Within Cells Interlinked

Submission 12,307

Part of a series on Blade Runner. [View Related Entries]

About

Baseline Test, better known as Within Cells Interlinked, refers to two memorable dialogues from the 2017 film Blade Runner 2049 in which the protagonist K (portrayed by Ryan Gosling) undergoes the titular test that is meant to detect any emotional deviance. The nature of the test involves the recipient providing standard responses to the interviewer's statements. In the film, K has to quote a poem from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire.

Origin

On October 6th, 2017, the neo-noir science fiction film Blade Runner 2049 premiered in the United States.^[1] In two scenes of the film, the replicant K (Ryan Gosling) undergoes the Post-Traumatic Baseline Test, a standard procedure meant to detect emotional deviance in replicants (artificial humans). The test is an interview where an unseen interrogator asks the replicant emotionally provocative questions such as "Have you ever been in an institution?" and "What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love?" to which the replicant has to provide standardized answers: lines from a poem from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire (scenes shown below).

- Officer K-D-six-dash-three-dot-seven, let's begin. Ready?
- Yes, sir.
- Recite your baseline.
- And blood-black nothingness began to spin… A system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem… And dreadfully distinct against the dark, a tall white fountain played.
- Cells.
- Cells.
- Have you ever been in an institution? Cells.
- Cells.
- Do they keep you in a cell? Cells.
- Cells.
- When you're not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? Cells.
- Cells.
- Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Did they teach you how to feel finger to finger? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Do you long for having your heart interlinked? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Do you dream about being interlinked?
- Interlinked.
- What's it like to hold your child in your arms? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Do you feel that there's a part of you that's missing? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Why don't you say that three times: Within cells interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked. Within cells interlinked.
- We're done… Constant K, you can pick up your bonus.
- Thank you, sir.

- Cells.
- Cells.
- Have you ever been in an institution? Cells.
- Cells.
- When you're not performing your duties, do they keep you in a little box? Cells.
- Cells.
- Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- What's it like to hold the hand of someone you love? Interlinked.
- Interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Dreadfully.
- Dreadfully.
- What's it like to be filled with dread? Dreadfully.
- Dreadfully.
- Do you like being separated from other people? Distinct.
- Distinct.
- Dreadfully distinct.
- Dreadfully distinct.
- Dark.
- Dark.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Within cells interlinked.
- Within one stem.
- Within one stem.
- And dreadfully distinct.
- And dreadfully distinct.
- Against the dark.
- Against the dark.
- A tall white fountain played.
- A tall white fountain played.
- You're not even close to baseline.

In the days following the release, the movie achieved virality on 4chan's /tv/ board as K was recognized as a Literally Me character. On October 13th, 2017, an anonymous 4chan user posted the earliest found edit of the dialogue in a /tv/^[2] thread (shown below, left). On October 16th, 2017, a user posted a You Look Lonely Wojak paired with a sad edit of the copypasta to /tv/.^[3] A screenshot of the thread and the first reply, first shared on Reddit two weeks later, had since been widely circulated online (shown below, right).

Spread

The copypasta saw continued use on 4chan's /tv/ and other boards as users edited it in various ways, most often to convey personal struggles with finding romance and fitting in (examples^[4]^[5] shown below).

The dialogue has also been used as source material for memes and jokes on other sites. For example, on May 3rd, 2018, Twitter^[6] user @MinModulation tweeted a pun, "With Incels, interlinked." The tweet gained over 20 retweets and 120 likes in five years (shown below, left). On February 25th, 2021, iFunny^[7] user ABeautifulFlower posted a Chinese Man Yelling at a Kitten meme set to the dialogue, with the post garnering over 320 smiles on the app in two years (shown below, right).

In July 2023, the copypasta saw a surge in popularity as it was used to make jokes about the NPC Streaming trend.^[8]^[9]