RogueLeader

I agree with you oojason, I see that as very likely.

I know for some time Lucas acted like theatrical reels of the the old films didn’t exist, and now that we have things like the 4K projects is a pretty big comfort. Because of that, what I’m most curious about now is a possible upscaling process for AOTC and ROTS. It would be a bit of a shame if those movies couldn’t stand up to the quality of the rest of the films.

How exactly would that work? Would it be necessary to redo any vfx?

Are there any examples of 2K films that have been upscaled to 4K? And if there are, how do they look?

I had some ideas regarding Holdo, Canto Bight, and the B Plot in general, and I wanted to share them here and get some thoughts.

This first post is going to be able most of the Poe/Holdo stuff specifically.

A lot this is going to be sorta stream of consciousness, because really it is just notes I’ve written down over the course of a few days in my spare time, so apologies in advance.

So to start off, I think a lot of these ideas go with the idea I’ve mentioned before of having additional insert shots during the battle of D’Qar that shows the First Order “slicing” into the Raddus’ navicomputer. I think this would do a lot for the movie. When Poe decides to stay and destroy the dreadnought, that gives the First Order enough time to complete their connection and track them, and this way their tracking tech feels less like it came out of nowhere.

I would also suggest cutting Hux being visibly shaken after they escape, and maybe even cut him being reprimanded by Snoke. I think it would be better if the opening battle still felt like a victory for Hux. That way, it helps justify his overconfidence and hubris during the rest of the movie. Hux’s hubris, imo, is really the most logical excuse for why the FO doesn’t try to flank the Resistance or swarm them with TIE fighters. Hux is merely overconfident and wants to relish in his victory, so any change that helps support that premise makes that idea clearer.

Later when the FO fleet shows up, Leia says, “They’ve tracked us through lightspeed.”
Cut Finn’s “that’s impossible” and cut Leia’s “yes, and they’ve done it”, and just start with Finn’s next line after that about if they jumped again they’d be screwed. Now, it makes it seem like the Resistance is a little more aware of the technology, which helps set up something for later. (ALSO, you would think Finn, of all people, would know that it might be possible)

First Holdo scene -
No ideas for any big edits yet. Maybe cut the shot of Poe looking around after she dismisses everyone. But otherwise, I don’t really see a good way to cut it. Plus, if the Resistance seems to be more aware of hyperspace tracking, then Holdo would possibly know that not only is Poe responsible for the deaths of the many Resistance pilots, but also for giving the FO enough time to track the Raddus. That, plus other reasons, like Poe immediately lying about his rank to a superior officer, and his attitude in general, you can sorta understand why Holdo would be mad. I also think the audience is meant to not like and distrust Holdo at this point, so we shouldn’t feel like she is being fair to Poe initially. In my head, I also feel that Holdo is still figuring out the details of her plan at this point. But, more of my following ideas are meant to try to make Holdo more relatable in the following scenes of her. Maybe some other people have ideas for this scene though.

In the scene where the first ship runs out of fuel, I want to add a new voice over.
Maybe in between Holdo watching the other captain die saying “Godspeed Rebels!” on the hologram, and when Connix asks what to do next, you could have an offscreen Officer say “Transports have arrived undetected.” This helps set up that Holdo knew what she was doing and was testing out her theory to see if transports could go undetected by the First Order.

I just went back and watched this scene, and Connix actually says, “Admiral, six hours of fuel left.”
I’ve mentioned this before, but I also think that any specific mention of time (like a certain amount of hours remaining) should be cut. I think how much time passes should remain ambiguous. So instead, maybe her line could be just cut down to, “Admiral…” as if she were awaiting orders, which Holdo then responds to appropriately.

Something like that might not be immediately recognized by the audience, but once her plan is revealed to Poe, it would be nice for the audience to internally go, “Ohhh, that’s what she was doing” when looking back at it.
Speaking of which, I kinda want to cut Poe’s line, “That could work” when Leia explains it to him.

Poe Makes a Scene -
*Poe barges in.
*Poe: Tell us, that there’s a plan. *[cut “that there’s hope”]
*Cut “hope is like the sun” line
*Cut Poe finishing quote
*Holdo then responds to Poe’s question with a calm “Yes”
*Cut to the shot of the computer screen with the transports on it.
*Over that shot, have Holdo start saying, “When I served under Leia, she-“
*Poe cuts her off: You’re fueling up the transports?
*Cut to Holdo, but make the shot slightly shorter, so Poe walks away before she can really say anything, instead of just staring at him.
*Poe walks up to the terminal, starts his rant. As Holdo enters the bottom of Poe’s frame, have her say “Captain” taken from the first scene, as if she is trying to talk, but Poe keeps going. By the end, when he calls her a traitor, she kicks him off the bridge for going too far.

I’d have to see it to know if it would work for sure, but this scene is meant to show Holdo trying to be a little more reasonable with Poe. Now, when Poe asks if there even is a plan, she calmly says yes. And while her next line would be the start of the whole “Hope is like the sun” line, now it can be up to interpretation. She might’ve been just saying that in this version too, but one also could interpret it as Holdo about to tell Poe that Leia told her about Crait. But, Poe being paranoid, jumped to conclusions and doesn’t give her a chance to explain. I just think this would help bridge that gap between not liking Holdo and finally liking Holdo by the end, if at this point she seems a little more reasonable.

Poe’s Mutiny -
Two options

Either keep it the same, except cut Holdo saying “I hope you know what you’re doing” and Poe’s “Yeah”. Again, not giving Holdo much of a chance to say anything. Poe just tells them to guard them and then walks toward the bridge, or just cut away from the scene before Holdo says that line. Next time we cut back to Poe, he’s walking to the bridge.

Or, don’t have Poe hold Holdo (heh) at gunpoint at all. Just cut that scene. Next time we cut to Poe, he is walking to the bridge. Cut Poe’s line “Yeah, we spoke”, probably just by cutting to the control panel shot sooner. One benefit of cutting it is that by not having Poe hold her at gunpoint, it might seem less weird for her to later say “I like him”, later after he did something so drastic.

Have him start turning off the lights in the hangar, but cut the shot of the pilots holding Holdo at gunpoint, the subsequent shoot out, Poe seeing it on the screen and telling Connix to shut the door. So now, it goes like, Hanger light #1 ‘off’, #2 ‘off’, then cut back to Connix shutting the bridge door.
Between then and when they start burning through the door, you could either add knocking on the door, or maybe some kind alarm sound to show that the Resistance has caught on to Poe hijacking the ship.
Maybe use this Tantive IV alarm sound. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lq_voGkLFD8

Later on, at some point once Holdo sits in the captain’s chair to turn the Raddus around, generate a new shot using the insert of the captain’s chair screen from Poe’s hijacking scene. This time, the shot will show the Raddus pointing toward the Supremecy, but the line of the Raddus’ hyperspace trajectory is lining up with a blue blinking dot that is inside the Supremecy. So during the build up toward the ramming, we’ll see this shot, a repeated shot of the active tracker, and then show it again when she goes to lightspeed, we’ll cut back to it very briefly right as she jumps, and the tracker will flash in a bright white light.

I had made this suggestion awhile back on the TLJ ideas thread, but EddieDean recently suggested the same thing. He worded it very nicely.

EddieDean said:

Regarding the Holdo hyperspace ram and the new hyperspace tracking, maybe these could be tied together. I like the earlier suggestion that hyperspace tracking requires something hyperspatial on the tracking ship (rather than the tracked one), but maybe that could become the weakness that the Raddus uses to attack it directly. Perhaps as Holdo prepares the attack, we could cut to a Raddus screen with some imagery making it clear that it’s locked on to the FO ship’s hyperspace tracker. Perhaps even with a further shot of the tracker itself, just to hammer it home. That would neatly explain why this technique hasn’t been used elsewhere, when it seems like such a powerful but accessible weapon.

It really fits in well with the idea that the bad guy’s technology also carries the seed of the downfall. I was also thinking that you could put a version of that Supremecy graphic with a blue dot inside it (representing the active tracker/hyperspace anomaly), or maybe with a graphic of the active tracker alongside it, in an earlier scene to help imply that Holdo was studying the Supremecy. Maybe in the scene where Poe has his tantrum, you could put this Supremecy graphic on the screen next to the one that shows the transports.

And when Holdo rams into the Supremecy, you could have it where it looks like the ship began splitting halfway through the ship rather than all the way through it. This would be another little thing that helps imply that the Raddus hit the tracker, that is in the middle of the ship, rather than the ship just going right through it.

And possibly, but not necessary, you could superimpose a blue hyperspace tunnel-like effect inside the active tracker array window, to help visually infer that it is connected to hyperspace, sorta like they’ve created a hyperspace bubble inside the ship. Or you could possibly give the room a blue tone.

If you have any thoughts about these ideas please share them.

paja said:

If you had a chance to go to any of three planets where would you go?

I would love to experience the cityscape of Coruscant, enjoy the view from Cloudy City on Bespin, and watch the binary sunset on Tatooine.

I think he meant that instead of showing flashes of the First Order and Starkiller Base, Kylo Ren shows flashes of himself being intimidating. I’m guessing stuff like him killing Lor San Tekka, showing off his saber/force abilities, etc.

Huh, that is a new idea! So even though Finn and Han don’t rescue Rey directly, they still help by buying her more time.

I had thought about cutting Rey’s escape to where she says the mind trick the final time, the trooper just stands there for a beat, and then it cuts to Kylo Ren walking in and she is gone. So we know she did it but don’t actually see her do it (so the first time we really see her “use the Force” is with the lightsaber pull. But, if you base it off the theatrical version, it really doesn’t matter too much the time between Rey escaping and Kylo discovering it, because we see Rey do the mind trick successfully before Kylo comes in, so we know she’ll be gone. So just extending it like in your version doesn’t really change that.

There were a few things I was initially iffy about, I thing it still works logically. Like Han and Finn still being detected even though they stayed low so they wouldn’t, but you could argue they just saw a weird “blip”, and if they had gone higher they definitely would’ve known it was a ship.

Then you wonder, why did they send Kylo to check it out and not some scouts? But honestly I don’t think this is a big deal. I mean, he is not really in a hurry to get back, as far as he knows Rey’s know going anywhere.

Also, Kylo not sending Han until he is closer makes a lot of sense too.

And you’re also suggesting to generate some Stormtrooper comm chatter of some Base disturbances, which is what encourages Rey to try the mind trick again, right? I think that would connect the scenes together as well. The cut back to her becomes more motivated.

I guess the only question would be if it all would work pacing-wise, but I think we’ll just have to see a rough cut to really get a feel for it. One thing that might seem weird back to back is Kylo discovering Rey’s escaped, then immediately being informed she hasn’t been found in the hangar. But I think it could work. I would really like to see this concept.

This is kind of unrelated, but I had an aesthetic thought regarding Starkiller. I was wondering how effective it would be if in the space establishing shots of Starkiller Base, that nebulae were added into the space around it. Basically the idea being that it would make the area of space Starkiller Base is in feel more exotic. Since we have never really seen nebulae in the Star Wars movies before, it could be used to establish a sort of visual aesthetic for uncharted space, and the Unknown Regions more specifically. If it gave the feeling that Starkiller was almost shrouded in these space clouds, it would help give the feeling of Starkiller being “hidden” from the Republic, maybe.

You could also do this with Ach-To as well, since it is also apparently in the Unknown Regions.

Paja, I’d definitely be interested in hearing you do some more of those. I especially would be curious to see the way you approach the Anakin/Padmé romance. You could even use some of the deleted scenes with unfinished effects if you wanted (since that doesn’t matter much!)

Hey man, as long as you’re having fun doing whatever edit you do, I’m totally behind it. Looking forward to hearing more.

Hmm, I think that might be my favorite one yet.

Huh, that is actually kind of cool! Interesting how the rain just adds a lot of ambience to the scene.

Technical note, the sound gets weird when the dart is supposed to hit her. You don’t hear the dart, and it sounds like somebody’s line was cut off as well.

Your edit is hot, Poppa!

That’s an interesting point.

That “Lune Lovegood” personality that disappeared in the film is actually still present in the novel Leia: Princess of Alderaan, which is about when Leia learned that her father was a part of the Rebellion and then joined it herself, around the age of 16. A young Holdo is also present in the book, and her personality is apparently pretty eccentric in there. Clearly Claudia Gray wrote it before they changed her character in the edit. I guess you could write it off as her personality maturing as she got older.

I would really like to see the alternate version of those scenes and actually see how “spaced out” she really was. I wonder exactly why that didn’t work in the edit. Did her quirks make it seem ridiculous that she would be in charge? Was it just too weird?

A part of me wonders if some pertinent info may have been lost by making that change. Would people have understood her more by the end of it with those alternate lines?

Han went onto that catwalk with a strong feeling that he would die, but he did it anyway because he loves his son.

That definitely be a bit of work since you would need to generate totally new shots.

Honestly I agree with ziggy’s pov about Rey’s connection with the Force being something the slowly reveals itself over the course of the movie, and showing too much at the beginning of the film could go against that. It reminds me that I was initially kind of on the fence about the short Reydream sequence. Even though I liked it, I felt even that might be spelling it out too much for the audience.

Instead of drawings on paper, what if you flipped the shots of the wall that she marks days on, remove the markings, and in its place you could put drawings that she had carved into the wall. At the very minimum, you could have a crude drawing of the island. Maybe that could still be foreshadowing, but not necessarily a blatant sign that she has a strong connection to the Force.

I guess a lot of it boils down to perspective. I won’t ask about TLJ, but the Jabba rescue and the Jedi in the arena both work for me. The Han rescue used to be confusing to me, but in my head at least I’ve rationalized it.

I personally think the perspective people have on the B Plot, with Canto Bight and everything, is going to depend if those lessons carry over into Episode IX. How will we see Poe handle being a leader, will Finn act on the lesson of “saving what we love”, and will there be some kind of resolution to this original sin of war that TLJ sort of paints? Will they break the cycle? As the second act in a trilogy, I wonder if these things could be set ups that have pay offs in Episode IX.

And if they do, it could add value to all of those scenes. I could change my mind after Episode IX comes out, but atm that is personally why I disagree with cutting any important scenes of the B Plot.

I understand that the space chase feels slow (I’ve heard others suggest looking at it more as a siege rather than a chase), and the Fathier chase feeling pointless. Maybe the chase would’ve been more visually interesting if they were jumping in and out of hyperspace, or I can understand wanting to trim or cut the Fathier chase. I just think a lot of the conversations between characters add value to the story, and it might be important for what’s to come, too.

Gotta agree with Dom. I think after TFA, a lot of us felt that Kylo, after killing Han, would be transformed into a fully-realized villain. But TLJ just hammered down the fact that killing Han did not have the effect he was hoping for. Kylo is broken, just like his new mask illustrates. I personally think the Kintsugi-vibe with the red lacquer looks badass. Kylo is exactly where he thought he wanted to be this whole time, but he is not happy. He’s just doubling down on his mistakes like a sunken cost fallacy.

With Finn, his character arc has gone like this:
TFA: Wants to save himself —> wants to save Rey
TLJ: Wants to save Rey —> wants to save the Resistance
IX?: Wants to save the Resistance —> wants to save the Resistance AND the soldiers of the First Order (save the good guys and the “bad guys”)

Regarding Rey, in TFA, she was under the delusion that her parents would come back for her. In TLJ, she understood that they weren’t coming back, but she now was wondering why they weren’t coming back? Why did they abandon her? Did something happen to them? That, to me, is why she wanted to see her parents, and why it hurt so much to accept they didn’t actually care about her. Like Dom said, I think she had this fixed idea of who she was supposed to be in TFA, but she realized that wasn’t who she was meant to be. In TLJ, she is lost and trying to figure that out, and asking questions about her identity, like what is it that is awakening in her, and why her parents left her, are apart of that self-actualization.

I feel like people take Hux’s abuse so personally! It is really interesting. I felt that Hux actually had an iverse arc to that of Poe. Poe gets slapped, thrown across a room, and shot. Hux gets smacked to the floor, choked, and thrown against a wall. Hux is young and a little overconfident in his abilities, but by the end of TLJ you can see that he might be aware of his mistakes, like Poe, when he tries to stop Kylo Ren from taking Luke’s bait, and that might translate to him growing into a more competent enemy in IX. I mean, just look at the face he gives Kylo Ren at the end. I can’t really say too much about him, but if in IX Hux is eager to betray Kylo, then TLJ really helped set that resentment up.

Haha, Snoke being “half the character he used to be”! That is true literally, but to me Snoke was who he always was meant to be. Him being a red herring, a stepping stone for Kylo’s growth, is the best way they could have used him. The son of Han Solo and Princess Leia being the new Emperor of the Galaxy is such a great set up, and also being the head of a war against his own mother.

I honestly think some, not all of course, but some of people’s disappointments honestly come from expectation, as much as we don’t want to admit it. 10 years from now, when kids watch these movies back to back an don’t have to speculate for a year and a half who Snoke is, or what Luke is doing on that island, they won’t digest these films the same way a lot of people are now. I think it is the same reason why people seem to be coming around to the prequels now, in my opinion.

Just because we think a character’s arc is supposed to go a certain way doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be open minded about the direction they are deciding to take these characters, don’t you think? We can try to understand them and what the filmmakers are trying to say.

I mean, I hate that some people don’t enjoy these films. Not saying people are wrong for their own opinions. Just sharing my own because I want people to enjoy them like I do! That’s all.

nl0428 said:

There’s no way Ben would go back to wearing a mask. The way he destroyed it in The Last Jedi perfectly shows how he is ditching the Darth Vader impersonator he’s been acting like and becoming his own force.

That is one interpretation. If Rey had joined him, I doubt he would’ve gone back to the mask. But after she rejected him, he is more alone than he has ever been. It is understandable that he would regress to constructing a Vader-esque identity as the new “emperor of the universe”. It’s like he finds comfort and purpose hiding his emotions behind that mask. And if his mask is has been put back together, with cracks all across it, it is a great visual metaphor for his internal struggle. I think Kylo Ren will appear more evil than he ever has, initially, before his possible redemption occurs.

His technique of creating a background plate could also be used to put in any character there. If Ackbar was unconvincing, you could even film a new shot with an actor in Resistance garb.

The rotoscoping and Ackbar being in his ROTJ outfit just doesn’t make it 100% convincing for me.

I agree totally with your perspective on it, that’s how I see it too, I’m just saying that the writers probably wrote their interactions with a possible romance in mind, and the actors also took that into account into their performances. Like that deleted scene, they didn’t know it was going to be deleted, so that scene still informed the rest of their interactions in that film.

I don’t blame anyone who sees it, because that was always in the back of their minds during the production of these films and that can’t be denied, I just personally choose to view it as a close, platonic relationship like you do, too.

Inbreeding crap? Hahaha. I don’t think the criticism should be taken that seriously.

But to make a counter-argument, Ray, I definitely think it is there

Look at this deleted scene from ESB. Luke and Leia were clearly written with some romantic interest.
https://youtu.be/w7IDByqnP1A

Leia also kisses Luke after they rescue him from Cloud City, when he is laying on the bunk in the Falcon. I mean I agree you can kinda write it off as her just really caring about Luke, but you can’t blame anyone for feeling the love triangle was apparent.

Also you can’t forget this little interaction in ANH when Luke asks Han what he thinks about her, and Luke is clearly a little jealous. Yes, you can write it off as platonic, but it is there.

Also, gotta say I feel Mark was playing up this interaction to be a little flirty.
https://youtu.be/lWYtpdcbLEM

Again, I don’t think it is a big deal. I wouldn’t say it is ever really blatant enough to be INCEST, but there is definitely enough there for it to be ironic and a little awkward in retrospect. It doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of these movies whatsoever. You can easily write it off as them instantly having a close relationship. They didn’t know what it was at first, but I think their relationship evolved into being like family, being caring and protective of one another.

If you can rationalize it if you want to and still enjoy it, but I definitely think they weren’t sure if Luke and Leia would end up as a couple until they got to writing Return of the Jedi. If Harrison decided not to come back for ESB or ROTJ, the option was open.

That is true, too. And at a minimal, you could just hear the sounds of the ocean, maybe they could drown out the overwhelming sounds of Plutt and Teedo.

I think it is just a matter of experimenting until you hit something that feels right.

Also, not as relevant, we’ve talked about this before, but I like the idea of the Force whispers guiding Rey to the tree. I kind of feel something like this could’ve also been used in TFA at one point or two, to help get the idea that the Force is actively pushing her onto this destiny, which would also help explain her resistance to accept it. I think it also would give another explanation for Rey’s quickly growing abilities. The Force literally will have awakened, and it almost becomes a character of its own. The Force voices could be unknown like the whispers, or elements of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Qui-Gon dialogue could be used and distorted somewhat. But I also like the sound of the female voice used in TLJ, and if you kept it female you could argue that it is Rey’s “inner Force” as well.

Yes, EddieDean, that idea is in the context of Restructured! So it is Restructured, plus those additional ideas.

NeverarGreat said:
In this new narrative the Resistance has essentially sacrificed the Republic capitol to find Luke and turn Kylo.

I had considered that, and I think there are two simple ways you could alleviate that implication.

Option 1) You cut out the “Han did it! Send them in!” scene and just have Black Squadron show up to Starkiller a little later. So the implication that they waited for Han and Finn to get the map would be removed. (The Falcon is just faster than a squadron of X-Wings).

Option 2) Do Option 1, plus, slightly move forward Black Squadron’s arrival to decrease the gap of time between Han/Finn and Black Squadron’s arrivals.

So this would, I think, remove the implication that they essentially sacrificed the Republic for the map to Luke, since Black Squadron no longer waits for them to get the map. Also, I think keeping that brief scene isn’t necessary for a few other reasons, but it also would remove having to explain how the Resistance knows Han/Finn got the map. Now they’re just hoping they can get the map before they blow Starkiller up.

But, you would still keep the implication that is made in Restructured, that Han chose to kill time in order to try and save his son, which we have brought up and you also highlighted in your commentary, Hal.

Regarding the Chewie and Leia mourning shots, I don’t necessarily want to see them go, but I really don’t think they’re necessary. We saw Chewie scream out in pain when Han died, we saw Leia’s shock and later she embraces Rey in shared sorrow. I don’t think anyone would’ve questioned their absence if they weren’t there originally, and it kind of slows down the resolution of the film. But, if most people felt they were essential, then all you have to do is keep the shot of Chewie mourning where it is, and then have the Leia shot right after, but cut way before she turns to R2 and 3PO (unless someone can think of more relevant dialogue for 3PO). Simple as that, and I wouldn’t be against that either.

I do like the idea of Rey completing the map in her mind to get to Luke, too. It would take a little extra work to get that implication across, but I think it could work. For this, I just tried to come up with an idea to keep the primary map plot that drives the first two acts relevant to act three, with the least amount of changes necessary.

EDIT:
Word of the day: Implication

Okay. So I’ve thought about it some more, and before we try to tackle a very radical edit like removing Starkiller Base completely, let’s try to take some baby steps.

Personally, I wanted to come up with a way to keep the third act of TFA still relevant to finding Luke Skywalker. As Dom has said as well, we can still have the super laser, but we can also have them go to Starkiller to get the map. ROTJ and TPM both had multi-objective climaxes too so it can work.

So I’m going to suggest a way to make the map relevant to the third act, but still be compatible with TFA: Restructured. Think of it as a possible additional change for a Restructured V4, for example.

Let me lay out the necessary changes:

• First, while not necessary, you could have Kylo Ren tell Poe that they have the rest of the map, recovered from the archives of the Empire, during his interrogation. Take the line from Rey’s interrogation, add the sound effect, and stick it in between two of Ren’s lines, around when he lifts his hand to dig into Poe’s mind. Like I said, not necessary but it is an option.

• The next big change would be to the Resistance briefing. Basically, we will be removing the shield-lowering objective and replacing it with getting the map. I also want to mention that a few scenes prior, we would have heard Kylo tell Rey they have the rest of the map, so we would know it is on Starkiller.

• Keep everything up to and including Poe’s line, “We’ll go in there and we’ll hit that oscillator with everything we got.”

• First necessary cut would be Ackbar’s line, “But they have defensive shields our ships cannot penetrate.”

• Cut Han’s line, “So we’ll disable the shields.”

• Insert OTS of Han looking at Leia, who turns left to look at someone offscreen. We will be cutting this shot where it originally was, so we can reuse it here. During this shot, we will insert a new voiceover line of a Resistance officer asking, “Can we get [rest of] the map?” or simply, “What about the map?”

• Han looks at Finn and says, “Kid, you worked there, what do you got?” Finn, “I can do it.” Han, “I like this guy.” Finn, “[CUT I can disable the shields] But I need to be there, on the planet.” Han, “We’ll get you there.”

• Cut Leia’s line, “Han, how?” and cut Han’s line, “If I told you, you wouldn’t like it.”

• Cut shot of Leia looking toward Poe (reuse for earlier), and cut Poe’s line, “So we disable the shields, take out the oscillator, and blow up their big gun.”

• Keep shot of Chewbacca roaring in agreement. (With new context, he is agreeing with Han saying “We’ll get you there.”)

• Keep shot of Poe saying, “All right, let’s go!” End of briefing scene.

• Later when Han, Finn and Chewie are in hyperspace, cut Finn’s line, “How are we getting in?” and Han’s line about the shield having a fractional refresh rate. Start scene mid-conversation with, “We’re making our approach at lightspeed?” Later, Han says, “If we get any higher they’ll see us!” which provides the needed context: they did it to stay hidden.

• Cut Han’s line, “Then how do you know how to disable the shields?” and Finn’s, “I don’t.” Instead, it goes from, “Sanitation?!” to “I’m just here to get Rey.” or, Finn could cut Han off around, “Then how do you know how-“ “I don’t…”

• When they enter the base, Han says, “The longer we’re here, the less luck we’re going to have. The shields?” I’ve watched this a few times and Han barely opens his mouth when he says “the shields”, and he turns as he says it, so I honestly think if you just changed the audio to remove that piece of his line, people wouldn’t notice. Worst case, vfx could be use to deemphasize his mouth movement.

• Once they capture Phasma, change the on-screen graphics to display the larger galaxy map with the small chunk missing from it for two or three shots. This will probably be the only major VFX work needed. Another benefit to this change for Phasma is that giving them an old map seems less offensive than lowering the entire planet’s defenses.

• Cut Finn’s line, “Lower the shields!” You actually don’t see Finn’s mouth when he says this, so it should be as simple as removing the dialogue with no visual cuts necessary.

• Replace line of Resistance officer saying “General, their shields are down!” with new voiceover of, “General, they’ve retrieved the map!” Which continues with, “Han did it! Send them in!” assuming Leia didn’t want to blow up Starkiller until they got the map. OR, this scene could be cut altogether and just start with Black Squadron jumping out of lightspeed. No communication between D’Qar and Black Squadron. Which would also remove the question about if they were just sitting in lightspeed. The one benefit to redubbing the officer is that we get an additional indication that Finn and Han now have the map, since we can’t see them grab a data drive without a brand new shot, but I don’t think it is 100% necessary. Could also start scene with “Han did it!” Han just sent Leia a text, I guess.

• I don’t think an additional change is needed until they’re back on D’Qar. When Finn is being put on the gurney-tram, have a new voiceover for a Resistance Officer say, “He has the map!” or “Get the map to yada yada” Just another indication that the map made it to the Resistance, implying that Finn has a digital copy of the map on his person. You could even add a little Chewie growl if you wanted to imply the Officer is just translating, but not necessary.

• I would suggest cutting the sad shots of Chewie and Leia mourning, which ties in to my next change. If you think about it these shots kind of drag out the ending anyway, and these little moments aren’t totally necessary either. And also, in this version they know they have the map, so they’re not sitting around waiting for R2 to wake up. They gotta move move move.

• The last and other tough change is how to handle R2. This version doesnt use Nev’s great idea to visualize R2’s memory search, so we don’t see that in his first scene or his second. Instead, we see BB-8 roll up to still-sleeping R2, say something exciting which spurs R2 to wake up. Now, the implication is that BB-8 tells R2 they have the rest of the map, R2 wakes up all excited. C-3PO enters and says “R2! You’ve come back!”
  Cut, “You found what? How dare you call me that!” and “Find Master Luke how? Come, R2! We must go tell the others at once!”

• Or, possibly rearrange that last line a bit to say, “Come, R2! We must find Master Luke.” Depends on if it sounds right. Earlier in the film, when they first get to D’Qar, 3PO does say, “locate Master Luke.” So the tone of that might work better too.

• Cut the scene with Leia mourning and R2 and 3PO approaching her about “good news”

• Now, we go from Rey and Leia’s hug, to BB-8 waking up R2, to R2 and BB-8 putting the map together. It would be nice to see R2 have the map inserted into him, but honestly I don’t think it would be something the audience would have even questioned if we didn’t see it theatrically, either.

Aaaaaaand, I think that’s it. So, to make this change work, you would just need 2-4 VFX shots, 2-3 new voiceovers, and some clever cutting and sound mixing.

I would like some second opinions, and I may have missed something, but I honestly think this is totally possible, and something I could see a lot of people wanting to use for their own edits. We don’t really lose anything from removing a planetary shield that we never even see in the movie, and this change has a lot more importance to the overall narrative while also removing deus ex astromech.

Whew, I’m going to sleep.

I’m struggling to give very constructive feedback on this scene. I like the idea of it, but I’m still not 100% sold on it being able to work though.

Something I noticed you didn’t use in this version is Unkar Plutt dialogue. I didn’t like it at first, but I get why you used it, especially after going back to the Rey interrogation scene.
“You’re so lonely. At night, desperate to sleep.”

I think you could have a hard cut transition from the Poe interrogation scene to BB-8 outside Rey’s house. Then go into the AT-AT, to the various interior shots and hear echoes of Plutt that she’s imagining, but possibly also some alien jibberish like you suggested, like Teedo, maybe the junk cleaning alien, etc., but you can overlap them to the point that they’re really overwhelming to Rey and us, and then a hard black. Relief. After a beat, fade back onto a peaceful shot of the island.

I also feel this part really needs to feel more dreamy. The imagery could be quicker, more vague, weirder. I’m not sure. Maybe have just a few random shots of the island before you get to the foggy tree shot. I also kind of like using the shot of it panning to Luke in the threshold of the tree, but maybe you could speed up, and cut “Who are you?” line, and just as we get a glimpse of the figure, it hard cuts back to the ext. shot of the AT-AT. Almost like that figure made Rey wake up from the dream, and us too. Maybe a music swell could emphasize that quickly.

I also wonder if you could try it without the Jedi Steps, or possibly make the Jedi Steps a little less discernible, if that makes sense. Slow it down, possibly? It’d also be interesting if you could use the music from the point when she gets to the tree in TLJ. Although, it’d also be kind of be cool if it was just ambient sound, and then we could hear the Force whispers that she hears before she gets to the tree. If she had heard the whispers in her dreams, it would also help explain why she falls to her knees in surprise when she hears them again on Ach-To. It would also give the vibe that the Force is literally calling her to the island, to the tree. Maybe the whispers could be slowed down too if needed.

It is hard to say what really works for a dream sequence in Star Wars, since the only one we’ve really had is Anakin’s dream-vision of Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.

I do have to say I also think the digital zoom on the wide shot of the tree is a little too noticeable as well, I don’t know if that can be adjusted at all.

Also, not related to the dream, but I wonder if you could try quicker cuts for the Starkiller vision shots used in the interrogation, maybe matching closer in length to the later BB-8 map shots, at the longest. If the shots were quicker, more subliminal, I think the would have more of an impact, with quick intense spikes in the sound, with the crowd roar, the charge, the explosion, etc.
I also would suggest toning the music down a little because it is hard to hear Poe say “the Resistance will not be intimidated by you.”

EDIT: I could also picture hearing the ring and hum of a Tibetan meditation bowl during the island sequence. https://youtu.be/Nb3okem4OCk

Okay, so Rey says “Luke” at the very end? I thought she was saying “Jakku” at first!

Haha, feels like a face-palm moment. So you could have used that to remove the smoke and it would’ve been a lot easier than doing it from scratch, right?