Star Wars: The Last Jedi just dropped a chilling but thrilling teaser trailer that hints at
some awesome scenes in the second instalment of the new trilogy.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and in this video, I'm breaking down The Last
Jedi teaser and explaining some intriguing details you might have missed.
Just be aware I'll be discussing speculation and possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Last
Jedi, so if you want to avoid those, tap in the top-right of the screen for a spoiler-free
video tribute to Carrie Fisher at Star Wars Celebration.
Starting with that first scene, I thought it was interesting that there's a little parallel
to the start of The Force Awakens trailer where Finn popped up in distress while here
Rey also appears distressed and I wonder whether she's just experienced another force vision,
like she did when she picked up Luke's lightsaber for the first time in The Force Awakens.
And that dark area in the rocks just behind Rey feels like it could be the same cave entrance
we see Luke standing in at the end of the trailer.
And if you brighten the image here, the walls of the cave actually look like part of a tree
and you can also make out what looks like Rey's staff by the entrance.
The idea of a cave also harkens back to the Dark Side Cave that Luke entered in The Empire
Strikes Back where he struck down a vision of Darth Vader revealing his own face beneath
Vader's mask.
What I also find fascinating is that the visuals in this opening shot immediately introduce
us to the theme of light and darkness in the new movie.
Notice how the image starts with what looks like stars in a night sky or space, but then
light illuminates the scene revealing the stars as just specks or shiny flecks on the
rock.
So, getting in to the core of the trailer, after the Lucasfilm logo appears, we get some
beautiful shots of Ahch'To, the location where Rey discovered Luke at the end of The Force
Awakens.
We next get the first of various voices starting with Luke saying "Breathe", "just breathe"
and then "reach out, what do you see?"
The last words echo back to Yoda who says "Reach out.
Sense the Force around you" while training Jedi Younglings in Episode 2: Attack of the
Clones.
And the repeating of the word 'breath' fits in with the way Yoda and Obi-Wan, for example,
emphasised the importance of calmness, concentration, and mindfulness when it came to the Force.
And in the background there are whispers of "Help me, Obi-Wan" just as the trailer cuts
to Leia examining a star chart, then on the shot of Kylo Ren's destroyed mask you can
hear Darth Vader breathing in the background, then the words "seduced by the dark side"
which Obi-Wan says when he appears as a Force Ghost to Luke in Return of the Jedi.
Next we hear Yoda whisper "surrounds us and binds us" the words he said to Luke while
training him in The Empire Strikes Back.
Hearing other voices in the background makes me think we could well get Force Ghosts of
Obi-Wan, Yoda or Anakin Skywalker appearing in The Last Jedi.
Or these could just be disembodied voices again like the ones Rey heard during her vision
in The Force Awakens.
Now, jumping back to the visuals in the trailer.
I really love this shot of Rey's hand and little stones rising up around her, which
is reminiscent of of Luke levitating objects when he trained with Yoda on Dagobah, and
also reminded me a touch of Man of Steel as well.
By the way, I think it's curious that two of these images of Rey focus on her hand and
I wonder whether the teaser is hinting at something more here.
After all the opening scene to The Force Awakens was initially going to be Luke Skywalker's
severed hand with his lightsaber from the end of The Empire Strikes Back floating through
space.
Next in the trailer we get this intriguing shot of a series of books set against some
tree roots.
On the page of one of the books is the insignia of the Jedi Order and these are probably the
legendary Journal of the Whills.
The Whills were recently mentioned in Rogue One via Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus who were
Guardians of the Whills.
The Whills was George Lucas's original term for The Force when he was writing the first
Star Wars movie.
I think it's very likely we'll see the term and concept developed in The Last Jedi.
As for those tree roots Force-sensitive trees have appeared outside the movies in Star Wars
canon like The Clone Wars animated series and the Shattered Empire comic book series.
In The Clone Wars, there was a force-sensitive tree in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and we
know from Han Solo in The Force Awakens that Luke likely disappeared to look for the first
Jedi Temple.
If he did indeed find that first Jedi Temple on Ahch'To, then it seems quite likely these
are the fabled Journal of the Whills.
By the way, I also love how the imagery of Rey's words lines up with the images on screen.
When she says "Light" we get Leia, she says "Darkness" and we see Kylo Ren's destroyed
mask and the word "Balance" brings us to the Jedi books with a ray of light illuminating
the darkness.
And these words also mirror the poem in the Journal of the Whills which reads:
"First comes the day Then comes the night.
After the darkness Shines through the light."
But after all that perfect symmetry, comes the kicker with Luke's words, "it's so much
bigger", suggesting that there's much more to it than this, and I'll come back to that
later.
The trailer then breaks into some really fantastic action scenes.
First up are these Resistance fighters squaring up to the new First Order Heavy Assault Walkers
in the distance which, although we can't see them up close here, are getting on for twice
the size of a regular AT-AT and have also been dubbed "Gorilla Walkers" because of their
enormous thick legs.
Now, if you're wondering why those fighters are giving off a red flare, well, the important
thing to think about is that this battle is taking place on the planet Crait, which director
Rian Johnson has said is 'a mineral planet' covered in salt that's home to an abandoned
rebel base.
If you notice this figher's craft, it seems to be hitting the salt floor and piercing
it, which spews out red dust.
And notice how all the fighters have a kind of spike dragging along the salt floor which
is where the red is spewing from.
The planet they're on has a red-coloured mineral base under the salt, so it looks like they're
trying to break up the ground before they reach the First Order walkers to create a
smokescreen so the walkers can't see properly during their attack.
Obviously, this scene calls back to the Rebel attack on the Imperial walkers on the snowy
planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, and the visuals here are absolutely breathtaking.
By the way, this battle scene was filmed on real salt flats in Bolivia.
It's nice to see Finn is getting medical attention here and there a little of the Aurebesh language
showing on Finn's pod which translates as "Stable", indicating that we're likely to
see Finn back in action in The Last Jedi.
The trailer gives us a very short glimpse of Kylo Ren and interestingly, his scar here
looks different from how Rey scared him at the end of The Force Awakens
But what's more intriguing is the bright yellow light behind him because the website Making
Star Wars has reported there's a scene in The Last Jedi where the Force tree on Ahch'To
is set on fire.
We know from The Force Awakens that Kylo Ren was obsessed with finding where Luke Skywalker
had disappeared to, and I wonder whether Kylo's found Luke and set the tree on fire.
And it looks like here, we've got another look at that scene which appeared in Rey's
force vision of Luke and R2-D2 watching what might be his Jedi training school burn down.
Hopefully, we'll get a more in-depth look at what happened to Luke and R2-D2 and how
his hand ended up like this.
And the way the trailer cuts to a scene of Phasma and Stormtroopers walking through an
area that's on fire is meant to suggest that Phasma was there when Luke's school was destroyed,
but actually notice the floor she's walking on is shiny and if you look up, it looks like
this may be more like the place where Poe Dameron's X-wing is blown up earlier in the
trailer.
By the way, assuming this isn't a flashback scene for Phasma, I guess she managed to escape
the trash compactor on Starkiller Base where Finn and friends said they'd dump her in The
Force Awakens!
Ok, and then the trailer ends with those chilling words of Luke's, "It's time for the Jedi to
end."
Now, it's a bit shocking after 8 movies to think that Star Wars might be trying to do
away with the Jedi, but Luke may actually have a point.
He's had two of his relatives turn away from the Jedi to the Dark Side of the Force.
So, perhaps, he thinks there is a better way to wield the power of the Force, even combining
both the Light and Dark sides in what some fans call the Grey Jedi.
And, in fact, the second part of the poem I mentioned earlier from the Journal of the
Whills reads: "The difference, they say,
Is only made right By the resolving of gray
Through refined Jedi sight."
So, could the idea be that a grey Force user is going to replace the old Jedi, hence the
title of the movie "The Last Jedi"?
By the way, the poster for The Last Jedi also seems to be hinting at a possible blurring
of the Light Side and the Dark Side as notice that Rey's lightsaber begins blue and then
changes to red further up the poster.
So, guys, what did you think of The Last Jedi teaser trailer?
And what did you make of Luke's final words?
And did you spot anything else I missed?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this, I really appreciate your likes and shares, and check out some of my
other trailer breakdowns and Star Wars videos by tapping or clicking here.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!