After a year-and-a-half of research, here’s as good an estimate as possible as to what will happen in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’
I’m not a purist – I just gave away old-canon novels of the events following “Return of the Jedi,” to Goodwill, finding the current canon to be better. (Is it more compelling that an unknown alien race or the seed of Vader present trouble to the heroes?)
Nonetheless, I’ll admit fanboy-hood.
Since the very first apparent leak of the screenplay of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” near the middle of last year, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading any news articles I see about reported “Star Wars” leaks (which, frankly, has been the case with the mythology since the year-and-a-half following the release of the first new film, “The Force Awakens”).
I’ve become convinced that that’s the best way to figure out what may happen in the next adventures from the galaxy far, far away, especially since we learned from “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One,” the new “Star Wars” films so far, that Disney cannot be trusted in terms of being able to glean substantial plot points from the trailers, let alone stringing together the story.
(Even though I’ve found myself wondering about Luke Skywalker holding Darth Vader’s lightsaber – anyone else notice this? – in the poster where Luke is wearing a red robe. And doing so slightly when it certainly makes it seem like the new (apparent) villain, Kylo Ren, is going to murder his mother, Leia.)
The following is a summary and a few examples of the script that all seem legitimate, but progress from least to most credible. (So, extremely likely spoilers follow.)
Finding Vader/Rey’s origins/‘old friends long gone’
We saw Ren seek Vader (“grandfather”) in “The Force Awakens,” but Ren might be changed at least partially by realizing where he can truly find his grandfather, who came back to the light side to conclude the original trilogy. The new (apparent) hero, Rey, is not the last Jedi, but she is the first, as a reincarnation of that person, making the circle between Rey and Luke complete. That Rey descends from no one – read: no parents! – fills the gap between statements that they were “not in Episode VII,” as JJ Abrams, director of that film (“The Force Awakens”) and the sequel to the topical film, said, and Daisy Ridley, the actress who plays Rey, saying that her parents in “The Force Awakens” were obvious. (How could it be obvious if no one in the film was the parent, unless there aren’t parents?)
And – perhaps not surprisingly, given the suggestion in the last paragraph of where Vader can be found – Anakin Skywalker, along with Yoda, are in the film; they are seen as Force ghosts at the end of “Return of the Jedi,” joining Obi-Wan Kenobi, whose voice to Rey was heard in “The Force Awakens,” there. The characters’ past portrayers, Hayden Christensen and Frank Oz, recorded at Pinewood Studios in London, where Disney’s Lucasfilm is notorious for working its magic.
Beginning & ending
Mike Zeroh is quite self-promotional on his YouTube channel, but has gotten a whole lot right there. He reported that the line “We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down” would be in the film and it was in the Oct. 9 Monday Night Football trailer. It doesn’t make much sense since the Resistance (the new Rebel Alliance) already destroyed the central, powerful base of the First Order (the new Empire), but I digress. Zeroh’s videos have been reported on by at least a couple of press outlets and Mark Hamill himself even reached out to Zeroh on Hamill’s apparent favorite medium of communication in Twitter, giving a nod to Zeroh’s efforts.
Zeroh says that just after Rey meets Luke on Ahch-To, the planet with the island to where Luke retreated, as seen at the end of “The Force Awakens,” Luke says that he knows that Han Solo is dead. Rey and Luke walk down the cliff on the island. Inside the Resistance headquarters, Leia is see in distress – here is the woman who lost her home planet, saw the moral fall of her son and lost a man she loved.
“She feels responsible for both of their deaths,” but is reminded about the perils of “emotion,” Zeroh says.
Leia collapses. C-3PO says “Princess Leia! My word! She has collapsed!” around the time Leia says. “Bring him home, Rey.”
“Presumably” six months later, Kylo asks Supreme Leader Snoke, the new dark-side nemesis, “What is the solution?” Snoke calls for a man (Benicio Del Toro’s character?). He says that the man and Ren who “retrieve” Rey after “retiring” Luke.
“Watch over him… keep him alive,” Snoke tells the man concerning Ren. “If you sense any conflict, kill him, destroy Skywalker and bring the girl.”
And “Disney blocked a similar video,” Zeroh said, now reporting the end of the film:
Luke and Rey are in a secluded location, with R2-D2 in the background. Poe Dameron, the new best star pilot in the galaxy, “pursues” the man and Ren. Poe installs a “communication framework.” Luke and Rey “progress” through their landscape before finding themselves in a “standoff” with the man and Ren. Poe warns Finn, the converted stormtrooper, that their situation is a “ploy” and says that Luke and Rey must be warned. Luke, Rey, the man and Ren then exchange words.
Luke and Snoke confront each other. Luke and Rey, lightsabers ignited, go after the man. Then, Snoke “takes over Rey’s mind (OK, I’ve wondered if the suggestion of this in that trailer from the 9th is legitimate, too) as she goes against Luke.” Finn “takes on” the man as Luke “struggles” with Ren and Rey. Snoke hones in further on Rey as Finn “beheads” the man.
Then, two “duels” take place simultaneously. Finn argues with Rey that she is being controlled. Poe “attacks the weakness from the interior structure” of a facility.
And Ren hears the voice of the father that he killed, wherein he ends his fight against Luke and saves Rey. But Snoke traps Luke, Finn and Rey before going underground. Ren “reveals that Snoke is alive.”
Luke and Leia “reunite” before Luke, Leia and Rey hold hands, looking up into the sky.
A climactic scene
Jason Ward’s MakingStarWars.net has been a reliable source even of breaking “Star Wars” news for a handful of years now; it delivered again with a pivotal sequence in the film, as reported by Zeroh, though it has been publicized in multiple articles and websites.
Ren and the Knights of Ren were seen in Rey’s dream in “The Force Awakens” to presumably have slaughtered youth in Luke’s new Jedi Order. Along the shore, they converge upon the island on Ahch-To, seeking Luke and Rey. It starts to rain; Rey’s hair is “pulled back.” Luke and Rey are wearing the costumes seen in the Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly articles. Ren, maskless, has his cross-guard lightsaber and is wearing attire seen in “The Force Awakens.”
Rey and Ren “duel one-on-one” along a “cliff overlooking the nighttime water.” “Kylo wants revenge,” Zeroh says.
The Knights of Ren go after Luke; the first, black knight has an “ax” but is Force-pushed to his death by Luke, who then ignites his green lightsaber from “Jedi.”
“He moves through each knight one-by-one,” Zeroh reports. “This could be one of the reasons as to why (the Knights of Ren) are not being marketed in ‘The Last Jedi’ merchandise. … Luke Skywalker takes them out rather easily.”
Meanwhile, Rey disappears and “appears to go over the side of the cliff… Luke goes to Kylo to finish him… Kylo retreats.”
Zeroh added that we “got hints of this in May 2016, when a lot of black figures… were actually being thrown across the coast by a lot of wire work for about four days.”
Simply the best
Unless Disney changed the screenplay because it leaked, obsessing that the film will not turn right around and break the records set by “The Force Awakens,” the greatest one out there comes from someone who identified as a fired Disney/Lucasfilm employee. I haven’t seen any person of as much apparent credibility reveal anything since when it was posted, in June 2016.
The ex-staffer says that Ben Solo, who calls himself Kylo Ren, joins Luke with plans to confront Snoke. The plot orients primarily around a “rivalry” between Luke and Snoke – and that Luke was upset with the mystery-clouded character due to Solo’s turn to the dark side. So, Luke will pull out all the stops to train Rey to be stronger than Snoke. Rey is the embodied balance to the chaos in the Force that Ben brought about when he shattered the new Jedi Order that Skywalker was building. Also, Anakin Skywalker and Yoda have a role in the film from the netherworld of the Force – and Force ghosts can be destroyed. Yoda explains that the Jedi all but assuredly during the Clone War era were “arrogant.”
This plot has not been debunked on reddit, a major reading and discussion site, like another that went viral was.
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