Breaking Down Every Single Shot Of The Star Wars: The Last Jedi Teaser Trailer
As you all know by now, the very first teaser for Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi dropped on Friday. I camped out overnight for 15 hours and slept on a concrete floor to watch it with a crowd, and documented the whole journey here:
Now that I’ve had time to watch the trailer 12492408532847 times and dissect every millisecond, I’m here to break it down for you. Let’s get into it.
The opening shot. Looks a lot like stars, which are featured often in the Star Wars movies.
Swerve! It’s a rock.
Much like the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens, there is a startling musical note, followed by a startled character. Seriously, it’s like, the exact same intro:
Rey is clearly on Ahch-To here, the planet she travels to at the end of The Force Awakens, where she first meets Luke Skywalker. Whether or not it’s the same day is unclear, but it very well could be. The Last Jedi will be the very first Star Wars movie to begin right where the previous one left off.
Chills. Every. Time.
“Breathe…just breathe.”
Beautiful shots of Ahch-To, while Luke is presumably teaching Rey the powers of the force on the voiceover. Reminds me of Kylo Ren’s interrogation of Rey in The Force Awakens when he says, “You’re so lonely…so afraid to leave. At night…desperate to sleep…you imagine an ocean. I see it. I see the island…”
“Now…reach out. What do you see?”
REY FORCE-LIFTING SOME MOTHAFUCKIN’ PEBBLES!!! LET’S GOOOOOOOO!!!
“Light.”
General Leia Organa. To me, she’s royalty. One of the behind the scenes photos shown during the panel looks like the other side of this shot:
If you listen carefully, you can hear “Help me Obi-Wan…” echoed in the background.
“Darkness.”
Kylo Ren’s destroyed helmet. It’s smoking, so I’d bet he destroyed it with his lightsaber in a fit of rage. Darth Vader’s breath is prominent, and the voice of Alec Guinness also makes an appearance saying “Seduced by the dark side…”
“The balance.”
Books! Books are extremely rare in the Star Wars universe. Everything is usually stored on holocrons, a digital medium, so these books must be one of a kind or just more ancient than ancient. The Journal of the Whills possibly? The Journal of the Whills was the original name for Star Wars, and later became canon as an ancient tome that chronicled the history of the galaxy. Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus from Rogue One were Guardians of the Whills, if you remember correctly.
Yoda’s voice is echoed here, saying “Surrounds us, binds us, through the ages”.
“It’s so much bigger.”
Undoubtably my favorite shot of the whole trailer. We hear the sound of a lightsaber being ignited, and pan around a mountain to reveal Rey training in the distance, with Luke overlooking her. Pure sex to this nerd’s eyes. Luke’s dialogue here plays into a popular theory about the film, but I’m going to save that explanation for the end of the blog.
A lot of people complained that The Force Awakens didn’t take many design risks, and stuck to only original trilogy ships, weapons, planets, etc., but this shot looks brand spankin’ new.
I never took issue with any of the Force Awakens/New Hope homages and comparisons, but this movie is probably going to shut up the haters that did. There’s AT-ATs in the distant background here too, and with the red dust/white scenery, I presume this battle is going to be visually stunning.
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Finn lives! I mean, we knew that already, but it’s good to see FN-2187 regardless. Almost wish he was in a bacta tank instead of whatever he’s in there, but that’s just for nostalgic purposes. I hope Finn gets a sick metal spine in VIII.
Fuckin’ Poe Dameron, man. He can’t catch a break when trying to board his X-Wing. The First Order obviously lays down a big hit on a Resistance base here, which was rumored to be the opening of the film a few months ago, sending Leia into a coma. The rumor had no real merit, but maybe it’s true? Glad to see BB-8 for a second in the teaser by the way, love that little guy.
Clem put it best in his rapid reaction blog: “I don’t know how I forgot that the Millennium Falcon would be in this movie, but just seeing it on screen gave me butterflies in my stomach. It’s one of my Top 10 favorite characters in the Star Wars universe.”
(Expect the part where he said he forgot it’d be in the movie, WTF Clem?)
The Millennium Falcon is the greatest vehicle in movie history, far and away. Not even close. It IS a little strange seeing it here and knowing for a fact that Han Solo isn’t in the cockpit, however. RIP you scruffy lookin’ nerf herder.
“I only know one truth…”
OHHHHHH SHIT! Rey is SPRINTING with an angry ass look on her face. Looks like it’s about to get dark where she is, as well. Could this be a scene from the rumored Rey and Luke vs The Knights of Ren fight?!
Kylo is staying still, moving his janky ass saber in a manner that leads me to believe he’s using the force. His scar is a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but draws a nice parallel to Anakin Skywalker’s. I hope he gets a new mask or starts using the burnt Vader one in Episode VIII.
This looks verrrrrrrrry familiar. From Rey’s force vision in TFA perhaps?
I think so. The burning building is either the first Jedi temple Luke went searching for, or it’s Luke’s own Jedi temple that Kylo destroyed as a Padawan.
Guess Captain Phasma made it out of the trash compactor on Starkiller Base. Let’s hope she is a cold blooded badass killer in TLJ to make up for her little screen time in TFA.
Dogfighting! The actual star war part of Star Wars. I’d love to see Poe in his element where he’s not just trying to blow up a planet, and instead going for killstreaks.
Finally, to end the trailer, Luke says:
“It’s time for the Jedi…”
TO RETURN?!?!?!?!?!
“…to end.”
WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT?! NO!
Wait, don’t panic. Hold it together, Rob. Remember that theory I mentioned before? This also plays into that.
So this trailer plays a lot into the “balance” aspect of the force…as does the poster.
Rey’s lightsaber turns from blue to red. Hmm.
You know how The Force Awakens was very similar to A New Hope? What if that was on purpose, not only for the homage, soft reboot style film, but from a storyline aspect? What if Luke sees the parallels between Kylo Ren and Darth Vader? Between Starkiller Base and the Death Star?
There’s a theory floating around that I personally subscribe to, that Luke wants the Jedi to end because history will only repeat itself if force users continue dealing in absolutes, and deciding between the good Jedi, and the evil Sith…so Rey will be trained as a neutral force user. This would be fucking awesome. Imagine if Luke was practicing both sides himself, and just whipped out some lightning against The Knights of Ren? Or if Rey is the first neutral force user, and SHE used lightning to defeat Snoke in Episode IX?! I’m getting a boner just thinking about it.
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That’s a wrap on the breakdown of the first teaser trailer. Only 241 days till the new flick folks, get hyped!