by David Keating
The Keating Files – November 6, 2020
While it seems longer, around this time last year, audiences were eagerly gearing up for Disney’s The Rise of Skywalker. While messy in so many ways, there’s more in this film to reflect upon than most moviegoers acknowledge.
Despite the profoundly mixed response to the sequel trilogy put forward by Disney and Lucasfilm, the discussion surrounding the film had certainly ramped up. With no clear trajectory mapped out for the sequel trilogy, audiences had no idea what to expect from the final film in the three-part series.
In 2015, moviegoers had mostly reacted in a positive way to The Force Awakens. Star Wars fans were happy to see old, familiar faces returning, and were intrigued by the promise of where the newly introduced characters would go in their journey.
The Last Jedi caused the studio and Star Wars fans more trouble and sparked more division than any other movie that I can recall, at least in recent memory. Much of the promise of the first film and the mysteries that were set up to explore were promptly tossed out the window in the name of subverting expectations of fans and critics. In many ways, tossing out the plot points of The Force Awakens did more to doom the director of The Rise of Skywalker than Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi.
The Rise of Skywalker was a movie tasked with a long list of things to accomplish. The movie had to reintroduce story beats and mysteries that were thrown out by the previous movie. While The Last Jedi was uninterested in answering questions like: “Who are Rey’s (the main character of the new trilogy) parents?”; “How did Snoke (the evil emperor and this trilogy’s version of Emperor Palpatine) come to be in a position of power?”; and “Can Kylo Ren (formerly Ben Solo) be saved?” The Rise of Skywalker was now in charge of answering these questions as well as attempting to get audiences to reinvest in the questions that the previous film tossed away.
As a result, The Rise of Skywalker ranks as chaotic from a narrative perspective. It creates new “mystery boxes” that need to be unwrapped by the end of the film. It forces answers to those questions set up by the first film that clearly weren’t thought out all the way and ended up being shoehorned in. It borrows from previous movies in the Star Wars franchise in order to remind audiences of the nostalgia they have for much better and more well thought out installments in the franchise. But, for all those faults, I still appreciated The Rise of Skywalker much more than the previous movie. Why is this?
Partly it came down to character work and the enjoyment I got from seeing our heroes interact in a fun and adventurous way. More importantly, it came down to the way that the movie drew from classic elements of good storytelling and dramatic character arcs.
One of the key relationships that highlights what I’m talking about is the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren had, over the course of the last two movies, seemingly taken the plunge into full-fledged villain. He had murdered his father, Han Solo, as his dad attempted to pull him back from the dark side. He had attempted to crush the fleeing rebels and murder his former master, Luke Skywalker. And now, by the final film, he has found himself as head of the First Order, ruling the empire in a way that Darth Vader could have only dreamed of. The Rise of Skywalker begins by pushing Kylo Ren into even darker depths, as the character seeks out the barely living husk of Emperor Palpatine, who in this movie is the embodiment of the Sith and of the dark side itself.
Rey’s arc in the movie puts her on a collision course with Kylo Ren. Much like Luke Skywalker, Rey is wrestling with whether or not there is still good in Kylo Ren and whether he can be saved. Eventually, the two find themselves clashing lightsabers as they come into conflict during their search for a Sith wayfinder. Rey has dealt a deadly blow to Kylo Ren and the series’ villain seems doomed to die. It’s at this point that the movie makes a dramatic shift. Rey uses the force in order to heal Kylo Ren from his injury. The act of compassion changes Kylo Ren, healing his body and perhaps restoring his soul as well. Rey departs to face down the emperor and Kylo Ren is left wondering what just transpired.
After a brief interaction with the ghost of his father (I can only imagine how much money Disney had to shell out to get Harrison Ford to return as Han Solo), Kylo Ren casts off his villainous title and mantle, and returns to his roots as Ben Solo, a Jedi knight. Ben follows Rey to defeat Palpatine and the forces of the Sith for good, but before either one of them can save the day, Rey is killed in battle. Ben transfers his lifeforce to Rey (using the same force healing technique that Rey used on him previously), and the two share a kiss before Ben Solo dies heroically. Rey (as the embodiment of the Jedi) goes on to defeat Palpatine and save the day.
Why did I love the last interaction between these two characters? Because it represented a return to what made Star Wars so great in the first place. In 1983’s Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker behaved in the same kind of way. He goes to the Death Star in order to face down evil on behalf of his friends. Instead of striking a killing blow to his father, Darth Vader, Luke throws down his weapon and willingly gives up his life in order to redeem his father if need be. Vader, seeing his son’s sacrifice, turns on Palpatine and defeats evil, redeeming himself in the process. The same theme emerges in The Rise of Skywalker. Ben, rather than dealing a killing blow to the Emperor, gives up his life as a sacrifice so that Rey might live.
I remember sitting in the theater almost a year ago being struck by the almost biblical imagery involved in this final scene. Ben Solo ends up being the ultimate hero in this sequel trilogy because he behaves in a Christ-like manner that ends up elevating this scene to mythic heights from which the rest of the films fell well short. As Ben gives up his life for this woman whom he has grown to love, I was reminded of the book of Ephesians: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Was Disney or JJ Abrams aware of the biblical parallels in this scene? Probably not. But, traditional storytelling often taps into themes and virtues that Christianity holds to and loves. And it’s a comforting thing for me, as a moviegoer, when I see a character behave this way. Ben’s sacrificial death for his would-be “bride” should point us toward an even greater version of this story and that is Christ’s sacrificial death on behalf of his bride, the Church. In both instances, our hero rescues the helpless from death in order that they may have life and a final victory over evil itself.
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The Reverend David Keating is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis, Nebraska.
Previously by Pastor Keating…
“Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Dante? In the Tradition of Christian Art”
“Death and Resurrection in Game of Thrones”
“Greta Gerwig’s Church Nostalgia: Why Does Hollywood Miss Christianity?”
“Interstellar: Love, Time, and Space”
“Mad Men - What is Happiness? Don Draper and St. Augustine”
“Zack Snyder’s Messy Super-Jesus”
“Short Message: How Do, or Should, Christians Witness?”
“Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ - Does Christianity Have a Culture Problem?”
“Reflecting on 9/11: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?”
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