Death Comes for Us All: the new trilogy of movies kicked off with killing one of the most beloved characters of all time in Han Solo. This movie has a higher body count and one of them is extremely tough to watch. Luke Skywalker dies. After a battle with Kylo Ren, which will be addressed in the next point, Luke fades from sight leaving only a cloak blowing in the wind. It’s a peaceful death and its clearly the one that the character wants. As far as heroes go, he is probably the biggest, but Admiral Holdo goes out in a blaze of glory taking most of the First Order with her. Admiral Ackbar is also killed when the bridge of his ship is destroyed. On the bad guy side, the big death comes in the form of Supreme Leader Snoke at the hand of Kylo Ren himself. The death is a shock that seems to come out of nowhere until you settle in and realize it makes perfect narrative sense. That death also happens about halfway through the movie. Captain Phasma, unfortunately, also meets her end at the hands of Finn and is truly the Bobba Fett of these movies (she looks badass but ultimately doesn’t do much).
New Reveals About What the Force Can Do: as said Luke meets his end after a battle with Kylo Ren but not in the way you would expect. When the rebels are hiding on the base on Crait, during the All Is Lost Moment, Luke appears and takes on Kylo Ren in front of the First Order forces, buying the Resistance time to escape. Luke, who did not leave the island with Rey originally, is fired on by the forces of the First Order and walks away without a scratch. Ren meets Luke in one-on-one battle until it is revealed that Luke isn’t really there despite clashing lightsabers and interacting with people. He’s a Force projection done by Luke still back on the island. The fight is the thing that ultimately kills him but far away from the actual violence.
Force User Leia Organa: We see in the trailer Kylo Ren hesitating to fire on the ship where his mother is. In the movie proper he doesn’t fire but the fighters with him do. The bridge is blown throwing all of Resistance Leadership into space. As the audience spends the next thirty seconds going through the stages of grief with Leia we see her open her eyes and float back to the ship. She is hurt, very badly, but she lives. If that isn’t confirmation that Leia has at least some force powers then I don’t know what is.
A New Generation is Born: While trying to find DJ on Canto, Bight Rose shows a ring to with a hidden Resistance symbol to a young slave boy who helps her and Finn escape. The final scene of the movie shows boy retelling the legend of Luke Skywalker until he is yelled at to go work. He walks outside and very casually moves a broom an inch from the wall into his hand proving he is Force sensitive. We see him looking up at a ship shooting through the stars and we see him with the ring on his finger. A new generation of Jedi and rebels are out there and ready.
The Not Redemption Arc: For most of the movie it looks like we’re going to see a redemption arc for Kylo Ren. He and Rey are connected and keep having conversations across space despite being light years apart. Rey insists that Kylo Ren still has good in him, she felt it, and she eventually gives herself up to the First Order to prove it. Ren does kill Snoke and there is a great fight with the two of them fighting Snoke’s guards. Ren, however, isn’t interested in peace. He wants order and he asks Rey to join him so they can lead the galaxy together. She refuses and Ren tells Hux that Rey was the one to kill Snoke. He then proclaims himself as the new Supreme Leader.
Finn Goes From Selfish to Selfless: Early on in the movie Finn tries to run but is stopped by Rose. He thinks the only way to keep Rey safe is to take the beacon that could be used to guide her back to the Resistance far away from the ships that are about to be destroyed by the First Order. By the end of the movie he is about to drive a ship into the canon that is going to punch a hole in the door protecting the Resistance on Crait when Rose stops him. We went from a man willing to run to a man willing to sacrifice himself to stop the First Order.
Poe Dameron Goes from Hotshot to Leader: In the beginning of the movie we see Poe leading a group of Resistance fighters to try and stop the First Order from blowing their evacuation out of the sky. He defies Leia’s orders to retreat and while they do take down the ship he loses a lot of fighters on the way including Rose’s sister Paige. Leia demotes him (after slapping him) and Poe spends the rest of the movie fighting Holdo. He eventually causes a mutininy that is only stopped when Leia wakes up from her coma and hits him with a stun blaster. Poe sees the sacrifice Holdo was willing to make to save the Resistance and recognizes Luke doing the same thing on Crait. While Finn wants to fight Poe tells him that they need to retreat because if they die the spark dies. Leia is quite pleased by this and she smiles when people turn to her as if asking for confirmation for this order. She tells them go ahead and smiles.
Admiral Holdo Goes Out Like a Badass: The movie is mostly the Resistance running from the First Order who have the ability to track them through hyperspace. Finn, Rose, and Poe are trying to disable that tracking system but their plan ultimately fails. Holdo arranges for the Resistance to abandon ship and let the First Order fire on the main vessel while their escape to Crait is hidden. That requires her to go down with the ship, though. When the First Order starts destroying the transport ships, Holdo turns the main cruiser around and goes into hyperspace, through the First Order ships, taking out Snoke’s ship and most of their forces in the process. It’s a hell of a way to go out and the scenes that show dead silence in the destruction are perfect.
The Leia Movie We’ll Never Have: Rian Johnson said he didn’t change any of Carrie Fisher‘s scenes which is going to make Episode IX interesting. The movie ends with the remains of the Resistance on the Millennium Falcon and Leia being the sole survivor of the original trio. It was clear that the next movie was supposed to be hers and there is no indication about how they are going to write her out of the series.
A Little Romance: But not a lot. For anyone wondering if Rey and Kylo are going to be a thing then that is still unknown. We do see a little bit of a romance between Finn and Rose by the end of the movie.
Rey is a Nobody: The idea of who Rey is has been a hot topic of debate for a long time now and this movie does answer the question but we can’t be sure on the source. Kylo Ren tells Rey that she isn’t anybody. She’s the daughter of two people on Jakku who sold her for money. Ren could have been lying to her but Rey being no one does line up with the series. Anakin was also a nobody but it does mean that the final battle doesn’t look like it’s going to be between cousins.
An Unexpected Cameo Of Yoda There Is: We get to see Luke talk to his former master in force ghost form. They have a great conversation about the end of the Jedi and letting go of the old ways.
Star Wars
What Happened to Luke’s School: We find out what happens to Luke’s school. We also see it from multiple points of view. Ren thought that Luke was going to kill him and that caused the violence that erupted. Luke did see the darkness in Ben and for a brief moment thought about killing him but ultimately didn’t. However, when Ren woke up Luke was standing over him with a lightsaber and things went bad from there. We don’t see the Knights of Ren but Luke does say that Ren ran off with some of his students who we can only assume are the Knights.
Very Brief Maz Kanada Cameo: We see her fighting and she is the ones who tell Finn, Rose, and Poe to seek out the master codebreaker. That fight she is having is 1000% going to be its own comic or book before the end of next year.
DJ Betrays the Resistance: It looks like DJ might not have been the one that Maz was telling the Resistance to find, it’s a little unclear, but what is clear is that as soon as they are caught by the First Order he turns on Finn and Rose to make his escape. He makes a point of telling them that there are no sides when it comes to war and the best thing to do is “don’t join”. He is assumed to be alive.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi L to R: Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and a Porg
Chewie is One Hell of a Pilot: All of the flying of the Falcon on Crait is done by Chewie with his porg sitting on the dash. We always knew Chewie was a talented pilot but its nice to see him really get a chance to shine as a fighter. Porgs are Friends not Food: Okay Chewie does roast one and goes to eat it until a porg gives him sad eyes. The porgs are fine and are really only there as easy tension relief. They don’t have a “role” in the movie and are not as big of a deal as some people think. Still adorable though.
