Okay everyone, this is one of the most important scenes in the edit - not to mention one of the most complex; it’s also a scene that I’m creating almost entirely from scratch, so I’d really appreciate any feedback: the Dagger Vision.
A few things to keep in mind for context: remember that in Untold, nobody knows about Palpatine’s return yet - not the Resistance, and not the audience. Also, Poe is not shot in my version - the entire Chewie Rescue is streamlined so that they don’t all immediately get double-captured and then double-escape (redundancy of storytelling).
In this version of the film, the inscription on the dagger simply instructs the user that they must embrace the Dark Side to see the path to Exegol.
That brings us to the Dagger Vision, which has a lot of ground to cover:
- Rey tapping into her anger and embracing the Dark Side.
- The vision showing her that the Wayfinder is on the Death Star on Endor.
- Palpatine has returned, and awaits her on Exegol. (This is the Palpatine reveal for the film.)
When designing this scene, I had a few goals in mind: I wanted to edit it in a very chaotic, “J.J.”-esque way, so that it fits with the tone and style of Rey’s earlier vision (during the training course). At the same time I also need to make sure the character and story beats are presented clearly. Strictly from a directorial perspective, I don’t want any music; I want the vision itself built purely on sound. I don’t know why, it just feels right to me; and so, I’ve come up with an all-new audio mix for the scene. I’ve also included the “Anthem of Evil” Theme before Rey touches the dagger - it’s very underutilized in the Theatrical film, but I’m using it throughout my edit to represent the Sith Cult.
Even though Poe isn’t actually shot in “real life,” I included it as part of the vision in an attempt to set up the “Your new family dies” thing during the finale.
This single, one minute scene basically incorporates everything I’ve learned over the course of this project - lots of complex cutting, audio work, effects, color grading… the entire Kylo Bedroom scene is basically the lynchpin of the entire edit - both the plot and the character arcs all rely heavily on this sequence working, so feel free to offer suggestions on any of it!
Shoutout to RogueLeader, for the initial concept of Rey tapping into the Dark Side to activate the dagger. And shoutout to NeverarGreat, for spending a lot of time helping me to dial in the Sith Eye effect.