Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi is a 2017 science fiction adventure that continues the long-running space saga of the Resistance against the First Order.
We love a good sacrifice in movies and one of the most affecting in recent memory has to be this epic opening moment in this Star Wars entry. You can read more about the movie here and here so let’s just focus on this one bit instead. It’s a terrific scene that sets a high standard going forward and is without a doubt, one of the most memorable deaths in the entire series. Pretty good for a character we just met.
At the start of the story, we find Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) leading what looks like a crazy one-man attack on the massive fleet of First Order ships, centering his fire on a gigantic Dreadnought. Unbelievably, his tactics work, his ship too small for the enemy guns to strike, allowing him to weave his way across the surface of the starship and take out targets, leaving a swath of burning destruction behind him. His actions give time to the Resistance bombers to approach as the mighty war machine then calibrates its cannons to open fire on the mothership, where a worrisome General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) senses demise. With ease, the Dreadnaught cuts down all the bombers but one, it’s crew killed save for one gunner, a young woman named Paige (Veronica Ngo).
With her bomber over the target but no one to drop the payload, she races up the catwalk to the control pad as chaos continuously erupts around her. As her ship takes fire, she is knocked off the platform and falls to the metal gangplank at the bottom of the cavernous bomb bay, unable to reach the release button. Hope seems lost. However, seeing it teetering on an edge above her, she kicks at the supports, struggling to jostle it free, calling upon a small half talisman around her neck for spiritual support. The remote then plummets into her hands, and in the last possible seconds – as fire and fury engulf her – she lets loose the spread of explosives, destroying the Dreadnaught and setting in motion everything that follows, including the actions of the one who wears the other half of the talisman.
The real magic behind this moment is how well director Rian Johnson shifts the action (and even a bit humor) to a jarring set piece of intense personal sacrifice. We’re having a good time as Poe deftly eludes a cacophony of explosions and pompous First Order General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) seems entirely outwitted. We’re even laughing. This is great fun. But not for long. We then cut to a horrific slice of fighting where Resistance bombers fall away in fiery horror, leaving carnage enmass on screen, though one manages to keep itself intact. At the bottom of this last bomber sits Paige in a mounted gunner turret, witnessing the destruction of everything and everyone around her. We cut to her reaction. Freeze frame:
It’s the first time we’ve ever seen this character. We have no idea who she is, only that a second ago she was a nameless figure in a vast spectacle of mayhem. Suddenly, she’s human; a girl caught in the madness of combat that has her the last in her fight. Look at the desperation in her eyes, the fear and shock that consumes her. She is all alone. We don’t know who she is, but we are in an instant aware of what she feels.
It’s one thing to have a beloved character, or at least one we are already familiar with take their own lives in efforts to save others, but to do it with someone who is nothing but a stranger … well, it seems like a gamble. Why would we even care? Yet care is exactly what we do, both Johnson’s excellent direction and Ngo’s remarkable (albeit brief) performance lifting us right out of our seats with suspense and then prideful sorrow for what seals her fate. It’s a great moment.