After watching the newest installment of the worldwide hit, fans of Star Wars: The Force Awakens left theaters with ecstatic hearts and confused minds. The first film of the sequel trilogy has left a lot of unanswered questions for its viewers, alongside brand new characters who brought in new plots and storylines.
To the delight of hardcore Star Wars fans, Slashfilm acquired a copy of the screenplay Disney has sent to Writers Guild of America members ahead of the awards season, and it contains a lot of answers to everybody's querries.
Looks like the Force is with us, Star Wars fans!
The screenplay holds changed sequences, improvised lines and some of the scenes that were cut from the film. Because screenplays are more elaborate version of storytelling that film, it narrates and answers some of the questions that the Star Wars film left us thinking about.
Most of the information is about Luke Skywalker, who was only shown towards the last couple of minutes, with no line. The leaked Star Wars Episode VII screenplay also reveals something about the planet he is currently staying in.
Luke's Whereabouts
According to the script, the planet is called "AHCH-TO", being described as having a "pristine and mighty ocean, with endless BLUE, dotted with random, beautiful, mountainous BLACK ROCK ISLANDS, dotted with countless GREEN TREE.
AHCH-TO is new to the Star Wars universe, but according to the research of avid supporters and loyal followers of the whole franchise, "Ahch" is a Hebrew word meaning "brother", linking the name of the planet is somehow symbolic of Rey's relationship with him. Other speculates that "AHCH-TO" is the creative way of transitioning the film to the 9th film, because it might stand for "Act 2".
Luke's Instant Recognition of Rey
Luke, being described as older, with white hair and beard, has acknowledged Rey's visit to his planet and immediately knows who exactly she is. The script narrates how Luke looks at Rey with a "kindness in his eyes, but there's something tortured, too." It also bluntly says that he "his look says it all", which we can all agree that Mark Hamill have done successfully.
Then Rey pulls out Luke's (originally Anakin's) lightsaber and hands it out to him, by which the script described as "An offer. A plea. The galaxy's only hope." As the perfect cliffhanger, the script had directed to on "HOLD ON LUKE SKYWALKER'S INCREDIBLE FACE, amazed and conflicted at what he sees, as our MUSIC BUILDS, the promise of an adventure, just beginning..."
Rey's Lightsaber Vision was Confirmed
We all felt lost during the scene where in Rey finds Luke's lightsaber down Maz Kanata's basement, touches it and a series of scenes flashed in her eyes. Thankfully, the leaked screenplay answers-rather confirms some of the speculations fans concluded after that epic scene:
- The first image Rey saw was "a hallway of from deep insideCloud City" and mentions a "mechanical breathing sound" and also that "disembodied voices fill the air."
- The script confirms that we "see a BURNING TEMPLE AT NIGHT" in the background during that scene wherein Luke's mechanical hand touches R2-D2.
- The man stabbed by a lightsaber was apparently just a "Warrior" and the lightsaber that stabbed him was described as "Fiery".
- One of the most memorable images in that vision is what the audience theorized that the men surrounding Kylo Ren were the Knights of Ren-and the screenplay confirms it, saying: "We PIVOT AROUND HER to REVEAL KYLO REN, and the six other KNIGHTS OF REN, who flank him!"
Rey was with Unkar Plutt when she was abandoned in Jakku
Remember that alien to whom Rey is selling her metal scraps? That is Unkar Plutt. Many have guessed that he was the one with Rey when she was abandoned in Jakku as a child because the viewers thought it was his arm next to her. The screenplay confirms the audience's observation. The script says, "A little girl. Rey as a child. She is sobbing, hysterical. Unkar Plutt's meaty hand holds her thin arm. She is on Jakku, watching a starship fly into the sky, abandoning her." Rey yells, "No, come back!" and Unkar Plutt responds, "Quiet, girl!" as the "ship flies towards the desert sun, which is strangely eclipsed, as if being eaten by darkness."
Rey Feels the Pull of the Dark Side
Towards the end of the film, all the viewers inside the cinema were at the ends of their seats because of that intense lightsaber duel between Kylo Ren and Rey in the woods. The screenplay lets us peak inside Rey's head as she was using the lightsaber for the first time. As she slashes Kylo again and again, the script says that as Ren goes down, suddenly he is "a fearful man, a large burn scar slashed across his face."
She this opportunity to finish him, according to the script: "And she could kill him - right now, with ONE VICIOUS STRIKE! But she stops. Realizing she stands on a greater edge than even the cliff - the edge of the dark side. The earth SHAKES. The earth splits. A gully forms." In audiobooks released, it states that she can clearly hear a male voice in her said saying "Kill him.", which is later on revealed as Lord Snooke's voice. The voice was described as "amorphous, unidentifiable, raw" and "powered by "pure vengeful emotion."
