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Dom's (Possibly) Useful TROS Edit (WIP)

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 (Edited)

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

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I’m digging your cut list. I think the biggest thing to help make Rey Nobody work is figure out how to rework Kylo Ren’s dialogue. We could reuse dialogue from TFA/TLJ, but we might need to look through Adam’s filmography, or even interviews, where we could find new lines that could work in this context. Or someone that could do a decent impression, since the mask voice effect could help hide the difference between Adam and the voice actor.

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There have been discussions of using the Duel of the Fates theme during the Rey and Kylo lightsaber fight on the Death Star wreckage. Is this something you would consider adding to your list?

With Rey being a nobody does this mean she no longer takes on the Skywalker name? When Rey is on Tatooine at the end and the old hag asks Rey for a surname she says “Just Rey”. This would mean a movie title change as well.

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Also, what is everyone feeling about the lesbian kiss at the celebration near the end of the movie? Is this something that will be on the cut list? Did it feel forced and out of place for a Star Wars movie?

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stevepaynter said:

Also, what is everyone feeling about the lesbian kiss at the celebration near the end of the movie? Is this something that will be on the cut list? Did it feel forced and out of place for a Star Wars movie?

I actually do want to cut it, but for the exact opposite reason you do. It just feels like a token, an excuse for not giving Finn and Poe some kind of romance. “We’re totally not homophobes, look! We added a kiss between two women who have never been seen before, that was edited out for Muslim nations! Diversity for the win!”

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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Nice cutlist, if it can be done.

I’d leave the kiss in. It only feels weird because we’re aware that JJ and co tried to make a huge deal out of this absolute bare minimum level of representation - as a moment in the film divorced from that it’s not intrusive at all (far less so than Chewie’s medal!).

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On the topic of Finn/Poe is there a way we could edit Poe’s moment with Zorii and give it to him and Finn instead?

EDIT: actually that would play as too funny to be any kind of earnest payoff for that possible romance lmao

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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DominicCobb said:

  • Extend the lightspeed skipping scene using a shot from the trailer, so that we get a bit more time to register what’s happening.

Can I ask a bit more about this? What shot is in the trailer that helps the pacing here?

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There is a shot of the Millennium Falcon in hyperspace in the teaser.

The unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequel and Disney trilogies is that they will always be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

I also prefer to be referred to as “TNT”, not “Freezing”.

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liambrazier said:

DominicCobb said:

  • Extend the lightspeed skipping scene using a shot from the trailer, so that we get a bit more time to register what’s happening.

Can I ask a bit more about this? What shot is in the trailer that helps the pacing here?

He probably means the shot in the first teaser trailer, with the Falcon coming out of hyperspace.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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Keep the lesbian kiss, even though it is hamfisted and lazy and in no way makes up for the lack of proper representation, but because even so it’s still better than nothing.

Edit: Preempting any negative responses; representation isn’t an agenda.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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As for the “skipping,” I am curious about your direction here. The whole things was just … ack.

Personally, just removing the scenes all together would be cut. The scene cuts off when the falcon jumps to hyperspace through the ice. Done.

When they discuss it later with Rey … we don’t need to really understand exactly what they mean by “skipping.” Whatever they were doing, it messed up the Falcon. Heck, if someone is good with some subtle FX, we can show some sparks or something happening to the falcon as it breaks through the ice. Keep it subtle, but unconsciously we (the view) see’s he’s been rough on the Falcon.

Also yes, please remove the kiss. I hate agendas. But regardless on a personal edit I am removing it. That’ll be easy.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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Find a way to make Finn and Poe more gay and I’ll be happy with the movie.

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EddieDean said:

Keep the lesbian kiss, even though it is hamfisted and lazy and in no way makes up for the lack of proper representation, but because even so it’s still better than nothing.

Edit: Preempting any negative responses; representation isn’t an agenda.

Keep the gay kiss, remove the Rey and Kylo kiss.

Representation isn’t an agenda, but Disney didn’t insert a gay kiss because they care about representation.

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If you’re looking for someone to remove the lesbian kiss, you’ve come to the wrong place. If it was a man and woman kissing, no one would say it was for an agenda. Obvious double standard. It’s unfortunate that the queerness isn’t more integrated, and the moment is obviously just throwing a bone, but LFL/JJ patting themselves on the back aside, it’s about damn time, and this small moment (which feels natural) is better than nothing.

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Where are you going to source the trailer shots you intend on using? Do they exist in high bit-rate form somewhere?

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RogueLeader said:

I’m digging your cut list. I think the biggest thing to help make Rey Nobody work is figure out how to rework Kylo Ren’s dialogue.

After coming up with a rough idea of how to accomplish Rey Nobody after my first two viewings, on my third watch I closely looked to see what was needed. I may change my mind when I see the film again, but my thought was that it’d actually be fairly straightforward with minimal need for new dialogue.

stevepaynter said:

There have been discussions of using the Duel of the Fates theme during the Rey and Kylo lightsaber fight on the Death Star wreckage. Is this something you would consider adding to your list?

I was just discussing this. I suspect the epicness of the cue wouldn’t fit the short scene. Though I’ll definitely try it and see how it looks.

With Rey being a nobody does this mean she no longer takes on the Skywalker name? When Rey is on Tatooine at the end and the old hag asks Rey for a surname she says “Just Rey”. This would mean a movie title change as well.

I think the Skywalker scene still fits. As long as I’m cutting out any suggestion that her parents were nice and “strong,” I feel her taking another name might actually fit better than in the theatrical cut. I like the “Just Rey” idea, but I’m skeptical that you could make it work.

FreezingTNT2 said:

There is a shot of the Millennium Falcon in hyperspace in the teaser.

That’s right, I believe it isn’t in the film.

jarbear said:

As for the “skipping,” I am curious about your direction here. The whole things was just … ack.

Very simple answer: I like it.

snooker said:

Find a way to make Finn and Poe more gay and I’ll be happy with the movie.

If only.

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Well, fair enough if you like the skipping stuff. To each their own. I just can’t get around the idea it breaks the very “rules” in Star Wars as well as bypassing what happened in the last movie about the whole “tracking thing” that needed the power of Star Destroyers to track people but now its in each TIE fighter and they can simply follow anyone they want? Also the thing about needing NAV computers to plot out courses since you would run into stuff and Poe jumps how many times with no problem?

Again each to their own … I just can’t get behind it. It’s like having a super man trilogy movie in which the first movie it’s established Kryptonite injures him but in the next one he is playing with a ball of the stuff with some friends and isn’t affected by it.

Anyway, I like a lot of your list ideas.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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jarbear said:

Well, fair enough if you like the skipping stuff. To each their own. I just can’t get around the idea it breaks the very “rules” in Star Wars as well as bypassing what happened in the last movie about the whole “tracking thing” that needed the power of Star Destroyers to track people but now its in each TIE fighter and they can simply follow anyone they want? Also the thing about needing NAV computers to plot out courses since you would run into stuff and Poe jumps how many times with no problem?

Personally I don’t really see how it breaks any rules. They say jumping to lightspeed without proper calculations is dangerous, and in this scene we see the danger. “Rules” in a universe like this only exist to serve the story.

As far as the tracking, it seems like a natural progression that they’d upgrade everything they have with the ability.

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Oh! Can you cut Finn’s obvious crush on Rey? Is it possible?

We do lose that wonderful argument before Hux’s hero moment, but i think it can be lost.

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snooker said:

Oh! Can you cut Finn’s obvious crush on Rey? Is it possible?

We do lose that wonderful argument before Hux’s hero moment, but i think it can be lost.

This is something I’m definitely considering. I had hoped there might be a scene that fixed this on the BD (explaining how he wanted to tell her he had the Force), but since that doesn’t exist, and the storyline is only resolved through implication alone in the film, it might be better to ditch.

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I love almost all the ideas you outline here. I don’t know why you insist on calling your project useless, and hope you’ll execute these ideas. I think “my” project would benefit greatly from your help with some of these. (“My” in quotes because it’ll be tough for me to spend any length of time on editing, given my life situation now.)

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I think you can fairly easily cut out the banter between Finn and Poe. It would tighten up that scene a bit, which in itself could be a good thing.

Since there is NO ultimate satisfaction on “what Finn wanted to say” in the movie, it would be better to remove all of it.

Sigh … when you have to explain things in a tweet or a book for MAJOR plot elements or unanswered questions … you know you are doing something wrong in a movie.

“Because you are a PalpaWalker?”

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It would GREAT if instead of Rey getting a pep talk from Jedi she doesn’t know, Rey and Finn’s minds connect through the Force, and Finn, the person she actually knows, gives her that encouragement to get up. It would sort of pay off all that build up, and Rey would realize Finn has the Force without him having to say anything.