With The Mandalorian launched and Jedi: Fallen Order released, I expected the marketing for The Rise of Skywalker to significantly pick up – and it has in very quick fashion!
On Tuesday a ton of new information and material about the upcoming film released, including an epic new TV spot that features a lot of new footage – including Rey leaping out of a Star Destroyer hangar to the Millennium Falcon! And this film looks absolutely gorgeous.
Here’s the TV spot:
Let’s break down what this new TV spot showed us about The Rise of Skywalker, and I’ll just say this: I absolutely can’t wait for this movie! One more month!
The TV spot begins with some shots we’ve already seen, as C-3PO apparently prepares to have his memory wiped. We see BB-8 and D-O looking on, and then a shot of Poe Dameron (standing with Zorri Bliss) asking what 3PO is doing there. We then get a close-up of the golden droid (along with a close-up of Rey and Finn looking on) saying he is taking one last look at his friends.
We do get a new line from 3PO, as he says at the beginning of the spot, “All we’ve done. All this time.” And then Poe asks him what he’s doing, and 3PO replies, “Taking one last look sir. At my friends.” So we get a small new line, and it seems that 3PO is reflecting on his life, his adventures, and his friendships as he presumably is about to get his memory wiped for some reason. I anticipate this being quite an emotional scene.
The Millennium Falcon emerges out of hyperspace above a desert planet. I have to imagine that this is Pasaana, so this is probably our heroes arriving at the planet to kick off their adventures in the film.
We see a close-up of the charred remains of Darth Vader’s helmet, which is seen in the previous trailer getting destroyed by Rey and Kylo Ren. Here, though, we see that Rey is standing and staring at the remains! So I have a couple of thoughts on this shot. Firstly, we know that Rey and the others infiltrate a First Order Star Destroyer (more on that in just a minute), so I bet this is in Kylo Ren’s chamber aboard the Destroyer, where he keeps the helmet of his grandfather. This was the case in The Force Awakens, and it would make sense that now as Supreme Leader he has a new area to house it, but still keeps it with him. Secondly, I think this indicates that Rey arrives before Kylo Ren does to this encounter. But my question is whether Kylo will actually arrive in person later or whether the two share a Force bond in this sequence. Either way, it seems that Rey is the first one to arrive to the fight that looks to end with the destruction of Vader’s helmet remains.
And third, I think there’s a lot of really cool symbolism contained in this shot. Rey is not related to Darth Vader (unlike Kylo) and never met him (unlike Luke), but she has been impacted by his legacy and impact on the galaxy. And here is the hero of the sequel trilogy staring at what is left of the villain of the original trilogy, unable to escape his legacy but trying to forge her path forward in this universe as a hero. I think it’s a pretty cool shot.
We’ve seen these shots before too, as our heroes arrive at what looks to be a massive festival on Pasaana. Rey, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and BB-8 are together, and I bet this is shortly after the shot we saw earlier of the Falcon arriving at a desert planet (and you can see the ship in the background).
We’ve seen shots often of the speeder chase that happens on Pasaana, but this is a new one: the First Order apparently has a bike of sorts that stormtroopers ride in pursuit, firing upon their enemy. My first thought when seeing this was of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy where the superhero rides a bike similar to this, and I actually really love this. The funny thing is that in Star Wars vehicles with wheels are actually the ones that are rarer to see, so I think it’s cool to see a vehicle with wheels put into action in a pursuit like this, along with the speeders and Jet Troopers and others.
The Resistance heroes, meanwhile, have speeders. And as they fly it looks like Rey and Chewbacca share the same speeder, and Rey turns and fires her blaster at the First Order troopers in pursuit.
BB-8 helps too, as we know from the previous trailer that he’s the one who launches the canister into the air that results in this explosion, probably attempting to create more distance between the First Order pursuers. I think you can faintly make out two troopers flying in from the distance.
As we’ve seen before, Finn (riding on a speeder with Poe and C-3PO) is quite excited and lets out an excited yell as he pumps his fist in the air.
Rey stands, lightsaber ignited, on Kijimi, facing Kylo Ren. You can tell there’s a black figure to the left of the screen, and just a split second earlier we see the figure holding Kylo’s lightsaber with a red glow. So it looks like Rey and Kylo Ren face off on Kijimi, and I wonder whether this one is part of a Force bond sequence.
One other note: it looks like there’s a figure running at the top of the stairs here (you can’t tell in this image because Kylo is blocking him), but I have no idea who it is or what they’re about. Maybe it’s not even significant; who knows?
A close-up of Kylo Ren, wearing his reforged mask. It looks like he’s aboard the Star Destroyer, perhaps even in the same location in which he keeps Darth Vader’s helmet.
Here’s where the money shots of this TV spot come in, as we see Rey standing at the edge of a Star Destroyer hangar, with Kylo looking on, and the Millennium Falcon circling around to hover right outside. I’m guessing that this takes place after the sequence earlier with Vader’s helmet, and that Kylo surely doesn’t anticipate Rey doing what she’s about to do. He probably figures he has her cornered.
The Falcon‘s thrusters blow stormtroopers down in the hangar as Kylo Ren, holding his mask this time, steadies himself with the Force as he is pushed back…
… And Rey literally leaps out of the hangar to the Falcon waiting nearby!!! We see that Finn is waiting at the ramp to help her, and he’s wearing a mask to help him breathe. This is all a desperate escape it seems like, and Finn is right there to make sure Rey gets away safely.
So here’s what seems to happen: Rey (and probably the others) infiltrate this First Order Star Destroyer, and at some point Rey winds up staring at the helmet of Darth Vader before encountering Kylo, whether in person or in a Force bond. She then must escape the Star Destroyer, and so she heads to the edge of the hangar of the Star Destroyer as the Falcon swings by outside. The Falcon turns so that the thrusters blow the enemy forces back in the hangar, and Rey then runs and leaps out of the hangar, into space, and onto the Falcon as they escape. That’s pretty awesome! I can’t wait to see this on the big screen.
There’s a new shot of the space battle happening, as the Resistance forces attack a Star Destroyer. I’m so excited that we’re going to be getting a true large-scale space battle to wrap up this saga.
We’ve seen this before, but it’s just another reminder that this space battle doesn’t just involve ships, as Finn, Jannah, and BB-8 lead a charge atop the Star Destroyer itself!
We get the shot of Rey standing and facing Palpatine, which is that same scene we saw near the end of the last trailer – but I think that this one is from a slightly different angle, so probably just a couple of seconds before or after the ones we got in the previous footage.
As we get another glimpse of Rey and Kylo Ren fighting on the ruins of the Death Star (which we’ve seen often), we get a new close-up of Rey’s face during this fight, and she looks pretty serious and angry.
As these shots near the end of the TV spot play, we hear a new voiceover from Finn saying, “We’re all in this. ‘Till the end.” This line is probably intended to convey the idea that Rey (or someone else) isn’t in this alone and that they’re all in the fight together until the end. Our heroes must unite to face Palpatine and his forces, and they’ll do it together.
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