(non-copyrighted star wars theme) (film theorists theme) hello internet! welcome to film theory,looking for love in alderaan places. (laser blast and explosion) recently my friends over at screenrant did a video on their top 10 movie theories that change everything. my theories didn't make the cut, apparently. come on guys neo not being the one, ant-man destroying the planet? (sighs)
what do you expect of me? well, today i have one that they can't ignore. get ready, so star wars i can't think ofa single other film franchise that has had the impact that star wars has had onpopular culture. then there were the prequels that took that legacy and flushed it down the toilet faster than you can say jar jar binks.(sighs) actually don't say jar jar binks, it makes everyone squirm but now there'sanother, a new hope, or i guess a new new hope, star warsthe force awakens and with it all the hype and speculation you could ask forand as you loyal theorists know where
there's over analysis to be had follow it we will. that wasn't even closeto yoda. that said and all the excitement around each new trailerrelease, something the internet's noticed with the force awakens is actuallywhat's not in them. between all the nostalgic imagery, the stormtroopers andx-wings, the lightsabers and han solo himself, something or rather someoneimportant seems to have been completely omitted, luke skywalker, the originalprotagonist of the star wars franchise. mark hamill has definitely been cast this movie. his return, along with carrie fisher andharrison ford's, was a huge selling point
for this film early on and yet whenpressed on the subject director jj abrams himself has said that luke'sabsence from the marketing material for the film has been quote no accident andmark hamill himself has said he's keeping a secret that if revealed wouldcost him a ton of money. i don't know about you, but to me itseems like something is clearly a foot. obviously, this has set the internetablaze with wild theories about the fate of thefinal jedi and the plot of the new film but today we're uncovering the truthbefore it airs in theaters. in an effort to save you your hard-earned popcorndollars, i'm going to go out on a limb
and predict what you'll see when themovie finally gets released. the big secret isthis, luke skywalker, our lovable hero and up-and-coming jedi will in episode 7 be seen to have joined thedarkside. seem like a stretch? (scoffs) it's not. let's look at the facts. first,let's start with the lore that exists in the expanded universe. for those of youwho aren't ... umm what are star wars fans called like what's the star wars equivalent ofa trekkie? the warsian? a starwarian? a warfan! uh ... a starwarfan! yea, it's got a vaguecatchiness to it i suppose.
anyway, the expanded universe covers theofficially licensed material of star wars outside of the films, the clone wars,and rebels. in one story from the universe, the comic dark empire, emperorpalpatine's soul is reborn into a clone, yeah seriously, who is successfully ableto bring luke under his control through the seduction of the dark side. now,admittedly lucasfilms said that the expanded universe is no longer canon butthe seed of an idea certainly existed and honestly we've only just begun because when you think about it luke wasalready headed down the road to the dark side in the original trilogy.
i mean what is the dark side? well, it'sthe part of the force that draws from, shock of all shocks, darker emotions. youknow like fear, anger, hatred, aggression, all that good stuff. basically, the emocare bears. it's often described as the quick and easy path and jedi usually hadto train their entire lives to resist the seduction of the dark side going asfar as to live by a list of tenants that they called the jedi code. basically, thecode amounted to things like don't lie, don't murder, don't add bad cgi to your re-releases, etc. they even had a neatlittle mantra that summed up their order. "there is no emotion. there is peace.
there is no ignorance. there is knowledgethere is no passion. there is serenity. there is no chaos. there is harmony. there is no death. there is the force." man, the more you think about it, the more thejedi sound like a cult. even still this code didn't stop several prominent jedifrom falling over to the dark side. the number that did so is countless inthe expanded universe, but there are still numerous examples and stillcanonical material. count dooku left the order to become the sith lord darthtyrannis, obi-wan's master qui-gon jinn is also mentioned to have flirted withthe dark side and often disagreed with the jedi council, jedi knights barrissoffee and pong krell both fell to the
dark side during the events of the clonewars cartoon, and of course the most prominent fallen jedi of all anakin skywalker. during the productionof the prequel trilogy, george lucas himself explained that the star warssaga is quote like poetry it rhymes. qui-gon mirrors obi-wanamidala mirrors leia and the clearest example of all anakin mirrors luke. in the prequels, yodawarned against training anakin from the very beginning because he was too oldand full of emotional attachments but if yoda feared that anakin's training hadstarted too late
at the ripe old age of 10 then luke waseven worse off. he was right around 18 when he begantraining with obi-wan. in fact, when luke first approaches yoda, he also says that luke is too old of coursehe reluctantly gives in knowing that luke is the best hope for the jedi, but stillsounds awfully similar to what he said about the dark side's greatest warrior.let's also remember luke's failure at the cave of evil. one of luke's biggest tests is to confront whatever you mayfind in the cave on dagobah. within it, luke finds the shadow of darth vader,that he seemingly defeats only for
vader's mask to break revealing luke'sface underneath. now, not only did that foreshadow thetwist that vader was luke's father but it also hints that luke's destiny may beto become a vader-like figure. i mean yoda even says it himself! when luke asks what's in the cave yoda replies "only what you take with you."the only thing in there is luke. that shadow vader is inside of him beforeluke has any strong connection with vader. just wait till he finds out that it'shis father and if that wasn't enough, luke's emotions get the better ofhim when he brashly leaves his training with yoda to save his friends in cloud city,a direct parallel to anakin's own
recklessness and not only that but yodastraight up points out that he's making the exact same mistake vader made. "only a fully trained jedi knight withthe force as his ally, will conquer vader and his emperor. if you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as vaderdid, you will become an agent of evil." an agent of evil. how often do we see yoda wrongthroughout this franchise and yet luke left anyway and everything doesindeed go horribly wrong. he confronts vader and gets his handchopped off, bobba fett steals away han solo,
and everyone else only barely escapes in one piece. it's this moment, this defeat at the endof episode 5, where luke's change starts to happen. look at how is presented in episode 6. he wears black and stands ominously in a position that's visually similar to thatof the emperor and when dealing with jaba, he sounds arrogant, he makes threats,even flat out lies. "nevertheless, i'm taking captain solo and his friends. you can either profit bythis or be destroyed. it's your choice, but i warn you not tounderestimate my power."
that's not the way of the jedi and if welook at the climax of return of the jedi, luke's descent nears its completion andits similarities to vader are at its greatest. the emperor goads luke into striking at him,taunting him, and telling him "to strike me down with all of your hatred and yourjourney towards the dark side will be complete and luke tries it. he actually tries. the only reason hedoesn't murder the emperor in cold blood is vader intervening and blocking theattack. then when vader threatens leia later on, luke gets enraged, tapping into his dark side emotions, andusing them to defeat vader in combat.
he only stops after he cuts off vader's hand revealing the electronicarm underneath and realizing that he is literally becoming his father. palpatine thenurges luke to kill vader and become his new pupil, as anakin once didto dooku, but luke refuses saying that "i am a jedi like my father before me." now you might think that this one littlephrase means that luke is taking a stand and choosing the light but actionsspeak louder than words and none of his actions up to this point have been thatof a true jedi and look specifically at his choice of words.
"i am a jedi like my father before me." his father, yea ... the one who helped destroy the entire jedi order. not exactly the ideal rolemodel in that situation, so despite everything pointing towardsluke giving in and failing as a jedi everyone ends up ok in the final momentsof episode 6. seems kind of like a cop out doesn't it. well it does until you consider one more thing, a more blatant luke is falling to thedark side ending may have been what was originally intended for the film. meetgary kurtz, the producer of the first two,
star wars films with george lucas whoactually helped secure the funding for the first movie. this man is basically the co-creator ofstar wars in everything but title. however, as the series went on lucas andkurt's had a falling out about where star wars should be headed causingkurtz to leave production of return of the jedi. this was a huge blow to the cast andcrew with mark hamill describing the situation in broken family terminology. he said it was like mom and dad gettinga divorce. they were both equally loved
and respected on set, so gary kurtz definitely knows what he'stalking about when star wars is concerned. now believe it or not, kurtz actually went decades withouttalking about his falling out with lucas but in 2010 he finally explained wherethey were originally going with episode 6. now keep in mind that kurtz probablystill has a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of the falling, but hisword on the subject still has a lot of merit. he explained, "we had an outline and georgechanged everything in it. instead of
bittersweet and poignant, he wanted aeuphoric ending where everyone was happy. the original idea was that they wouldrecover the kidnapped han solo in the early part of the story and that hewould die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an imperial base. theinterview clarified the ending stating, "the discussed ending of the film thatkurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, leia grappling with her new duties asqueen, and luke walking off alone like clint eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,as kurtz put it. this ending clearly isn't the one that happened, as kurtz explains it was because the toybusiness began to drive the lucasfilm
empire and lucas wanted a happier ending.that ending sounds very different from what we got, but a bittersweet endingwith luke walking alone into the sunset still doesn't mean he was going to turnhimself to the dark side right? well you should consider one more thing, mark hamill himself liked the idea in anepisode of the show dinner for five kevin smith asked hamil if he thoughtluke skywalker should have fallen to the dark side. "i should have ... i pitched that togeorge, no as an actor that would be more fun to play, i just thought that'sthe way it was going from when we finish 2
- i figured that's what will be thepivotal moment." and you know what the best part of all this is? jj abrams directorof episode 7 was at the table during that episode of dinner for five. markhamill was basically pitching that to jj and honestly i think he'd do it. rememberepisode 7 takes place 30 years after return of the jedi so there's really plenty of time for thedarkness to set in on luke's psyche but here's the biggest thing, lorecharacterization aside, look at the man behind the movie. abrams has a philosophy aboutmovie making that his film should be made
like a mystery box. he did a really interesting ted talkabout it which if you haven't seen you should totally watch. "it goes on and on and look likestar wars, you got the droids and then you get the mysterious woman, who's that? we don'tknow, mystery box you know when you meet luke skywalker. he gets the droid, you seethe holographic image, you learn all it's a message, you know, she wants to you knowfind obi-wan kenobi, he's her only hope but who the hell goes on kenobi mysterybox so you go and he meets ben kenobi, ben kenobi's all is obi-wan kenobi, holyshit you know, so it keeps it something ...
have you guys not seen that?" basically,the gist of it is that he thinks film should be a surprise. you shouldn't know spoilers going in andtwists should be hidden until the release. an excellent example of this was hiswork with star trek into darkness. everyone involved with productioninsisted that benedict cumberbatch wasn't playing khan, going so far as tocreate fake leaks, have actors like karl urban and accidentally reveal thatcumberbatch was playing a different villain, and film fake scenes with adifferent name for pre-release materials. if there is anyone anyone who wouldappreciate this sort of twist, the idea
that the hero we followed for threefilms has suddenly turned to the dark side, it's jj, i helped create lost, abramsbut he's learned his lesson from into darkness and has sealed this twist socompletely in his mystery box that he isn't even giving us a glimpse of lukebefore the film hits the silver screen. he doesn't even want to run the risk ofany clues getting out so that way luke's tragic fall shocks the world on december18 as yoda himself says "once you start down the dark path ... forever will it dominate your destiny." luke started down that path in themovies and abrams is the type of
director who would take that idea andrun with it. is luke a fallen jedi in the force awakens? yes, i think so, but hey that's just atheory ... a film theory ... at least until december 18, by the way while you're hereconsider subscribing because we have more star wars theories up our sleevein anticipation of the new movie. all aboard the hype train, whoo whoo, andseriously i joked about it before but do take a minute to check out my friendsover at screen rant and their video on the top 10 film theories that changeeverything.
there's some fun ones in there and noneare ones that we've actually covered so click right here and go check it out then let me know which one you want tosee me cover in a future episode. i'll be watching taking note and then adding itto my list of ones to cover in 2016 and finally if you don't care about any ofthat other stuff one last vote light side or dark sideeasy as that jedi master or sith lord click on one to choose we'll see whichside ultimately wins ...
