Having successfully made it to this past Saturday without suffering spoilers (a miracle given I literally work on the internet full time), and having now finally seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I can say without any shadow of any doubt that anyone who viewed that film and derived no joy from it has brain worms. It is a fine, albeit slightly flawed, film about death and renewal, and any Star Wars film that focuses purely on biffing on in space rather than long sequences on Galactic Senatorial procedure is gonna be a good ass time.
But all that said, it has managed to thoroughly confuse punters for a number of reasons, but one of the stranger confusions comes from a technical decision, rather than a narrative one.
Those of you who’ve peeped the film will recall the pivotal moment in which Laura Dern‘s sadly short-lived character Vice-Admiral Holdo uses her Resistance Transporter to split a First Order Destroyer open like a ripe melon by fanging headlong into it at light speed.
It’s a breathless moment largely because of the complete absence of sound; the soundtrack completely drops out for 10 seconds or so upon impact in order to focus the viewing mind on the sheer scale and beauty of the destruction caused, rather than the violence of it.
But as it turns out, some punters in America have been so frazzled by this that they’ve assumed the sound drop-out was a technical malfunction, which has lead a handful of AMC theatres to put this warning up in theatres.
So now that you’re fully warned about the particular scene that occurs 1 hour 52 minutes in, thanks to this photocopied A4 sheet of paper, we can continue.
Last Jedi VFX supervisor Ben Morris explained the choice and the thought process behind it.
That’s never really happened in Star Wars before. We had always hoped that would resonate, both as a story beat and as a striking visual, and when I heard all of the cries and gasps in the silence, it was just fantastic. We realised that it worked.
And there you go. If it were just another stock standard explosion, barely anyone would’ve blinked. But remove the sound and suddenly it’s a sacrifice that carries light years of weight.
Holdo. A noble hero of the resistance.
