The Last Jedi delivers a new episode in the Star Wars saga with some incredible twists
and turns, capped with a shocking ending.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and today I want to discuss and delve into
the details of the ending of The Last Jedi, reveal some easter eggs and deep cuts you
might have missed, and explain what it all means for Episode 9, the final film in this
trilogy.
And to celebrate the release of a new Star Wars movie, I'm running a Star Wars giveaway
for all my subscribers.
To enter, make sure you're subscribed to my channel and leave a comment below with your
thoughts about The Last Jedi, and I'll announce the winner of my recent superhero giveaway
later in this video.
Spoiler warning: Obviously, I'm discussing The Last Jedi in full detail so take care
if you haven't seen the movie yet.
The final scenes of the movie are set on Crait, where the Resistance finds itself holed up
in an old Rebel base.
Their shield-door has been destroyed by the First Order's siege cannon, the First Order
is amassed outside, and there's no apparent means of escape.
The Resistance is in a desperate situation as they discover nobody is responding to their
distress signal, a sign that as Leia says "the galaxy has lost all hope."
Then out of nowhere Luke appears and has a touching reunion with his sister.
No one in the Resistance knows it yet, but at this point Luke has force-projected himself
out of his own body which is still on Ahch'To.
Luke's force projection is able to physically interact with events on Crait, for example
fighting Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel, while his physical body is still on the island.
This is something new we've not seen before in the Star Wars movies, however, something
similar has been seen in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, aka Star Wars Legends, where such
projections are known as Force Phantoms or Sith Phantasms.
Basically, they're apparitions created by Darksiders in a Sith ritual that harnesses
the Force Energy from another being.
The apparitions can then be projected across the universe and used to interfere in the
physical realm, and when the phantom is destroyed so is the lifeform which supplied its Force
Energy.
Also, in the Star Wars Dark Empire comic books, Luke has created a projection of himself in
order to help Leia escape.
The Star Wars Legends universe is no longer canon, however, but it's interesting to see
elements from it included with a twist in The Last Jedi.
Given that Force Projection is new to The Last Jedi, I think we're likely to see more
of it going forward in new Star Wars movies, perhaps even with characters like Rey and
Kylo Ren as their powers grow stronger.
OK, so getting back to that confrontation on Crait between Luke and Kylo Ren, we need
to analyse Luke's words in more detail.
Luke says to Kylo that "the Rebellion is reborn today, the war is just beginning, and I will
not be the last Jedi".
At this moment, the camera cuts to Rey who's discovered that the Resistance are stuck in
the old Rebel base behind a pile of rocks.
Rey then uses the Force to move the rocks away and, given Luke's words, we've got a
clear indication that Rey will be the face of the new Jedi.
The moment is also a nice call-back to earlier in the movie when Luke was teaching Rey about
the Force and explained that it's not about lifting rocks, which itself was a reference
to The Empire Strikes Back when Luke trained with Yoda.
When the scene cuts back to Luke and Kylo facing off, Kylo vows to destroy everyone
and, in a moment that's very reminiscent of Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in A New Hope,
Luke turns off his lightsaber and says to Kylo, "Strike me down in anger and I'll always
be with you, just like your father."
And as Luke disappears from Crait, we cut back to the island where Luke is levitating.
The effort of the force projection causes Luke to collapse back on to the rock.
We then get a very emotional scene as Luke looks out across the water and a cloud passes
over the sun.
Then Luke vanishes, leaving behind just his robes, becoming one with the Force, in the
same way that Obi Wan vanished when Darth Vader struck him down in A New Hope and also
how Yoda passed away in Return of the Jedi.
Luke's sacrifice to save the Resistance, allowing them to escape the First Order, also mirrors
Obi Wan's sacrifice which allowed Han, Leia, and Luke to escape Vader.
This is a heart-breaking scene for many fans, but there's some important visual symbolism
here too.
Luke's sacrifice brought some balance back as the First Order was about to snuff out
the Resistance before his intervention, and the cloud partially obscuring the sun suggests
the light and the darkness in some sort of balance.
At one point in this sequence, what looked like a faint rainbow appeared in the sky.
Not only can it be a sign of hope, change, and a bridge between worlds, but also in the
Buddhist tradition, a rainbow body is a state of enlightenment when a person achieves the
highest state of meditation and complete knowledge, and is often said to happen around the time
of death, with the body dissolving into light.
The Jedi way in Star Wars borrows from various Eastern religions and philosophies, one of
which is Buddhism, so I think the rainbow symbolism goes perfectly with the idea of
Luke having reached a higher state with his ability to force project himself and then
when he becomes one with the Force at the end.
Later in the scene, we also see the two suns on the horizon, which is another nostalgic
call-back to when Luke walked out on Tatooine in A New Hope and looked out over the sunset.
I'm pretty sure Luke will return in Episode 9 though, most likely as a Force Ghost, with
an ongoing ability to participate and influence events.
Yoda already came back as a Force Ghost in The Last Jedi and set the Force Tree on fire
and I think we could see Luke have new scenes with Rey and Kylo in the next movie; after
all, his parting words to Kylo were "see you around kid."
Luke's death was also sensed by Rey and Leia and, although it's a poignant moment, Rey
does say that she didn't sense sadness or pain, but peace and purpose.
However, that still leaves Rey wondering at the end how they will rebuild the Resistance.
Leia answers that they "have everything [they] need" and the camera pans down to Rey holding
Luke's old lightsaber which was split in two earlier in the movie when she struggled with
Kylo Ren for control of it.
Inside one of the lightsaber halves you can see an exposed Kyber crystal.
Although Kyber crystals have appeared in other Star Wars media, in the movies they were first
introduced in Rogue One where the Empire was amassing them for the construction of the
Death Star.
Kyber crystals are a crucial element in constructing lightsabers as they help to concentrate energy
into the weapon's blade.
In the animated Clone Wars TV series, new Jedi younglings have been involved in gathering
kyber crystals to build their own lightsabers.
And so, I think Leia's words along with the visual of the Kyber crystal indicate we could
see Rey start a new Jedi Academy to fight back against the First Order.
Or, perhaps, the kyber crystals will be key to some new Resistance technology that we've
not yet seen in the Star Wars universe, in a similar way to how they were crucial to
the Empire in operating the Death Star superweapon.
By the way, just before Rey boarded the Millennium Falcon, she and Kylo were still able to sense
each other.
Earlier, Snoke claimed he was responsible for bridging Kylo and Rey's minds, but with
Snoke dead by the end of the movie, it seems that either Snoke was manipulating and lying
to them and/or that Kylo and Rey's abilities have increased and so they can now connect
with each other, independent of anyone else.
However, the way Rey closes the Millenium Falcon's door during their final connection
might mean she's closing off future communication with Kylo.
Although we see Kylo continue to embrace the dark side throughout The Last Jedi, he is
still conflicted, for example, hesitating to kill his mother Leia.
And I wonder if, given that Luke told Leia "no one's ever really gone", we may see Kylo
redeem himself in some way by the end of Episode 9, as Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker did by
the end of Return of the Jedi, though if this did happen I would expect there to be a spin
on it to make it at least a bit different.
Of course, Luke's line that "no one's ever really gone" also refers to Han Solo, and
Luke hands Leia the dice from the Millennium Falcon just after saying this.
But Luke's words also foreshadow his own sacrifice at the end of the movie and his likely return
in Episode 9.
Before we leave Crait, we need to talk about Finn and Rose.
In contrast to his attempt to leave the Resistance early on in the film, Finn ends up willing
to sacrifice himself for the cause when he speeds towards the First Order's mega cannon,
and although I never believed Episode 8 would be the end for Finn, director Rian Johnson
did manage to rack up the tension.
But Rose drops in literally crashing his speeder off course and then unexpectedly kisses him.
It's interesting that Finn and Rose's last major scene together calls back to their first
scene, which also featured Rose scuppering Finn's plans when she stopped him leaving
in an escape pod.
But a lot's changed since then, and Finn has stepped up, proving worthy of Rose's high
opinion of him as a hero and Rose herself has proven worthy of the title 'hero' as well.
And Rose's line to Finn that they would win by saving what they love, not by fighting
what they hate, was a positive moment amid a bleak situation for the Resistance, and
echoes what Luke was taught by Yoda and Obi Wan about not giving in to hate.
I wasn't necessarily expecting the movie to pair up Rose and Finn, but given they did,
it's a nice touch that she ends the film healing up, similar to how Finn finished his story
in The Force Awakens.
Those were the final scenes with the main cast, but just before the credits roll, we
get an important short scene set back on Canto Bight, where we see the stable hands re-enacting
the events on Crait with their own handmade toys.
The scene shows that news and stories of how the legendary Jedi Master stood up to Kylo
Ren and the First Order have spread through the galaxy, reigniting the spark that will
light the fire to burn the First Order down, as Poe Dameron says at the end of the movie,
in an echo of Vice Admiral Holdo's words.
One of the boys then goes outside and as he's force sensitive he calls a broom to him, then
looks up and sees a streak of light flash across the sky.
We can then see that he's wearing the old Rebellion ring that Rose Tico gave him earlier
in the movie.
It's a moment filled with hope and confirms Luke's claim to Kylo Ren that "the Rebellion
is reborn".
By the way, according to the Visual Dictionary, the boy's name appears to be Temiri Blagg,
and I wonder whether he will actually be a specific new force user who will appear in
either Episode 9 or the new trilogy that Rian Johnson is developing after JJ Abrams' film.
If he is going to appear again, then we may well revisit Canto Bight in a future movie.
Also, I think it's intriguing that this boy, like Rey, has been sold and abandoned by his
parents, which means we're getting a theme in Star Wars that a Force User doesn't always
need to inherit their Force abilities from a special or privileged family.
This scene also hints that we may get a time jump between the end of The Last Jedi and
Episode 9.
This would allow time for stories to spread about Luke Skywalker and the Resistance and
how they foiled the First Order.
A time gap could also be a possible way to deal with Leia's story in Episode 9 and the
fact that Carrie Fisher is sadly no longer with us.
And if you're interested in my thoughts and theories on how I think we'll see Leia's arc
completed in the sequel, then tap in the top right or check the video description for my
Carrie Fisher video.
So, what did you think about The Last Jedi and did it live up to your expectations?
And do you have any predictions on what you think we'll see in Episode 9?
Leave me a comment below and be sure to subscribe to enter my Star Wars giveaway for a very
cool Last Jedi Funko Pop.
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as I upload them, and in the meantime, you can check out some more videos you're sure
to like right here.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Yippee ki-yay, movie lovers!