Star Wars: The Last Jedi Trailer Analysis
Unravelling the trailer that sent the fans into euphoria
The moment we’ve been waiting for is finally here — the trailer for The Last Jedi has been released and it’s beyond amazing! Lots of great things there, a lot to talk about, so let’s talk a look at it!
When I found you I saw raw untainted power and beyond that something truly special.
The trailer starts with Kylo Ren and a voiceover by Supreme Leader Snoke. It sets the tone — dark! In this montage, you can see a shot of the First Order troops marching on Crait, Kylo Ren in the throne room of Snoke picking up his lightsaber on the ground and behind you can spot the Praetorian Guards. This makes us think Kylo’s training will involve fighting these guys and it’s probably going to badass to say the least!
The very first shot shows Kylo Ren overlooking a hangar of walkers. It’s a very Star Wars-y shot. If you look closely you can spot AT-ATs and AT-STs. This is probably taking place in the Supremacy, Snoke’s personal flagship.
The second shot that really strike me in this beginning of the trailer is the one above. It’s a clear parallel to Revenge of the Sith when Anakin is marching on the Jedi Temple with the 501st Legion. I’ve said before that Kylo Ren has a lot of similarities with Anakin and I’m saying it again now. They’re really echoing each other. In the trailer, Kylo Ren is with Snowtroopers on Crait, he is entering what looks like to be a cave, he’s definitely looking for something!
Something inside me as always been there, then I was awake and I need help.
The second part in the trailer is Rey with a voice over by her as well. There’s clear contrast between her and Kylo Ren leading us to believe the two of them will be the focus of the movie. What Rey says is about her Force potential and her asking for help because she doesn’t what to do with it. I’ve been thinking and maybe she doesn’t say this to Luke, maybe she is saying it to someone else, I’ll return to this at the end of my analysis.
We finally get to see what we all wanted to know…what happens after the last shot of The Force Awakens! We see Luke Skywalker taking Anakin’s lightsaber and he doesn’t really look happy, more like puzzled. It’s going to be interesting what will be his answer to this!
The sequence with Rey shows several shots from the first trailer but also brand new ones, all taking place on Ahch-To, nothing beyond that. You can see that they’re really trying to keep the mystery with what is going on with Luke and Rey and I like it this way, it keeps the surprises!
There’s many great shots worth taking a look at! The first one is Rey walking towards some rocks that somehow reminds me of the towers of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Knowing Ahch-To is the home of the very first Jedi Temple, it wouldn’t be too crazy to speculate these rocks were the inspiration for the towers of the Jedi Temple.
I’ve seen this raw strength only once before, it didn’t scare me enough then; it does now.
After Rey talking, it’s up to Luke and what he says is quite ambiguous. We can guess he is talking to Rey but the real question is who he is talking about? Looking at the context, we see Rey connecting with the Force and cracking the rock, Luke is quite surprised seeing this. And just after, we get that flashback sequence of Luke’s temple where he probably used to train his Jedi students. What I’ve been speculating is “the raw strength” Luke saw before was in Kylo Ren and he sees that same potential in Rey. So could there be link somehow between the two of them? And if Rey has the same potential as Kylo, does this mean she could turn to the dark side or that she could be the one bringing him back to the light?
Lots of questions!
Snoke also used the term “raw.” Why this word in particular? It’s something in its natural state, pure and this could say a lot about Kylo Ren’s powers and Rey’s potential. It asks the question again of who is Rey? Kylo is Anakin’s grandson so he is from the lineage of the Chosen One. But Rey … there is not a lot of clues pointing to her being a Skywalker. However, if she has such a big power, what if she was like Anakin, created by the Force? This would suggest there could be another “Chosen One” and that would be thrilling to say the least!
Let the past die, kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you meant to be.
The next part of the trailer is another Kylo Ren sequence with some voiceover by him. He is either talking to himself or talking to Rey there. I would be inclined to say it is to himself, trying to convince him of staying in the dark, highlighting his struggle. There is a lot of anger in him, killing his father didn’t end his conflict between the light and the dark, I feel like it only accentuated it. The way he smashes his helmet against the wall is brutal but what comes next is even more revealing.
You can see for the first time the TIE Silencer in action, Kylo’s personal starfighter. In the shot above, you can see behind it The Supremacy. The ship Kylo attacks is The Raddus, Leia’s flagship named after the fallen Admiral Raddus from Rogue One.
The next shots is a confrontation between Kylo Ren and Leia. She is on the bridge of her ship and Kylo is targeting her but he is strongly hesitating, showing that he has not totally fallen to the dark side. And the way Leia looks, you can see that she is communicating with Kylo through the Force or at least that she feels his struggle, his hesitation and this is probably going to be an highly emotional scene in the movie!
The next shots feature the Millenium Falcon being chased by some Tie Fighters through a series of caves on Crait.
And we also get to see a Porg in the trailer!
We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.
The next sequence is a focus on Poe Dameron and I love it! His speech seems like an inspirational one, probably encouraging the Resistance forces after a defeat or the evacuation of D’Qar, maybe? In this sequence you can see small transports (or probably more escape pods as they look smaller than the transport that is destroyed during the Kylo Ren sequence) and Poe is in one of them, he is looking at the ship that has just been destroyed, was there someone important in it?
You can spot the Dreadnaught cruiser in this sequence, it does look impressive for sure!
BB-8 also gets his little moment, it comes from the same sequence from above — the evacuation of D’Qar. And despite being electrocuted, he does look fine! You can see behind him the Dreadnaught, it got hit judging by the smoke on different spots.
What comes next is something John Boyega had been teasing since Star Wars Celebration — Finn vs. Phasma and visually it looks beautiful! Who is going to win?
Is Phasma going to die?
This is not going to go the way you think.
Another Luke moment and in this shot, there is Darth Vader feel in the way he stands and the way he is filmed. You don’t see an heroic Luke here, he is very pessimistic and that’s what I’m excited about, seeing a new side of his character, a much more flawed character.
We got a first look at these “Lynx” creatures in the behind the scenes reel this summer and now we can see them on Crait, from the look of it, they do seem to be afraid by what is coming — the First Order! These creatures fit very well with the atmosphere of this planet.
The next shot is of Leia on Crait, all alone and sad looking. Where is the rest of the Resistance? What is going on in this scene? It’s hard to tell but you can see something on the left, I’m not sure if it’s a trench or a shadow but if it is a shadow maybe it’s Kylo Ren shuttle arriving and that would explain Leia’s reaction. Maybe, the shot of the “Lynx” creatures going inside the base is taking place in the movie just before this Leia scene. Anyway these are breathtaking shots and I’m looking forward to see what it’s all about.
Speaking of Crait, the trailer show us the AT-M6 in action and they look terrifying! They are huge, you can spot an AT-AT next too them, the old model looks like a dwarf compared to this new walker!
Fullfill your destiny.
The last two scenes of the trailer are probably some of the most dazzling and also the most mysterious because I keep watching them again and again and I still wonder what is going on there! The first scene is Rey being tortured by Supreme Leader Snoke in his throne room! How did she get there? Or is she really there? What if it’s a Force vision? And “fullfill your destiny” is it something Snoke says to Rey or Kylo Ren? This phrase also is very reminiscent of what the Emperor once said to Anakin and Luke. My personal theory could be that at some point Rey gets captured and is brought to Snoke, and this could be where she crosses path again with Finn as he is also on The Supremacy as seen in the trailer fighting Phasma. We will have to wait and see but this surely looks like a scary scene for Rey! If she indeed does encounter Snoke, she will be tested and could she turn to the dark side?
I need someone to show me my place in all of this.
The final scene surely suggests it with Kylo proposing her to join him. It seems to be on Ahch-To from the look of it and it seems like the shot we had of Kylo from the first trailer could be from that same scene:
And I’ll go back to what Rey said at the beginning of the trailer: “Something inside me as always been there, then I was awake and I need help.” And what she says at the end seems to complete it and so maybe she was saying all of it to Kylo Ren. The question is, is this a Force vision or is it really happening? Both are strong possibilities. The thing that makes me say it may not be a Force vision is that considering how Luke acts, he will probably disappoint Rey and as she is searching for someone to teach her, maybe she could see Kylo as a potential help … at least at the beginning. Only time will tell.
Another possibility would be that this shot of Kylo Ren is not from the same scene as Rey. Maybe Rey is just begging Luke to train her and this scene would be early in the movie. In the behind the scenes reel from this summer, we saw a glimpse of a scene on Ahch-To where Chewbacca sits by a campfire so this could be part of the same scene with Rey and Luke joining him later? But this would lead to the question, who is Kylo Ren facing there? Could it be Luke instead? Or Rey but in another scene? Or even Leia?
This trailer brought a lot of questions and gave us many beautiful new shots, now we just have to wait for December to see the movie! Before that, we will probably get some new footage with the TV Spots, which will probably bring even more questions!
Although, this is where the fun begins…
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