Part 28 of 43 Individual Scenes from ‘Rise of Skywalker’
A great bit of editing here by the randomiser – if the original scene of Rey disappointing everyone by leaving in the skimmer had immediately flowed into the line “Finn, there’s another skimmer” it would have been a pathetic choice that drained all energy out of the scene. Here it’s like we’ve returned after the week’s break between episodes and the old cliffhanger is being swept under the rug so that we can move swiftly onto the next big problem, namely how Rey (who we must remember possesses the power of unaided flight) can possibly scale the Death Star ruins to find her Sith Holocron Wayfinder. By doing some sick space-bouldering, is how.
It’s interesting how much this motif of Imperial ruins recurs in modern Star Wars; Jedi: Fallen Order plays with it, as did the Ahsoka show, both showing the decommissioning and dismantling of Star Destroyers. The physical matter of Lucas’ Star Wars was usually ephemeral, from Alderaan’s destruction to the Death Star disappearing in a puff of smoke to Obi-wan turning into an empty robe. We see droid factories and cloning facilities but not droid disposal or clone funerals. The closest we get is Luke and the gang finding themselves trapped in the Death Star garbage disposal, a handful of wobbly metal poles apparently the sum total of Imperial wastage. Or the Jawa walker, rolling through the desert full of old, outdated droids who are nonetheless turned over and resold. It’s not a big galaxy for waste.
It’s a little different if we’re considering flesh, where Luke’s hand was tossed into the void of Bespin and Darth Maul, Boba Fett and the Emperor are dealt with by being hurled down pits. All three of them (and the hand) have been fished back out in various bits of continuation media, so perhaps there should be less surprise that we’re going back for the inert.
It’s curious as well that so much about this film is spiritually revisiting the original films and yet this sequence, which is literally revisiting where the ending of Return of the Jedi took place, somehow feels very fresh. We really don’t see very much in Star Wars that is derelict, despite the reputation it has for not being a gleaming-surfaces kind of future. Lived-in, yes, but not derelict. Piles of muddy Stormtrooper helmets are actually a little uncanny, as is the throne room set with great holes blasting daylight into it. There’s no template for what kind of thing happens in Star Wars in a place like this.
What does happen is very strange: Rey steps into the vault to collect the Wayfinder, and has a spiritual experience akin to Luke’s entering the cave on Dagobah: facing a malign version of herself with two lightsabers and a set of shark teeth. Sadly it’s over before it’s begun though, a victim of some reworking or loss of faith in the concept. Rey is literally ejected back out of the vault into a different scene where she’s contending with Kylo Ren, who casually crushes the precious Wayfinder like it’s a giant cookie. Rey is mad as hell, and this duel is pretty good even with Kylo Ren’s little hop down the tube that he does, but it’s a shame that we immediately abandon the weird, off-putting nature of the Death Star ruins to go do some more homage.
Meanwhile, back at Resistance HQ, Leia has had a funny thought.