THE VIEWING GUIDE

THE EMPIRE VIEWING GUIDE

Rian Johnson talks us through The Last Jedi. Fun fact: Star Wars will outlive us all.

Writer/director Rian Johnson dissects pieces of Episode VIII

00:08:13

BOMBS AWAY

__ Rian Johnson’s addition to the Star Wars pantheon kicks off with a sequence in which Resistance bombers attack a First Order Dreadnought, only for one to blow up and set off a chain reaction. “That’s an unavoidable flaw of having bombers,” says Johnson, who was inspired to introduce them after watching World War II flick Twelve Oõclock High. “Bombers were big, pregnant cows. Their flaw is also a B-52’s flaw.”

00:14:25

THROWAWAY GAG

__ J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens ended on a cliffhanger, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) handing a lightsaber to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker. There was much speculation about what Luke would do. Turns out it was ‘toss it over his shoulder’. “Once I figured out where Luke’s head is at, I knew he would do that,” says Johnson. “She’s handing him this symbol of this thing he’s turned his back on.”

00:19:26

DARK HELMET

__ The idea of letting the past die runs throughout The Last Jedi, including in this scene where an enraged Kylo destroys his iconic helmet. However, Johnson says that its importance is overstated. “I don’t think that’s where the film ends up putting its chips down. Rey, who’s really the heart of the film, is constantly trying to connect to the past. If you think you’re throwing the past away, you’re fooling yourself.”

00:30:17

KEEPING MUM

__ After bumping off his dad, Han Solo, in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren has a chance to complete the set by blowing up his mother, General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). But he chooses not to pull the trigger. “He can’t bring himself to, which is a subtle but important difference,” notes Johnson. “This is, finally, the bridge he can’t cross. The notion that there’s still a human in there felt really important to me.”

00:45:42

FORCETIME

__ “It was all circumstance,” says Johnson of the motive behind the scenes where Rey and Kylo are bridged by the Force. “I wanted to get them talking. That’s where the notion of the connection came up, and that opened up other ideas.” Johnson is relaxed about introducing new Force powers this late in the game. “I suspect in the original trilogy any time they did that, it was required by the story.”

01:01:06

RASH OMEN

__ Johnson introduces a series of flashbacks — previously uncommon in Star

Wars — revealing the truth behind the Luke/kylo confrontation that sent the former into exile and the latter into Snoke’s clutches. “It’s structured so you get Luke essentially lying, then Kylo’s version, which I think is genuinely his perspective,” says Johnson. “The last one is the balance of the two, and is as close to the objective truth as we get.”

01:11:34

PUT THEM AWAY

__ Few images in Star Wars have set tongues wagging, or pulses racing, like the moment where Kylo rocks up with his top off and his nips out. “I expected that reaction,” says Johnson. “When I saw Adam as he took his shirt off for that scene, I thought, ‘The internet is going to love this.’” Did they consider ‘Star Wars: Space Nipples’ as an alternative title? “Until very late in the process.” We think he’s kidding.

01:45:04

UP IN SNOKE

__ For epic battles, George Lucas simply used to write, “They fight.” For the giant throwdown between Kylo, Rey and Snoke’s guards, Johnson was more descriptive, but credits stunt co-ordinator Rob Inch with many of the standout moments. “I wrote the bit where Kylo stabs a lightsaber through someone’s face, and the start with them back to back,” he says. “But the idea of the whip was all Rob. It was a mixture.”

02:01:47

TOO CHEWY FOR CHEWIE?

__ One of the film’s best gags is the relationship between Chewbacca and Ahch-to’s cutest inhabitants, the porgs. Johnson confirms that, despite temptation, Chewie never finds out if they taste like space chicken. “No, he never eats a porg. He only kills and roasts them,” he laughs. “I suspect he has some tinned, horrible shit in the Falcon kitchen.” Carbs are important, Chewie.

02:15:12

UNCLE VS NEPHEW

__ And then Luke Skywalker steps out to face down his nefarious nephew, looking young, vibrant and with a hint of Space Grecian 2000 in the hair and beard. “He wants to look exactly the way Kylo last saw him,” says Johnson. “To really connect to that moment and distract Kylo as much as possible. The idea is that on multiple viewings you would realise why he’s appearing that way to him.” CHRIS HEWITT