Welcome Back, future fans, for Part III of my Force Awakens coverage! I sort of have a secret hobby inside my brain when I watch movies or read certain books where I like to daydream what I might have done different. Just for fun. You know, because I'm a writer and stuff and sometimes I have to rework my own stories in this same fashion. It's like practice. It starts out with a phone call from someone really important like JJ Abrams. He calls me in to view the finished script of The Force Awakens and he asks my advice as a well-respected and acclaimed script-doctor to help him make it even better... So in that scenario, these are the things I might suggest to promising young upstart filmmaker JJ Abrams for Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens (The Perkins Edition)... What Could Have Been... Political Timeliness: The original Death Star was a metaphor for the arms race between the US and Russia. It's not a perfect metaphor for the politics exactly, but it is an accurate stand-in for the fear people truly felt of an enemy super-power that might use its advanced fire-power to oppress people and subjugate them. Later in Return of the Jedi, George Lucas even admitted the correlation between the Ewoks beating the Empire with the conflict in Vietnam (ie. a more technologically advanced foreign power defeated by more earnest local guerrilla tactics). If that seems critical of the US to associate our own country with the evil Galactic Empire, then you must not have been paying attention in the prequels. The idea of Palpatine manipulating the Republic into a fascist state was a less than subtle metaphor for America's post-911 politics of leveraging security over freedom. But these are not todays' fears. Today we fear terrorism in a form that is so insidious that it could turn up within our own schools. We could obliterate ISIS in a day if we faced them in a traditional ground war (we beat Saddam Hussein, "the world's 3rd biggest military" (supposedly at the time) in 100 hours during Desert Storm and that was 30 years ago!). No, the looming threat of ISIS is that we can't face them in a ground war. They've forced us to face them in a culture war full of secret terrorist cells that might pop up anywhere in the world just to blow some random stuff up. Worse, they might use propaganda to turn our own children or their school friends into these brainwashed radicalized child-soldiers. Speaking of child-soldiers, isn't that exactly what Finn was? In my version: The "Resistance" would be the Special Forces wing of the New Republic, with General Leia Organa as the equivalent of a CIA Director guiding their operations under the auspices of a larger, distant government that's out of the picture mostly. They'd go by the nickname of the "Rebels" (instead of the Resistance), named after the original Rebel Alliance that helped form the New Republic. And Poe Dameron is the celebrity hotshot pilot who leads Rebel Squadron (instead of Black Squadron). The First Order is a mostly overlooked terrorist threat hiding out in the galaxy in various places and no one in the Republic is worried about them. They aren't even a coherent organization but a bunch of disparate ex-Imperialists and malcontents. Only Leia and her "Rebels" seem to care (who are coincidentally not much bigger than the original Rebels, just a few squads of state of the art X-Wings and droid spies like BB-8). The First Order secretly spreads its fingers in random places, building up little pockets of supporters while also stealing children for their Stormtrooper program and radicalizing youth. So that's the political backstory. What about the characters... Luke's Disappearance: Everything about Luke is generally the same, but not quite. He went into hiding when he felt his students were falling into the Dark Side not in spite of his training but because of it. He's too conflicted (he always had been, really) and he thinks they pick up on those reckless emotions he holds inside and succumb to the Dark Side as a result. He thinks he is doing more harm than if he left them untrained and oblivious to their potential. Being a kickass Jedi and a good teacher are two mutually exclusive skill sets. At least that's what he thinks. The reason is because a subgroup of them, the Knights of Ren, betray him and kill all the students. He defeats them all but barely and goes into hiding to avoid creating any more Dark Side threats by accident. He doesn't realize though that one of his students survived, Ben Solo. Ben is taken in by a mysterious threat, Snoke. It turns out Snoke was secretly the one who led the Knights of Ren astray, rather than Luke, and he does the same with Ben. Snoke and Ben Solo, now rechristened Kylo Ren, don't merely create the Knights of Ren again, but instead create the First Order in Luke's absence. They organize a bunch of ex-Imperialists with Snoke's strategy of radacalizing youth. Captain Phasma later becomes one of their chief brainwasher types. Meanwhile, with Luke gone, Han Solo and Leia assume their son Ben is dead, and Han Solo doesn't know how to handle his grief, so he takes on more and more smuggling jobs until he just doesn't come back. His guilt over abandoning Leia and his fear of facing her at the same time causes him to avoid ever coming back until now he doesn't even know how to return. Leia also throws herself into her work and doesn't go after him. As a result of her hard work ethic leading the Rebels, she comes across the First Order and realizes what a threat they are. Somehow right before the beginning of the film, the Rebels uncover the secret that Kylo Ren is her son and she realizes they've all been plaid. With this revelation, she desperately needs Luke's help. She never trained as a Jedi like Luke wanted, and now they need a Jedi. So that's why she sends Poe Dameron on a secret mission to fish him out. Somehow we would fit this into 3-4 sentences for the opening crawl. My best attempt at the opening crawl (yeah it's not perfect, it's just an example): Luke Skywalker is missing! After failing to train the next generation of Jedi in the Force, he was betrayed by his own students. Though he narrowly defeated them, none survived, and he has sent himself into exile to prevent anyone else from learning the dangerous ways of the Force. Meanwhile the New Republic grows lax, and has allowed the First Order to spread their tentacles of propaganda and brainwashing among the galaxy's youth. Their spies and sympathizers hide everywhere. Only General Leia Organa and her famous Rebel Squadron have kept the First Order at bay for now, but when they uncover a terrible secret, they realize their only hope lies in finding Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi. Leia must send her most daring pilot on a dangerous mission to retrieve a clue from an old ally. The Opening Sequences and Child-Soldiers: Poe Dameron, BB-8, Rey and Finn would all be basically the same and so would the opening of the film. Why mess with a good thing. In this case Poe is given a partial map to Luke from Lor San Tekka. In my version I would just call him Max Von Sydow because his real name is just as cool as his Star Wars name. Anyway. Anyway, all he has is a map to a place Luke might have gone. A place they had once suspected held the first Jedi Temple, but never got the chance to visit before tragedy struck. Could it be a dead-end? Maybe, but Leia can't pass on any promising lead. The First Order arrives, same as before, because of their radicalized spies hidden across the galaxy, even here. Poe hides the map on BB-8. Poe is an optimist. He believes in the map. His belief would seem so suspicious and convenient to the audience, though, that we would wonder if it's a red herring. This would tie into one of my themes of the movie which is optimism over fear and cynicism, when in fact it does turn out to be where Luke is (spoiler alert) it's not a hollow turn of the plot, it's a thematic necessity. Finn has his awakening after Kylo Ren kills Max Von Sydow in front of him. Not when one of his Stormtrooper pals dies because that seems arbitrary. Max Von Sydow must have some latent Force abilities and he touches Finn at the moment of his death, saying, "Be free," or something like that and caused his awakening. Kylo Ren captures Poe Dameron and takes him to his Star Destroyer Finalizer. I like how the Finalizer is huge and menacing but I would make it more skeletal, giving the impression that though the ship looks big it's symbolically and literally full of holes. It's just faking its size and menace. It's all about appearance for the First Order. They then broadcast a hologram of their capture of Poe Dameron across the galaxy (like ISIS on YouTube) to make themselves look tough for capturing celebrity hotshot Rebel Squadron leader Poe Dameron. I would film this like a reverse homage to "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobe, you're my only hope." Instead of in private, it would be broadcast everywhere. Instead of only hope, it would be "All hope in the Republic is lost. Only we can provide Order!" By this point Finn is having some serious problems and he finds out Captain Phasma is going to make him go through re-programming again from the begining, back at Starkiller Base (which is where they create all their child-soldiers that they capture. More on that later). This will be alongside a handful of captured children from the raid at Jakku, who will also be re-programmed. It's what Captain Phasma's main purpose is, to capture and radicalize them and that would explain why she she's so badass. We also find out that after Kylo Ren has gotten what he wants out of Poe Dameron, that he will make the child-soldiers execute him as part of their programming and record it on another hologram for the galaxy (this is something they sadly do in real life in Africa and the middle-east to initiate child-soldiers. Again, I think Star Wars has always been its most culturally potent when secretly mirroring the real world. Even "A Galaxy Far Far Away" is a blatantly ironic claim, because the story has always been about us humans, in the real world, here, right now.) So Finn frees the children and together they free Poe by all of them dressing up in Stormtrooper uniforms. This results in one of Finn's first funny moments where he who is now free of his Stormtrooper brainwashing must give them lessons on the fly about how to act more Stormtrooper-ish or they'll all get caught and end up stuck as Stormtroopers forever! "Freeing the slaves" and facing one's fears will become the main themes of this film and set it apart from the others while still achieving the same epic significance of previous films. It even goes so far as to fulfill the premise of Episode I when little Anakin dreamed of freeing the slaves, but never got around to it (hashtag missed opportunities). The kids all jump into escape pods while Poe and Finn escape on the stolen TIE Fighter the same way as before. Not only do they have to escape but they must protect the escape pods while they do it, adding an extra bit of drama to overcome. Seeing Poe's instant desire to help protect the pods endears Poe to Finn and it's why they can become friends so easily. Finn then makes a piloting suggestion that Poe laughs at because it's a ridiculously bad and inexperienced suggestion, but then because he's the best pilot in the galaxy, he sees an opportunity where it just might work afterall. "You know, kid you might be on to something! Hold on tight!" The maneuver works, and in his excitement Poe offers Finn his new name. But then while protecting the last pod, they get hit anyway and crash. Poe Dameron, who obviously survives off camera, gets a side story wherein the children they rescued now rescue him and help him get home, some of them even join up with him and Leia's Rebels. Finn meets Rey the same way as before. The big change I would make from here is that Finn is a little more culturally ignorant about how things work and even though he's no fan of the First Order anymore, he still assumes their version of the galaxy was basically accurate. Namely, he's skeptical of the Republic. He assumes they are just as corrupt and dangerous. However he's surprised by Rey's optimism about the New Republic and the glory days of the Rebel Alliance. He's infected by her optimism. She's the opposite of him in that sense. He still suffers from extreme fear and anxiety except when he's with her and she's talking about these things. I felt in the movie he acted like a regular person with a normal life who woke up a Stormtrooper rather than the brainwashed PTSD child-soldier he actually has been up until now. She becomes his PTSD cure, in a sense. This way he can still be goofy and funny and slap-stick about his ignorance, but also earnest about his fears. Also, it explains how they need each other. The Kessel Run: The big change I would make after that is with Han Solo in the second Act of the film. His intro is perfect and so is the Millenium Falcon. But lets say instead of all that monster nonsense on board his freighter, they are attacked by pirates instead. They can still be pirates who think Han Solo owes them money. Han needs to make a getaway and fast and they all find a way to argue and banter while they do it, of course. When they can't seem to get away fast enough, they abandon the freighter in the Millennium Falcon, because it's faster. Turns out Jakku, which is referred to as an outpost, is an outpost along the popular but dangerous Kessel Run, where smugglers are known to haul spice and supplies and such, despite the minefield of black holes and asteroids which surround it in every direction. That also explains why Jakku would've been host to a major battle between the New Republic and the floundering Empire in the chaotic days after Return of the Jedi (and hence all the visually impressive debris we saw there). Han Solo has been hanging out taking jobs along the Kessel Run because of his legendary history there. And in order to successfully get away from these pirates/smugglers etc who are chasing him down, he has to perform the Kessel Run once again aboard the Millennium Falcon if he hopes to survive. Tell me that wouldn't be the single most exciting thing for a fan to witness right on the heels of seeing the Millennium Falcon and Han Solo reintroduced to us after so many years? I get chills just imagining. Of course they have all kinds of problems and making the Kessel Run is no easy feat, especially given all the ways the Falcon has been meddled with over the years. Jumping in and out of hyperspace along a minefield of black holes and asteroids would be an incredible visual sequence no one would soon forget, and assuming the ships chasing them are equally neat to look at, this could be the equivalent of merging the Pod Race scene with the Asteroid Belt getaway from Episode IV. Of course they succeed. But only because of Rey's natural skills as a mechanic and a very bold and risky move she makes at the last minute, something she may only have been able to pull off with the Force. It's just plausible enough that it was simply good luck, but the results are that they beat his record of 12 parsecs and finish the run in something like 11 instead. There is some debate as to whether that is true or if somebody miscalculated but it's all good fun and it brings them together as friends. Now, back to the mission. Han Solo doesn't want to confront Leia (and his own failure as a husband) so he tries to drop them off on Corellia. Corellia:
Corellia would be a way more interesting place to go than Takodana. Functionally, this would serve the same purpose as the scenes at Takodana, but it would better fit the overall struggle between the First Order and the New Republic because Corellia is a major planet. It's like the Detroit of the Star Wars Galaxy, full of racers and big engines and good old fashioned muscle cars. I mean muscle space ships. It's where Han Solo has a lot of history (the Millennium Falcon was built there) and it makes sense that his ancient mentor would hang out there at the equivalent of a used car garage (rather than a random temple in the middle of the back woods). The only value in Takodana was when Rey says, "I didn't know so much green existed!" but it would make more sense to save this thematic experience for the end of the movie, either when she arrives at the Rebel base for the first time (a lush forest) or when she sees all the water on the island planet Luke is hiding on. Regardless, it's still a valid and startling experience for her to see Corellia, a place full of shiny cities and civilized people after a lifetime on Jakku. "I had no idea so much civilization existed!" to which Han Solo would reply, "Stay for a week and then tell me how you feel." Corellia would feature lots of fifties style Art Deco and Streamline Moderne vehicle styles which are already a staple of the Star Wars Universe and George Lucas's favorite aesthetic. A lot of the prequels were loaded with these styles of ships, especially at Naboo for some reason. They could have a field day here, and we could see the kinds of ships flying around that make the Falcon seem at home. Maz Kanata's garage would be a place where lots of quirky types hang out and buy and trade parts or work on their engines. It's a hole in the wall kind of place where Han thinks Maz can help pass Rey and Finn and BB-8 off with someone else while he and Chewie keep their old ship and go back to smuggling. Finn refuses to go join with the Rebels or the New Republic (remember, he thinks they're no better than the First Order) so in a fit of anxious PTSD panic, he loses his cool and runs away into the city to hide. That's when the First Order shows up and it becomes clear they are after Rey. Just like before, spies and sympathizers are hanging out in Corellia, just like everywhere else. I would be sure to make the sympathizers children again. Maybe a small group of motor-heads hanging out outside Maz's garage. Troubled youth, amiright?! The whole city is told to round up that girl and turn her in. This creates a certain tension as Rey looks around this place which is very different from the barren desert of Jakku and realizes she can't trust anyone. So she runs off and immediately gets lost in the hustle and bustle of Corellia. With the kids gone and chaos descending on Corellia (some of the local Corellians fight back against the First Order, some don't) Han and Chewie have the chance to get away, but Maz yells at him and says "You better not run away again! You need to help those kids(Rey and Finn)!" But Han says, "The last time I helped a dumb kid from the desert I got caught up in a galactic Rebellion!" Luke's Lightsaber The whole concept of finding Luke's lightsaber in the original film, though inevitable, was arbitrary and random. In my version, it would have no connection to Maz, but Rey would in fact stumble upon it while running through Corellia. She would begin to hear voices which turn out to be Obi-Wan Kenobi (similar to what she heard in the real movie) and they would help guide her randomly through the city, avoiding pitfalls along the way. Eventually she would stumble into the lair of a certain strange and mysterious spacefarer who has collected a bunch of random stuff from around the galaxy. The spacefarer would be absent, but the place would be mysterious and strange. We would wonder if this person had latent Force abilities and that's how he found all this stuff. Hidden among the random things he's collected there would be the lightsaber, which it turns out has been calling to her. She touches it and has her little dreamy episode (same as before) and freaks out. That's when the spacefarer, some strange alien creature unlike anything we've ever seen, suddenly shows up. He's home afterall, and he says real creepy-like, "You feel it too! It calls to you!" Rey is creeped out and overwhelmed and she runs away. Finn, on the other hand, was about to board a ship and leave as soon as he heard the First Order was around. But when he sees their announcement to turn in the girl, he makes a very difficult but important decision to go save Rey. Like the real movie, there isn't a lot of time to dwell on this decision, but it needs to be given at least a little longer to reveal how scary and difficult this decision is for Finn. He is so scared of the First Order that he can't even believe he is considering staying at all, but as he looks at the holographic projection of Rey's face that is being broadcast by the First Order, he knows he has to find her. This turning point is the key to his character arc, and a pivotal moment in the film, even if it's brief, and I have no doubt John Boyega can capture it quickly. Finn's pursuit seems hopeless but he starts by heading back toward Maz's garage. Along the way, he sees Rey in the distance leaving the creepy place where she had just touched the lightsaber. To follow her, he has to take a short cut through the same place. While he does this, he's attacked by the First Order. They recognize him as a traitor and he must fight them off. This is equally difficult for him because they elicit absolute fear in him. Also, he knows they are brainwashed, so fighting them gives him mixed feelings. He reluctantly evades them and tries to plead with them to wake up out of the brainwashing, but to no avail. The spacefarer distracts them and we think Finn is about to have a chance at getting away... But then Captain Phasma appears and kills the spacefarer. We never get to learn his secret backstory. Phasma is here to collect her failed subject and bring Finn back to be reconditioned. When she kills the spacefarer, the lightsaber flies away and lands near Finn. He picks it up. Ignites it. And faces his nemesis. First he fights through the other Stormtroopers, showing that he knows how to handle himself in a fight. But before he can finally confront Phasma, as he's working up the nerve, they are interrupted by Rebel Squadron. Poe Dameron arrives with the X-Wings of Rebel Squadron and it's just as awesome as in the movie. They shoot up the Stormtroopers and the TIE-Fighters in the sky and Phasma gets away. Or does Finn get away?! Part of him will wonder if he had what it took to face her afterall. Someone says, "That's the best pilot in the Republic!" and Finn is like, "No way, Poe Dameron was the best!" And they say, "Whose colors do you think those are?" Finn looks up and watches as Poe pulls off a repeat of the maneuver Finn taught him earlier in the film and he instantly realizes it's his friend alive and well somehow who just saved his butt (returning the favor from when Finn rescued him). It all plays out the same from there. Kylo Ren runs into Rey and abruptly captures her. Han Solo is there to greet General Leia when she arrives and Finn rushes up right after that and says, "I know where they took Rey!" Starkiller Base is not a Death Star: As stated already, Starkiller Base is not any kind of Death Star. It's a concentration camp mixed with a radicalization program for captured or sympathetic youth. It's where Captain Phasma does her best work. This is where Kylo Ren takes Rey after he captures her. It could be a base on a planet or a space station orbiting a planet, but it is NOT spherical. When Kylo Ren interrogates Rey she turns the tables on him, it's a little more obvious that she's learning his Force secrets right out from under him. She's picking up on things from his mind. I think this was always JJ Abrams intent but it was way too subtle. Kylo Ren thinks he got what he needed out of her mind regarding Luke Skywalker so he tells General Hux to initiate the Starkiller Protocol or something cool sounding. Instead of shooting planet-killing red light-beams across the galaxy, they send a message to initiate a series of coordinated terrorist explosions across Coruscant (which is still the capitol. Why change the capitol to some random place only to destroy it? If you want Coruscant gone, then let that be the planet you destroy!) We see explosions happen in places like Corellia and Naboo and other major planets but especially on Coruscant. Coruscant is basically ruined and becomes a hell hole from which survivors try to leave like refugees. The New Republic government is in shambles, including the military leaders and when we check back in on Leia, she is just beginning to discover that she must take over leadership of the Republic Military. Leia must step up to initiate a response and assert stability. The nice thing about this new status quo is it leaves the whole galaxy without a central power structure. Now the First Order and the Republic Rebels are both disorganized decentralized powers equal in that neither has a strong footing anymore. Whoever can succeed in bringing order first will rule, and this status quo could carry into Episode VIII, especially the refugee crisis at the center. The angry refugees would be mad that the New Republic failed to protect them while others would obviously blame the First Order directly. No one would trust the refugees, regardless, which would once again be very timely. Before Leia can initiate a response, she checks on BB-8 and that map situation because she knows she's gonna need Luke Skywalker. But oh bummer, the map is incomplete. It's just a random location and no one knows how it connects to anything. Too bad the Republic database on Coruscant with all its maps just got destroyed! Finn sees this as an opportunity and speaks up. He says, "The First Order has extensive maps made from the old Imperial databases. They keep them at Starkiller Base." Leia: "This could be our chance to strike them at their heart." Admiral Ackbar: "What kind of defenses do they have?This could be a trap! " Finn: "They use the sun to power a defense system but it relies on an orbital network of long range sensors." Han Solo: "I can get us in fast enough to avoid their sensors with the Falcon, but you're not gonna like it." Leia: "Okay, Han. You lead a small team in to take out the sensors and get their maps if you can. Poe Dameron will lead an assault to free the slaves/child soldiers. And Han, keep an eye out for our son. Bring him home, etc." Han: "How can you be so sure it's him?" Leia tells Han: "I feel it is him, but you're his father. If it is really him, you'll know." (In my version, Leia has already told Han about the secret they uncovered before the start of the film, which set everything in motion, and he would be very doubtful. "Our son is dead!" he'd argue. "Maybe not...?" Leia would say with feeling. I would also have eliminated all the spoilers between Kylo Ren and Snoke where they refer to Vader as his grandfather. Kylo Ren still worships Vader, we just don't realize why until later). Meanwhile, R2-D2 is still in hibernation mode. Only this time, when Finn reveals that the First Order got their maps from the Empire, we see some lights start to blink. Slow at first, and then gradually faster. No one notices this. We'll take it for granted that this is the only such base of this kind that the First Order has, and it would strike a blow to the heart of their movement. Finn goes with Han Solo and Chewie to lead the charge with BB-8 and maybe a few special forces guys (I mean come on, really? There' was no one besides a main character they can send along for this mission? Of course they send a whole team!). This time they are followed by many drop ships and support troops, etc under the cover of Poe Dameron's Rebel Squadron, waiting for the sensors to be taken down. Han and Finn approach at lightspeed so fast they get in under the sensors. Finn reveals he doesn't have a clue where anything is, he was just a janitor, but he's here for Rey. Luckily BB-8 is pretty savvy so he takes off for the database and they all follow. Supreme Leader Snoke: Rey escapes on her own, still, and she is starting to use the Force but doesn't really know what she's doing. It's more primal. I would include more mini-moments where she does things with the Force by accident or attempts to use it in slightly more intuitive ways rather than such specific tricks we've seen from the past movies, like the Jedi mind-trick or pulling the lightsaber to her. Instead maybe she sticks to pushing people with the Force, or blinding them, or jumping. After she escapes from Stormtrooper James Bond, she stumbles into the lair of Supreme Leader Snoke. Now, I haven't really mentioned him yet, so let me clarify my version here. All along, Supreme Leader Snoke has been hiding inside a deep dark cave beneath Starkiller Base where only Kylo Ren ad General Hux are allowed to see him. The few times we see him are on hologram aboard the Finalizer for example, where he appears to be projected as a giant image. But then when Kylo Ren arrives at Starkiller Base with Rey in custody, we see that he really is a giant. Like huge! And he hides in the cave beneath Starkiller Base where he gives military orders to Hux and religious orders to Kylo Ren. He's like a mysterious desert shaman in seclusion, but not-so-secretly manipulating the whole First Order movement like Osama bin Laden. But when Rey escapes, she stumbles into this area by accident, while hiding. The giant Snoke comes out in full view of her and says, "It was you all along. It was always you." This is a cryptic thing to say and it's unclear if he means that it was her that he was seeking all along, rather than BB-8 or the map to Skywalker, or if he means he recognizes who she really is. Rey is scared of him at first and then suddenly she isn't. She suddenly approaches him much closer than anyone else has at this point and he grows uncomfortable. "Stay back, or you will suffer beyond your..." As she approaches he turns out to be a hologram projection from a small and harmless little droid hidden way back in the cave. No one knows this but her. Everyone else thinks he really was a giant and this is a like a Wizard of Oz behind the curtain kind of moment. Only she knows the secret and it's a big surprise for the audience. This is in keeping with my theme that the First Order is all show. Rey promptly stomps on it and destroys it, but not before he says something like, "You must finish your training!" Reunions: When Han Solo and Finn catch up to Rey, she says, "No one has ever come back for me!" And this cements their friendship. BB-8 doesn't find the maps but he does find the sensor controls. When they get to that place, they run into Captain Phasma who promptly kills the special forces who came with them in a cold-blooded fashion that shows how evil she is. They have a real fight scene again, and Phasma is about to win again because she's a badass. She is a total bully to Finn, who almost breaks under her manipulative attitude, but Rey's primal use of the Force saves them. Phasma's fate is unclear, but she will survive for the next movie. Han Solo and Chewie get split up from Finn and Rey during this fight. Finn says, "Go and take out the sensors, we'll worry about Phasma!" With BB-8 they manage to upload a virus that shuts down the whole sensor network, but it brought them to a giant bottomless pit type of missile silo. A missile silo like this (whether it shoots a giant rocket or a laser beam, I don't care) is part of the global defense network Finn warned of and it's a better excuse for why such a bottomless put exists. Naturally it's where Han will later confront Kylo Ren. Meanwhile, Poe Dameron begins his attack to free the child soldiers. Aerial combat ensues, along with a reverse of the troop landing at the beginning of the movie. This time the Rebels are landing and it's not to take prisoners but set them free. Kylo Ren's Twist Ending Kylo Ren is hunting down Rey and encounters her with Finn while they are on their way to to meet up with Han and Chewie near the missile silo bottomless pit. When Finn sees Kylo Ren bring out his lightsaber, he brings out his own and they fight. The aerial battle is going on at the same time, creating lots of chaos. Finn isn't so great at fighting a real Jedi-knight and when he goes down, Rey then takes a turn and does better (all similar to how it played out originally). When Rey calls the lightsaber, it makes more sense because she's been sort of pushing and pulling with the Force several times since her escape and this is a crowning achievement rather than a convenient plot twist. Kylo Ren makes his plea for Rey to join him and he can finish her training. He tells her that he is a Jedi and appeals to her fan-girl nature and all the legends of the Jedi that she knows. It's not clear how she answers. She simply asks, "What about Finn?" who is passed out and unconscious. The implication later is that Kylo Ren agrees to spare Finn if Rey lets him teach her. That's when Han shows up and confronts Kylo Ren, shooting at him. Rey runs to Finn's aid. Kylo Ren chases Han down, deeper into the silo. Han, still full of doubt, makes a dangerous gamble and accuses him of being his son. Kylo Ren denies it and the situation looks dire. For all we know, it was a trap and the whole thing with the son was a mistake. He's about to kill Han Solo over the bottomless pit, and Han is like, "No. It is you. Ben!" and says his name for the first time and it stops the swing of his saber. "Take off that mask! It isn't yours." Han is kind of stern and patronizing rather than warm of loving and it's a risky tactic to take. Kylo Ren is hesitant, and then argues, "It was my grandfather's and now it's my birthright!" Han: "No! I'm your father. Enough of these games. You're taking it off and coming home with me!" Kylo Ren: "No, I'm a knight of Ren. I serve the Dark Side." Han: "No, you're conflicted and you're coming home with me." Kylo admits to the temptation of the Light Side and Han reassures him it's the other way around, but with the help of his father, he can beat it. Kylo gives him his lightsaber and it seems like he will give in and be good. The whole time, the lightsaber is on. He never turns it off. Han tries to take it from him. He's holding it too tight. We can see there is some tension and confusion. Isn't he turning good? Wasn't he about to let go. Adam Driver would make this seem very ambiguous, like he's still on the fence (in all honesty, that basically is the same as the film, including the ambiguity, if you ask me). That's when an explosion would occur from the aerial battle and the shock would shake the bridge they are on over the edge of the bottomless silo. The lightsaber would swing wildly, cut through Han Solo just as Chewie and Rey arrive to see it. It looks like an accident to them. Chewie growls anyway. Kylo abruptly shuts off the lightsaber. Han touches the face of his son and it's unclear if he suspects that it was deliberate or not. In a fatherly way, he doesn't care, and we see love and forgiveness and regret across Han Solo's dying face. Rey runs to join them and Kylo Ren begins to explain, "It was an accident!" before another shockwave hits them and Han Solo falls into the pit. "Take me out of here!" Kylo Ren pleads, this time throwing his lightsaber into the pit with Han Solo. "I want to go home!" At some point he manages to slip in an explanation that, "With the sensors down, the orbital defense system is going to self-destruct." Rey takes Ren back and with Finn and Chewie and BB-8 they get on the Millennium Falcon and go home with the other spacecrafts that just freed the child soldiers. General Hux escapes before the self-destruct goes off. I like the idea of a new sun being born out of the spot where Han Solo died. I would keep the part about the weapons being powered by the sun, so when they self-destruct, the planet does in fact light up like a mini-sun (maybe on a smaller scale). There is a somber moment as they fly home where Rey and Finn mourn the loss of Han Solo with Chewie. Kylo Ren pretends to be a good guy now without his helmet, but he uses the emotional intensity of losing his father as an excuse for how weird he's acting. As an audience we can't tell for sure if he's totally faking all this, but we obviously suspect it is a ruse. They all fall for it. Rey is even impressed with his decision and feels bad that he lost his father mostly because his father was a legend. She agrees to train with him and offers him the blue lightsaber to replace his. She says it belonged to Luke Skywalker, who got it from his father. This makes Kylo Ren smile which is ominous because we now know he has the lightsaber of his idol, Anakin Skywalker. When they get back to the Rebel base they all have their usual cheers at the victory and sadness for the loss of Han Solo. Leia asks about the maps and they admit they failed to get the maps, which are now all destroyed. Kylo Ren says, "That's too bad," and smiles ironically because the map he had been chasing all this time is now right in front of him, no big deal. But it's useless. Or is it?! BB-8 makes another pass at R2-D2, a cute moment where he checks on him to see if he's awaken yet, and notices the new activity. Something has changed. He plugs R2 into something that recharges his batteries or something simple. Suddenly R2 has the power to finish what he started earlier, which is to sort through the old Imperial data he stole from the Death Star way back in Episode IV (seriously, this isn't my idea, JJ Abrams says this is exactly what he was going for in the real movie, he just didn't think it mattered enough to spell it out. WRONG). C-3PO says something like, "What do you mean, you got them off the Death Star? That was thirty years ago! What took you so long? Well, you shouldn't have gone into hibernation in the first place if you knew it would drain your batteries!" (see how easy that was to explain, JJ?) They put the maps together and plot a course and Leia sends Kylo Ren and Rey on their fastest ship, the Millennium Falcon. Why does she send them? Because now that she has her son back, she knows the only person who can really help him is Luke. She recognizes Rey's new Force abilities too. Chewie just knows how to fly the Falcon real fast and R2-D2 goes because he has the maps inside him. Why doesn't Leia go? Because she has to run the new government and can't be spared. Poe Dameron stays behind to make sure his new pal Finn recovers. The movie would end with Luke seeing Kylo Ren and Rey arrive together on his island and it would be crazy and ambiguous because we don't know if Luke can see through his ploy or not. Kylo Ren holds out the lightsaber and it's another ambiguous scene where we wonder if Luke recognizes Kylo Ren as Ben Solo, if he recognizes the lightsaber, if he will assume Ben is an ally or an enemy. And most especially we will wonder if Kylo Ren is holding it out as a gift or as an attack. Is he about to ignite it and start a fight? It would be impossible to judge for sure. And then it just ends. Cue the John Williams music. Okay, Future Fans, that's my version! All in good fun, right? Afterall, The Force Awakens was awesome, and awesome movies shouldn't get ripped apart just because we're bored and want to impress our friends with how critical we can be. I wrote this in the name of creative brainstorming, not to be another Debbie Downer. So in that same spirit of free-form creative optimism, share your thoughts below. Love it? Hate it? What would you change? And remember, all in good fun!
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