Those New Force Powers In 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Are A Call Back To 'The Empire Strikes Back'

Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘ is still the talk of the town and director Rian Johnson is back again with new details on this film, this time focussing on the new ways the Force was used in it! Interestingly enough, all of the key parts weren’t really completely new but just a new twist on something that we’ve already seen from ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’. I’m going to be mentioning a few specifics here so if you haven’t had a chance to see the movie quite yet I don’t know why you’re sitting online reading this when you should have already called into school or work sick and headed to the movie theater!

Now that we’ve weeded out the 5 or so people who have yet to see ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ or have somehow avoided the Internet outside of this post to go and see the movie blind, let’s talk about the Force. Let’s talk a spoilery filled version of the Force where Rian Johnson explains the connection between Rey and Kylo Ren as well as that awesome fight scene at the end of the movie!

First off, Johnson brings up the connection between Kylo and Rey in the movie where they’re able to speak with one another through the Force across the Galaxy. While we later learn that Snoke was helping facilitate this connection, it was actually a callback to a moment where Vader and Luke shared together:

“With the Force connections between Rey and Kylo I thought, ‘OK, I need to get these two talking. But if I put them face to face they’re going to either fight, or one of them has to be tied up.’ I knew I wanted them to talk, and to talk enough to where we could go from ‘I hate you,’ to her being forced to actually engage with him. That’s where the idea of these ‘Force connections’ came from, which is kind of a new thing. It’s a little bit of a riff on what happens with Vader and Luke at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, but it’s entirely new in some regards.”

That makes sense in the view that it really isn’t something new, just a new way that a power we’ve previously seen is being used.

As to that amazing fight scene where Luke Skywalker projected his way into what seemed to be an amazing duel with Kylo, it was actually another variation of the same skill set:

“When Luke shows up [on the planet Crait] he’s projecting, it’s like a hardcore variation of what Kylo and Rey have been doing the whole time and that’s why it takes so much out of him. In the version that we play, no. We tried to play really, really fair. In terms of his footsteps — we removed all of his foley — there are no footstep sounds. They never touch. And if you look, the salt flakes that are falling are sparking off of Kylo’s saber and not off of Luke’s.”

So there you have it folks, a great explanation of how the powers came to be and that it wasn’t fully original in that view. A creative take on a Force power and one which has the blessing of the Lucasfilm Story Group and specifically from Pablo Hidalgo who tends to be in charge of these things.

Are you thrilled to see a new take on a classic iconic scene that involved the Force? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Slash Film