This is something that has been discussed multiple times in the past but I figured I would reiterate my thoughts on it on the radical edit ideas thread.
Of course one of the big issues with TFA is how it bears a lot of similarities with ANH. I think the existence of Starkiller Base had a big part to play in that comparison. It really is the one thing that I think made a lot of people begin to draw comparisons. I think Restructured comes as close as possible to alleviating that comparison by having the Resistance fail at destroying Starkiller Base before it destroys the New Republic.
Since TFA came out, there has been a lot of talk of try to make Starkiller Base a star forge-like device, or even a regular base for the sole reason of not wanting another super weapon. I have to admit that the idea of of Starkiller Base has grown on me over time, and it makes since for the First Order to want to emulate the Empire, but beyond not liking the repetitiveness of the super weapon plot device, I do think there is a genuine narrative reason why removing it would be an improvement.
Really, TFA is about finding Luke Skywalker. It is really what the first two acts of the film are all about. But as soon as Starkiller Base is introduced, that plot gets sidelined in order to focus on them wanting to blow Starkiller up. Not only that, but we get that weird plot-point of R2 having the other half of the map, but randomly waking up at the end of the movie and conveniently having it (which Restructured also alleviates to a degree).
While I think there would be a lot of problems to solve in order to make this work, I think a radical idea for TFA would be to make the third act be about sneaking onto Starkiller Base in order to get the second half of the map to Skywalker.
Let me try to outline some of the changes:
-
Of course, all shots of Starkiller Base would need to be altered to remove the giant hole in the planet, and instead make it look like a normal planet.
-
When Kylo is interrogating Poe, you could reuse dialogue from Rey’s interrogation so he tells Poe that they have the rest of the map, recovered from the archives of the Empire. By adding that, now Poe knows that the First Order has the rest of the map.
-
You would want to use Restructured’s version of the Takodana attack.
-
One of the hardest changes would be to restructure the Resistance base scene to remove them talking about Starkiller base being a weapon, or them wanting to blow it up. Possibly a solution could be found by redubbing Ackbar, 3PO or a random Resistance officer to give a nice, concise line regarding their objective, and make the scene much shorter.
-
Slightly trim Hux’s speech to remove “this fierce machine…upon which we stand”, just something like “we will bring an end to the Senate…” instead.
-
Also, replace the sequence of Starkiller draining the sun with a fleet of Star Destroyers orbiting Starkiller jumping into hyperspace in different directions, to imply they are preparing to invade the Republic.
-
When Han and Finn get to Starkiller base, Han jumps in low to avoid the scanners rather than jump through the planet’s shield. Later, they use Phasma to get the map instead of lowering the shields. Would just need to replace the graphics on screen. Using Nev’s idea, Phasma sounds the alarm.
-
Add offscreen Resistance dialogue to say something about Han and Finn being exposed, or the alarm being set off, which then leads to Poe and Black Squadron to attack Starkiller Base as an distraction for Han and Finn to escape.
-
During the dogfight, I was thinking some pilot chatter could be added to mention something about a tractor beam. This could be what the Oscillator is. (alternatively, the Oscillator could still be an oscillator, and Starkiller be like a factory and Black Squadron still wants to destroy it. Depends on if the ground destructions could be cut out or not.) If the Oscillator was a part of the tractor beam system, the shot of the X-Wing crashing into the ground in front of Han, Rey and Finn could be used somehow to imply this.
-
Because of this tractor beam, they can’t leave, which is why they still try to go destroy it with the explosives. [Interestingly, according to some early TFA leaks, Hux originally might have had some kind of tech on Starkiller base that could pull ships to the ground, so it could be fitting].
-
So when Kylo kills Han, instead of intercutting between that and Starkiller destroying Hosnian Prime, we cut to a scene of a fleet of Star Destroyers entering Hosnian Prime’s orbit. We could use footage from the D’Qar battle in TLJ to have multiple First Order dreadnoughts enter Hosnian’s orbit, then fire their cannons down onto the planet. We then could cut to the shot of Kor Sella as she watches those lasers come crashing down on them, destroying everything. This new sequence would be a combination of TFA footage, TLJ footage and some newly created shots. But structure-wise, it could play out similarly as it does in Restructured. After Han dies, cut to one half of Leia’s reaction shot, show First Order fleet destroying the New Republic, then cut to the latter half of Leia’s reaction shot, then back to Starkiller Base.
-
Also instead of the sun disappearing, you could just make clouds block it out, or even a Star Destroyer.
-
Chewie blows a hole in the building. Poe could fly in and blow it up but not exactly necessary. You would definitely probably want to avoid using Poe’s Death Star trench run at least. At some point you could add pilot VO about the tractor beam being disabled, or use a monitor shot from the First Order base to show the tractor beam being “drained” sort of like the shot of Obi-Wan turning it off in ANH. Some First Order VO could be used in this instance too.
-
Throughout the rest of the Starkiller sequence, you would want to remove any shots of the ground breaking apart. I don’t know how feasible this is, but two possible solutions. If it is impossible to completely remove, you could have Starkiller be some kind of Star Forge device that they still destroy, my only gripe with this is how it kind of contradicts thee idea that arms dealers are selling weapons to the First Order, but I guess those two things aren’t necessarily incompatible, if arms dealers are selling them certain types of weapons, and even designs/schematics. A second option would be to make Starkiller look like it has giant cracks and rivers of lava in certain areas on the wide shots of the planet. Maybe one could add lava to that shot of the mountain on Starkiller right before Rey’s interrogation scene (it would be sort of reminiscent to some TFA concept art of a snowy planet with lava on it).
[If making Starkiller a star forge was necessary, you could keep the planets appearance similar, and the draining the sun thing, and have shot of Star Destroyers coming out of it earlier in the film, like an idea Neverar had. It would also visually explain how the Empire was able to rebuild unnoticed, and you could still have the Resistance destroy it. But wanted to try to come up with a solution that keeps the focus just on the McGuffin (aka Luke and the map) as much as possible.]
-
Okay, so Rey beats Kylo, and when Chewie rescues them on the Falcon and they leave, one or two new shots would need to be made of them escaping Starkiller Base, since you can’t use the shots of the planet collapsing. You could still use the shot of the Falcon and the X-Wings jumping into hyperspace.
-
Once they get back to the Resistance Base, have some Resistance VO say that Finn has the map as they’re carting him away. (Since it would be hard to create inserts of a hand holding a thing that has the map on it, we would have to stick with the implication that Finn got it when Phasma pulled it up. Then we would hear a Resistance tech or pilot confirm that he has it once we’re back at the base.)
-
BB-8 could tell R2 the good news through beeps, which makes R2 wake up with excitement. Also, we would need to alter 3PO’s dialogue to tell R2 they found the map or that they can find Luke.
There probably would be a lot of smaller changes throughout as well, but I do think it such an edit could be possible. The big thing would be that there would need to be multiple shots with brand new effects, but by by removing Starkiller base and focusing on Luke, I think The Force Awakens would be a lot stronger than it already is. I think if enough people wanted to see this change and we figured out how each necessary change could be executed, then doing the fx work becomes pretty straightforward, and could be something that just gets knocked out over time.
Would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on this.