joseph to explain it to her, and she pondered whether she ever had any memories at all.

Later, Joseph and Elle viewed news coverage of Bannister's death and she asked him what replicants were, as Bannister had told her she was one. He answered her question and examined her eye, finding no serial number that would indicate she was a Nexus-8. To quell any further worries, Joseph performed a Voight-Kampff test on her. Afterward, he told her she was not a replicant.

Later, Joseph watched as Officer Alani Davis left the apartment building in her spinner. He returned to his apartment to find Elle in an enraged state and he soon managed to calm her down. As Elle told him that she was a replicant, a fact she felt Joseph was aware of, she vowed to track down a group of hunters who had tried to kill her. She asked for Joseph's help, to which he agreed.

After going out for groceries, Joseph returned home to find Elle using a gun from his apartment for target practice. After scolding her for rifling through his apartment, they went back inside and ate together. When Elle asked if replicants could forget by drinking alcohol, Joseph said they could not, as they were capable of forgetting memories.

Using an Esper machine, Joseph helped Elle identify the hunters in the video and confirmed that one of them was a cop, evident by the watch he wore. After receiving a phone call, Joseph told Elle he was too busy to help her print the photos off and told her to have Doc Badger to it.

As Doc and Elle printed the photos in Joseph's apartment, Joseph sat in Doc's shop. A SWAT team raided the shop and took Joseph into custody. The policemen took Joseph to his apartment and Marlowe arrived soon thereafter. After briefly commenting on his old friend's predicament, Marlowe advised the officers to let him go and that they would find nothing there.

An injured Elle later returned to Joseph's apartment and he tended to her wounds. She asked him what a Blade Runner was, to which he merely answered as one who retires replicants and neglected to elaborate on the meaning of "retire." Furthermore, he refused to help her find Doctor M, not wanting his actions to lead to Elle's death. Officer Alani Davis came to Joseph's apartment and he ushered Elle into an adjacent room to hide. Davis asked Joseph about the case concerning Elle as well as his Blade Runner past. However, Joseph denied anything and insisted he was simply a junk dealer. Davis then left, providing Joseph a contact card, and Joseph found that Elle had left through a window.

After killing Doctor M, Elle found Joseph on his rooftop, working on a bike. She mentioned his being a Blade Runner, to which Joseph responded that he indeed was, but a long time ago. He assured her that if he wanted her dead, he would have killed her already. Elle then told Joseph her intent to kill Niander Wallace, Sr., a task that Joseph called impossible, and instead encouraged her to leave Los Angeles. Undeterred, Elle stated she was not going to ask for his help and would do it alone.

Soon after, Joseph was on the phone with someone, skeptical about a dangerous plan, but asked if "she" would be free if the plan commenced.

Despite Elle's declaration of going after Wallace alone, Joseph provided her cover fire with a sniper rifle, disabling several security guards and shooting Marlowe in the shoulder before he could kill Elle. Although Joseph had a clear shot at Marlowe's head, he spared him. Soon after killing Wallace, Elle dove from a window and Joseph caught her on his bike, flying them away.

Joseph took Elle back to his apartment. Later, after Elle woke from visions of her encounters with the hunters, she told Joseph of her inability to forget, due to the unfading nature of replicant memories. To this, Joseph pointed out that human memories would sometimes linger as well. Over a drink, Joseph told Elle about Selene, adding that he would often recall the bar where she would perform.

Elle then told Joseph of a man from her memories that she wished to find. Joseph retrieved a device from Doc Badger's shop that allowed Elle to create a sketch of the man. When she finished it the next morning, Joseph recognized the drawing as Niander Wallace, Jr., whom he then called, learning that their arrangement was for Wallace's own benefit, not Elle's. Joseph then curiously asked what would happen next. Wallace told Joseph to retire Elle, to which Joseph said he would deal with her himself. After hanging up, he returned to the living room, where Elle noticed him staring at the sketch, prompting her to ask if she knew the man. He lied, saying he just did not like his face.

Later, as Elle examined a printed copy of the sketch, she mentioned Goodman, Doctor M's assistant, and wondered if he could help her identify the sketch. Joseph instead wondered if Goodman could erase her bad memories, which would allow Elle to be free from them. However, upon arriving at Goodman's lab, they learned that select memories could not be safely purged, meaning if Elle went through with this, she would lose all of her memories. Elle decided on this option and she entered the machine, getting reassurance from Joseph that he would be there when she woke. Once the tank was closed and Elle could not hear her, he quietly confessed that Wallace Jr. was the man in her memory and that Elle was created to kill Wallace, Sr., with Joseph ensuring this would happen. He confirmed to Goodman that the memory purge was the right decision and left.

Joseph found a Vid-Phon booth, which he used to report to Wallace that Elle had been retired. In response, Wallace told him that Joseph had been cleared for Off-world emigration. Joseph then paged Alani Davis and once she called, he told her where Elle was and requested that she arrest her, but to make sure she was safe. Davis asked what to keep Elle safe from, but he hung up without answering.

Joseph returned to his apartment, examining his Blade Runner sidearm and his reflection before calling Marlowe to tell him about Black Lotus. With his gun, he awaited Marlowe to arrive at the apartment. Once he arrived, Marlowe expressed his disgust that Joseph had again formed an emotional bond with a replicant and asked where Elle was. Joseph opened fire and the two exchanged gunfire from the apartment into the building's atrium. The two exchanged words, Marlowe stating that Joseph's emotions made him a poor Blade Runner, and Joseph said that Marlowe's apparent lack of emotions made him no better than a replicant. After being shot in the shoulder, Joseph tried to escape into an elevator, but Marlowe caught up to him and the two fought hand-to-hand until Marlowe went to pick his gun back up, allowing Joseph a chance to ascend to the roof.

Marlowe soon arrived at the rooftop and exchanged fire with Joseph, who was hit several times. He crawled to the edge of the building, then hid as Marlowe made his way over. Joseph made a surprise attack on the Blade Runner and the two fought again until Joseph managed to wield Marlowe's shotgun, shooting him several times until he was sent through a skylight into the building's atrium, falling to his death.

As he lay on the rooftop, Joseph saw an Off-world colonies blimp pass by and he fantasized about being in a grassy field with Elle, lying underneath a bright, cloudy sky. After passing out, he was soon awoken by Elle, Joseph quickly noticing that she had not received the memory wipe after all. Elle reasoned that she could continue living after a tragedy, as many other people could do. Believing that Wallace trusted his lie about retiring Elle, Joseph again advised that Elle leave the city, but Elle insisted that they would never be safe until Wallace was dead, which she intended to see through herself. The two then looked across the rooftops at the former Tyrell Corporation headquarters.

The two infiltrated the building, with Joseph gaining entry to the replicant manufacture wing with a case of C4 explosives. He planted several charges onto a series of tanks before collapsing to the floor, writhing in pain. Wallace soon found him and monologued about his dream for his own creations to replace humanity after their eventual extinction. As he approached, Joseph pretended to have the detonator, asking "So, you want to play God?" However, Wallace did not fall for this, taking the supposed detonator and tossing it away.

A fight between Elle and Water Lily found its way into the room, ending with Wallace stabbing Water Lily and Elle slashing Wallace's eyes. She made her way to Joseph, who apologized for all of the pain he had caused her, but she assured him that she had only good memories. He then told her that she had a soul and was more human than he was. Elle retrieved the detonator for Joseph and they began to make their way out of the room, but Joseph pushed her out, sealing himself inside before detonating the C4.