In-depth analysis of the new footage, with pictures!
Spoiler warning: Don’t read this until you’ve seen this!
It’s begun. This morning, Lucasfilm released the first footage ever for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a teaser trailer, simultaneously premiering in theaters and over the Internet. The Star Wars YouTube account hit one million followers, and social media exploded. Oddly, the Today show ignored the moment, and decided to talk about Independence Day 2, for some reason.
Without further adieu, let’s dig into this monumental, historic trailer and see what we can see.
A black screen, that fades in to a shot of sand dunes. The colors look familiar. It feels like Tatooine, but nothing is confirmed.
A deep, vaguely British voice speaks: “There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?” Many have speculated that this voice is none other than Benedict Cumberbatch, and it’s not a crazy idea. He was on set at one point. But, for my money, I’m not counting out Max von Sydow. (Update: The voice is confirmed to be Andy Serkis.)
John Boyega springs upward into the scene! He’s sweating and out of breath. It looks as if he is slightly disoriented. He turns around. Oh yeah, HE’S IN STORMTROOPER ARMOR! Amazing. This transition caught me off guard. The jump surprise made me smile! I love a good laugh from cinematic choices like this, although the scene may be deadly serious. The Imperial probe droid noises can also be heard here. Is this an indicator of something happening in the scene, or merely familiar audio filler? Is Boyega being chased by the probe droid? Is he chasing someone with that probe droid? Is he a stormtrooper, or is he posing as one? So many questions!
Screen cuts to black.
A small, orange-and-white colored droid is moving from right to left across the screen at a fast pace. It has the head of an astromech, but this head is bobbing on a rapidly spinning ball, as if it is magnetically joined to it without wires, or the middle of the ball is bisected in some way. In the background we can see a fenced-in area in the desert, with various engines, old ships, and other mechanical debris strewn about.
-It looks like a salvage yard to me. The new John Williams score is frenetic. The strings feel chaotic and tense.
Screen cuts to black.
Flickering lights illuminate stormtroopers with clearly updated armor. One is shorter than the others. The new helmets look abstractly skull-like. These stormtroopers are getting ready to deploy from a moving vehicle. We see them lock and load new blaster rifles, and get prepared to jump into a nighttime storm. Lights can be seen past the rain and smoke.
Screen cuts to black.
Daisy Ridley is in desert garb, on a saddle-style seat of a bike-type vehicle. She looks back, as if in pursuit, and frantically takes the controls of her vehicle. Ridley’s character looks like a scrapper to me. Her riding goggles are repurposed from an OT stormtrooper helmet, and her vehicle looks like a single engine from a podracer that’s been modified with a seat and steering. There’s also a strange, long stick attached to the side of the vehicle, and it doesn’t look like a gaffi stick or a magnetic podracing stick. Could it be some sort of lightsaber poleaxe? She sets off to a group of odd structures in the distance.
Screen cuts to black.
Oscar Issac is piloting an X-Wing. It looks stormy outside the cockpit. He looks deadly serious, and somewhat worse for the wear. The updated helmet and pilot suit looks amazing! The Rebel Alliance insignia is VERY prominent on his uniform. It can be seen on the front and side of his helmet, as well as his white vest. “Pull to release” is written in Aurebesh upside down on his vest, so the wearer would be able to read it. It’s amazing how much he resembles Zev Senesca from The Empire Strikes Back.
The scene shift to outside the cockpit, where three newly designed X-Wing fighters are screaming across a body of water. Get a good look at the new scissor-style wing and blue body paint. Spray roars in back of the fighters as misty mountains loom ominously in the distance. What planet are we on? Endor? Naboo? Tatooine?! Somewhere new, maybe.
The X-Wings are in attack formation.
Screen cuts to black.
A figure cloaked in black stalks through a wintry wood at night. There are no signs of civilization anywhere, just trees. It is lightly snowing. Tatters can be seen on layers of this figure’s clothing. The narrator returns, saying, “The dark side….” As if the figure was reacting to this cue, they raise their right leg, pull for a lightsaber and ignite it low to the ground.
It sounds like no other lightsaber ever heard before. It explodes out of the hilt in a deep booming ignition. The red blade flickers and wavers like arcing electricity. Perhaps this is from the atmosphere? Perhaps it is an irregular saber in some way.
Irregular, indeed. The hilt of this saber reveals a unique feature: a lightsaber-beam crossguard, a brilliant feature for a person who expects to duel with other lightsaber wielders. (Jedi didn’t do that much for the majority of their history, mind you. Sith did.) This lightsaber has garnered much attention. People say it is dangerous. Yes, it is. Precisely the right weapon for a dark side user. People say it wouldn’t work right, because the metal hilt extends too far out. Have you ever seen Return of the Jedi? Most of the metal in the Emperor’s throne room was lightsaber resistant. This weapon is amazing, cool, bad ass and just plain AWESOME. I for one welcome a lightsaber claymore.
Who is this dark figure? Why are they in this woods? What are they afraid of that caused them to prepare for attack? Adam driver is the most common guess, and Gwendolyn Christie has garnered some attention too. Has anyone considered Luke Skywalker? We know nothing about this situation. It could literally be anyone.
Screen cuts to black. Music ends.
Narrator: “And the light.”
BOOM! The original Star Wars theme roars more triumphantly than ever as the Millennium Falcon reaches for the sky! Holy shit. It’s flying in atmosphere, and there are vapor trails following it. The satellite dish has been replaced, and it’s now rectangular. But wait–the camera is twisting, and we find the Falcon hurtling toward the sand instead of the sky!
The ship recovers, and propels forward, twisting like a striking punch, just as it dodges the green blasts from two TIE Fighters.
This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. The dogfight potential has now been pushed beyond anything we’ve ever seen before. I’m positive George Lucas is satisfied. Star Wars is back!
Smash cut to the Star Wars logo, which recedes into the background as “The Force Awakens” comes into view. “December 2015” follows, and at the bottom of the screen can be read “©2014 Lucasfilm Ltd.” NOT Disney. NOT Bad Robot. This is a Lucasfilm production, and make no mistake about that.
Screen cuts to black. The music ends, and we hear the rumble of the Force, then the ignition of a classic lightsaber echoes.
Fin.
There’s a lot more to discuss. As I was just saying, Disney and Bad Robot are nowhere to be found here, and this is apropos. After quite literally years of speculation on this front, how LFL will be treated is now crystal clear.
It is also interesting to consider what else is not seen in this trailer, namely, none of the original cast. I think this is tactical; this teaser is designed to make the new characters recognizeable, so they will blend more easily a year from now. If you doubt this, answer me one question: how well did you know Star-Lord in November 2013? Better yet: how many times did you say the word “Sith” before 1998? Teasers are great for injecting new ideas into the zeitgeist in easy, manageable doses.
I expect a new trailer featuring the old cast in April, just in time for Celebration.
Also, let’s discuss what that narrator said a little more. Maybe we can glean some new ideas by digging deeper.
“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side, and the light.”
One declarative sentence. One question. One fragment. This is dialogue. It is not a speech, or any other type manuscript being read aloud. It is being spoken by the narrator to another being. However, the narrator did not stop to get an answer to his question. This means that the person he is conversing with is not with him.
The narrator is sending a message.
This is a transmission to someone far away. He has information he needs to tell another person. And, these two being understand what is going on. Think about the language he chooses to use. AN awakening. Not THE awakening, or THE FORCE has awakened. No, he says, “There has been an awaking,” as if this is something natural; it’s like an awakening is a phenomenon that is unpredictable but expected.
The narrator then requests confirmation that his counterpart has felt it. Has the narrator felt it also, or does the narrator just have the information that the awakening has occurred, and seeks one who can feel it to confirm? Then, the narrator goes into further informative detail, sentences are not needed: “The dark side, and the light.” Does this mean that awakenings take different forms? Are there dark side awakenings, light side awakenings, and balanced awakenings? Does this all further my unified Force idea? I think it is very, very possible. The narrator find the information that there are both sides awakened to be interesting enough to actually say it. If it were a common thing, there would be no need to expound on both side via message.
Finally, I’m going to get very speculative. I think that whomever is talking is watching events from a distance. They understand the nature of the Force in a way we’ve never seen. I think we are hearing the voice of a Whill, those watchers that George has always kept far off, but assured us were integral to his entire framework.
So, that’s it. I think a Whill has discovered the awakening of the Force, and in the vast distances of space and time, this is an event that has happened before and will happen again. In a year, we will see the events that predicate that fact.
Comments? Send email to contact@retrozap.com.
-JT
Joseph Tavano is the owner and editor in chief of RetroZap. Born just months before Luke found out who his father was, he has been fortunate to have had Star Wars in his life as long as he can remember. Growing up just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, he can remember substituting sticks for lightsabers and BMX bikes for speeders. He loves comics, retro games, vintage sci-fi paperbacks, and maps. Though an accomplished drummer, he doesn’t crave adventure (as much) any more, and prefers his old haunts north of Boston, Massachusetts, where he resides with his family. Buy him a glass of whiskey and he’ll return it in kind.