Star Wars: The Last Skywalker Awakens

Episode VII

THE LAST SKYWALKER AWAKENS

Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In his absence, the sinister
FIRST ORDER has risen from
the ashes of the Empire and
will stop at nothing until
Skywalker, the last Jedi, has
been destroyed.

As the peaceful New
Republic struggles to fight
this resurgent menace,
General Leia Organa gathers
her allies and leads a brave
RESISTANCE. She is
desperate to find her brother
Luke and restore hope to the
galaxy.

Searching for clues to Luke’s
whereabouts, Leia’s most
daring pilot has been
intercepted by the First Order
on the desert planet of
Jakku…

This is a fan edit that condenses all three films of the Star Wars sequel trilogy into a single, monolithic tale centred upon the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren, and their battle over the Skywalker legacy. It is akin in length and scope to something like the Lord of the Rings extended editions, but meant to serve as a singular epilogue to the Skywalker Saga (eps I-VI).

Sections of other ancillary stories have been pruned out (sorry Finn, Rose et al) to make the focus clearer and the story leaner, while still providing context and stakes for our hero’s new found family, as well as retaining a good sense of narrative pacing. I’ve also introduced the visual language of insert shots earlier on in the story to align with their increasing appearance in TLJ and TRoS.

This is not a “cut out everything I don’t like” edit, more an attempt to hone in on and amplify what is already at the heart of the sequel trilogy.

SW: TLSA is, at this time, still a living work, with several changes large and small still to be made. The intention is that, barring the unearthing of something like deleted scenes from TRoS, V3 will be a final and completed version.

V2.5 runtime clocks in at about 5 hours

Change list

Changed in V2.5

• Cut Poe saying Finn is “familiar with the weapons system” (he now just “worked on the base”)

• Cut a shot of Finn and Rey reacting to the sun “setting” on Ilum before Kylo’s betrayal

• Re-added some of the Resistance’s escape from D’Qar after Luke tosses his saber. The dreadnought bombing run is removed, Poe now buys time for the escape ships before gunning it back to the fleet on Leia’s orders so they can jump away.

• Swapped Snoke’s initial dialogue in his throne room back to its original to tie back in with Hux’s re-added line after the Resistance’s escape (“tied on a string, indeed…”)

• Re-added the preamble before the First Order catches up with the fleeing Resistance for pacing

• Re-added Holdo’s reaction to the medical ship being destroyed

• Added an insert shot of Leia and a brief statement of Luke and Leia’s theme to imply that it was Luke’s Force contact that awoke her from her coma

• Added an insert during Snoke’s mind probe of Rey to imply that her cloaked binary beacon is what revealed the Resistance’s escape ships to Snoke

• Re-added the “it’s salt” moment before the battle of Crait to slow pacing here

• Replaced the TIE that Ben arrives at Exegol in during the finale with Vader’s TIE Advanced (thanks to popasketti)

Changed in V2

• Shuffled and re-added a couple more scenes surrounding the attack on Starkiller Base to provide more context for the Resistance’s arrival and Rey’s mission to Ach-to

• Replaced Snoke’s laugh and praising of Hux during his throne room introduction with un-used dialogue from TFA.

• Re-added Holdo’s speech after Luke’s first lesson.

• Cut Nambi Ghima asking Rey her family name, she now just says “I’m Rey.” before being interrupted by the force bond

• Added a statement of the Rise of Skywalker theme to the above moment to connote Rey’s developing identity

• Cut old woman on Tatooine asking “Rey who?” to completely remove the conflict of her not having a surname. I trust the audience to get that she’s struggling with her identity without being asked her family name constantly and frowning.

• Added credits from TFA and TLJ

• A few other small adjustments and fixes

• Tightened the opening attack on the Jakku village, focusing on the First Order and Kylo Ren’s arrival (embellished using a couple of quick shots from the first trailer), while still seeing snippets of Poe giving BB8 something important, and the beginning of Finn’s turn

• Removed Finn’s freakout (footage used later) and reprimand from Phasma (who sadly has no place in this story beyond the village in Jakku)

• Cut Kylo telling Hux/the audience where the map is after Poe’s interrogation, now a match cut from “where is it…” straight to BB-8 being dumped from Rey’s speeder

• Trimmed Finn and Poe’s escape sequence so there is less First Order bureaucracy, and removed Finn immediately razing a platoon of Stormtroopers (he still takes out the command bay before escaping)

• Moved Kylo reprimanding Hux about his troops to replace the Phasma/Hux exchange about Finn

• Finn awakes in the desert alone with Poe’s jacket nearby and begins to wander desperately, no exploding ship

• Cut the gag with Finn and the gross water for pacing

• Cut Finn’s comical double-take reaction to Rey (now a quick raise of the eyebrows)

• Cut Finn’s repeated “I am with the resistance” in order to understate his deception to Rey and the audience a bit

• Cut BB-8’s back-and-forth look when asked where the Resistance base is and Finn’s “please…” for the same reason as above

• Shortened the rathtar sequence to streamline things. We get the pair meeting Han, confronting the gangs and quickly making their escape without a heap of CGI monster mash

• Cut the gag where Han opens the door with Chewie’s crossbow and it’s implied this is somehow the first time he’s used his furry life partner’s weapon

• Cut Chewie reacting to the dejarik table

• Cut the Finn and Han exchange on Takodana (“women always figure out the truth…”)

• Insert shot of Finn taking off his bloodied helmet during his confession to Rey, linking this back to the beginning of his story

• The battle on Takodana is trimmed down to focus on Rey and Kylo’s first encounter. Finn, Han and Chewie fighting First Order troops has been cut and the first time Finn uses the Skywalker saber is now in the forest on Ilum

• Han, Finn and the Resistance’s arrival on Ilum/Starkiller Base is re-arranged significantly. We cut from Han and Leia’s reunion on Takodana straight to Rey’s interrogation > Snoke (“bring her to me”) > Finn and the Resistance arriving back on D’Qar > Han and Leia’s exchange about their son > Rey’s escape from the interrogation room > the Resistance rallying and Han and Leia saying farewell > Kylo returns to find Rey gone, has a tantrum > Han and Finn arrive on Ilum

• Added insert shots during Kylo Ren’s interrogation, two of Rey etching days into the wall of her home (“desperate to sleep”), and two of Ach-To (“I see it, I see the island”): one of the old Jedi tree, and another unused shot of Rey standing above the dark side cave from an episode VIII trailer.

• Cut Hux’s reference to the destruction of the Republic, focusing the stakes on the race to find Luke Skywalker. No more planet-killer weapons. Starkiller Base is now just a foreboding and ominously-named First Order headquarters that the Resistance leads an attack on in an attempt to rescue Rey and strike a serious blow to the enemy.

• Poe and the Resistance pilots’ attack on Starkiller has been tightened up for pacing.

• Cut shot of Finn and Rey reacting to Ilum’s star being extinguished. Darkness falling is now a neatly metaphorical happenstance.

• Cut Snoke saying “prepare the weapon…”

• Cut the extended shot of Ilum imploding into a star, the Falcon now leaves a collapsing landscape with the Resistance fighters in tow.

• Rey meeting Luke has been stitched together between TFA and TLJ as one continuous sequence.

• The ticking clock of the First Order slowly trailing the Resistance fleet has been pared back significantly. After the Resistance’s quick escape, cutaways to the fleet are limited to Kylo’s attack and other bits necessary to break up the pacing of the Luke/Rey/Kylo story and provide context. Which means virtually all of Finn and Rose’s story in TLJ is cut. This was necessary to lean out the story and keep the focus on Rey/Kylo/Luke/Leia. No DJ, no Canto Bight, no incursion onto the Supremacy. This unfortunately makes Finn’s presence in the second act of this story fairly small, but as it mostly relates to his own inner struggle and not his relationship to Rey, it had to go. This involved numerous cuts throughout all of TLJ.

• This also means the Poe/Holdo plotline is removed, with Holdo appearing as a heroically self-sacrificing Resistance admiral (similar to how Rebel leaders other than the main gang are treated in the OT).

• Cut the exposition on the Supremacy bridge between Kylo being recalled and Leia doing her space walk for pacing.

• Cut the gag with the Porgs watching aghast as Chewie eats Porgs (Chewie is now just seen eating Porgs).

• Cut Luke’s practical Joke with the leaf during his first lesson for tonal consistency.

• Borrowed from TLJ Rekindled to add Sith whispers to Rey’s call to the darkness.

• Borrowed from TLJ Rekindled to add Palpatine’s faint visage during the cave sequence.

• The battle on Crait is significantly trimmed down, framing it as the Resistance’s desperate last stand before Rey and Luke arrive to save the day, and the climactic end to this story’s second act

• Rey and Chewie drawing the fighters off and dispatching them is now intercut with Poe’s decision to pull back and Finn’s refusal.

• Borrowed from TLJ Rekindled to remove Rose sacrificing herself for Finn.

• Cut Connix and D’Acy’s line about their signal not being received, with Leia’s line now about the “spark” going out now relating to their immediate situation.

• Instead of imagining a binary sunset on Ach-To before dying, Luke now has a brief vision of Rey facing the sunrise on Tatooine using a shot from the theatrical ending of TRoS unused in Ascendant. He dies at peace knowing what the future holds.

• Borrowed from TLJ Rekindled to add Palpatine’s cryptic message to Kylo Ren after the battle of Crait.

• We cut from the Falcon going to hyperspace at the end of TLJ straight to Kylo raging on Mustafar and his discovery of Palpatine. It’s then stated via a (stylish and Star Wars-y) title card that between this and when we see Rey training on Ajan Kloss is when the year-long time skip occurs (“Some time later…”)

• Finn, Chewie and Poe getting the dead-drop from Boolio is cut, they now arrive back at base after Rey’s training from a dangerous mission with the Falcon burning and an important message.

• Cut Leia refusing to let Rey follow Luke’s path as it adds little dramatically, and also removes Rey’s line “it’s what you would do” which sounds as though she’s already referring to Leia posthumously

• Cut Finn and Rose’s exchange before the gang leaves (sorry, Rose)

• Cut Leia’s line “never be afraid of who you are”, replaced with the existing musical cue. One repeated line from the limited soundboard they had of Carrie Fisher is enough for this script (“never underestimate a droid”), it’s unnecessary to use several at once

• Cut Finn’s line regarding Poe hot-wiring the speeders, now just looks disapprovingly for a beat

• The Pasaana speeder chase has been trimmed to focus on Rey

• Removed Snap reporting to Leia about the mission for pacing

• Cut Rey’s line “terrible things were done with this” so that her psychometry is implied through sound effects instead

• Rescored Rey and Kylo’s showdown in the Pasaana desert using cues from ‘The Cave’ and ‘The Ways of the Force’

• Cut the exchange about Poe being a former spice runner, instead just implied that he used to be involved in some vague shady stuff

• Cut the Knights of Ren appearing on Kijimi (we already know they’re tracking them and they do nothing on this planet at all)

• Cut C-3PO’s speech about saying goodbye to his friends (now left on a beat of him reacting to “do we have a choice?”)

• Cut Poe and Zori’s exchange on the rooftops

• After Rey says “Chewie… He’s on Ren’s ship” we cut to Chewie being taken to interrogation to try and land his resurrection a bit better

• Cut Poe refusing Zori’s command chit

• Cut C-3PO’s line “whoever this Chewie person is…”

• No more Hux subplot or fake-out execution on Ren’s ship over Kijimi. After saving Chewie, we next see Finn and Poe when saving Rey from the hangar

• Trimmed down the force-bond duel between Rey and Kylo, cutting a few egregious lines (“they sold you to protect you”) and making the insert shots a bit more rapid and hazy, as though Rey is still trying to block the memories

• Trimmed repairing the Falcon on Endor

• Cut Finn and Poe’s argument about Rey. Adding this level of conflict between them didn’t make sense at this point in the telling of this abridged story

• Cut Dark Rey repeating Leia’s line “don’t be afraid of who you are” as well as trimmed the teeth-baring jump scare to hopefully be a bit more of a scare

• Rescored the first part of Rey and Kylo’s saber duel on the old Death Star using a cue from Return of the Jedi, echoing Luke and Vader’s duel while providing new context to the statement of Palpatine’s theme

• Added sound effect from Kylo and Leia’s force-connection in TLJ to the moment she reaches out to him.

• Added an echo of Han saying “come home” over the shot of Han’s medal from TRoS Ascendant

• The Resistance’s big conference meeting about the plan for the attack on Exegol has been cut, but retained Finn and Poe’s inspirational speech

• Taking advantage of its less than legible sense of scale and scope, the final battle at Exegol has been trimmed significantly to focus on the encounter between Rey, Palpatine and Ben. No mass appearance of Starships from all over the galaxy. The Resistance fights to buy time for Rey to fulfil her destiny and confront her grandfather.

• The newly minted Emperor Palpatine now laughs maniacally as he preens for the Sith cultists

• Added a small cue from ‘Anthem of Evil’ before Palpatine begins shooting lightning at Rey

• Cut Finn’s line “people are rising up all over the galaxy” just before we see a montage of people rising up all over the galaxy

• The celebration montage has been significantly trimmed to focus on Rey reuniting tearfully with her friends

• Retained hal9000’s moving of the dejarik table scene to Tatooine but extended it very slightly with a quick reaction shot of Finn and Poe

• No more force ghosts. Poignant insert shots of the Skywalkers now flash by as Rey looks to the sunrise and recalls the love she has for them, deciding to take up the Skywalker name.

• Replaced the final musical cue in TRoS’ credits with the last part of the credits suite from TLJ, a stirring arrangement of Rey’s theme on the strings and celeste.

Still to do

• Work out a new opening crawl that removes reference to a superweapon

• Once released, incorporate the crackling Skywalker saber in TRoS from Hal9000’s Ascendant cut, as well as re-instate Leia’s purple saber (still sans-ghosts, which I’m leaving out to intentionally focus on Rey during the finale)

• Make subtitles available

Previews

(* = preview outdated as of V2.5. Will render and update new previews with V3.)
Attack on Jakku Village*
Trap Both Gangs*
Rey’s Interrogation
Approaching Luke
The Battle of Crait
Everything We Need/Mustafar*
Pasaana Confrontation*
No Jakanka
Chewie’s Alive*
Force Bond Duel on Kijimi
Dark Rey
Final Saber Duel
Celebration and Finale*

This edit borrows heavily from Hal9000’s exemplary sequel edits TFA Restructured, TLJ Legendary, and TRoS Ascendant, as well as popasketti’s TLJ Rekindled.

Art by Brian Rood

Drop a reply if you’d like to be PM’d the link. Any and all feedback or suggestions are welcome!

Only the very subtle ones that exist in Hal’s edits (Rey’s vision on Takodana, Luke’s second lesson) but that raises a good point, this edit may benefit from some heavier foreshadowing and I will look into possibly borrowing from those edits. Are there any others that you could recommend towards that end?

I’ve experimented a bit with adding the Caretaker villager sequence back in to the story, but as it sits it doesn’t do a lot for me. The effects are very rough (especially the dodgy wire-work) and with this edit borrowing heavily from TLJ Legendary, we have no context for the Caretakers as they’ve been removed from the rest of the film. I’m going to leave it out for the time being.

V1 of this edit is now complete!

I’ve updated the OP with a more comprehensive cut list and some examples. Pop a reply here if you’d like a download link.

SandMTV said:

bbghost said:

• Figure out what to do with the credits for all three films.

Play all of them at the same time. One at the top and the two next to each other at the bottom. Just like JXeditor’s Skywalker film edit.

I think they made an entire bespoke credits for their edit, but it’s a good idea. I might see if I can just plop all three credits sequences next to each other, it might look a bit janky but I’ll feel better for having them there.

Looked through some bits last night and I’ve fixed a continuity mistake where “hangar 718” is mentioned twice in two scenes very near each other and in the wrong order. I’ve removed the second scene and extended the Falcon’s arrival a bit to compensate.

I’m just about finished up on a V2 of this edit, which adds back in a couple of key scenes for some missing stakes and context in the TFA/TLJ chapters, as well as fix up some continuity errors introduced in larger-scale edits and a few sound fixes.

V2 is now finished and uploaded, links have been sent.

Sure thing, links sent!

PM sent

It’s been really interesting in the process of this edit how many times I would be doing a watch-back and taking notes and going “wow, that’s a pretty janky music transition, I should see if I can do better” only to discover it’s what was in the actual theatrical version.

Stuff you probably don’t notice on a casual watch but if you’re going through it with a fine-tooth comb, all that glue and tape really starts to show!

I very much like your analogy of a Japanese zen garden, this feels very in line with the processes I’ve taken to come to this edit! Glad you enjoyed 😄