The Last Jedi Trailer Breakdown

 

A new trailer for The Last Jedi dropped last night during Monday Night Football, so naturally I’m here to discuss it in length.

The trailer begins with this shot of Kylo Ren doing some serious brooding. It looks like he’s overseeing the construction of something. In the background of this shot, Supreme Leader Snoke is saying “When I found you, “I saw raw, untamed power.” It reads like a pep talk because as we know by the end of The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren must complete his training

 

The next shot is align up of the new walkers featured in The Last Jedi, with new and improved legs so they don’t fall over so easily. An interesting note here is that the third walker is one of the originals from Empire Strikes Back, notice how much smaller it is than the newer models.

Kylo Ren leads the First Order into somewhere* almost definitely the Resistance base on Crait which is the red clay planet featured in the shot with the walkers. There’s also a slight chance this is on Ach-To aka Luke’s Hideout.

Snoke finishes his line from the opening shot saying “And beyond that, something truly special.” Side note: Kylo Ren is actually the main character of this trailer.

My girl Rey brings some much needed light into this trailer. Back on Ach-To they roll the badass training shots from the teaser.

As we had previously seen, Luke’s once realistic hand has gone full bionic. Here he touches his old lightsaber for the first time in more than 30 years.

Rey walks towards this gloomy Degobah-esque tree, which I’m also positive we’ve seen the inside of.

Here’s what I’m presuming to be in that tree, a collection of books that’s most likely the Journal of the Whills. An ancient book from Star Wars Legends that was (sort of) made canon by Rogue One.

Yes, yes, yes. Chop that rock Rey.

After Rey chops that rock, they replay the floating rocks meditation from the first trailer and we see Rey’s strength in the force is powerful enough to crack the earth. This leaves Luke in shock, as you can see above.

“I’ve seen this raw strength only once before,” says Luke. Mark Hamill’s acting here is phenomenal. He’s really nailing the old, skeptical hermit vibe.

The next two shots are Luke among the ashes of his old Jedi temple. Leading us to believe that the destruction of the temple is why Luke has become such a recluse and hesitant to train Rey.

Rey looks tired, Daisy mentioned at Star Wars Celebration Orlando that in The Last Jedi she will learn what it’s like to meet your heroes and be let down. It seems like that’s what is happening in the shot above.

Kylo Ren, emo as ever. Is brooding over his helmet, seconds before smashing it into the wall. He’s unmasked in every shot after this, so it’s safe to assume he’s ditching the mask at some point.

Kylo is shown once again, this time flying a tie fighter in an attack against the Resistance. Side Note: Check out his cool space Band-Aid.

Every time I see Carrie Fisher on screen I cry a little. Here she’s sort of facing off with Kylo on opposite sides of the battle.

Flip to Kylo thumbing the trigger of his Tie-Fighter, presumably aiming at Leia. Odds are he doesn’t shoot.

Here’s a new shot of the Millenium Falcon flying through some crysalized caves. Cool.

As gratuitous as it may be, I love this shot. Chewie roars while piloting the Falcon then the camera pans over to a Porg, also roaring triumphantly. It was in this instant I realized: Porgs are my new favorite characters, I need a buddy cop movie called Chewie and the Porgs, the Porg takeover is imminent, and if any single Porg suffers an injury of any kind (either mental and physical) then I will burn this franchise to the ground. The link to all porg merchandise is here.

Poe Dameron gives my favorite quote from this trailer, saying “We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the first order down,” Then they roll some shots of him flying his really cool X-Wing.

Phasma clashes with Finn (in a First Order uniform) in one of the finest pieces of cinematography in this whole trailer.

Luke is shown again, sopping wet ominously stating “this is not going to go how you think”. Which seems to be a bit of foreshadowing for the movie as a whole.

While Porgs are infinitely cuter, these Ice-Jedi-Dire Wolves are pretty freaking cool.

Here we get our first live action shot of non-holographic Snoke and boy does he look creepy. Interestng thing to note, he also looks very human.

While it’s not clear who Snoke is talking to when he says “fulfill your destiny” it is laid over a shot of him torturing Rey which may be a dead give-a-way or a misdirection. Rey being here means that she won’t spend the whole movie on Ach-To.

Rey says “I need someone to show me my place in all of this” We all assume that she’s referring to Luke here but…..

the next shot is Kylo Ren holding out his hand. This leaves us with so many possibilities, does this mean Rey will go dark, or does it mean Kylo is going to the light? It could also signify a sort of grey area in the force that used to exist in Legends. Of course it could also be a fantastic misdirection, I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

The biggest takeaway for me here is that Kylo and Rey seem to be struggling with their respective mentors. In the Force Awakens, Snoke made Kylo kill his ow father, something he’s probably going to struggle with throughout the whole movie. Their respective struggles could lead to their eventual team up. Poe, Finn and Leia are sprinkled lightly throughout the trailer, but alot is notably absent here. There is no Canto-Bight, no Benicio Del-Toro, no Laura Dern and no Maz Kanata.

Tickets are now on sale and of course I already have mine, December 16th can’t come fast enough.