“Saving what we love” in The Last Jedi

Rian Johnson goes after the past in the most stunning Star Wars movie since Empire

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE LAST JEDI FOLLOW

There’s a principle bored into the core of Philosophy (it basically is Philosophy) that we should always question the things we believe in the most if we are to have a hope of making them stronger. This doesn't mean coming at life from some Socrates, smart-arse, contrarian angle where you should question everything because it’ll make you look cool, but instead because it can actually improve the things we have to deal with every day. Take what you know, question it, tear it apart and whatever is left standing when the dust settles is worth holding onto.

This brutal kind of thinking crops up constantly throughout history and has shaped and defined countries, movements and people since humans first realised that squidgy thing in their head was for thinking. So of course, it was only a matter of time before someone applied it to that holiest of modern phenomenon: Star Wars.

I watched The Last Jedi twice in the first day of its release and I’m still not actually sure it exists. It’s easily the most astonishing franchise movie of the decade; yes, stylistically, but also because of the massive cojones needed to take a battering ram to arguably the most sacred pop culture artifact of the last 100 years. And to do it all from a place of love, of course.

The fact that it’s even attempting this at all is pretty remarkable given the current nostalgia craze sweeping Hollywood as well as the franchise’s own recent past. The Force Awakens, for all of its new characters, doesn’t exactly upset the status quo, both plot-wise (like I need to add to the mass-bodyslam of people calling The Force Awakens a copy of A New Hope) and thematically (it’s basically a Star Wars movie about how great Star Wars is). Rogue One aims a little wider but is essentially a museum piece that preserves and adopts all the iconography of the original movie. Which is fine, I mean, I don’t think anyone walked into Rogue One hoping it was going to fundamentally change Star Wars or anything like that. But given those two movies are as they are, Disney’s game plan looks pretty obvious: worship Star Wars and don't let anyone think otherwise.

Enter Rian Johnson. I'm not sure exactly how well known Johnson is by name but if you don't recognise him, you’ve almost certainly heard of or seen his work. A few years ago he released an amazing sci-fi time-travel film called Looper starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis, but perhaps you’re more familiar with his work on a little television show called Breaking Bad. He directed three episodes, including ‘best TV episode ever’ Ozymandias – yeah, THAT one. I feel like that last credit alone is enough to prove Rian Johnson knows his shit, at least, I hope that makes it slightly clearer why I’ve been having hype-dreams about this movie for a year now (Yes, actual dreams. Yes, I am sad. No, I don’t care.)

Cutting to the chase, last week Episode VIII released; you’ve already seen it and you already know why everyone is losing their minds over it. You’ve probably guessed by now that I love it to bits and I do (it's my new favourite Star Wars film - don't @ me). There’s a million different reasons why; some of them out of pure glee (Hux getting the verbal and physical shit kicked out of him for the entire run time, Luke trolling Rey during training, THAT silent cut), some of them out of just general awe of the craft involved (the work needed to generate the electricity of the last 40 minutes cannot be understated). But underneath all this (I say underneath – it’s not exactly subtle), The Last Jedi is a movie about outgrowing the past, deciding which bits to keep and which bits to call down lightning upon and then giggle madly in the warmth of the embers.

A lot has been made of the way the film analyses its character’s and their pasts in terms of failure. The new hope of the Original Trilogy is dead, Nazis scuttle out of the woodwork to destroy the Republic and proclaim world dominance and the Resistance is perpetually moments away from destruction. In this vein, The Last Jedi isn’t afraid to crush several things we might have originally held up as integral. Luke Skywalker is reduced to a bitter old man disparaging the ways of the Jedi, explicit effort goes into obfuscating the binary nature of the dark side and the light and even the seemingly important Supreme Leader Snoke is offed after only appearing on screen for a few minutes.

It’s not entirely difficult to view this kind of brazenness as vaguely iconoclastic to the Star Wars universe. Johnson is taking a hammer to elements that, up until now, have been considered largely sacred, especially given that Star Wars has had 40 years to sink its claws into popular culture. Probably the most literal, visual manifestation of this idea occurs when Rey and Kylo Ren tear the Skywalker lightsaber in two (a lightsaber so iconic which The Force Awakens more or less likened it to Excalibur). Then there’s the film ending with the passing of Luke Skywalker (I don’t have to explain why that’s a big deal, right?) while even iconic memelord Admiral Ackbar is killed almost offscreen. It’s tempting to see these decisions as malicious and sure enough, plenty of people are drawing comparisons between Johnson’s storytelling choices and Kylo Ren’s now famous line “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.”

However, I don’t believe for a second that Johnson makes any of these moves out of pure anarchy or even for iconoclasm’s sake. There’s not much to be gained from purely dismantling everything, hence why The Last Jedi makes such a big deal of putting as much as it can back together again. The point of questioning everything, after all, is to make it stronger and The Last Jedi is arguably the strongest storytelling effort in a Star Wars film since Empire.

The biggest demonstration of this and the point upon which the entire theme of the movie pivots upon is the ‘twist’ regarding Rey’s parentage. The revelation that Rey is not a Skywalker, but the daughter of parents who sold her for money is the ultimate destruction of the Skywalker/destiny/'chosen one' worship that has steadily grown throughout the franchise. We’ve seen this kind of anti-destiny line of thinking pop up in other films (most notably The Lego Movie) but to hear it coming from Star Wars – the film series that’s consistently gone for broke on the chosen one angle – is like The Daily Mail printing an article about how Brexit might not be all it's cracked up to be.

But rather than just destroy the Skywalker legacy and leave Episode IX to pick up the pieces, The Last Jedi reframes the entire situation in a positive light. Rey might not be anybody, but she doesn’t need to be to do the right thing and win. It’s why she rejects Kylo’s negging, why the Resistance is still able to win and why the movie ends on a shot of a slave boy across the galaxy staring up at the stars. There’s an article about Rey’s parents on Vox that sums this up pretty succinctly: “Last Jedi restores the idea that anybody could be the galaxy-saving hero to the center of Star Wars.” And if that's too cheesy a reason, then consider how wide open the narrative potential of the franchise has become now we don't have to rely on an archaic entrenched bloodline system that tells both the audience and the characters that the only way this will end is when someone called Skywalker or Kenobi has a fight with someone else named Skywalker or Kenobi.

Then there's Snoke’s death which isn't just some "gotcha" tactic done because Johnson thought Snoke was a bit naff, but more in service of upping the ante of Kylo Ren’s arc than it does a judgement call on whether Snoke was particularly interesting (spoiler: he wasn’t). Having drawn direct parallels between Snoke and The Emperor in The Force Awakens, I think everyone was coming into this movie expecting him to at least make it to Episode IX. But instead Snoke's death at the hands of would-be Vader Kylo Ren trying to save Rey just doesn't muddy the lines between good and bad, but then opens up an enormous power vaccuum for Ren's selfish psychological complications to play out in the most extreme settings possible. I’ve seen people argue that Snoke could have been really compelling if we’d learnt anything about him but, honestly, the decision to kill him off giving way to everything that follows (we’re all in agreement that Ren and Rey’s lightsaber fight is in the top 3, right?) is so much more interesting than if we’d learned he was Mace Windu or some other rubbish. There’s a reason the entire throne room scene has already become the stuff of Star Wars legend – the midnight screening I went to couldn’t believe what they were seeing and that kind of energy stayed in the room right through to when the credits rolled.

On top of expanding just what is possible in a Star Wars film, it’s worth noting how for all the talk of The Last Jedi being one of the darkest movies in the saga (and it is pretty heavy), it still ends on a note of unparalleled optimism. The Rebellion is reborn, the war is just beginning and the Jedi live on, free of their past failings. It’s the sort of film that isn’t just content to have its hero grumpily ask how he’s supposed to face down an army armed with just a “laser sword”, but then builds him up again so he can do just that. That’s the thing Kylo Ren for all his apparent ‘resolve’ can’t understand – the past might suck and it might be time to leave it behind, but you don’t have to let all of it go to waste. He can’t see the value in rescuing the Resistance ships from their destruction at the hands of the First Order because he’s not looking to save what is worth saving, but rather seize control under the pretense of balance.

Whereas there's no way that Johnson is approaching any of the decisions he makes in this movie from any place other than a deep love of this franchise and a desire to make it better. Which is why tossing around Ren’s mantra when describing The Last Jedi is really a mischaracterisation, especially when Rose puts it so much better:

“I saved you, dummy. That’s how we’re going to win. Not by destroying what we hate, but saving what we love.”

The Last Jedi saves what it loves and in doing so has probably saved Star Wars from wheel-spinning into oblivion. And whilst I'm not sure this exact approach is the sort of thing that can save the more recent Hollywood franchises from the same fate (most of them, even Marvel, just don’t have the level of history or reverence that Star Wars has), in terms of sheer risk-taking and pulling the audience out of their comfort zone, then yeah, I’m crossing my fingers that what Johnson and co. pulled off here catches on in the same way Avengers’ cinematic universe model became the studio goal five years ago. It’s going to be absurdly difficult to follow up, as we’re going into Episode IX with no Luke, no Skywalkers (save Ben) and a Resistance crew small enough that they can all fit comfortably onto the Millenium Falcon, or to put it another way:

“We have everything we need.”

Oh, and just so we're clear: after this movie, I'm doubling down on my whole 'Kylo Ren is the best movie villain of the decade' stance. Deal with it.

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