Star War: The Last Jedi Rewrite
The Last Jedi. People either tout it as one of the best, in competition with the originals, or as pathetic, and possibly even worse than the prequals. I tend to fall into the latter. I love Star Wars. I’ve seen all the movies multiple times. I made sure to see The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi on their opening nights, and I plan to do the same for the ninth installment. I remember being so excited for the second sequel. I enjoyed The Force Awakens and I thought Disney would take the Star Wars universe in a direction it has never seen before. And, indeed, they capitalized on that idea. They subverted all Star Wars fans expectations by making one of the worst Star Wars movies to hit theaters. Okay, maybe I’m being a little too harsh, but I’m deeply saddened by how the story played out. Don’t get me wrong, the movie, itself, looks phenomenal and the acting is great. However, the story writing is just awful.
That’s why I’m here today. I’m going to tell The Last Jedi in the manner I would have liked to see it. You may not agree with all my ideas, but that’s okay. I hope my version is a least a little bit better than what we all paid for to go see. I won’t be going into minute details, but I will spend a lot of time on some of the most glaring issues I had with the movie. Afterword, I’ll explain why I would make these changes. In the meantime, enjoy.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Version 2)
The movie starts the same way, with Poe fearlessly taking on the First Order after defying orders from Leia not to do so. The same epic space battle ensues, with the Resistance losing much of its fleet, but still managing to destroy the First Order’s dreadnought in the process. The rest of the Resistance escapes into hyperspace.
Aboard a First Order ship, Snoke speaks to General Hux via hologram, criticizing him for allowing the Resistance to escape. Kylo enters the conversation. Snoke tells him he is losing confidence with him, as well. He can feel Kylo’s pull to the light side, despite killing his father. After the conversation, Ren destroys his helmet in a fit of rage.
Finn awakes from his coma and finds Poe. They share a hug, Poe telling him how happy he is that he’s finally okay. Finn seems to shrug it off, instead immediately asking where Rey is.
The scene cuts to Rey on Ahch-To, still holding the lightsaber out to Luke. He continues to stare at her. Finally, he grabs and inspects his old weapon. He hangs his head down, sighing. He hands the sword back to Rey, saying “I can’t. Not anymore.” He walks past her down the mountain. Rey follows him, asking him what he means. There’s a shot from above his shoulder of him walking down when Chewbacca comes around the corner and into frame, walking up the same steps. He looks up and notices Luke, lets out a roar, and runs up to hug him. Luke stands there in disbelief, not even wrapping his arms around his old friend at first. They let go of each other, as Luke looks back and forth at Rey and Chewie. Finally, he asks where Han is. Both of them stay silent, not able to look him in the eye. Luke realizes what must have happened and a single tear rolls down his face. Rey speaks up, “Mr. Skywalker, we need you. The entire galaxy needs you. Leia needs you.” Luke looks back up at Rey, his demeanor a little more hopeful knowing that Leia must still be alive.
The scene cuts back to the Resistance fleet. Inside one of the ships, Leia is speaking to Poe, telling him he’s being demoted for his actions that nearly cost them all of their fighters. Moments later, the First order catches up to the Resistance and begins an attack. Kylo joins in the assault. He leads two other TIE fighters to the bridge where the Resistance leaders are located. He is about to fire when he senses that Leia is on board. He hesitates, but it’s too late, as the other TIE fighters begin firing. The bridge is destroyed and Leia is sucked out into space. Many seconds go by as Leia drifts aimlessly in space, along with the other leaders. Finally, a small medical vessel flies by and takes Leia in and brings her back to the ship.
Back on Ahch-To, Rey is still trying to convince Luke to train her. After her attempts prove unsuccessful she leaves the hut Luke is staying in, only to be frozen by a strong feeling of the force. Suddenly, she sees Kylo and they begin communicating with each other. We see Luke in his hut look up, his eyes wide, and walk out and stare at Rey, standing perfectly still and seemingly talking to herself. Finally, the conversation ends and she is launched to the ground on her hands and knees, clearly out of breath. “What was that?”, Luke asks, stunned. She explains her force conversation with Kylo Ren. When she says the name of Luke’s old trainee, he winces, but then retaliates, standing firm. “Okay,” he says, almost as if he’s being forced, “I’ll train you.”
Back on the Resistance cruiser, Vice Admiral Holdo shares the sad news that Leia has passed. She explains that she is now in command of the fleet. She tells everyone not to lose hope, but to trust in the force, just as Leia always did. She explains how the First Order must have tracked them through hyperspace, and they only have enough fuel to make one more jump. They are, however, able to stay out of effective range of the First Order cannons for now, buying them some time. She sends everyone to their respective positions. Poe, skeptical, walks up to Holdo, asking if she actually has a plan to escape the First Order fleet. She says she does, but she is unable to disclose the information at this time. Poe, now angry, asks what they’re supposed to do if they don’t know the plan. She tells him just to trust in her and not to worry. His emotions are conflicted, but it is clear he does not trust in whatever plan the Vice Admiral may or may not have.
Meanwhile, Finn is shown attempting to leave the ship through an escape pod. He is found by a security guard (not Rose), who recognizes him and fanboys over his accomplishments. He finally asks why Finn is down here. Finn attempts to lie his way out of the situation, but the guard sees through it and tazzes him.
Finn is being escorted in handcuffs through the ship by the guard when they run into Poe. Poe convinces the guard to let him go, saying that he’ll keep a good eye on him. He takes him into a private room and explains the situation with the First Order and Holdo. Finn reasons that they must shut off the First Order’s tracking device so the Resistance can escape through hyperspace. “Yeah, okay, but how in the world are we going to do that?”, asks Poe. Out of frame, we hear a women’s voice timidly say, “I can help.” The two turn to see who is later revealed to be Rose standing in the door frame.
The scene jumps back to Rey, with Luke finally training her in the ways of the force. She learns to manipulate small pebbles on the ground. Luke is impressed, until he feels the dark side of the force begin to engulf Rey. She explains what she saw, Luke telling her he knows what she saw, saying she didn’t even resist the dark side. As she sits there speechless, Luke gets up to leave for good, saying that he has seen power like this before. “It didn’t scare me then, but it does now.” Rey pleads with him. We see the back of Luke. He stops and sighs, “I failed once before,” he turns around to face Rey, “I won’t let it happen again.” He then explains what happened with Kylo Ren, his pull to the dark side, and Ren’s attempt to murder his master. Luke says he sees the same pull to the dark side in Rey. “I will continue to train you,” he pauses, “but you will be the last jedi.”
We’re back with Poe, Finn, and Rose. Rose explains how she used to work with hyperspace tracking technology, until all their research was stolen, presumably by the First Order. She says if she could somehow get on the ship she would be able to disable it. Finn offers a plan: they’re going to “surrender” to the First Order, getting themselves captured and put into detention on the ship. He says he knows how to escape the prisoner holds and where the First Order would keep technology such as the tracking device. All three agree to the plan. Poe gives Finn and radio and tells him to keep in touch through everything. They exchange troubled but hopeful looks as Finn and Rose go off to steal an escape pod.
The scene now cuts to Kylo. He hears Rey’s voice again, asking him why he gave into the dark side and tried to kill Luke. Kylo explains that Luke tried to kill him, not the other way around. He says he lost faith in the light side and turned to Snoke for the rest of his training. This prompts Rey to confront Luke about the truth of the story. He tells her he did intend to kill the young Ren in his sleep, sensing his pull to the dark side. With his lightsaber drawn ready to strike, he backed down, deciding not to kill him. But Kylo woke up, saw the lightsaber drawn, and attacked in self-defense. Rey is stunned, but ultimately wants to continue her training. “You trained Kylo to be the warrior he is now, you can train me to defeat him.”
Back on the First Order ship, Finn and Rose are escorted in handcuffs to a prison cell by Captain Phasma and other guards. “Nice to see you back, FN-2187. It’s too bad you’ll spend the rest of your life as a prisoner,” she mocks. Their handcuffs are removed and they’re thrown in a cell. After allowing a few seconds to ensure the guards have left, Rose asks Finn what the plan is, the look of determination in her eyes. Comically, Finn explains that he actually has no idea how to escape the cell and he only said that so Poe would approve of the plan. They begin to argue, with Finn promising to figure out a way of escape. Another voice breaks up conversation. “I think I can lend a hand.” The camera moves to a cell across from Finn and Rose. A hand reaches out with a card and opens his own cell. A man, later revealed as DJ, walks out triumphantly.
Meanwhile, on the Resistance cruiser, there is chaos in the hanger, with transports being loaded up and troops running all over the place. Poe walks up to Holdo, asking her what’s going on. She tells him they are loading up the transports and escaping to an unknown location. Poe tells her she’s crazy, that the First Order will undoubtably see the transports leaving. It’s a suicide mission. She tells him not to worry. “Yeah?”, he replies, “well I think you ought to start worrying”. He pulls his gun, along with a small force of other troops, captures Holdo, and takes control of the ship in a mutiny.
Back on Ahch-To, Rey has finished her training. She thanks Luke and tells him she wish he were coming. He just grins as Chewie picks him up in a bear hug. Rey and Chewie are walking down the mountain when Luke calls out to her, “Rey… May the force be with you.” She looks back, a huge smile on her face. “May the force be with you.” Chewie and Leia enter the Falcon and fly off.
On the First Order ship, DJ has released Finn and Rose from their cell and is offering to accompany them on their quest. They agree and allow him to come, filling him in on their plan. They navigate the ship, being cautious any time they turn corners. DJ seems all too calm, and Rose has noticed something is off. She looks him up and down, but can’t figure it out. She decides to let it go, as Finn informs Poe that they have escaped the cell and are making their way to tracker. They continue sneaking around the ship when Finn points at a door, telling them that the tracker should be in that room. They walk up, but before they can attempt to unlock the door it shoots open. Standing behind the door is Captain Phasma and a group of stormtroopers, their guns drawn. “I should have known you weren’t surrendering,” she says as the soldiers handcuff Finn and Rose again. DJ walks in front of them and stands next to Phasma, not handcuffed, with a smug smile on his face. “You traitor!”, yells Finn. “No, you’re the traitor,” he calmly replies, “I’m just doing my job.”
The next shot shows the entire First Order fleet. The Millennium Falcon comes into frame, dropping off a small escape pod flown by Rey before shooting off into hyperspace.
Back on the Resistance ship, Poe is shown commanding the bridge. A few loud bangs and a lot of chatter is heard outside the room. The door blasts open and a small army of Resistance fighters enter the room. They stun a few of Poe’s men before the rest of them, and Poe, himself, surrender. Holdo walks in, taking back control and directing her troops. Poe pleads with her, asking her if she has a plan. She takes him aside and walks a good distance from the rest of the troops. She whispers to him, finally explaining her plan. She says there’s a nearby Resistance stronghold on the planet Crait. That’s where she will send all the transports. She says she didn’t want anyone to announce it to the whole crew for fear of a mole that would tell the First Order. They were able to steal their hyperspace tracking technology, so there’s no doubt someone is on this ship as a spy. Poe reiterates his concern that the First Order will see the transports leaving anyway. She whispers something in his ear, inaudible to the audience. Poe has a look of disbelief. “Thank you for your service,” he says and gives her a nod. “It’s what Leia would have wanted,” she sternly replies. Poe walks away and takes out his radio, calling for Finn and telling him he needs to get off the ship immediately. When he doesn’t reply, Poe repeats himself. He realizes they have lost communication. He looks out the window at the First Order fleet, preparing for the worst.
Next we see Rey and Kylo walking together on the First Order ship, each one attempting to turn the other to their side, like the scene between Vader and Luke in Return of the Jedi. They reach the throne room of Snoke, his old, wrinkled face smiling as they walk in. He, too, tries to convince Rey to join the dark side of the force and rule the galaxy together. When she refuses, Snoke order Kylo to strike Rey down with his lightsaber. As Snoke is speaking, Kylo uses the force to move the Rey’s lightsaber, sitting next to Snoke, parallel to his body, with the intention of killing him. Snoke explains he knows Kylo’s thoughts and feelings and his true intentions. Ren ignites the lightsaber to cut his master in half, but before he can force the blade through his body, Snoke begins to force choke him. “You fool! Did you really think you could turn against me without my knowledge?”, he says, tauntingly. As Kylo struggles for breath, Rey looks above Snoke and sees a steel structure. She uses the force the bring the structure down on the Supreme Leader. He notices Rey’s plan and dodges out of the way, forcing him to release his hold on Kylo.
Snoke then orders his guards to dispose of the two warriors, as he takes one of the guards with him and attempts to leave. Kylo and Rey then battle the guard together, back to back, easily defeating them, but not before Snoke is able to escape. At the end of the battle, Kylo falls on his hands and knees, repenting for his actions and rambling about Han and Leia. He tosses aside his lightsaber and tells Rey to kill him. She refuses and he gets angry, begging her to end his life. She speaks to him calmly, telling him there’s still hope, that he can change his ways and come back to the light, and together they can defeat Snoke and the First Order. Rey extends his hand out to him. He looks up tears rolling down his face. He pauses, but eventually reaches out his hand to take hers and allows her to help him up.
Back on the Resistance ship, shuttles and transports containing the remainder of their forces begin leaving, heading for the planet Crait. A few ships have left when the scene turns to General Hux, looking out at the remaining Resistance cruiser. He immediately notices the transports leaving the ship and orders his crew to begin fire on them. The scene shifts again to Rose and Finn in the hanger, thrown on the ground before Captain Phasma and a small army of stormtroopers. She says that death by firing squad would be a too good a pleasure for them, and orders the two to be publicly tortured, instead.
The scene turns to the Resistance transports under heavy fire. Many of them are hit and destroyed. We go back inside the ship and see Poe preparing to board the last shuttle. He looks at Holdo one last time, “May the force be with you, Vice Admiral.” She nods and walks away as Poe boards the transport. Next we see Holdo in the bridge of the ship, turning it to face the main First Order cruiser. Then we see the scene from General Hux perspective, as he watches the lone Resistance ship turn to face him. “What are they doing?”, he asks, almost in a panic. The camera turns to Holdo again, who is slowly pushing down a lever, a look of determination on her face. Then we see Poe, looking out the window of his transport to watch the scene unfold.
Holdo aims the Resistance ship at the First Order dreadnought and engages light speed, going straight through the ship and destroying many other First Order cruisers in the process. The scene cuts back to the hanger where Finn and Rose are. The whole place is in flames, ships are destroyed, many stormtroopers are dead. Finn gets up and brushes himself off and turns to Rose besides him. She’s disoriented, but alive. He picks her up and helps her walk through the wreckage as they search for a ship to escape in. While doing so, Finn spots Phasma, alone and weaponless. Finn carefully sets Rose down and finds a weapon. Phasma takes out her sword as he approaches, ready for battle.
Finn and Phasma duel while the chaos rages on around them. Eventually, Finn is able to overpower his former Captain. He is able to disarm her and back her towards a gaping hole in the ship. “You’ll never win,” she says, as Finn (300 style) kicks her down the shaft, never to be seen again. Finn goes back and finds Rose, who is still in bad shape. They find a ship and are able to escape before the entire cruiser blows up. Finn takes his radio out and calls out for Poe. He hears him, tells Finn he’s happy he’s alive, and lets him now that the rest of the Resistance fleet is going to hide out on Crait. Finn asks Poe if Rey is with him, to which he gives no reply. Finn seems discouraged, but ultimately informs Poe that he will see him on Crait.
The next scene shows Rey and Kylo in his personal tie fighter. Flying away from the wreckage. Rey asks Kylo who Snoke is and how he seduced him to the dark side. He explains that Snoke is his new title. He was formerly known as Darth Plagueis. He was the most powerful sith to ever live. He was so powerful that he could manipulate the force (no, not the midi-clorians) to cheat death and save the ones he loved from dying. He had an apprentice, Palpatine, who later became Darth Sidious, the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, (flashbacks of the events described begin, with a young, but recognizable Palpatine). He taught Palpatine everything he knew, but one day he attempted to kill his master in his sleep. The apprentice thought he had succeeded, but little did he know that Plagueis was using the force to revive himself. Years later, during Sidious’ reign in the Empire, he came back to life. He waited for the Empire to fall before revealing himself and seeking out a new apprentice. He was able to communicate with Ren through the force, as he and Rey had experienced. He planted seeds of doubts in Kylo’s mind about Luke and the light. Finally, when Luke tried to kill Ren, Kylo lost all hope in the light side, fully succumbing to Snoke’s grasp. Snoke had lost much of his power and all of his fighting ability due to his death and resurrection, instead teaching Ren all he knew so that he would become who Plagueis used to be. He had attempted before, with a group now known as the Knights of Ren, formed during the Empire’s reign. To his dismay, none of the men were force-sensitive, but they were all trained to be the fiercest warriors in the galaxy. When Snoke was able to seduce Ren, he made Kylo the leader of this group, having the same training but being able to use the force, as well.
Rey is shocked to hear this and struggles to make sense of it all. She asks where the Knights of Ren are now. He replies that he does not know, but that they are under the complete control of Snoke and have a fierce loyalty towards him. Kylo then asks Rey if she knows whether or not Leia is safe. She answers that she does not know, that she was training with Luke the whole time before arriving on the First Order ship. “Luke…”, Kylo whispers as he looks down, saddened and worried by the mention of his name.
The scene shifts back to Ahch-To, the sun setting behind the island. The shot turns to Luke. There’s a shot over his shoulder as he watches the sun set. In the background we hear the roar of Chewbacca. Luke then turns to see Chewie waving at Luke to board the Falcon. He walks over to the ramp, pauses, and looks back at the island one last time. A slight smile rolls across his face. He enters the Falcon and they take off into hyperspace, prompting the end credits.
End Credits
If you’d like, you may now click off the article, as the rewrite of the movie is finished. Here I’ll just briefly explain the major changes I made and why I did them.
First: Luke’s character. I hated how Luke was portrayed in the Last Jedi. Even Mark Hamill hated his own character. It’s not the Luke of the original trilogy. I understand that he is depressed and feels like a failure, but I don’t like that he portrayed as an angry, isolated hermit who doesn’t even consider attempting to fix his wrongs until much later in the movie. In my version, he is still sad, ashamed of what happened, but he ultimately still has hope, as he always did in the original trilogy. Instead of being so reluctant to train Rey, he is more enthusiastic about it, knowing that this is his opportunity to undo his mistakes. I also don’t like Luke dying. Sure, they gave him a good way to go out, but I would have liked to see the former face of the Rebellion do more than what he did in the movie.
Second: Kylo’s character. The first movie established that Kylo is a conflicted character, not fully engrained in the dark side of the force. He is not the pure evil that we thought Darth Vader was in the originals. Even with killing his father in the Force Awakens, we knew that, deep down, Kylo still had compassion. The compassion continues when he doesn’t fire on the bridge of the Resistance ship, knowing his mother is there. This is all character development leading up to the scene with Snoke. In the movie, it is obvious that Kylo is going to kill the Supreme Leader, prompting everyone to believe that Kylo might actually turn. And that’s what should have happened. That is something that has not happened in Star Wars. It would have been unique, different, and fun. But instead, they crushed their opportunity to do something truly special with this trilogy. This is why I would have Kylo turn back to the light side; to subvert the expectations and make the sequel story unique.
Third: who the heck is Snoke!? We still don’t know. Could it be revealed in the third movie? Possibly, but it does no good to explain a character who is already dead. Bottom line, I think Snoke should have survived the throne scene and we somehow got an explanation of who he is. I wanted to make my version even more fun, though. Snoke as the resurrected Darth Plagueis would be the COOLEST thing ever. It’s an awesome throwback to the prequels, where he is built up to be this amazing force user but is only present via a story in one scene. It also just makes sense. He could save other from dying but not himself? If he’s that powerful in the force there must have been a way he could save himself. It gives Snoke a story and a motivation. He used to be powerful, but is now weak. He patiently waited for another opportunity and he found it after the Emperor’s death and the Empire’s demise. Regardless of whether you think my “Darth Plagueis” storyline is as cool as I think, the way they treated Snoke in the second movie after building him up in the first is complete garbage and unfair to anyone who invested their time into the movies.
Fourth: Finn and Rose’s trip to Canto Bight. Just about every Star Wars fan I’ve talked to hates this scene. It’s stupid. It’s terribly written. It’s only there so the characters can share some liberal propaganda. I’m not against that, but it was so painstakingly obvious that it just takes you right out of the movie. I think the way I wrote it makes a little more sense. Rose isn’t just some random guard, she’s actually very intelligent and useful, vital to being able to shut off the First Order’s tracking device, which she worked on but was stolen. So, the obvious thing to do is infiltrate the ship, find the device and shut it off. No need to find some random codebreaker and accidentally stumble upon a person who can actually help them. DJ is still a double agent in my version, but it makes more sense. The First Order must know that this is a common tactic of the Resistance, so they have someone who “helps” prisoners escape, but really just turns them back over to the First Order. And it’s funny. Finn saying that he knows how to escape the cells just so Poe will allow them to carry out the plan and then admit he has no idea what he’s doing is exactly something we would expect out of Finn. The idea behind the Canto Bight is admirable, but the scene, itself, needed to be rewritten.
Fifth: Leia’s death. That scene is just a big, fat no. How did Leia learn that force ability? How did she even perform that force ability if she was, presumably, dead? Leia is an important character, I know, but it’s a new trilogy and you have to slowly cut off ties with the old one. Luke, in my opinion, is a much more important character and deserved to have an impact in one more movie, not Leia.
Sixth: Holdo’s plan. It makes no logical sense that Holdo would not tell Poe her plan. The movie provides no reason for her to do so. However, I rewrote it so that there is a reason. Knowing that the First Order was able to steal their tracking technology, it makes sense that there could still be a spy in the Resistance’s ranks. This is why Holdo doesn’t want to announce it to everyone until the last moment, when she would create a distraction that would allow the Resistance to escape.
What stays the same? Phasma still dies. There’s no emotional connection to her character. She was widely underwhelming in the first movie, so she is really a deplorable character. Rey’s parents are still nobodies. I didn’t talk about this in the rewrite, but just assume that there’s still the revelation that her parents are just junkies her sold her into slavery. I don’t like it, but it makes sense. Anakin didn’t have special parents. We don’t know about Obi-Wan’s parents. Disney is pushing the narrative that anybody can be whoever they want. And, in the Star Wars universe, it’s accurate.
The main reason for all the changes is because the end of episode 8 does not leave us many cliffhangers or get us excited for 9. There’s really only two questions to be answered: how will the First Order be defeated and what will happen to Kylo. This version provides many more questions that would actually get a Star Wars fan excited to see the last movie in the trilogy. What are Snoke and the Knights of Ren going to do? What happens when Kylo joins forces with the Resistance? Where is Luke going and how will he further impact the story? Is the Resistance going to be found on Crait? What happens when they are discovered? And, of course, how will the First Order be defeated?
The Last Jedi is a sad excuse for a Star Wars movie. I hope they can somehow revive the series in the ninth movie. I also hope you enjoyed how I would have written it. Call me cocky, but I think my version is much better. And with that, I bid you farewell, and may the force be with you.
