Across the galaxy, the spark of hope lives on. To quell an ever-growing unrest, the tyrannical FIRST ORDER plots to raze any system threatening rebellion.

Racing to unite these disparate worlds, the wounded General LEIA ORGANA dispatches brave agents in her stead to fan the flames of RESISTANCE.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader KYLO REN chases whispers of a dark power hidden in the unknown regions of space, raging in search of anything that might end the cycle of war once and for all. . . .

Now that we know there’ll be no deleted scenes, I feel comfortable sharing the cutlist I cooked up after my three viewings (and have tinkered with since, with the help of some clips on Youtube). Obviously things might change once I get my hands on the thing, but this should be pretty much what I’ll be working towards.

Number one goal: Rey Nobody. Number two goal: better pacing. I think most everything else is a lost cause, besides some minor patches to moments here and there.

I have a couple other ideas that are a bit more out there, but I suspect they won’t work and I’m waiting for the film to be released to see if this is true before I commit.

UPDATED CUTLIST 12/20/20:

New crawl.
Re-timed the crawl slightly so we don’t stay on the still starfield for quite so long.
Added an establishing shot of Mustafar before we see Kylo fighting, courtesy of poppasketti, with music from the soundtrack and SFX added to make the addition seamless.
Slightly extended a few shots of Kylo in the Sith temple
Subtle little “Find me” from Palpatine over the wayfinder close-up, with thanks again to poppasketti.
Added in the eerie choral intro of “Anthem of Evil” to Kylo approaching Palpatine’s lair.
Cut out Snoke’s voice saying “You have ever heard.”
Rescored the Sith fleet rising (with “Anthem of Evil”).
Cut out Palpatine telling Kylo that Rey is not who she seems.
Move Falcon mission to later.
Tempered Rey’s “ugh” a bit.
Rey’s repaired saber cackles, mirroring her inner conflict much like Kylo Ren’s does. (WAITING ON VFX)
We don’t cut to Kylo and Vader’s helmet at all during Rey’s training. Hopefully this will help make the editing in this section of the film feel less hyperactive, without the unmotivated and unexplained Kylo portion.
The visions Rey has are rejiggered, focusing on Rey’s future, really driving home the Dark Rey and throne imagery, with footage pulled from later in the film and the behind-the-scenes doc. Hopefully making her struggle clearer from go and tie in better with the description she gives Finn of her vision later in the film.
Slightly extended Rey’s nighttime talking scene with Leia, giving the pauses some more space.
Potentially change Rey’s line to “I will earn your FAMILY’S saber.” (NO SOLUTION YET)
The Falcon mission starts right after “Yes master.”
Extend shot of TIEs approaching iceberg using shot from the trailer.
The nice little musical flourish when they boulder the TIEs is more present in the mix now.
Extend moments of the lightspeed skipping with a shot created by skenera, treating shots with some slight slow-mo, and adding a shot from the trailer, so that we get a bit more time to register what’s actually happening.
Extended bits of the Resistance briefing on the Palpatine intel.
Potentially add a line for Leia after saying “no” to Rey going on the mission. Something like “it’s too dangerous.” (NO SOLUTION YET)
Added a shot of Leia from the trailer as the Falcon is leaving Ajan Kloss. Like a proud mom, sending her kids off on their adventure.
Reinsert Kylo reconnecting with Vader’s helmet. He has visions of his own here (with footage and audio pulled from TFA and TLJ), which give a motivation for why he rebuilds the mask and make his struggle clearer as well.
Color correct the Star Destroyer hallways to be a bit less blue. JJ took it too far here.
Couple slight extensions to the star destroyer conference scene.
Would be great to have the puppet show on Pasaana portray Luke on Crait. (BEYOND MY ABILITIES)
Slightly extended Rey and Kylo’s Pasaana Force time.
Reinsert “The Speeder Chase” music cue during the Pasaana chase. (IN PROGRESS)
Any mention of Finn having something to tell Rey is cut out. They didn’t resolve this thread in a satisfactory way.
Some shots leading up to the Knights capturing Chewie have been slightly extended.
Rey vs. the Kylo’s TIE Whisper is extended and reedited with shots from the teaser. To build the suspense a little more and to make more of a meal out of the show-stopping sequence.
Chewie’s “death” gets a bit more of a moment, with some extended bits and a couple extra shots (one from the masterful poppasketti), plus some new music to sell the gravity of what has apparently just happened (“The Starkiller” from TFA).
Cut out the premature reveal that Chewie’s alive. Replace with the scene of Kylo and Palpatine’s Force phone call (which feels out of place later anyway).
Cut out Poe saying “We’ve only got 8 hours left.”
Slightly extended arrival on Kijimi with the shot from teaser.
Some slight extensions to the first scene with Babu Frik.
Cut out mention of R2 saving a copy of 3PO’s memory. Save the relief for the end.
3PO stops talking (for once) after “If this mission fails it was all for nothing.” The rest of his quoting of Poe is implied, with his silence adding some extra gravity to his decision rather than hitting it over the head.
Potentially add scene of D-O squeaking around Rey from doc. (STILL DEBATING)
Drastically rearrange and recut Kylo and Rey’s Force bond duel conversation. The emphasis is now on the dark side within Rey, and what happened to her parents rather than there being more to who Rey is. Cut out Kylo’s line “They sold you to protect you,” naturally.
Cut most of the flashback showing Rey’s parents being nice to her and trying to protect her. They just get killed.
Cut out Kylo saying that Rey has Palpatine’s power because she’s a Palpatine. She’s a nobody.
Added/rearranged some lines for Kylo during his hangar offer to Rey. Palpatine foresaw Rey taking the throne. And Kylo explains the dyad a little bit more. Thanks to RogueLeader for brainstorming with me and inspiration for some of the new lines.
Rey doesn’t say “It’s the Death Star.”
Potentially add Finn saying to Jannah “We all have to fight” or something. (NO SOLUTION YET)
Rescored Leia heading off to contact Ben with the Force theme, so as to feel more momentous.
Added an instrumentally based cue of Duel of the Fates to the Death Star duel.
Added about a couple seconds worth of footage to the Death Star duel using shots from the trailers.
Cut Finn’s last “Rey” on the Death Star. One too many (and perhaps more will go as well).
Extended and rescored Leia contacting Ben (with Han and Leia’s theme). Now she says “Ben. Come home.”
Artificially extended Chewie mourning Leia, and used Octorox and Luka Frik’s extended establishing shot of Ben on the DS wreckage to try to slow the film down when it most needs to.
Add an additional establishing shot breaking up the Rey on Ahch-to scenes so it doesn’t seem like she only spends a couple minutes on the island.
Artificially extended shots of Rey on Ahch-to.
Color corrected Luke’s ghost to be less blue.
Cut out Luke talking to Rey about being a Palpatine.
As per Carrie Fisher’s wishes, Leia’s saber is now purple, thanks to skenera. (As per my wishes, it’s a lighter shade, more magenta).
Rescored the Luke and Leia flashback. Missed opportunity to use Luke and Leia’s theme. (IN PROGRESS)
Rey doesn’t say “Two were made” when she retrieves the Wayfinder from Kylo’s fighter. Pointless.
Added a full second to the first shot of the Resistance planning scene by using footage from the trailer.
No subtitle for Nien Nunb. Not necessary and goes by too fast anyway.
Removed Finn saying “Now we’re taking the war to them.” Let’s at least pretend that he has grown since The Last Jedi.
Rescored the Resistance leaving Ajan Kloss with the unused Williams music for that moment, “They Will Come.”
Recolored Exegol to be a bit less monotone blue.
Rearranged the first half of the space battle so that we cut away less often, and brought in the music earlier. Hopefully making the battle feel like a more substantial sequence than just the subplot to Rey’s main story. Part of Rey walking through the pyramid is moved to before the Resistance arrives so that when they do it’s a bit more about getting to business for both storylines.
Extended the attacking the star destroyer money shot using footage from the trailer.
Cut out Palpatine referring to Rey as his grandchild. Cut Rey saying her parents were strong.
Would be nice if Palpatine could say “Luke was saved by his father. (You have no one here) (or something).” (NO SOLUTION YET)
Rearranged the shots during Palpatine’s “no one is coming to save you” voiceover to be more relevant to what he’s saying.
Replaced Ben’s plain TIE with Vader’s TIE Advanced, thanks to poppasketti. Might as well go all the way with the full circle symbolism.
Cut out Finn saying “Rose, please.” Don’t need the fuck you to The Last Jedi to be rubbed in.
Comms chatter added for when the fleet of people show up, including brief cries of “For Skywalker!” compiled by Hal 9000 with audio assists by axalian and mrbenjamino.
Inserted extended shot of the civilian fleet taken from an ILM VFX reel, with a watermark removed by Sir Ridley.
When Rey hears the voices of the Jedi, it is Leia who says “Always,” not Luke (pulled from the trailer). Ridiculous missed opportunity.
Seeing all the Force ghosts square off against Palpatine felt a bit much to me for a few reasons, but there is a more subtle nod to the concept with their visages just barely appearing behind Rey when she stands up, a thousand generations living within her now (effect credit to jonh).
Before Rey defeats Palpatine, Rey says “I’m no one,” pulled from the TFA trailer.
The fantastic rendition of the Force theme that plays while Palpatine gets destroyed has been brought up in the mix.
Ben’s body disappearing is slightly extended/rearranged so it doesn’t feel as choppy.
Replaced Endor in the montage with Coruscant (shot created by poppasketti with some tweaks to the color). Now there’s a planet from each trilogy.
Cut out D-O saying “Happy.” (STILL DEBATING)
Cut Chewie receiving his medal. Stupid.
Cut Lando’s scene with Jannah. Weird.
Cut, rearranged, and extended bits of the celebration to make up for the deleted portions.
Subtle double rainbow in the sky over the Lars homestead, courtesy poppasketti.
Rescored the music that leads into the end credits. Repetitive.
Fixed the insane decision not to include Ben’s ghost at the end, thanks to jonh.
Beautiful new final shot that feels much more fitting, provided by poppasketti.

Mockups…
Final Order Revealed: https://vimeo.com/409356850
Rey’s Vision: https://vimeo.com/406327520
Kylos’ Vision V1: https://vimeo.com/406328685
Rey vs. TIE Whisper: https://vimeo.com/407939026
Force Bond Duel: https://vimeo.com/414948227
Death Star Duel/Ben and Leia: https://vimeo.com/414119429
Rey on Ahch-to: https://vimeo.com/407441816
Rey vs. Palpatine: https://vimeo.com/409083679
Finale: https://vimeo.com/415655381