Luke Found

The Force Awakens

It’s not often that I’ll accurately predict a movie plot or twist. It could be staring me in the face, but I’ll rarely be able to call what trials, tribulations, successes and defeats a film will pose until I’m sitting in the theatre with it all unravelling in front of me.

But there is an exception. Before walking into The Force Awakens, I turned to my Dad and confidently not confidently stated, “I bet Luke Skywalker’s disappeared.”

Luke wasn’t on the movie poster and we’d seen very little of him in the promotional material. I wasn’t really stretching, but it was still a prediction.

And you can bet that when the first words of the crawl were “Luke Skywalker has vanished,” I displayed my best effort at a smug face – it was worse than Jeremy Clarkson’s.

But, alas, off we go.

Amid all of the Han Solo’in, Kylo Ren force manipulation and Starkiller Base destruction, The Force Awakens is ultimately propelled by the mystery surrounding Luke. Where is he? The map stored within BB-8, when combined with R2-D2’s navigational charts, holds the answer and guides the Resistance to Luke’s location.

Rey, Chewie and Artoo duly fly to Ahch-To, accompanied by a scintillating John Williams score that is basically a bouncier version of Rey’s theme, (yeah, I know how to get musically technical). We’re about to find Luke, but in what state?

Rey climbs to a clearing at the top of the island. On the cliff edge stands a robed, bearded man carrying the scars of conflict in his expression and his posture. This isn’t a Jedi in his prime – this is a tired old man, standing alone.

Rey holds out Luke’s lightsaber. Luke removes his hood and stares at this young scavenger in front of him. The camera cuts to a wide shot. And credits roll.

We’d have to wait two years to see what happened next and whether you share my view that Rian Johnson created a masterpiece with The Last Jedi, or if you have problems with his treatment of Luke’s character, I’ll guarantee you were equally as enthralled by the ending of The Force Awakens.

A cliff hanger staged on a cliff edge – on the nose and brilliant for it.