[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Hey, let me ask you a question.
Where are you guys from?
- San Diego.
- And how'd you-- what'd you do you?
You drove here?
Why'd you drive here?
- We wanted to see this.
Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher,
and Billy D. Williams are here.
- When you watch the movies, you can
tell that they were made by people who really cared about--
- Cared about it. - --what they were doing.
Seeing this part of it filmed.
And there's all of the props around.
And there's people lying on the ground.
And-- and it's all cruddy.
But you know that that they're gonna take it
back and put in the opticals.
And it's going to be totally different.
- I mean-- - So there's a magic to that.
- --we're all-- we're all in tattooing right now.
So that's terrific, you know.
[LAUGHTER]
By the time all nine films are done,
it's going to be like, I mean--
I don't-- I'm afraid to see what you
guys are gonna come up with.
It's gonna be amazing.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- I've always called it a space fantasy, designed
to be a modern fairy tale.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Hopefully, it will, you know, justify it as a series.
Make you say, gee, what happens next?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I think the real satisfaction will come out of completing
what we started out to do.
And I don't think there's been anything quite like this,
you know.
A beginning, a middle, and an end.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It is the final chapter.
It's the big finish.
So all stops are out.
And it's all go.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Ah, friends, that time again.
It was a JJ Abrams.
I'd say a happy day one on "Star Wars Episode 9."
Hip, hip. - Hooray!
- Hip, hip. - Hooray.
- Hip, hip.
- Hooray.
- Thank to all of you.
Nice work, too.
[CHEERING]
- Today is day one of "Episode Nine."
And we're starting on the Falcon, which is incredibly
surreal, that I never in a million years, never
thought I'd be back on the set.
I'm so excited.
It's not remotely what I'm sure it was like for the legacy
actors to come back at all.
But it is a strange thing to return to a place
that you have fond memories and feel like you
got to do something very special and sort
of dodged a crazy bullet.
And was like, oh, I did it.
And now, to be back here feels really weird.
- We came into that first movie with a lot of trepidation.
All of us you know, knew that we had this huge weight
on our shoulders.
And now, to have everybody coming back
and working together, it's kind of like the family
coming back together.
- I can't even belive it.
- And that's made it really nice.
- We all know each other.
The crew are used to each other.
Oh my gosh.
And now to finish it off with JJ is a blessing, you know.
And so I just get to enjoy my job.
[LAUGHS]
- It's not just the end of three movies.
It's the end of nine movies.
There's a lot to consider.
But I couldn't be more grateful.
And I couldn't be more comforted by the company I'm in.
- I come to "Star Wars" first and foremost as a fan.
So I have extremely high expectations.
And the world of it means so much to me that I--
I'm not easy on it.
And so we haven't been easy on ourselves.
- This is their creative faces.
They're creatively trying to come to a decision.
And they'll do faces like that because it's what they do.
It's how we create who gets the real product
and make real "Star Wars" decisions.
- And then we'll do a thing where-- what'd he say?
I'm gonna rewind this and watch it.
[LAUGHS]
- Every day, we ask ourselves how
do you end the story that George Lucas
started so many years ago?
How do you end this myth that's become
a myth for the whole world?
- Rolling.
- Moving and we're flying.
Check and action.
- Action.
- How long before you can make the jump nice?
- Take a few minutes for the navvy computer
to calculate the coordinates.
- A few minutes?
Are you kidding?
At the rate they're gaining?
- Yeah, Nora, what is it?
[LAUGHS]
- Traveling through hyperspace.
- Do you have to shoot this?
Traveling through hyperspace is like dusting.
And you're not dusting crops, kid,
without precise calculations.
We fly too close to a store--
we'll bounce into a supermarket and then--
[LAUGHS] - Yeah.
- It's be a hell of a loss.
- What's that?
- Watch.
It's-- we're losing deflector shields.
Go strap yourselves in.
Be careful on the way out.
- Yeah, sure.
I'm taking very cautiously.
- You, go away.
- Bouncing near a supermarket?
- What did you say?
[LAUGHTER]
- It's a righteous challenge, you know.
I think for the last movie, there
is such expectation and such investment in these characters.
- Where are you skipping to, Poe?
- Scary places.
- Roll.
- Seeing Poe and Finn and Chewy in the cockpit
has been extremely fun and a sweet start.
And now, we're doing a quick test with Daisy.
- So pretty, the thing, so nice. - Nice, huh?
- We're just kind of trying to finalize the look.
- I haven't seen it.
I may have saw the roughness.
I like it.
- I'm out with reflection of my inner soul.
- Um.
Oh!
What's been up?
How are you?
- I had a problem when I couldn't sleep last night.
It's been like quite a long build up of freaking out.
Yeah, it's nerve wracking.
I don't really know how to describe it.
But I feel more the expectation of what people
want for the last chapter.
I do remember what my first week was like cause
we we're in Abu Dhabi.
- You're on Fatima, then you look at the ship.
- It's all the same levels of nerves actually.
There we go.
That's better.
So I remember it vividly.
And the whole week was like, ugh.
And it was both amazing and terrifying.
- I was doing my walk along the desert,
taking off my stormtrooper gear.
There we go.
It was very hot.
And everything looks very big to me, like, I was like,
why is the camera so big?
Like why-- everything is just huge.
But it was fun.
I was getting used to a whole new world.
- When Oscar came in to audition,
obviously I had the role before Oscar had done it.
- It was really more of a technicality.
I-- I wouldn't call it an audition.
- An audition, you were one of the lead, you know.
- It was more of that.
- But he read the scene.
And I was kind of like, you know, like, JJ,
like, what are you doing, man?
It's him.
Come on.
That's wasting time, man.
And it's nice to be able to actualize that chemistry
that we had on that first read.
[BELLS RINGING]
- Thanks for a great, great first day back.
Thank you very much.
We made it one day, day one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- It is my honor to be the one to introduce back
to this universe Mr. Billy D Williams.
[APPLAUSE]
- I'm quite pleased about this whole situation,
coming back as an elder statesman.
- Will you die in the movie?
- No.
Not yet anyway.
From what I understand, they want to carry
this character on, continue.
I think he's going to be part of the heroes.
- Well, look at you, a general, huh?
- You look damn good.
That's all I'm gonna say.
Let's do it.
- Action.
- I love the whole idea of a movie
like this because it talks about the classic question, you know,
about good and evil and what prevails
and what doesn't prevail.
- There are some things I gawk at.
Like Billy D.
- Trust me.
[GURGLING]
- You said it, Chewy.
- One last time.
- Add some to me.
- Did have to take one?
- Could have used your help out there.
- How'd it go?
- Not well actually.
- It is the first movie that, you know,
that ostensibly, this new generation
had to carry on their own.
- As the antivate left the resistance, you know,
in kind of pieces, they've set up
camp quickly with what they've been
able to resource and access.
- It's weird coming back and kind of feeling this
like earned confidence of having done it before,
but also knowing that there's still gonna be times when
you're figuring things out.
And it's different and new and scary.
But you get through it with the people
that you're working with.
- I love it. - I liked it, too.
It's really good. - You want us coming through?
- I say hurry up. - Oh!
[LAUGHTER]
- Making JJ laugh is my number two priority, you know.
Get the shot, nail the acting, make JJ laugh.
- Go in fight mode.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- A challenge for the designers and for JJ
was to create an environment that looks temporary
and sort of ad hoc.
But also has a bit of the soul of "Star Wars" in it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Looking amazing, guys.
- One minute, I go and go and go, go, go.
- Look straight, yeah.
That's it.
- That's amazing.
Really.
- Yeah, let me know.
How much you lifting in the gym, bro?
- I can give you a whole situation in here, bro.
- Yeah, man.
- You can put a microwave in, little TV on the side.
- That's what I'm going for.
- Home sweet home.
[MUSIC PLAYING]