‘The Force Awakens’: Deleted Scene
Scene: A hangar bay on STARKILLER BASE. A squad of STORMTROOPERS is boarding a transport. The trooper bringing up the rear hangs back to speak with his captain at the foot of the ramp.
STORMTROOPER: Captain, permission to speak sir?
CAPTAIN: Permission granted. Make it quick.
STORMTROOPER: Sir, its these new melee weapons we’re supposed to carry. I don’t understand the point, sir.
CAPTAIN: How’s that, now?
STORMTROOPER: Well, sir, this thing — it’s basically a lightsaber-blocker, right? That’s what it does?
CAPTAIN: I suppose you could say that. Your point?
STORMTROOPER: See, sir, pretty much everyone knows there’s only one Jedi left in the galaxy, Luke Skywalker. And the rumor is even he’s been in hiding for years. So we’re all lugging around this heavy thing for fighting Jedi, when there aren’t any Jedi left to fight. Seems a bit excessive, don’t it? A little over-cautious, that we’d have this standard-issue piece of equipment to defend against a single hermit?
CAPTAIN: Never hurts to be prepared.
STORMTROOPER: That’s just it, sir. We’re not.
CAPTAIN: Excuse me?
STORMTROOPER: With respect, sir, you wouldn’t last two seconds fighting a real Jedi with one of those things. The moves they’ve got, it’s like, whoa. Trying to fight them without the Force would be like trying to race a speeder bike on a tauntaun. That’s what they say, anyway.
CAPTAIN: [noncomittal grunt]
STORMTROOPER: In fact, sir, you might even say the only scenario in which one of these things might come in useful is if you were to find yourself fighting someone who’s not a Jedi but who just happened to come into possession of a lightsaber. That’s literally the only scenario. Pretty narrow set of circumstances, if you ask me.
CAPTAIN: Unlikely, I admit, but not impossible.
STORMTROOPER: Sure, but here’s the thing: This is supposed to be a melee weapon. Something you use in the middle of a big free-for-all. So everybody else is shooting blasters and you’re sitting here with this electric sword, basically. That’s all well and good if you’re a Jedi — they can use their lightsabers to deflect blaster bolts. But if you can’t do that, you’re basically just begging someone to shoot you. See what I mean?
CAPTAIN: I do.
STORMTROOPER: Thank you, sir.
CAPTAIN: No, thank you, trooper. It’s a valid point you raise. Now that you mention it, in fact, I’m surprised nobody thought of this until now. I suppose we all just got carried away by how cool it would be if a stormtrooper fought someone with a lightsaber. But you’re right, of course. I will take this matter up with High Command.
STORMTROOPER: Thank you, sir. Very kind.
CAPTAIN: Indeed. In the meantime, if you prefer the blaster, I suggest you take some extra target practice. Believe it or not, there have been some complaints about our marksmanship.
SCENE
