“Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker,” the newest episode in the Star Wars series, provided three emotional moments that impacted the audience.

Overall the movie delivered a nostalgic conclusion to the new trilogy, especially with its callbacks to the first installment “A New Hope.” Director J.J. Abrams created a film that perfectly ended the Skywalker Saga of Star Wars Episodes 1-9. However, fans have said that the ending could be reopened if Lucasfilm, the company that produces the Star Wars films, wanted. 

The film follows the Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) and her quest to both defeat Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who has been resurrected for the final film, and her attempts to redeem her rival, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Formerly known as Ben Solo, Ren is the nephew of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and son of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). 

Spoilers for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are ahead.”

While hearing C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) say he was “Taking one last look sir at my friends,” was not a surprise, since Lucasfilm decided to produce that scene in the trailer, it was a shock to see what actually happened to the beloved character. The mechanic Babu Frick (Shirley Henderson), a small puppet-sized alien that speaks another language, had to wipe C-3P0’s memory in order to translate a secret message in the Ancient Sith language the droid had in his memory. 

This was an emotional moment for many people since C-3P0 has starred in all the mainline Star Wars movies. In the end, R2-D2 (Ben Burtt) was able to save a portion of C3P0’s memory, which then programmed C-3P0 up to date with the current events. 

While some viewers thought that wiping C3P0’s memory was emotional, the end of Princess Leia’s saga topped it for many others. While Rey and Ren were fighting in the ruins of the second death star from “Return of the Jedi,” Leia realized there was only one way to get her son back. She used the force to talk to him and bring him back to the light side of the force, but during this, she passed away. Because Fisher herself passed away in late 2016, Lucasfilm used old unused footage from the previous two films to honor both Fisher and Leia.  

When Leia died on-screen, Rey stopped fighting Ren, R2-D2 wailed in sorrow and the Wookiee Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) screamed out in pain, having lost a best friend and ally stretching back years into the original trilogy.

Another part of the film that deserves mention is how the director J.J. Abrams played off the relationship between Ren and Rey. Throughout the movie, the two communicated through a special bond in the force, trying to convert their side. Abrams used this mechanic to show the two battling with one another, physically attacking each other from separate rooms. As the movie progresses, Ren turns to the light side, begins going by his birth name Ben and joins Rey to defeat Emperor Palpatine. Solo and Rey fight off the Emperor, who reveals he is Rey’s grandfather. After this, they defeat the final order, but Rey is badly injured. Ben uses the force to heal Rey, but after healing Rey, Ben passes away. 

The final scene of the movie brought nostalgia to fans of the original trilogy. Rey travels back to Tatooine, the Skywalker’s home planet. She buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers and shows off her new yellow-bladed lightsaber — a nod to the Jedi Sentinels of the extended canon.

In the last shot of the movie, a woman approaches Rey and asks what her name is. Rey proudly says “Rey Skywalker,” and stands in the same pose Skywalker did at the end of the very first movie. 

“Rise of Skywalker” brought in a total of $259 million domestically and $516 million internationally during the first week after it was released to the public. This movie will always be with us, just like the force. 

Share