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(Film Theorists Theme)
Hello internet! Welcome to Film Theory, looking for love in alderaan places.
(laser blast and explosion)
Recently my friends over at Screen Rant did a video on their top 10 movie
theories that change everything.
My theories didn't make the cut, apparently.
Come on guys Neo not being the One,
Ant-Man destroying the planet? (sighs)
What do you expect of me?
Well, today I have one that they can't ignore.
Get ready, so Star Wars I can't think of a single other film franchise that has
had the impact that Star Wars has had on popular culture.
Then there were the prequels that took that legacy and flushed it down the toilet
faster than you can say Jar Jar Binks. (sighs) Actually don't say Jar Jar Binks,
it makes everyone squirm but now there's another, a New Hope,
or I guess a new new hope, Star Wars The Force Awakens and with it all the
hype and speculation you could ask for and as you loyal theorists know where
there's over analysis to be had
follow it we will. That wasn't even close to Yoda. That said and all the
excitement around each new trailer release, something the internet's noticed
with The Force Awakens is actually what's not in them. Between all the
nostalgic imagery, the Stormtroopers and X-Wings, the lightsabers and Han Solo
himself, something or rather someone important seems to have been completely omitted,
Luke Skywalker, the original protagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
Mark Hamill has definitely been cast this movie.
His return, along with Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford's, was a huge selling point
for this film early on and yet when pressed on the subject director JJ
Abrams himself has said that Luke's absence from the marketing material for
the film has been quote no accident and Mark Hamill himself has said he's
keeping a secret that if revealed would cost him a ton of money.
I don't know about you, but to me it seems like something is clearly a foot.
Obviously, this has set the internet ablaze with
wild theories about the fate of the final Jedi and the plot of the new film
but today we're uncovering the truth before it airs in theaters. In an effort
to save you your hard-earned popcorn dollars, I'm going to go out on a limb
and predict what you'll see when the movie
finally gets released. The big secret is this, Luke Skywalker, our lovable hero and
up-and-coming Jedi will
in episode 7 be seen to have joined the darkside. Seem like a stretch? (scoffs)
It's not. Let's look at the facts. First, let's start with the lore that exists in
the Expanded Universe. For those of you who aren't ... umm what are Star Wars fans called
like what's the Star Wars equivalent of a Trekkie?
The Warsian? A Starwarian? A Warfan!
uh ... A Starwarfan! Yea, it's got a vague catchiness to it I suppose.
Anyway, the Expanded Universe covers the officially licensed material of Star
Wars outside of the films, the Clone Wars, and Rebels. In one story from the
universe, the comic Dark Empire, Emperor Palpatine's soul is reborn into a clone,
yeah seriously, who is successfully able to bring Luke under his control through
the seduction of the dark side. Now, admittedly Lucasfilms said that the
Expanded Universe is no longer canon but the seed of an idea certainly existed
and honestly we've only just begun
because when you think about it Luke was already headed down the road to the dark
side in the original trilogy.
I mean what is the dark side? Well, it's the part of the force that draws from,
shock of all shocks, darker emotions. You know like fear, anger, hatred, aggression,
all that good stuff. Basically, the emo Care Bears. It's often described as the
quick and easy path and Jedi usually had to train their entire lives to resist
the seduction of the dark side going as far as to live by a list of tenants that
they called the Jedi Code. Basically, the code amounted to things like don't lie,
don't murder, don't add bad
CGI to your re-releases, etc. They even had a neat little mantra that summed up their order.
"There is no emotion. There is peace.
There is no ignorance. There is knowledge There is no passion. There is serenity.
There is no chaos. There is harmony. There is no death. There is the force."
Man, the more you think about it, the more the Jedi sound like a cult. Even still this
code didn't stop several prominent Jedi from falling over to the dark side.
The number that did so is countless in the Expanded Universe, but there are
still numerous examples and still canonical material. Count Dooku left the
order to become the Sith Lord Darth Tyrannis, Obi-Wan's master Qui-Gon Jinn
is also mentioned to have flirted with the dark side and often disagreed with
the Jedi Council, Jedi Knights Barriss Offee and Pong Krell both fell to the
dark side during the events of the Clone Wars cartoon, and of course the most
prominent Fallen Jedi of all
Anakin Skywalker. During the production of the prequel trilogy, George Lucas
himself explained that the Star Wars saga is quote like poetry
it rhymes. Qui-Gon mirrors Obi-Wan Amidala mirrors Leia and the clearest
example of all
Anakin mirrors Luke. In the prequels, Yoda warned against training Anakin from the
very beginning because he was too old and full of emotional attachments but if
Yoda feared that Anakin's training had started too late
at the ripe old age of 10 then Luke was even worse off.
He was right around 18 when he began training with Obi-Wan. In fact, when Luke
first approaches Yoda,
he also says that Luke is too old of course he reluctantly gives in knowing that
Luke is the best hope for the Jedi, but still sounds awfully similar to what he said
about the dark side's greatest warrior. Let's also remember Luke's failure at
the cave of evil. One of Luke's biggest
tests is to confront whatever you may find in the cave on Dagobah. Within it,
Luke finds the shadow of Darth Vader, that he seemingly defeats only for
Vader's mask to break revealing Luke's face underneath.
Now, not only did that foreshadow the twist that Vader was Luke's father but
it also hints that Luke's destiny may be to become a Vader-like figure.
I mean Yoda even says it himself! When Luke asks what's in the cave
Yoda replies "only what you take with you." The only thing in there is Luke.
That shadow Vader is inside of him before Luke has any strong connection with Vader.
Just wait till he finds out that it's his father and if that wasn't enough,
Luke's emotions get the better of him when he brashly leaves his training with
Yoda to save his friends in Cloud City, a direct parallel to Anakin's own
recklessness and not only that but Yoda straight up points out that he's making
the exact same mistake Vader made.
"Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his
emperor. If you end your training now,
if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."
An agent of evil.
How often do we see Yoda wrong throughout this franchise and yet
Luke left anyway and everything does indeed go horribly wrong.
He confronts Vader and gets his hand chopped off, Bobba Fett steals away Han Solo,
and everyone else only barely escapes in one piece.
It's this moment, this defeat at the end of episode 5, where Luke's change starts
to happen.
Look at how is presented in episode 6. He wears black and stands ominously in a
position that's visually similar to that of the Emperor and when dealing with
Jaba, he sounds arrogant, he makes threats, even flat out lies.
"Nevertheless, I'm taking Captain Solo
and his friends. You can either profit by this or be destroyed.
It's your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power."
That's not the way of the Jedi and if we look at the climax of Return of the Jedi,
Luke's descent nears its completion and its similarities to Vader are at its greatest.
The Emperor goads Luke into striking at him, taunting him, and telling him "To strike me
down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be
complete and Luke tries it.
He actually tries. The only reason he doesn't murder the Emperor in cold blood
is Vader intervening and blocking the attack. Then when Vader threatens Leia later
on, Luke gets enraged,
tapping into his dark side emotions, and using them to defeat Vader in combat.
He only stops after he cuts off
Vader's hand revealing the electronic arm underneath and realizing that he is
literally becoming his father. Palpatine then urges Luke to kill Vader and
become his new pupil, as Anakin once did to Dooku, but Luke refuses saying that
"I am a Jedi like my father before me."
Now you might think that this one little phrase means that Luke is taking a stand
and choosing the light but actions speak louder than words and none of his
actions up to this point have been that of a True Jedi and look specifically at
his choice of words.
"I am a Jedi
like my father before me." His father, yea ... the one who helped destroy the
entire Jedi Order. Not exactly the ideal role model in that situation,
so despite everything pointing towards Luke giving in and failing as a Jedi
everyone ends up ok in the final moments of episode 6. Seems kind of like a cop
out doesn't it.
Well it does until you consider one more thing,
a more blatant Luke is falling to the dark side ending may have been what was
originally intended for the film. Meet Gary Kurtz, the producer of the first two,
Star Wars films with George Lucas who actually helped secure the funding for
the first movie.
This man is basically the co-creator of Star Wars in everything but title.
However, as the series went on Lucas and Kurt's had a falling out about where
Star Wars should be headed causing Kurtz to leave production of Return
of the Jedi.
This was a huge blow to the cast and crew with Mark Hamill describing the
situation in broken family terminology.
He said it was like mom and dad getting a divorce. They were both equally loved
and respected on set,
so Gary Kurtz definitely knows what he's talking about when Star Wars is
concerned. Now believe it or not,
Kurtz actually went decades without talking about his falling out with Lucas
but in 2010 he finally explained where they were originally going with episode 6.
Now keep in mind that Kurtz probably still has a bit of a chip on his
shoulder because of the falling, but his word on the subject still has a lot of
merit. He explained,
"We had an outline and George changed everything in it. Instead of
bittersweet and poignant, he wanted a euphoric ending where everyone was happy.
The original idea was that they would recover the kidnapped Han Solo in the
early part of the story and that he would die in the middle part of the film
in a raid on an imperial base. The interview clarified the ending stating,
"The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters,
Leia grappling with her new duties as Queen, and Luke walking off alone like
Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns, as Kurtz put it. This ending clearly
isn't the one that happened,
as Kurtz explains it was because the toy business began to drive the Lucasfilm
Empire and Lucas wanted a happier ending. That ending sounds very different from
what we got, but a bittersweet ending with Luke walking alone into the sunset
still doesn't mean he was going to turn himself to the dark side right?
Well you should consider one more thing,
Mark Hamill himself liked the idea in an episode of the show dinner for five
Kevin Smith asked Hamil if he thought Luke Skywalker should have fallen to the
dark side.
"I should have ... I pitched that to George, no as an actor that would be
more fun to play, I just thought that's the way it was going from when we finish 2
- I figured that's what will be the pivotal moment." And you know what the best
part of all this is? JJ Abrams director of episode 7 was at the table during
that episode of dinner for five. Mark Hamill was basically pitching that to JJ
and honestly I think he'd do it. Remember episode 7 takes place 30 years after
Return of the Jedi
so there's really plenty of time for the darkness to set in on Luke's psyche
but here's the biggest thing, lore characterization aside, look at the man
behind the movie.
Abrams has a philosophy about movie making that his film should be made
like a mystery box.
He did a really interesting TED talk about it which if you haven't seen you
should totally watch. "It goes on and on and look like Star Wars, you got the droids and then
you get the mysterious woman, who's that? We don't know, mystery box you know when you meet
Luke Skywalker. He gets the droid, you see the holographic image, you learn all it's
a message, you know, she wants to you know find Obi-Wan Kenobi, he's her only hope
but who the hell goes on Kenobi mystery box so you go and he meets Ben Kenobi,
Ben Kenobi's all is Obi-Wan Kenobi, holy shit you know,
so it keeps it something ...
Have you guys not seen that?" Basically, the gist of it is that he thinks film
should be a surprise.
You shouldn't know spoilers going in and twists should be hidden until the release.
An excellent example of this was his work with Star Trek Into Darkness.
Everyone involved with production insisted that Benedict Cumberbatch
wasn't playing Khan, going so far as to create fake leaks, have actors like Karl
Urban and accidentally reveal that Cumberbatch was playing a different
villain, and film fake scenes with a different name for pre-release materials.
If there is anyone anyone who would appreciate this sort of twist, the idea
that the hero we followed for three films has suddenly turned to the dark
side, it's JJ, I helped create Lost, Abrams but he's learned his lesson from Into
Darkness and has sealed this twist so completely in his mystery box that he
isn't even giving us a glimpse of Luke before the film hits the silver screen.
He doesn't even want to run the risk of any clues getting out so that way Luke's
tragic fall shocks the world on December 18 as Yoda himself says "Once you start
down the dark path ...
forever will it dominate your destiny."
Luke started down that path in the movies and Abrams is the type of
director who would take that idea and run with it. Is Luke a Fallen Jedi in the
Force Awakens?
Yes, I think so,
but HEY that's just a THEORY ... a FILM THEORY ... at least until
December 18, by the way while you're here consider subscribing because we have
more Star Wars theories up our sleeve in anticipation of the new movie.
All aboard the hype train, whoo whoo, and seriously I joked about it before but do
take a minute to check out my friends over at Screen Rant and their video on
the top 10 film theories that change everything.
there's some fun ones in there and none are ones that we've actually covered so
click right here and go check it out
then let me know which one you want to see me cover in a future episode.
I'll be watching taking note and then adding it to my list of ones to cover in 2016 and
finally if you don't care about any of that other stuff
one last vote light side or dark side easy as that Jedi Master or Sith Lord
click on one to choose we'll see which side ultimately wins ...