It’s time for everyone’s favorite game show: Obsessively Dissect the New Popular Movie Trailer for Information That Will Be Made Abundantly Clear When You See the Movie! I’m your host, Drew Dietsch, and today’s trailer is brought to by the lovely folks over at Disney. It’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens! But enough of my yakkin’, let’s get crackin’ on this trailer!
- Our first shot is of Rey (Daisy Ridley) in what looks to be her desert scavenger garb. Notice that her goggles are salvaged from an old Stormtrooper mask. Looks like the Empire/First Order didn’t do so well on the desert planet of Jakku.
- Rey is scavenging pieces of an old Star Destroyer (named “Inflictor”) and the state of the remaining pieces seem to indicate that this Star Destroyer has been here for some time. Possibly after the Battle of Endor or even earlier?
- Rey rappels down the wreckage. Note the iconic Imperial lighting design on the up-turned floor. Also, this is as good a time as any to wonder about Rey’s staff. Is it also pieced together from scavenged bits? Has she been teaching herself how to kick ass with a staff, possibly giving her a jump-start on future lightsaber abilities?
- That’s a hell of a shot. Check out the pieces of a TIE fighter near the bottom of the frame.
- Rey and soon-to-be “Toy of the Year” BB-8 get a badass walking shot. All this is missing is some twin suns. Oh right, wrong desert planet. This new film seems to be purposefully drawing a lot of parallels to the original Star Wars, which I’ll point out in some other screengrabs.
- An indistinguishable ship takes off as Rey watches on. While I’m certainly anxious to know what that ship is and why it has Rey’s attention (maybe she just has that same longing to get off-world like Luke did in Star Wars), I’m more intrigued by that AT-AT foot. Yes, Rey seems to live inside of a destroyed AT-AT. Not only is that cool, but this whole idea of a civilization living off of and even in the ruins of the Empire is fascinating.
- As we here a voice ask, “Who are you?”, Rey answers back, “I’m no one.” That’s a big red flag for her being someone. My money is still on her being a Skywalker baby.
- Nothing new here. Same old Nazi-inspired imagery we’ve seen in previous trailers. Move along.
- A different angle of a similar shot seen in a previous trailer. The bloody finger-swipe (along with some other flakes of blood here and there) on this helmet is pretty hardcore. What’s going on here?
- The stormtrooper is Finn (John Boyega) but we already knew that. What happens to make him seem disillusioned with the faction he’s fighting for?
- Finn’s TIE fighter crashes to the desert planet of Jakku. I’m certain this comes after the big TIE fighter hanger blowout we’ve seen in a previous trailer. Finn is getting the hell out of there.
- “I was raised to do one thing, but I’ve got nothing to fight for,” Finn somberly says in some voice-over. Another thing I’m interested in: Finn seems to be someone who has grown up in the society of the Empire/First Order. It feels like legacy, history, and the younger generation’s desire for change will be playing a big part in this new installment.
- It ain’t a JJ Abrams joint if it ain’t got that lens flare! Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) looks out a window… menacingly. But, what is the source of that flare? Is this on the Starkiller Base?
- Kylo Ren got a big head. In all seriousness, I’m interested in how Ren’s mask is all beat up in places. Knowing that he’s a “Vader obsessive,” is his mask made up of salvaged parts of Vader’s attire?
- “Nothing will stand in our way. I will finish what you started.” Kylo Ren’s voice-over seems to indicate that he’s fulfilling what he believes to be Vader’s wishes. This begs the question: What kind of propaganda has been spun since the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi?
- Looks like Kylo Ren is using The Force to torture someone. Who is it?
- Oh snap, that’s Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), one of the Resistance’s top fighter pilots. Is he getting tortured for information? Is Ren subjugating his mind, brainwashing him? Turning him into some kind of sleeper agent? If this happens much earlier in the film, it casts some serious scrunity on what Poe Dameron’s role in this drama is.
- The editing of the trailer would lead you to believe that this is something that Poe is being shown by Ren during his torture scene, but never trust the presented order of a trailer’s footage. Still, this is some mighty devastation going on. Is this the Starkiller Base (an ice planet that has been turned into a solar system destroying weapon) in action?
- The Millenium Falcon, everyone’s favorite hunk of junk, dodges some TIE fighters in the ruins on Jakku. The use of Han and Leia’s love theme during this stretch of the trailer was fantastic.
- Rey and Finn are in the Millenium Falcon, surround by some holographic star maps. Rey asks an unseen figure, “There were stories about what happened.” How have the events of the last trilogy been kept under wraps from larger swaths of the galactic population? Have certain things (the Jedi, the Force) faded into legend?
- “It’s true, all of it. The Dark Side. The Jedi. They’re real,” Han Solo tells the kids what’s going on. I expect this scene is when we’ll learn a lot about what happened during the space between Jedi and The Force Awakens. Also, this serves as a great parallel to Han’s scene in Star Wars when he shares his disbelief in the Force.
- The Falcon jumps into hyperspace, and while it has the aesthetic of the original film, it’s almost a copy-and-paste shot of Abrams’ Enterprise entering warp drive.
- Kylo Ren stands in the rain with… who are those people? Are these the Knights of Ren? I love how we’re seeing simple things we haven’t seen before, like a lightsaber in the rain. Also, it’s cool that effects have gotten to the point that lightsabers actually feel like a real source of light. (That’s an astute observation from our very own Travis Newton. It was too good not to mention)
- Stormtroopers ready themselves for battle against the Resistance attack squad that’s hovering over the waters of the horizon. This is another one of my favorite shots. But, where are these ruins exactly?
- This angle gives us a better look at the ruined location, and it looks like it might be a building that we’ll see in another screengrab coming up…
- Poe and Finn have a brief meeting as they head off for some kind of battle. But, what is it with Finn’s suspicious look?
- This seems to me like confirmation that Finn knows that something’s up with Poe. Is he a double agent? Is he a mole for The First Order? MYSTERY BOX!
- Seeing the usual Star Wars dogfights take place inside of a planet’s atmosphere is pretty awesome looking. Feels both similar and different to what we’ve seen before.
- This looks like the gateway of the structure we saw just a little while ago. Is this some kind of base for the Resistance? What’s up with all those flags? One of them even has the Mandalorian symbol on it. Are these the ruins of a once celebratory event for the Rebels? And how can you not love BB-8’s inquisitive head-turn at the big robot guard? (Another Travis Newton observation)
- I know we saw this shot in the previous trailer, but as this is our only glimpse of Luke, it warrants some speculation. Luke seems to be a very important figure in the story, so JJ is keeping him locked in that Mystery Box for as long as he can.
- If the embers in the air are any indication, this is the same place we just saw Luke at. Have the First Order and Kylo Ren tracked down the elusive Jedi Master? And are these villagers going to pay the price for protecting and hiding Luke?
- Our only shot of Captain Phasma in this trailer. Considering that she has also been tucked away in the Mystery Box, I’m even more curious as to her part to play in this grand space opera.
- Rey is weeping over a body. Who is it? From what I can make out, the person on the ground is either wearing some kind of helmet or has some tall hair. …Wait a minute, Leia’s new Dracula hairdo is mighty tall. Is that Leia’s body? The rumor for a while has been that Han doesn’t make it out of the movie alive, but is that fate reserved for the love of his life? Do they both die? Would our childhoods be able to withstand such devastation?
- Finn, Chewie, and Han seem to be taken captive, but something off-camera seems to allow them to put their hands down. Also, am I the only one who thinks Chewie’s lips look weird as all hell?
- Another battle taking place in a trench? The parallels to Star Wars continue. Seems like this is pretty solid confirmation that Starkiller Base is in fact a planet converted into a superweapon. Pretty smart actually. While the Rebels were able to destroy an entire battle station, they’d need their own Death Star to destroy an entire planet.
- Angry laser face! If Rey is a Skywalker and a future Jedi, she’s going to have to get better at controlling her anger. Does this take place close to the death from a few screengrabs earlier? The lighting says otherwise.
- Another shot of the battle taking place at the ruined temple. Man, these war scenes looks awesome.
- An explosion on the bridge of what looks to be a Star Destroyer. Love the little droid at the bottom. Run little guy! You must live to vacuum another day!
- Our first look at Leia on film, nestled in the arms of everyone’s favorite scoundrel. There’s definitely a foreboding sense throughout a lot of this trailer. I’d start betting on which one of these two doesn’t make it to Episode VIII.
- Finn with Luke’s/Anakin’s lightsaber! In the snow! Love how the lightsaber’s glow looks in the chilly air.
- Kylo Ren (who appears to be helmet-less here) and Finn get one of those classic lightsaber duels underway as our trailer concludes. I’m hoping that we won’t be seeing the Cirque du Soleil-esque acrobatics of the prequels and just some brutal sword smacking going on.
There it is, Chewers. All the speculation I could get away with while I was at work. What else from the trailer do you want to pick apart? Theorize like a crazy person in the comments.
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