【2009 Archives】

009 Archivessecond movie of the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, focused on Luke Skywalker's Jedi training.

So it makes sense that The Last Jedi, the second movie of the sequel trilogy, would focus on Luke training the still mysterious Rey.

"Breathe," Luke says at the start of the teaser trailer that dropped Friday, after Rey doubles over on the rocks of Ahch-To and does just that -- breathing too hard, too fast. Just like Finn in The Force Awakenstrailer, in fact.

That opened with a vista of sand; this time we get an unhurried close-up of rock. Rock that Rey now has the power to lift in the air, just as Luke once made boulders float for his master, Yoda.

Asked what she sees, Rey says "light" -- and we see the late beloved Carrie Fisher in her most elaborate hairstyle yet.

Director Rian Johnson's candid photos from the set suggest we'll see a lot of this grey cloak costume of Leia's, apparently more aristocrat than general.

Rey also sees "Darkness" -- and that appears to be Kylo Ren's shattered helmet. There's another breath, that of Darth Vader.

Again, this is all very familiar from the first Force Awakensteaser trailer. Remember Supreme Leader Snoke saying "the Dark Side and the light?" Remember that Vader breath over hisruined helmet?

The shattered helmet signals the fact that Kylo Ren is evolving; we may not see the helmeted version again. We see him again in the trailer, helmetless, bearing his famous crossguard red lightsaber.

Given the dropping of the dark mask and the prominence of Adam Driver's face on the instantly iconic Last Jediposter, where it is split with Luke's, we'd give a lot of credence to a fan theory that Ren is on a journey to the light side -- and Rey may be moving in the opposite direction.

"The balance," is the next thing Rey says. The balance of what? Of the Force, naturally. You probably recall the disastrous prophecy of "the one who is to bring balance to the Force" from the prequel trilogy, referring to Anakin Skywalker.

Thatdidn't work out too well -- unless by "balance" they meant wipe everyone out until there are just two Jedi and two Sith lords.

More interesting is what we see as she's saying it -- a dusty old book with a Jedi logo, and a shelf of them in what appears to be some sort of cave tree. (Shades of Game of Thrones.)

Is this the "first Jedi temple" that Luke set out to look for on Ahch-To? Given how much of the movie appears to take place on that planet, it's a pretty good guess.

Next we see Rey's training underway while someone (Luke?) watches from a distance; it's hard to make out, but she appears to be using Luke's old blue-bladed lightsaber.

Meanwhile, what's going on away from the Jedi training facility? A bunch of Resistance ships, of a type we've never seen before, are leaving trails of red smoke on a dusty planet as they barrel towards a line of AT-ATs.

The salt flat planet, Lucasfilm has confirmed, is called Crait -- a mining planet of the Resistance.

But why are they flying so low? Why would they want to make themselves so visible? Why does one of them seem to crash without being shot down? Ah, the mysteries of Star Wars.

The images come in quick succession after that. Finn, still in recovery after his Kylo Ren-inflicted injuries; Poe Dameron and BB-8 racing to his X-Wing just before explosions hit the hangar.

(Though BB-8 is underrepresented in this trailer, Rian Johnson promised plenty more of the ball droid's antics Friday: "he's the Buster Keaton of this movie.")

Oh, don't think we didn't notice that Finn and Poe were placed together in the trailer. As John Boyega noted in the Last Jedipanel here at Celebration, the two are ready for more adventures together.

We see what is probably a flashback to Luke, with R2-D2 at his side, when his first Jedi training facility was destroyed. That's probably not the same location where we then see Captain Phasma (Gwendolyn Christie) walking though burning buildings with First Order troopers, but we're certainly supposed to wonder whether she was involved.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

There are space battles and in-atmosphere battles (TIE fighters shot down by the Millennium Falcon, just as they were on Jakku in The Force Awakens.) There's Rey running hard towards something at sunset, blue lightsaber in hand.

And then there's Luke's shocking declaration at the conclusion: "It's time for the Jedi to end."

So he's disillusioned with the whole shebang? If his Jedi Order was destroyed, we wouldn't blame him. But in that case, why is he training Rey?

That's probably the most on-fire of our questions; one that will burn all the way until we're standing in line for the movie this December. You'd better get into full curiosity training mode.