Last movie in my Timeline Order rewatch of Star Wars movies and series: The Rise of Skyalker (2019)!
Right from the crawl we're told: 1. Palpatine may be back, somehow. 2 Leia sent a team to get intel. 3. Rey is training. 4. Kylo Ren might be big mad that his newly acquired title of Supreme Leader is threatened.
1. Lame. I'm tired of that guy and his Project Necromancer, but, OK, I guess he's the Big Bad Dark Lord archetype and we'll go through this cycle again (weirdly relevant watching in 2025-2026 though).
2. Who is on that team? (I have seen this movie before, but only a few times.) I hope Finn gets to do something cool and figures out who are his important people.
3. Fine, good. Who is she training with? Leia? (I know we lost Carrie Fisher, but if I'm watching these movies in Timeline Order, as the movies, I would be wondering if Leia would be providing training or if Force ghosts are involved, or if someone else is involved.)
4. Kylo Ren is annoying edgelord who has been continuing a hierarchical, militaristic cult, let him be mad.
OK, let's see what happens. I vaguely remember the plot of this.
Right...so it starts with scenes which at first have very little exposition. It's just Kylo Ren, on some planet, killing some type of people, to get some kind of Macguffin, in order to hook it into his pointy ship, to find some other planet.
And then inside an ominous black cube is some decayed form of Palpatine is there like Mumm-Ra the Everliving and he does the Sith-o-sphere heist movie explanation of what he did earlier: created Snoke who was some kind of genetic experiment or clone grown in a vat, created the First Order, was every manipulative voice inside Kylo's mind, like when he thought he heard Vader, apparently, or Snoke, it was all actually Sheev's unnatural lich self puppetting, and also he had time to make a whole fleet of spooky destroyers and bury them underground so he could raise them like zombies to convey the Final Order. It's all very horror movie. And then he wants to offer Kylo 'everything'. Which means he needs something.
What he says he wants is for Kylo Ren to "kill the girl" and end the Jedi. But he also says she is not who Kylo thinks. But when Kylo asks...
We cut to the Millenium Falcon in which Chewie, Poe, and Finn (with new outfit) sit at the chess table. The can't decide whether Chewbacca cheats or is just really good by merit of being like 250 years old or something. Also a being named Klaud is there. Also R2-D2.
They meet up with Boolio. He's some guy and he says he has a new spy within the First Order who has a message for Leia. As the data is loading into Artoo the First Order shows up.
Comence classic Falcon flying inside larger structures and spaceship dogfighting. Finn is the gunner.
Poe is piloting and he starts "lightspeed skipping" which is a series of jumps one after the other almost like teleporting the ship? Chewie seems to be saying it's going to damage the ship and Rey will be mad. It does make for interesting movie visuals. Also, I guess active tracking over lightspeed is still a thing which is enabling enemy fighters to follow through skips?
Cut to Rey elsewhere (this might be Ajan Kloss, which like Endor, is a moon but has a lot of greenery, but it's not named in the scene) floating while making rocks float. Her outfit is white now. BB-8 is with her. Leia is there, briefly. Rey indicates for us that she's been trying to hear the voices of past Jedi. (Risky, given Palpatine admits he was voices in Kylo's head, but we do know from the Timeline that some other Jedi who had gone into the Cosmic Force could maintain a sense of self, be heard, seen, or even effect the living Force. But we also know that Yoda and Obi-Wan had to practice and meditate to learn how to communicate with Qui-Gon or each other.)
Interspersed with Kylo Ren and his grandfather's helmet.
Rey seems to sense something. Flashes. Voices. she accidentally makes a tree fall on BB-8.
Rey leaves her training course to see Leia. Rey says she's just tired, but I doubt Leia believes this. Connix hows up saying the Falcon hasn't yet arrived and calls Leia away. (Her hairstyle is new, rather like Leia's sometimes was with braid like a headband.)
Rey calls out the blue-white lighsaber in this scene as "your brother's", meaning it's that "Skywalker lightsaber" that both Anakin and Luke used before her. And it definitely was sheared in half in the previous movie. So, I guess Rey fixed it? (Wookiepedia says she did, but like just watching the movie it's confusing.) Rey leaves this saber with Leia, calling her "Master" as she leaves.
As Rey is reading a journal with a sketch of the Macguffin, the Falcon arrives at the current Resistance base where Rey has been training. The whole ship is literally on fire. Banter between Poe and Rey, like "What did you do to Han's ship?" "What did you do to the droid?"
Chewie snitches on Poe to Rey.
But Finn she hugs when he arrives. He's not difficult, like Poe allegedly is. This scene is like, Poe is dressed almost exactly like Indiana Jones and Finn is dressed vaguely like Han Solo but like if he had a cool motorcycle racing vest?
Rey is very interested in the spy possibility.
But, Poe is visible frustrated that Rey has been busy training and isn't out there on missions with them. "We need you1"
At a Resistance meeting, Poe relays the intel that it's true Palpatine is back, somehow. The Final Order, "The largest fleet the galaxy has ever know" which will attack all free worlds from a base on Exegol, the hidden world of the Sith.
Ah, "Sith wayfinder" is the Macguffin.
Rey tells Leia privately that Luke's journal has notes about finding Exegol. She prepares to pick up his past trail n Pasaana. But, Finn and Poe insist she's not going alone. Also Chewie. Also BB-8. Also C3PO. It's like a Fellowship. Finn also does invite Rose to go, she's in their friend group, but she says Leia gave her an assignment to study plans of Destroyers. C3PO says goodbye to Artoo, his best friend, as Artoo is remaining at the base. And Rey takes her leave of Leia, receiving the lightsaber for use on the mission.
Meanwhile, Kylo's Knights of Ren have turned up, I guess, and they're helping him reforge his broken helmet and like Kintsugi style mend it with red fill in the seams.
They deposit Boolio's decapitated head on a conference table and Kylo announces there's a spy in the First Order who sent a message to the Resistance. Suspects a the table include Hux and others named like Pryde, Quinn, Engell. There's an odd bit where Kylo asks if Hux has an issue with his helmet. Anyway, Team Ren will hunt for "The Scavenger".
The Falcon arrives at Pasaana.
The Aki-Aki Festival of ancestors is ongoing. A child offers Rey beads and gives her name, but when Rey is asked for her family name, she doesn't have one.
Then, Rey senses something and 'sees' Kylo again. Snoke had claimed to have bridged them, but then Palpatine claimed credit for a lot Snoke did. Kylo informs Rey that Palpatine wants her dead. He vauguly insinuates Palpatine is not his master. He seems to pursue the idea of Rey joining him, again. But they turn to taunts. Kylo's patricide. Rey's apparent abandonment.
This time, Kylo is able to physically reach through the bridge and take the beads from Rey. They both seem to realize the distinctive beads are a clue to her location. Rey goes to her friends asking that they all leave now, while Kylo is having his ship prepared for departure.
As the Fellowship is standign there, a Stormtrooper identifies them as Resistance, but a mysterious masked figure shoots the Stormtrooper. 'Follow me."
Inside a vehicle, he says that Leia sent him a message. It's Lando Calrissian! And they were easy to spot with Chewie in the crowd. Chewbacca embraces his old buddy.
But the First Order are incoming!
Lando reveals that he was with Luke on his previous trip here looking for the Wayfinder. Blah blah a Jedi Hunter named Ochi had a wayfinder once and his abandoned ship is still on Pasaana. Out past Lurch Canyon.
Rey and Lando have an exchage about Leia's needs.
Poe hotwires some of the locals' skiffs or speeder thingies (stealing) and they speed off into the desert with Kylo's ships already on their trail.
"They fly now" is some awkward generational thing because it's like those dark troopers and such 25 years ago could fly, too. But, some of these troopers have jetpacks.
BB-8 pops an Aki-Aki colored smoke canister to try to hide their position.
But their vehicles are eventually hit and the Fellowship go flying into some kind of quick-gravel?
Finn seemed to have something to tell Rey?
Back on the Ajan Kloss base, pilot Snap Wexley is reporting to Leia and Rose with her that the Falcon is not responding.
On Pasaana, the Fellowship falls into a tunnel below the sinking field. There's some banter about if Finn wants to talk to Rey when Poe isn't there or is Poe does "shifty stuff".
C3PO identifies a "hex charm", a symbol Sith loyalists used, on an old sunken speeder. Rey decides it's a clue to Ochi.
And they soon find Ochi's remains.
Rey finds a dagger which is rather like One-eyed's Willy's key and has the location of the wayfinder. But, apparently there's a safeguard in Threepio's programming that prevents him from translating the Sith inscription, so he cannot tell them the location he totally knows.
A wild worm appears. Probably the thing that made the tunnels. The gang draws weapons as if to attacks, but Rey signals them to back down. She reaches out to the worm-like being and heals a wound it has. The worm in turn creates a hole to the surface.
Knowing the Falcon would be monitored, they decide to investigate whether they can take Ochi's ship. Rey senses something and parts from them. Then, Chewie goes after her. Then Finn realizes it's Ren. Outside he sees Knights of Ren have captured Chewbacca and taken One-eyed Willy's dagger from him.
Meanwhile Kylo himself is in his pointy ship charging at Rey herself.
Rey's really, really good at backflips. She severs a wing from the vessel with her lightsaber.
Finn then calls to warn Rey that the transport is getting away with Chewie. So, Rey tries to Force-pull the whole ship. But, Kylo didn't die whe his ship wrecked and is walking towards them. And he tries to Force-pull, too. They reach and reach. And then lightning shoots from Rey's fingers and strikes the vessel.
There don't appear to be survivors, and Rey had been told Chewie was on the ship, so she's distraught.
On Ochi's ship, Finn attempts to assage Rey's guilt as Poe is piloting, but Rey feels she lost control and the power that destroyed the ship came from her.
Rey also confesses to Finn that she's had a vision in which she and Kylo Ren were on the throne of the Sith.
Meanwhile, the Millenium Falcon has been impounded by the First Order and searched. Hux reveals to Pryde that they lost a transport in the desert, but there was a second transport and it brought back a prisoner. Chewie is there alive.
On Ochi's ship, the reduced Fellowship discusses what to do, with Chewie (still presumed dead), the Falcon, and the dagger gone. But, Threepio does have the information they need. They just need a way to get it out of him. Like a "complete redacted memory bypass".
Poe knows a black market droidsmith on Kijimi. But, he's had trouble on Kijimi.
But "For Chewie" they all decide to go to Kijimi. However, hiding among asteroids, there's another ship tracking them.
And back on Ochi's ship BB-8 discovers another little droid and powers it up.
On Kijimi, Poe wears a hooded coat both against the weather and prying eyes. The Burgermeister has snowtroopers all through Sombertown making sure no toys are to be found.
Everyone's wearing hooded coats, even Threepio. Poe says to follow him.
But soon there's a gun to his head. It's like someone told Zorii Poe Dameron's comign to town.
Poe tries to talk his way out of this Han Solo style. Name drops Babu Frik. But he only works for "The Crew" and Poe's not crew, anymore. Backstory acquired: Poe was a spice runner. Finn was a stormtrooper. Rey was a scaveger.
Zorii recognizes that Rey is the one with the big bounty. But, Rey also brought a lightsaber to this blaster fight. And, she used the power of friendship and asked Zorii nicely for help then offered her hand.
As they move through the cold night of sombertown (Not it's name), Knight's of Ren stalk nearby.
Zorii takes them inside to a bar/cantina situation where Babu Frik, an Anzellan droidsmith, works in a back room. Threepio is rapidly engaged in wireplay.
The diagnosis is that they can retrieve the Sith translation, but th econsequence will e a full memory wipe for Threepio. We know he has had memory wipes before, but maybe not in a long while. Also, Finn seems to know that Artoo back's up Threepio's memory. Hot. But, Threepio in his way suggests that Artoo's storage is unreliable.
Rey puts it in Threepio's hands, suggesting he knows the odds. And he does agree that if this mission to find Exegol fails, it was all (The entire Resistance and everything) was for nothing. The Final Order fleet would simultaneous attack worlds across the galaxy.
"One last look, Sir, at my friends." so much drama.
Zorii and Poe go to keep watch.
Meanwhile, Kylo Ren, Hux, and Pryde walk and talk. Pryde says The Knights have tracked the Scavenger to Kijimi.
Babu Frik starts work on Threepio who powers down.
On the roof, Poe and Zorii keep watch for flying reindeer. I mean, for child abductors, seriously. This is like the franchise of teaching you the signs of child exploitation to watch out for.
Zorii's obtained a First Order Captain's Medallion, which I feel like is such a Macguffiny video game item, but apparently it can enable her to escape Kijimi, get through hyperlanes, and make it to the Colonies, whatever that all means. She invites Poe to go with her.
Poe won't walk away from the war, not untiil the end. Which might be soon. He recounts how they sent out a signal from Crait and no one responded. It seemed like everyone was fearful and without hope.
But, "They win by making you think you're alone....There's more of us." (Too, true, Keri Russell.)
Inside the workshop, Rey helps the little droid from Ochi's ship get some repairs. Something about it is familiar to her, she tells Finn. SHe thinks, that ship, Ochi's ship, was the one her parents were on.
But just then Poe and Zorii rush in saying a destroyer's been sighted.
Also, just then, Babu's finished his work. Threepio, or intel coming out of Threepio's metal body recites the dagger inscription. The emperor's vault. A moon in the Endor system!? "Only this blade tells."
Rey rushes outside. It's Ren's Destroyer, but also, she senses Chewie! Chewbacca's alive!
Threepio is restored to factory defaults telling everyone he's in human-cyborg relations.
Knowing Chewie is alive, they decide they have to get up onto that Destroyer. Zorii gives Poe the Macguffiny medallion. No Chewie rescue sidequest unlocked without the item, I guess.
Ships just have little vending machine slots for special medallion items?
Anyway, they get on the Destroyer. Finn, Poe, and Rey shoot their way past some Stormtroopers and leave the three droids on Ochi's ship. (We know the Falcon is here, too, so now they have two ships it feels like dramatic forces may cause them to split up on separate missions at some point.)
Rey mind-tricks a couple other Stromtroopers to learn where Chewie is.
The split up, Rey deciding to go for the dagger, and the other two remaining focused on Chewbacca.
Meanwhile, Kylo, Knights, and First Order are on Kijimi and not on their Destroyer.
Poe and Finn reach Chewie and free him.
Meanwhile, Pryde and some troopers discover Ochi's ship in the hangar and search.
Poe, Finn and Chewie shoot their way back toward the hangar. But Poe is shot and they are surrounded.
Rey discovers Kylo's chambers and sees the melted Vader mask and then finds the dagger. She hears voices as she touches it.
Kylo Ren jumpscare. Rey 'sees' him again, as she's in his room and he's down on Kijimi. He says "I know the rest of your story."
Their lightsabers touch across bridged space.
Rey doesn't want to remember, but she starts getting flashes. A woman holding her, telling her to be brave. A man there promising Rey would be safe there, on Jakku. Rey screaming as their ship leaves. Ochi's ship. And the dagger in her hand is the dagger that killed her father. On Palpatine's orders!
Kyo sees the Vader mask fall through bridged space and knows Rey's location.
On the destroyer, Poe, Finn, and Chewie are about to face a firing squad. Hux arrives to witness and tells the troopers he will execute them himself. But when the shots are fired, Chewie, Poe and Finn are alive.
Rey then arrives at the hanger, with the dagger and Chewie's accessories, and finds the three droids at Ochi's ship being accosted by troopers. She shoots them, quickly gives Threepio Chewie's things, and tells them to go, as Kylo's ship arrives.
Threepio, BB-8, and other droid detect Finn, Poe, and Chewie. Hux leads them all to a different hangar where the Falcon is and admits he does not care if the Resistance wins, he just really wants Kylo Ren to lose.
Rey and Kylo meet in the hangar surrounded by troops. Rey asks why it was Palpatine apparently looked specifically for her and had her parents killed.
"You're his grandaughter."
Kylo then says that he believes he and Rey are a "dyad in the Force". His mother the daughter of Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and Rey's father the son of the Emperor. He offers Rey his hand, again, asking her to rule with him.
Just then the Falcon arrives at this hangar and Finn calls to Rey from the ramp. She jumps to him.
Ochi's ship was a red herring.
Also, when Hux tries to explain what happened, Pryde just shoots him.
Aboard the Falcon, Rey says she will destroy Palpatine. Finn says this does not sound like her. Like, she healed a worm. She offered Zorii her hand. Rey seems irritated that people claim to know her, when she may not even know herself.
Palpatine's voice questions whether Kylo means to betray him. But Kylo says he knows where Rey is headed.
In the Endor system, the Millenium Falcon lands hard with damaged landing gear as a mounted figure scans the ship.
Below the hills they loanded on is an ocean and ginormous remains of the second Death Star. Rey looks at the jagged remains and holds the dagger up against it.
Seriously, the dagger is One-Eyed Willy's key.
A group of riders on orbak arrive, one is the figure who had scanned them and says Babu Frik contacted her to expect Resistance who were the last hope. She gives her name as Jannah. She can take them to the Death Star wreckage, but only in the morning when the tide is changed.
That's too late. Palpatine has them on a ticking time bomb. Worlds will be attacked if they can't get to Exegol and destroy the Final Order fleet there.
There's doesn't seem to be much choice though. Maybe if they repair the Falcon they could fly. So, the two groups get to work on that.
While they work, Jannah and Finn reveal to each other that they both were former First Order Stormtroopers. It's common practice to abduct children and indoctrinate them. Jannah's whole team is former stormtroopers who defected as a company when ordered to fire on civilians.
Finn says he thinks The Force has led them to meet. That he believes the Force led him to Poe and Rey as well.
The collective group them notices Rey is missing. She's taken a skimmer out into the waves toward the Death Star remnant.
Poe struggles to understand what Rey is doing. Finn suggests they need to go after her or they could lose her, "you have no idea what she's fighting" But, Finn thinks he might, and that Leia knows, too.
Poe's certainly not Leia.
Jannah comes to tell Finn there is a second skimmer.
Meanwhile, Rey has successfully reached the wreckage. She used to do this all the time, crawl around inside wrecked Destroyers and such to scavenge parts.
She reaches what we recoggnize as the throne room from the shape of the partial window frame. She enters a door in the room. Another wayfinder.
Then Rey has a vision of a dark version of herself with red lightsaber.
He has a bioessentialist view that the dark side is in their nature. Neither can go back to his mother. (There's probably some metaphorical read here.)
And he crushes the wayfinder.
Back at the Resistance Base, Leia looks ill and is lead away by Connix, as Maz explains to Artoo (and the Audience) that what Leia may have to do to reach her son may take all of her strength.
Rey and Kylo duel atop a chunk of Death Star wreckage surrounded by ocean. (There's a scene vaguely like this in Transformers The Last Knight. Hey, peeps, The Last Knight and The Last Jedi were released in the same year. That's funny. )
Finn and Jannah also arrive at the wreckage. They watch as Rey and Kylo duel and Force-jump over ocean waves. They cannot reach them.
But across space, Leia calls out to Ben. He seems to hear or see her. He droops his saber. Rey catches it and then runs him through with the red lightsaber. Back at the base Leia's body goes limp. Rey senses her. SHe gets down on her knees beside the injured Kylo. SHe reaches out. And his wound knits back together.
Rey than says she had wanted to take Ben's hand.
And she run's to Kylo's pointy ship (they either fixed it or gave him a new one) and flies away.
Finn and Jannah watch this, as Kylo/Ben does in like quiet confusion? And the Falcon, repaired, flies out over the waves toward the Death Star wreckage.
Back at the Resistance Base, there's a shroud over Leia's body. Artoo is holding vigil, as well as others like D'acy, Rose, Maz, Beaumont Kin, Snap Wexley, Aftab Ackbar...
When Poe, Finn, and Chewie D'acy tells them something is wrong. The General, Leia, is gone.
Back in the Endor system, Kylo has a vision of his father Han Solo.
Han suggests that Kylo Ren is dead, but his son is alive. "Come home," he says, even though they both have an awareness that this is just memory and Ben/Kylo has now lost both parents. But the Han he remembers suggests that the cause Leia fought for is still alive.
The red crossguard lightsaber is tossed in the ocean.
Palpatine speaks via holo to General Pryde saying the Princess of Alderaan disrupted his plan, but they'll send a ship now to begin the Final Order.
A Destroyer appears over Kijimi. It fires and destroys the planet. They basically have a massive fleet of very triangular Death Stars.
At the base, D'acy, Kin, and Rose seem to be reporting to Poe, as Rose says that Leia had named him acting General. They realize the gravity of the whole fleet having planet-destroying weaponry. And Palpatine broadcasts a creepy message claiming the resistance is dead.
Poe goes to Leia's chamber. (It' kinda a cave, there's no doubt symbolism there.) As he's wondering what to do,and saying he's not ready to lead, Lando reveals himself, saying back in his day they weren't really ready either. Poe struggles to understand how they defeated an Empire with almost nothing.
"We had each other," Lando says.
Meanwhile Finn is with the little droid, asking it not to touch his friend's things. The droid says it misses her. Finn asks it's name.
Poe is rushing to talk to Finn and Finn is rushing to talk to Poe. They speak over each other. Poe says he can't do this alone. He wants Finn also to be in command.
OK, but this droid, D-O has information about Exegol and it's been with them since they got on Ochi's ship. Ochi had the location of Exegol, because he was assigned to bring the girl from Jakku to Palpatine, alive!
Meanwhile, it seems like Rey flew Kylo's ship all the way to Ahch-To just to set the ship on fire.
Luke Skywalker appears, a Force ghost now, but he can catch a lightsaber. Rey admits that she had a vision of herself on the throne and does not want that future, so she's removing herself from the equation.
Luke says he was wrong and afraid.
Rey is most afraid of herself.
Luke is aware Rey is a Palpatine and claims that Leia also knew this. But Leia, unlike Kylo's early bioessential take, believed in Rey's own spirit or heart.
This Luke, in the Cosmic Force, is no longer saying the Jedi must end. Instead, he suggests that it is the destiny of Jedi to confront fear and if Rey does not confront Palpatine then the Jedi will end. Implying the Jedi will continue if she is able to confront her fears.
Then, he says there's something Leia would want Rey to have. Leia has a lightsaber and Luke has it hidden away, I guess. Luke relates how he and Leia had trained together, but one night she said that she "sensed the death of her son at the end of her Jedi path". Leia apparently gave her lightsaber to Luke at that time, and that someone would take it up to finish her journey.
Wait, did Rey only realize after talking to Luke that the ship she stole had the first Wayfinder? Like, I know it was a bit unclear if he had his ship fixed versus getting a new one, but he would probably guard that. Or, was it she didn't know he had either one in the first place and just knew about Palpatine through other means? IDK. Macguffins.
Luke raises his X-Wing out of the ocean.
At the resistance base, C3PO introduces himself to R2-D2, which of course shocks Artoo. And then, there's a jump cut, but it might be that Artoo restored Threepio's most recent memory backup without consent from that version of Threepio.
D-O is hooked up to a monitor and Poe, Rose, and Finn view data on Exegol, but it doesn't seem to say exactly how to get there.
But then Artoo and Threepio arrive, saying Artoo is receiving a signal from Luke's X-Wing. Poe confirms the ship ID. Finn insights that its Rey going to Exegol. And she's leaving course markers.
The Resistance team meets to discuss strategy. D-O has intel on Exegol and Rose has been studying Destroyers. Given the type of ships and the environment there are limitations to navigation and take-off. If they can get there, then there's a chance to destroy that fleet before it mobilizes.
Also, Lando and Chewie will go see if they can contact some allies.
There's groans in the crowd, remembering how no one responded at Crait.
But Poe repeats Zorii's words: First Order wins by making us think we are alone. (this might be paraphrase.
They got friends everywhere.
There's a whole inspiring speech Poe and Finn give together over the ship-prepping montage.
One. X-Wing. arrives at Exegol. Pryde is already commanding the Final Order fleet to rise.
The Resistance ships arrive.
Rey finds he way into the interior while her friends outside engage the Final Order fleet and its navigation tower. (We can see a Return of the Jedi parallel here, right? Not the only one.)
But, Pryde's officers identify that the Resistance is targeting the tower, so Pryde has them switch over the navigational signal to his ship, meaning the Reistance would have to defeat his ship to stop the collective fleet navigation, and seemingly this would thwart the ground assault portion of the Resistance plan, one might think.
But, the Resistance quickly identifies that the First Order has caught onto their plan and searches for where the signal is coming from. When Finn gets a "feeling" and just knows it's coming from Pryde's ship, which he has line-of-sight to above.
"Ground invasion on a Star Destroyer?"
Yes! A troop carrier with Finn's team lands on Pryde's destroyer with the rest of the Resistance ships, commanded by Poe providing cover.
Prye's like, "jam the speeders" like they have shut down codes or something, but "They're not using speeders."
They ride out of a troop carrier on orbak! Onto a Star Destroyer. I call rule of cool on this. It is ridiculous, but you're allowed to do it because it's cool. It's like the ridiculous Space Western version of a calvary charge scene.
Meanwhile, Rey is still making her way into the spooky body horror interior of the monolith.
She sees a dark throne, but it's empty. But then in the murky interior the weird quiet lightning flashes over a whole massive auditorium of what I guess are Sith cultists watching her like she's their circus.
Then Palpatine is there. But, not like standing. Like he's the lure of an angler fish or Grand Fisher from Bleach, where he's hanging off a weird life support armature. Like he's the cherry picker truck and the contraptions atop the utility poles all in one.
Lich Palpatine is all like: I didn't ant you dead. I wanted you here." And he addresses Rey like she's an Empress. This is very suspicious. No way this character actually want to share power with anyone, Kylo Ren or Rey, right?
Blah Blah you must take the throne because birthright.
Rey says she has not come to rule the Sith but to end them. (Yes, let the Sith and Jedi end.)
Palpatine basically asks if Rey is identifying as a Jedi. And she says yes.
But, remember this is a manipulative being. He tells Rey her own feelings, how she has hatred and anger. (But, for real, having a feeling is normal and involuntary, how one may act on that feeling is often a choice. This is why I think Jedi teachings were often not helpful, because they barely wanted to acknowledge 'dark' feelings. Like "Have you tried just not feeling angry?")
"Kill me and my spirit will pas into you." Right. Here's the catch. The motive. He doesn't actually want to share power. He just wants a new body to replace this broken one dangling on the end of a hook. There's also a curious collective sense to it. "All the Sith live in me. We will be one." (Kinda like The Matrix of Oppression, maybe? You get to be Emperor of Destruction, but you must submit to me, and all the past warlords live in you.) (The Autobot Matrix of Leadership does not work that differently.)
Meanwhile, The Final Order Fleet is increasing power.
BB-8 is on Finn's ground team on the Destroyer and needs to do a droid access thing, so Finn and Jannah cover him. Her weapon is a kind of energy bow. We've seen this a bit before (in Timeline Order), Omega had one.)
So, BB-8 got the hatch open and Jannah throws in bunches of detonators or grenade-like weaponry. The section of the Destroyer around the communications dish bradcasting the signal explodes, BB-8, Finn and Janna running to safety.
But Poe, on comlink with them, warns the signal may not be down for long. And surely, inside Pryde's officers are reporting status and it will take minutes to "reset the navigation signal". So, they can just do this all day.
Finn seems to realize something, or that they really can do this all day. He wants to go try/do something. Jannah says she will stay with him, but others are pulling back to their ship.
Also, it seems that Poe has Artoo as his astromech while BB-8 is with Finn. And he's confiding to the droid he is worried their allies will disappoint them again, like at Crait. Other pilots like Aftab are looking to Poe for leadership and commands.
Back in the Sith-o-sphere arena angler Palpatine is putting on a ceremonious show of telling Rey she's going to strike him down in anger and ascend.
And she's just like, eww, gross, nope. They want her to hate. They expect it. But she won't.
Blah blah you have no family, parents weak, Skywalker's gone, etc.
The dome the arena barely knew it was holding opens, showing Rey and the cultists the ship to ship combat overhead.
Palpatine gives an ominous monologue telling Rey how much no one is coming to save them, blah blah, as there's a montage of Resistance fighters running, fighting, and being injured.
He really tries to present that surrendering to him is the only path to save them.
OK, but also, Who saves us? We save us? That's often on a collective level, but it also means we each become active and don't assume there's any one external savior. Which means, Rey doesn't need to be that figure. She only has to do her one part. Luke told her simply to confront fear and Palpatine.
But, Palpatine just keeps going, if Rey does not do what he asks they all, her new family, will surely die.
Cue Kylo/Ben (we don't know his preferred name in this moment) on Rey's trail coming across Uncle Luke's X-Wing.
And maybe Rey senses him, but she's masking her reaction in front of Palpatine. She seems to nod acceptance to him. But, probably she sensed him. She's sensed Chewie in orbit above and Leia across a vaster distance of space.
Ben/Kylo runs and throws himself into the weird monolith Sith-o-dome or whatever this ominous structure is. (Like, I actually cannot tell. Is it like an ominous floating monolith above and a vast underground Sith cultist catacombs and arena below ground but also there's a moon roof?)
Meanwhile, Rose and Fin are on comlink, and he tells her to leave without his smaller team, he's going to take the entire ship down.
Kin and Connix are with Rose, encouraging her to retreat with them and Finn also tells her to go. Finn plans to attck the command deck with one of the ship's own cannon, I think.
But we cut back to Rey, and Palpatine is all like: "The ritual begins!"
Kylo Ren/Ben Solo runs in like Han Solo with a blaster; he chucked his lightsaber into the ocean.
His own Knights of Ren approach.
In the arena Palpatine is still putting on his ritual show and telling Rey "Do it!" and strike him down and such. But Rey's not focused on Palpatine, she seems to 'see' Kylo/Ben, and, fighting the Knights of Reb without a melee weapon he seems to 'see' her.
Rey lifts her sword as if agreeing with Palpatine and getting ready to strike, but shifts the hilt behind her head. And Kylo/Ben reaches behind his head and draws out the same Skywalker saber. He is armed and able to fight off the Knights.
(Am I confused abot who the Knights of Ren are? They are functionally like Vader's Inquisitors in some respects, though there are less Jedi to hunt and question these days. And in a flashback it was suggested that the original Knights were some of Ben Solo's fellow students at Luke's academy. So, did they go so darkside that even when their leader is here fighting they will oppose him rather than follow? Like, none of them just Nope out of there?)
Rey still has the second lightsaber, and now some of those red guards approach and fight her.
Kylo/Ben reaches Rey's position before Palpatine. They stand together to face him. "Stand together, die together," Palpatine tells them.
He reaches out to use the Force. Both their lightsabers fly off somewhere. Their bodies move under his power. And then, some...energy..Force goes out of them?
Palpatine makes a creepy speech about them being this "dyad" and how both of them together can extend his life. Like, reverse of using the Force to heal. Palpatine's seriously a lich here. Rey and Kylo/Ben both fall limp to the floor.
Outside, there's still a battle to try to sop the Final Order fleet. Snap Wexley goes down, crashing into a Destroyer. Poe is getting overwhelmed by calls on his comms. There are enemy fighters everywhere, in addition to the whole fleet of Destroyers.
Poe's in a dark moment. There's just too many fighters.
"But there are more of us." Lando has arrived like Gandalf with the Rohirrim. (grab tissues. They so needed help. And there are more of us.)
And, no kidding. The whole sky is suddenly full of assorted ships and more are jumping in.
Poe is just astounded. Finn cheers Lando on from the top of a Destroyer.
Poe collects himself and calls out his command, target the underbelly cannons. Every one of those they can take out means a whole world is saved.
Was that middle-aged Wedge Antilles?
"Where did they get all these fighter craft? They have no navy."
"It's not a navy, sir, it's just people."
Zorii is people. I guess she wasn't on Kijimi when it was destroyed. And she has Babu Frik in the cockpit with her.
But, back to Rey and Kylo/Ben. Are they dead?
Palpatine's original plan did seem to be to use Rey's body as a vessel, but now, having drained both, he's stronger, able to climb off his life-support armature. "Look what you have made."
(Also, there's like a stadium full of cultists here. Like, seriously there are just every day this many people in the cult of Palpatine/The Sith? Whoot! Liches are awesome! Suck out their souls!)
Kylo/Ben gets up slowly. But Palpatine is like: a Skywalker made me fall, once. Now watch as the last Skywalker falls down this creepy crevasse.
"Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!"
Palpatine does some kind of big Force lightning that attacks multiple ships. Fighter craft are just falling out of the sky.
Rey is conscious. She turns and looks up at the sky, seeing the Force lightning striking ships. No, not Nien Nunb!
"Be with me," Rey says, as when she practiced communing with Jedi gone before.
Voices call out through the Force, many Jedi Masters of the Old Republic among them. Qui-Gon Jinn says, "Every Jedi who ever lived lives in you." Others too, like Kanan Jarrus are there. They call for her to rise. Luke says, "Rey, the Force will be with you, Always."
Rey stands and Force-pulls a lightsaber (it might be Leia's?)
Palpatine shoots Force lightning from his hands at Rey, she catches it with her lightsaber.
Above, with Palpatine focused on Rey, some of the Resistance and Allies are able to recover function. (I think The Ghost may be among them when Poe is saying they have to hit those cannons.)
Palpatine must be big mad because he's resorted to demeaning Rey with "scavenger girl" and such.
"I am all the Sith," he says.
"And I..." Rey pulls the second lightsaber to her. "I'm all the Jedi."
Rey crosses her sabers and advances toward Palpatine, still using the blades to absorb or deflect the lightning. It starts to turn back onto Palpatine, burning and maiming him. His face melts like some Nazi in an Indiana Jones movie. (but with like a better updated more undead like effect.)
Lightning strikes the very structure. Cultists try to flee. The whole Sith-o-dome arena is collapsing, giant terrible statues of dark lords tumble down.
Above, Finn and Jannah make the final modification to the turret and turn it on the command deck of Pryde's ship like they are Leia taking out a sail barge.
There's no escape for Pryde, he is blown through a window by a fiery explosion.
"They're toast! Come on!" Poe calls, hearing reports that the command ship is down. There's no way for the Final Order fleet to effectively leave Exegol. (It's like, it was kinda a stupid plan to built your secret fleet on a planet with such weird magnetic field conditions and eternal lightning storms, and such, but like, it had sentimental value as some kind of Sith homewolrd, I gues??)
But then, Rose and Poe realize together that the command ship is going down with Finn and Jannah on it!
Cut to Finn and Jannah struggling to even maintain balance as they are on the surface of the falling Destroyer. They start to slide. Desperately they grasp a protruding bit of the hull. Poe tries to fly in for them, he's fast.
"Not as fast as this ship!" Lando calls. The Falcon races past Poe's X-Wing.
Finn and Jannah have climbed up onto the protruding bit as the Destroyer is in a nose-dive.
The Falcon swoops in and they jump onto the old freighter, just before the Destroyer crashes into the planet.
Rey is alive for the moment, but she's down there! She drops the lightsabers in her hands. She collapses.
Aboard the Falcon, Finn looks distressed. "No, Rey."
A hand rises from the crevasse. Kylo/Ben is alive?
He limps towards Rey, crawls part of the way. He grasps her limp body and gathers it up into his arms, then sits rocking her.
He closes his eyes and concentrates.
And then Ban collapses. Rey holds his hand. And...only his clothes remain as his body disapears.
And then, far away, Maz is holding vigil with Leia and sees her form collapse beneath the shroud as her body also disappears, becoming one with the Force.
On Exegol, the wreckage of so many Destroyers falls.
"Red Five is in the air." Finn calls over comlink as Rey pilots Luke's old X-Wing up from the surface.
They have reports that people are rising up all over the Galaxy.
A montage shows Destroyers falling over other worlds. Places like Cloud City and Endor the Sanctuary Forest Moon of Endor, where Wicket and his son look up into the sky to see Star Destroyers fall.
The Resistance regroups at the base on Ajan Kloss.
So many beings are hugging and kissing or doing some kind of other body language.
Maz shows Chewie a medal that she found.
Poe and Finn find each other and embrace. (Poe has his left arm in a sling showing an injury).
Artoo is back with Threepio.
BB-8 rolls over to greet Rey as she lands the X-Wing.
Jannah has a moment with Lando about the systems they come from.
Rey, a little bloodied, looks like she is going to cry when she finally sees Finn and Poe.
Just behind the three as they embrace Chewie, Rose, Connix, and Kin are also together.
Finn looks like he is going to cry.
Some time later, cleaned up, Rey steps out of the Millenium Falcon on Tattooine. It's early, the suns aren't even up. BB-8 follows her to what looks like the old Skywalker moisture farm. The core of the home is half-full of sand dunes now.
Rey then ceremoniously wraps the pair of lightsabers belonging to Luke and Leia in a cloth. Then she buries the bundle in the sand near the home.
Rey reveals she has another lightsaber now and ignites it, displaying a yellow blade. She quickly shuts it down as she hears something.
A local passing by comments that it's been solong since she's seen anyone at the farm and asks who Rey is.
Rey turns and sees Luke and Leia ghostly before her.
"Rey Skywalker," she says. (Yeah, that's solar symbolis for sure. Rey Skywalker with a saber of yellow light on the desert planet with twin suns.)
BB-8 wobbles happily as those twin suns are rising behind him, the ball of the larger orangy one on the horizon partially eclipsing the yellow one that seems to sit atop it like a half-circle. (More solar symbolism.)
Rey and BB-8 walk off toward the sunrise, as one sun seems to rise higher over the other.
Whoot! I did it! I watched in Timeline Order! I watched all of Star Wars that is both available and cannon at this time!
Honestly, the experience of both watching in this order, watching so many movie and series during the same period, and writing out thoughts as I viewed has helped me to appreciate parts of the franchise more.
For example, I didn't really love the Sequel Trilogy from my initial viewing back in theaters or seeing them separately when on television or something. There would be too many unanswered questions between movies . And there was influence of other people's discourse. I do have a family with multiple Star Wars fans in it and we don't all agree about which parts we like or not.
But I think watching the movies a couple years apart was part of it. Watching them one after the other within days or a week helps keep relevant details in mind from one to the next.
Like, there are more clues that Finn is Force sensitive when I know that I'm watching for that. Otherwise, some are more slight or just faded from memory.
But, I do think these movies got made in a specific time that was not ten years earlier or later.
Ten years or so earlier and we would have been dealing with different IP ownership. The Original Trilogy actors would have been closer to canon character ages and probably able to do more. The franchise would have been compting with the earlier Transformers Michael Bay movies and not the later ones. And the political climate would have been different, possibly fewer people seeing real-world analogues. And, the whole story might have been different under all those conditions.
I'm watching in 2026, so the movies are 11 to 7 years old now?
But, now, since 2024-2025 the real world issues for people in my homeland are that our villian came back. I think these movies hit differently right now. Watching these prior to 2020 it was a different world and I thought it was such a lame plot to have Palpatine come back. (I still don't love that that's the way the story goes, in the movies or in the world.)
Like, when these movies were coming out the US was still electing and dealing with our 45th President. And then we thought we got rid of that guy. BUT HE CAME BACK, somehow. Watching these movies now there's a much more obvious parallel that wasn't there before.
But the movies weren't made to warn us about any one specific leader returning. I think it was more about types of goverment and leadership.
Watching in Timeline Order over the last weeks has made me realize and appreciate even more how much of Star Wars is warning us in general what warning signs are for societal ills like: child exploitation, religious indoctrination, high-control or cult environments, war, imperialism, authoritarianism, colonialism, dehumanization, and probably many more.
The dangers that have threatened people for all time since people have turned on those who were like brothers to them.
But Star Wars puts it all in a package that's highly resonant with mythic heroic epics and adventure serials both so that it doesn't feel like a lesson, but like we're going along on an adventure.
I still think we are given some mixed messages about the Force and Jedi. But, I think this is an infighting level conflict alike to differences between those who want revolution versus reform. Do we burn it all down and end the Jedi and the Sith because they were organized religion and there are problems in general with that and specific to the organizations. Or, do we say the idea of what the Jedi could be is good, and work to make the good version an actual reality. Or are we trying to defend one side, although flawed, because both sides are not actually the same, and work to swing that side toward our ideals?
I think a lot of people are asking such questions about the nation I'm in, now.
