The Rise of Skywalker: Ascendant (Released) — Page 116

Here is a rough mock-up of the battle of Exegol and ending scenes combining many of the ideas and scenes from the last couple weeks. It is very rough but its more of a concept to look to decide what works and what doesn’t. Here is what is included:

• Poppasketti’s incredible tie-replacement.
• jonh’s awesome ghost clips
• wakeupkeo’s idea of having Ben heal Rey before Palpatine is dead
• Repurposed Chess scene before Tatooine.

For your consideration:

• I chose Jonh’s clip that has a purple lightsaber, I know that Rey doesn’t use the purple all the way through but I didn’t know of any other available clips that changed the color all the way through.
• Rey hearing all of the Jedi’s voices is included but it definitely needs some work. It seems a little redundant with the Jonh’s clip maybe?
• Audio cuts are a little rough
• I wasn’t able to add the new Rey Skywalker line delivery or Poppa’s last falcon shot as they are not yet available for public use… just, uh, imagine that they are there lol

What do you all think? Its kind of a long clip lol

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1It6BCKpFHvhw1AHR9B-7idpVOHs_W9qO/view?usp=drivesdk

There’s no sound for most of the video.

idir_hh said:

There’s no sound for most of the video.

Aww man, when I tested I had my phone on mute… disregard for now… once I get off of work I will try to figure out whats going on lol

Lol happens to us all.

I really do like the idea of Ben healing Rey and disappearing (sans kiss) before she gets up and takes out Palpatine. There’s a couple problems with it though.

1. it takes too long. The cuts probably need to happen a lot quicker considering whatever’s happening is presumably happening in front of him. Cuts and framing can stretch out the reality of a sequence quite well and suspend disbelief in a LOT of ways (most horror movies simply wouldn’t function AT ALL if that kind of trickery weren’t available and automatically accepted by most audiences) but the length of time her resurrection takes really pushes it.

2. Even if you manage to cut down the resurrection length so that it could plausibly happen in front of Palpatine while he’s reveling in adulation and transformation (maybe cutting back and forth between the resurrection and the transformation to show he’s pre-occupied and doesn’t notice what’s happening would help - and would make trimming the length of the resurrection more feasible) once Ben (and Leia) disappear, you almost HAVE to then include both of them in the ghosts behind Rey. That’s a lot of work for a scene everyone seems to be very happy with, not just in the creating ghostly images, but in having to re-time and cut down the screentime the other ghosts currently have now.

Broom Kid said:

I really do like the idea of Ben healing Rey and disappearing (sans kiss) before she gets up and takes out Palpatine. There’s a couple problems with it though.

1. it takes too long. The cuts probably need to happen a lot quicker considering whatever’s happening is presumably happening in front of him. Cuts and framing can stretch out the reality of a sequence quite well and suspend disbelief in a LOT of ways (most horror movies simply wouldn’t function AT ALL if that kind of trickery weren’t available and automatically accepted by most audiences) but the length of time her resurrection takes really pushes it.

2. Even if you manage to cut down the resurrection length so that it could plausibly happen in front of Palpatine while he’s reveling in adulation and transformation (maybe cutting back and forth between the resurrection and the transformation to show he’s pre-occupied and doesn’t notice what’s happening would help - and would make trimming the length of the resurrection more feasible) once Ben (and Leia) disappear, you almost HAVE to then include both of them in the ghosts behind Rey. That’s a lot of work for a scene everyone seems to be very happy with, not just in the creating ghostly images, but in having to re-time and cut down the screentime the other ghosts currently have now.

Yeah in my take on it, I had Ben heal Rey as Palpatine was focused on using Force Storm on the fleet… it does take a while but I moved Poe getting shocked to right after Ben disappears and then Rey pulls Leia’s lightsaber… I think it would be pretty sweet if jonh was able to add Ben and Leia but I think he has mentioned previously about being satisfied with the two on each side.

EDIT: On second thought tho, it may be better to keep Poe getting shocked in it’s theatrical place as it may have padded out the resurrection. Hopefully once I fix the audio issue, we can see if it feels natural or not

I mean, I’d love if Leia & Ben were in that lineup, and I think from a storytelling perspective (in the dramatic scenario where they’re both passed on in that moment, that is) it’s absolutely the right call, but I also understand how much extra work that is, especially considering how satisfied everyone is with how it looks now, both compositionally and technically.

But boy it would be nice if Rey’s master was actually behind Rey as she finally defeats Palpatine. Moving Ben’s sacrifice & resurrection of Rey is a smart idea not only for the reasons you just laid out, but because it makes this heroic culmination of the “be with me” set-up at the beginning that much stronger, with Ben AND Leia actually being with her (along with Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin) when she destroys the Sith once and for all.

(I guess compositionally if you’re adding both Ben AND Leia you still get the symmetry the shot currently has - it’d just be 3 on each side instead of 2)

As it stands, it’s a bit of a dramatic failing that when Rey destroys the sith and achieves her ultimate victory, the two people closest to her at the time aren’t anywhere nearby, either spiritually or physically.

Broom Kid said:

I mean, I’d love if Leia & Ben were in that lineup, and I think from a storytelling perspective (in the dramatic scenario where they’re both passed on in that moment, that is) it’s absolutely the right call, but I also understand how much extra work that is, especially considering how satisfied everyone is with how it looks now, both compositionally and technically.

But boy it would be nice if Rey’s master was actually behind Rey as she finally defeats Palpatine. Moving Ben’s sacrifice & resurrection of Rey is a smart idea not only for the reasons you just laid out, but because it makes this heroic culmination of the “be with me” set-up at the beginning that much stronger, with Ben AND Leia actually being with her (along with Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin) when she destroys the Sith once and for all.

(I guess compositionally if you’re adding both Ben AND Leia you still get the symmetry the shot currently has - it’d just be 3 on each side instead of 2)

As it stands, it’s a bit of a dramatic failing that when Rey destroys the sith and achieves her ultimate victory, the two people closest to her at the time aren’t anywhere nearby, either spiritually or physically.

At the very least we could use some dialog (Ben possibly? Although his force ghost scene at the end might be enough). I think Leia said “The Force is with you, always”, this may work when Rey is blocking the lightening.

Not sure if anyone has seen the ending of this video but the Kylo force ghost and removed old lady is pretty impressive. https://youtu.be/cW-mx3xUHT0

majoras_wrath said:

If Ben resurrects Rey while Palpatine is distracted, you could always just cut away after Ben collapses and Rey shows concern. Then she stands up to face Palps and then after she defeats him, THAT’S when we see Ben and Leia fade away. That way we avoid having to add more ghosts to the scene. Might have to add some camera shake to Ben’s body disappearing though, since the entire temple is crumbling at that point.

I like it… that would definitely fix the plot holes.

Paden said:

Ouch! Works a little too well as a comedy 😦

Thankfully they’ve highlighted almost every point we’re all trying to fix. 😃

While I’m already talking about “fixing” fixes that everyone’s already happy with:

the fixed ending has always sort of bugged me in that with a single cut the sunset goes from two suns stacked on top of each other (to mimick BB-8 in the frame, I’m sure) to the two sons separated (where the original intent is to have Rey and BB-8 silhouetted against them).

But I think there’s a way to fix that problem that gets rid of that jump cut, and also gets rid of the weird back-and-forth with the anonymous woman who shows up out of nowhere and prompts the “what’s your name” thing, while still using the Luke & Leia force ghosts.

HOW ABOUT THIS:

Rey buries the sabers, ignites her own, and gets up.

Instead of cutting to the old woman, cut to the shot of BB-8 against the sunset, with Rey’s feet walking left to right.

then cut to the empty desert, with the sounds of the falcon going through liftoff prep in the background, as Luke & Leia’s ghosts slowly fade in

Cut to the binary sunset, only now the silhouettes are barely-translucent ghostly shapes of Luke & Leia’s backs as they watch the Falcon leave the planet. Iris out

OR:

Cut to the empty desert, with the sounds of the falcon going through liftoff prep in the background, as Luke & Leia’s ghosts slowly fade in

Cut to the binary sunset shot with the Falcon leaving the planet

Cut to the close-up of Luke & Leia smiling, hold on it, and then Iris Out

I don’t think that’s necessary. I’m happy with how it looks now, since the cut between Rey walking away and the Falcon taking off implies passage of time. If anything, it actually emphasizes that the suns are rising instead of setting, which is a poetic way to close out the story.

The cut implies a passage of time but visually it’s a pretty jarring cut. It doesn’t imply so much as it just jumps the suns ahead a couple minutes. I think the fix works fine as-is, but I was thinking about that jump and wondering how it could be made a little smoother and that’s when it occurred to me you can actually smooth out the “passage of time” aspect by repurposing the footage of the ghosts while removing the old woman entirely, plus providing an opportunity to “close the book” on the Skywalker Saga by actually irising out on the twins.

Also I think you could use one of the concert suite versions of Luke & Leia to build to the end credits in that case, too.

You are correct that it’s a binary SUNRISE either way. Force of habit has me referring to it the other way around.

For the moment, I don’t think it’s needed to reshuffle the end shots about the sunset. It’s just a different angle.

And while I think there’s potential in restructuring Ben’s death, I don’t see myself going that way.

kewlfish said:

Here is a rough mock-up of the battle of Exegol and ending scenes combining many of the ideas and scenes from the last couple weeks. It is very rough but its more of a concept to look to decide what works and what doesn’t. Here is what is included:

• Poppasketti’s incredible tie-replacement.
• jonh’s awesome ghost clips
• wakeupkeo’s idea of having Ben heal Rey before Palpatine is dead
• Repurposed Chess scene before Tatooine.

For your consideration:

• I chose Jonh’s clip that has a purple lightsaber, I know that Rey doesn’t use the purple all the way through but I didn’t know of any other available clips that changed the color all the way through.
• Rey hearing all of the Jedi’s voices is included but it definitely needs some work. It seems a little redundant with the Jonh’s clip maybe?
• Audio cuts are a little rough
• I wasn’t able to add the new Rey Skywalker line delivery or Poppa’s last falcon shot as they are not yet available for public use… just, uh, imagine that they are there lol

What do you all think? Its kind of a long clip lol

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1It6BCKpFHvhw1AHR9B-7idpVOHs_W9qO/view?usp=drivesdk

Okay so the sound should be fixed on this lol… this is the same post fixed audio, I haven’t incorporated feedback into this version! Looking forward to thoughts and feedback!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o5cEKfhfdQ7NmPoQsSd7uzmiJFk1pQMN/view?usp=drivesdk

Hal 9000 said:

For the moment, I don’t think it’s needed to reshuffle the end shots about the sunset. It’s just a different angle.

And while I think there’s potential in restructuring Ben’s death, I don’t see myself going that way.

Oops, sorry Hal I didn’t see that you posted this! Disregard previous post 😅

Well, no, I’ll still check it out!

Darth Sadifous said:

Kewlfish,

Thanks for putting this together. I just finished watching it. It’s nice to see all the contributions coming together into a fully formed ending.

I wish there is something more that could be done about the space battle/ “ground battle”. It just seems like there are no stakes at all and Lando’s arrival is so deus ex machina. Perhaps we could cut the wide shot of the armada’s arrival as it’s a bit overwhelming and so unconvincing that Lando rallied that many ships in so little time after no one answered the call one movie prior. Other than this, the ending is vastly improved from what we received theatrically. Thanks to all who have contributed; I’m excited to see the final product!

While I do get goosebumps at that scene, when creating this edit, I literally thought to myself “man how did all of those ships get through that nebula?”

And thank you! It was really awesome to see all of these scenes (even in the rough state that they were in) in one place.