Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Part 4

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the last quarter of The Last Jedi. I'm going to leave the overall review for a separate article this time, that'll be Part Five, but this article will bring you to the end of the movie.

Click PART ONE, PART TWO or PART THREE, if you want to jump back to an earlier page.

The Last Jedi was the highest grossing movie of 2017, which is interesting as if it really wasn't connecting with people it would've dropped right off after its opening weekend. I mean it did have the largest drop of any of the movies so far, clearly it was not winning everyone over, but it was still topping the charts.

It ultimately brought in $1.334 billion, putting it between the other two sequel trilogy episodes in success. But it was apparently the cheapest of the three movies by a significant amount, so it made a suitable amount of bank. It's still the 12th most expensive film of all time though. Incidentally, The Force Awakens is still considered to be 1st most expensive movie ever made after almost a decade, which is kind of crazy to me.

There will be SPOILERS below as I go scene by scene and wrap this film up.

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Previously, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi:

The Supreme Leader is dead, long live Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. Snoke's death has brought a tiny bit of joy into Ren's life, but otherwise it hasn't been the best day for him. The First Order's flying city has been shattered by Holdo ramming the Resistance cruiser into it, Captain Phasma has been killed by Finn, and the Resistance has escaped to the planet Crait below. But what really pisses him off is that Rey turned down his offer to join him and then ran off with his grandfather's lightsaber.

Now he's going to go down to Crait with an army and obliterate the Resistance once and for all. Assuming that he can find any walkers in his hangar that aren't on fire.

And now, the conclusion:

There are a lot of animals in this movie I've noticed. Ahch-To had porgs, Canto Bight had fathiers and now Crait has crystal foxes (vulptices).

The film has just taken a brief detour through a reverse Return of the Jedi scenario where the Darth Vader character killed the Emperor and then took his place, but now it's back to echoing Empire Strikes Back. In fact, this Resistance base looks like Echo Base on Hoth from the very start of the film.

The trouble with being the underdog in an asymmetric war is that when the enemy finds your base your only sensible option is to get out of there. But the Resistance hasn't got anything to fly out of here on this time, so they have no good options. All they can do is batten down the hatches and survive long enough for help to arrive.

Some help's already on its way, as Finn, Rose and BB-8 are hurtling toward their hangar in a borrowed First Order shuttle, though the Resistance doesn't know that.

Fortunately they make it inside just before the shield door comes down and they're able to successfully convince their friends to stop shooting at them. The production crew apparently dragged a full-sized shuttle rig across the floor on a track for this bit, which is the kind of filmmaking I can appreciate! I also appreciate miniatures and CGI, and to be honest I just assumed this was done as an effect.

Poe's so happy to see BB-8 he gives him a belly rub, so I guess he considers the droid to be his dog.

The good news is that the base has shields, so orbital bombardment isn't a concern. They could've really used a shield generator like that on their base on D'Qar at the start of the film. The bad news is they don't have anything to fight back with that's worth a damn. Plus the First Order are bringing down a battering ram cannon that makes use of miniaturised Death Star tech, so that's also pretty bad. The only way into the base is the giant door at the front and it's also their only way out, so they'll be utterly screwed when that cannon blows a hole through it.

It's nice though to see Poe back to giving orders and Connix back to pressing buttons after all that unpleasantness earlier on the ship. And Finn gets the iconic Force theme playing when he inspires the troops with a speech. He tells them that they're gonna go out there and take out the cannon so they can't break through their door!

Yeah, this is definitely feeling like Hoth now, though one of the soldiers points out it's salt on the ground this time, not snow. And when it's wiped away the ground is a deep red underneath. The film likes its strong reds, I guess that's why the poster is red too!

There are apparently a bunch of cameos here, like Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, Take That singer Gary Barlow, and three of Mark Hamill's kids. Oh, plus Carrie Fisher's daughter plays Connix. I wish I was famous enough or related to a cast member enough to have a tiny role in a Star Wars movie.

Poe leads a team out in skim speeders, including Finn and Rose. Finn's fully down for the cause now and Rose has become one of the heroes she idolises. See, Canto Bight wasn't a complete waste of 10 minutes!

These craft are an interesting design as they were clearly put together by a designer who wanted to see what happens when they make all the wrong choices. And then whoever was at this base apparently started taking them apart again. They're in terrible shape, which Poe finds out when he puts his foot right through the floor.

This scene is like the attack on the Death Star from A New Hope meets the attack on the walkers from Empire Strikes Back, except this time the heroes don't have the mobility to do a whole lot.

The skim speeders a pretty easy target for the TIE fighters, of which there are many. On the plus side they go up in pretty clouds of red when they go. This planet's so distinctive!

Rose is doing pretty well now that she's been promoted to protagonist, but anyone would struggle dodging three TIE fighters on their tail. TIE pilots are disciplined and well trained, able to fly in a tight formation and...

... get one-shotted by a Jedi in the Millennium Falcon! These guys probably thought it was hilarious at the start of the film when the Resistance bombers all blew up together because they were flying so close but it's not so funny when it happens to them.

Some people have a problem with this scene but I think it's done really well, the way we see the shadow of the Falcon before seeing the ship herself. Then we get to see Rey inside a turret enjoying herself with her theme playing heroically. She's been miserable for this whole movie so it's nice that she's finally happy!

Ren, on the other hand, is absolutely losing his shit seeing Rey show up in his dad's freighter and he orders his fighters to take down the ship. All of them. He's all about killing the past these days, destroying all the references to classic Star Wars, and classic Star Wars references don't come much bigger than the Millennium Falcon. It's so old school that it overrides the soundtrack and TIE Fighter Attack from the first film starts playing instead.

Rey tells Chewbacca to draw them away from the speeders and the TIEs all follow.

This turns out to be a strategic error, as Chewie leads them through a narrow passage and that's always death to TIEs. The Falcon can handle it though, no matter who's flying it. Han, Lando, Rey, Chewie, they've all pulled off miraculous manoeuvres through hazardous obstacles while fighters behind them were exploding.

I love shots like this that let you see the exterior and the interior of the Falcon at the same time. Plus Chewie's ended up with a porg as a car window toy, just to annoy people who hate it when the cute comic relief creatures show up to spoil the mood at a dramatic moment.

Unfortunately the speeders are getting absolutely annihilated by the defending walkers and it's just like the bombing mission at the start of the movie all over again. Poe has had enough character growth over the movie to realise that he shouldn't throw lives away on heroics like this and calls it off.

I don't know what his plan B is, blowing up the gun seems pretty crucial to their group's survival, but I guess he's betting everything that help will arrive before the walkers reach the door.

Finn's been through his own character arc though, and he's become so committed to the cause that he pulls a Poe and turns off his radio. In fact, he's going to pull a Holdo and sacrifice himself to buy everyone else more time! He charges right at the gun... but Rose has got a character arc of her own (and apparently a much faster speeder) and she smashes into him from the side!

It's all a bit of a mess and I'm not just talking about the wreckage that Rose ends up lying in. You just don't expect the heroes to keep losing like this, over and over.

This may have started as an echo of the dreadnought bombing mission, but history has not repeated. This time Rose has changed the outcome by going on a suicide mission to save the person she loves from dying on a suicide mission. She outright states that they'll win by saving what they love, not fighting what they hate, but the messaging is kind of confusing here. For one thing the door protecting the people they love is literally exploding behind them because of the choice she's made. The contradiction is blinding.

I'm sure people had all kinds of feelings about the kiss she gives Finn here, but I've seen Star Wars before, I know what it's like with kisses. In the original trilogy Leia pretty much kissed everyone aside from the Wookiee, including her own twin brother like three times. And Han offered to arrange a kiss with the Wookiee.

Well that's Rose done for the movie, as she's been Finn'd, getting knocked out of the story right before the climax due to injury. It also looks like she's dead, but don't worry that's just another fakeout.

Well the door has been breached, Kylo Ren has ordered his men to slaughter everyone inside, and none of their allies have even answered their call for help. You'd think at least one of their allies would've sent them a reply like "We'd really love to help but we're busy doing our laundry right now."

Leia has a very dramatic line here, saying that they fought to the end but the galaxy has lost all its hope. That's a bit arrogant isn't? None of their allies wanted to fly directly toward Kylo Ren and the surviving might of the First Order navy and this means there's no hope left in the whole galaxy?

If Leia was concerned about hope, maybe she should've broadcast that Snoke is dead, that might have helped win a few people to their cause! Oh hang on, they don't know about that yet. She should've broadcast that Holdo wrecked Snoke's super ship then!

It turns out that one person has answered their call for help however, and they're in luck because he's hope incarnate.

The Last Jedi himself walks in and sees his sister again after all this time. She immediately breaks the tension by making a joke about changing her hair. You can't blame Rian Johnson for that quip though, it was ad-libbed by Carrie Fisher, who remembered what Han said to Leia when they were reunited in The Force Awakens.

Luke has also changed his hair since we last saw him on Ahch-To, but Rey, Chewie and R2 aren't around to notice.

He's come to face her son and he knows he can't save him like he did Vader... for some reason. Seems a bit out of character perhaps, but maybe what he's saying is that he knows he won't be the one to do it, as he goes on to tell her that no one's ever really gone. Then he gives her Han's dice from the Falcon! This is a really cheeky thing for the movie to do as it 'proves' that Luke is here in person. But it's nice to hear the Han and Leia theme again for a moment.

Luke also gives a her a kiss (on the forehead), because when are these two not kissing? That bit was apparently improvised by Mark Hamill. His wink to C-3PO wasn't in the script either, but Hamill didn't want Luke to just ignore him. Anthony Daniels still wasn't impressed with how much he got to do in the film though.

Then Luke Skywalker goes out with a laser sword and faces down the whole First Order, alone. It's a samurai wizard facing a spaceship and a row of robot walkers, but somehow it feels like a showdown in a western. The music really helps.

Hamill really wasn't keen on the direction the script took his character in and a lot of fans remain right there with him. But starting with him at his lowest point does make this moment of heroism at the end sweeter.

Ren orders his walkers to fire everything they've got at him, and they just keep firing and firing. Ren yells 'more' and they fire more. In fact, Hux has to step in and get them to stop, because they've clearly gotten him by now.

We know they haven't, because that would be too subversive even for this movie, but how the hell could he survive that?

Yep, Luke's still alive, and he fakes brushing a little salt off his shoulder to show how bothered he is by Ren's onslaught. I love this moment.

I also like how Hux tries to talk Ren out of going down to face him, and gets Force tossed into the wall. I mean, it kind of sucks that General Hugs has been reduced to comic relief (this would've never happened to Tarkin), but at least they didn't turn the main antagonist into a joke. We still have one serious villain in this film.

Oh, it turns out that Finn and Rose are still alive as well! Finn somehow managed to drag Rose all the way from where her skim speeder crashed to the door without showing up on camera or being hit by any of the lasers.

Ren comes out of his shuttle to face his nemesis and we see that Luke is back to using a lightsaber! In fact, he's gone back to the blue blade given to him by Obi-Wan in the first movie. The one that snapped in half earlier. And is on the Falcon with Rey.

Finn is eager to get out there and help him, as he's come so far on his character arc that he's turned into Poe. Fortunately Poe's own journey has given him more insight and perspective. He understands now that the Resistance was never going to win this war with their own heroics. Their task is to survive and inspire the galaxy to fight back.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

This isn't Empire Strikes Back right now, it's the Death Star hangar scene in A New Hope, and Luke is playing the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi to keep Vader busy long enough for the others to escape.

Also, Poe's pretty much the only person who wonders how Luke even got in here as there's supposed to be no back entrance to the base.

C-3PO gets a moment to be obnoxious as he won't shut up telling them the odds of successfully navigating the tunnels, but Poe eventually gets it quiet enough to hear the absence of the ice foxes. They must have all found a way out! Well, all but one of them, who seems to have stayed behind to lead the heroes out. Either that or it's just curious.

Poe asks the Resistance to follow him and everyone turns to Leia... who then looks around as if she's wondering what they're looking at. The moment didn't really work for me, but I do like that she supports her protege, recognising that he's become a wiser man. Character arc complete!

Meanwhile Rey and R2 are flying over the mountains, trying to track them down using the binary beacon and the life form scanners. They already know they're behind the big door in the cliff, so I guess they've realised that they're on the move.

Fortunately nature is on their side, as their porg alerts them to the ice foxes that are fleeing from the base.

The helpful ice fox that led Poe's group through the tunnels slips out through a pile of boulders just as Rey arrives, so at least everyone's where they need to be. Boulders are a problem though... unless the Falcon blasts them with its lasers! Or something else happens, I dunno.

Meanwhile the epic final confrontation between Luke and Ren begins. It's not going the way Ren expected, as Luke keeps dodging all of his moves with Force-assisted agility. He's not even blocking him, he doesn't have to. It's like how Vader toyed with Luke in Empire, except even more frustrating!

In Empire, Vader was taking it easy on his son because he wanted to capture him and turn him to his side. It didn't even occur to him that it was possible for him to be redeemed and join his son's side. But Ren knows the story of Vader and he's already rejected that ending. All this guy cares about right now is hurting the man who lost faith in him and tried to murder him in his sleep. But he just can't land a single blow.

I think this shot could've turned out better. It's not the most heroic looking pose, at least not from this angle and not with that coat on.

Ren yells at him that the Resistance is dead, the war is over, and he's about to kill the last Jedi, which works for Luke as he loves telling people how mistaken they are in this movie. Especially if every word in their sentence was wrong. Luke knows that he won't be the last Jedi and at this point in the movie he's actually fine with that.

Of course, Luke isn't always right about these things himself. Like at the start of the movie where he told Rey that the Force isn't about lifting rocks.

I'm sure this kind of setup and payoff annoys some people, maybe they don't like how artificial it feels, but it makes me smile. The Force isn't about lifting rocks, but lifting rocks is certainly a thing you can do with it and that's very useful when it's the final heroic action of the movie that saves the whole Resistance.

It might seem a bit absurd that Rey can lift so many rocks when Luke failed to lift an X-Wing from a swamp, but Luke only tried to do it, while Rey just did it. Plus I'm sure if Han and Leia had been trapped in that X-Wing, Luke would've lifted it no problem.

(There are a bit too many rocks though maybe).

And Rey is finally reunited with Finn! She seems so relieved and at peace.

The film had to keep them separated so that Finn could learn to care about a bigger cause and Rey could feel alone and vulnerable, but now they're back together again and everything's alright.

Meanwhile Ren slices through Luke with his saber, leaving a red trail under his feet as he slides to a stop.

Ren was just wiping salt off the red ground though as Luke's fine. In fact, Luke was never here to begin with! Obi-Wan was a pretty good distraction for Vader back in the day, but the student has surpassed the master. Plus he's finally taught Ren the first lesson Obi-Wan taught him: "Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them".

The film kind of cheats with the dice, which fade away in Ren's hand when he finds them, but otherwise it plays fair with Luke's illusion. He looks younger, he's holding his original lightsaber, he isn't harmed by the blaster fire, he never blocks Ren's attacks and he doesn't leave footprints.

I love this whole sequence to be honest. I don't think it was necessary to undo Luke's happy ending in Return of the Jedi to get us here, but now that we are here I think it's a good ending for Star Wars' original hero.

Earlier on Ren mentioned that Rey couldn't be projecting herself as the effort would kill her. Well, he was right, as Luke clearly just sacrificed himself. He drags himself up onto his favourite rock and stares off into the binary sunset one last time before fading away. Now Ren will never get his revenge.

People have pointed out that his robot hand doesn't fall down when he disappears and they're probably right, but it's filmed from behind so we can't really know for sure. Maybe robot hands do disappear with you when you fade, I don't know how this works.

Here are some Jedi stats for you: Luke was 53 when he died, 8 years older than his dad Anakin who died aged 45, and 4 years younger than Obi-Wan, who was 57. He was also younger than Yoda.

The First Order is unable to stop the last survivors escaping in the Falcon and Kylo is denied another vision meeting with Rey. They're still connected even without Snoke, but she silently shuts him out. He had his chance to join Rey, but he had to chase power and now he has no one. The most powerful and lonely person in the galaxy.

Inside she finally meets Poe, and we get some nice dialogue where she says she's Rey and he says "I know". It seems like a throwaway moment, but she's gone this whole movie thinking that she's no one from nowhere and not knowing her role in this story. But the people she just rescued know exactly who she is: she's the hero.

Also Leia finally gives Chewie the hug he didn't get after Han's death in The Force Awakens, so that's cool.

Then there's this quick shot when Finn opens a drawer to get a blanket for Rose, revealing that Rey's got the sacred Jedi texts stashed in the Falcon! This is way too subtle for something that flips the message of the story and I'm not surprised if a lot of people missed it.

It turns out that when Yoda said that Rey already had everything she needed, he wasn't saying she has a good heart or whatever, he literally meant that she'd swiped everything from the tree. And why not? It's clear that Luke didn't want the books.

Rey's raw Force power was a gift of fate, she basically got the ability to lift all those boulders for free, but she knows that she only has the tiniest understanding of what she's really capable of and she'll have to work for the rest. She's got no illusions about the Jedi now, she knows they had flaws, but she's thoroughly rejected the idea of letting the past die.

Rey's sad about Luke's death, plus her broken lightsaber and the death of most of the Resistance is a bit depressing for her as well.

Leia is more positive, echoing Yoda's statement that they have everything they need. The Falcon was so empty when Luke was sitting here at the start of the film, but now it's more full than it's ever been and there's a porg on R2's head. I hope the life support systems are up to it and they don't all suffocate.

This is obviously the point at the movie where the credits should come on. Star Wars movies end with a shot of the heroes, that's how it works! But the film keeps on going.

In fact it returns to Canto Bight, to check in on what the kids in the fathier stables are up to.

It turns out that the news of what Luke did at Crait has gotten out somehow and he's become the spark of hope again! His sacrifice didn't just save the Resistance, it made an impact on the entire galaxy. Children are playing with Luke Skywalker action figures and retelling his stories... at least until they're yelled at to go clean up the stables. In fact one of them even has a Resistance ring, possibly because Rose give it to him.

The film's hinting pretty hard here that the next movie is going to take place after a time skip, with the next generation of Rebels inspired by Luke coming to join the fight.

In fact one of the kids pulls a broom into their hands with the Force so quickly that it makes you wonder if you saw it right, then poses with it like it's a lightsaber as he looks up at the stars.

This means that the heroes went right past a Force-sensitive slave kid without dragging him into their space war. These guys suck compared to Qui-Gon Jinn! I just hope Rey eventually finds him, or he finds her, and he grows up to be more of a Luke than an Anakin.

I've seen some people interpret this scene as meaning that the Force can be used by everyone, but it doesn't really. It only shows us that there are other Force-sensitive people out there and they can come from anywhere. Which is good, as we needed to know that Ren and Rey aren't the only people with the potential to use the Force in this era. Luke and Rey would've really been the last Jedi if there were no more students to teach.

Anyway, the movie's done. It's finally over.

TO BE REVIEWED IN PART FIVE

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NEXT TIME

There's one more part left before I'm finished with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It'll have to wait a bit though, as next time I'll be writing about Star Trek: Discovery's penultimate episode, Lagrange Point.

What did you think about the last part of The Last Jedi? Was it an unnecessary extra chapter that wraps things up too tightly? Or was it a relief for the movie to not end abruptly with too much unresolved?