I wrote a better Star Wars Movie
To Infinity & Beyond!!! (Ok,ok, Writers Take #8)
Today is the day, the day we introduce ourselves (or I introduce you) to the third, the final, the ultimate Writers Take newsletter theme! The Namesake Writers Take!
What do I mean?
Well, the writer's take is made up of three types of articles:
The writing tips and points of view post
The movie review’s
Then there are the takes!
If the movie reviews are the redheaded stepchild, then the Takes are the 4.0 GPA “Student of the Year,” dream child to have. Today we are going to dive into my creative summary of how I would have written Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
At the end of the year, we will put a vote up for which TAKE everyone likes the most and I will write the first ACT script for all of you of that take! As always, these takes are fun, snarky and meant in good humor.
There are dozens if not hundreds of incredible talents that brought this vision to life and it is easy to look at things in hindsight. So please, as you read, laugh, critique, agree, disagree, or throw away, know that we at the Writers Take have all the love in the world for the writers, the actors and the efforts put together to bring these works of art to life.
And yeah, we stand with the Guild and SAG.
Ok, let's blow some shit up now ;)
So we don’t need to get into all the issues of The Rise of Skywalker, that's not the intention of this article. From here on out, you are getting the pure creative treatment for a storyline that I believe would have been the walk-off grand slam the previous 8 films deserved. The intention of The Rise of Skywalker was to tie up the Skywalker saga and prepare Star Wars for a new era. That intention will not change, we are just going to have some more fun with it.
ACT 1
Cold Open at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, it's dark, rainy, and we have a variation of the Imperial March playing. Low angle shot from behind. Eight Knights of Ren flanking 4 on either side with Kylo in the middle. They are marching to the steps of the temple. Rey is at the temple door, fighting stance, as they approach. Rey turns her lightsaber on, slowly. Music mounts, and the Knights of Ren, led by Kylo, face her off. Then suddenly they all remove their Kyber crystals from their lightsabers and force throw them to Rey’s feet. She looks at them, then at Kylo and the Knights.
Cut to black.
Then to the Star Wars themed written bumper. Wait the bumper, AFTER a scene? Oh no, its sacrilege. Oh no, we can’t change things. Oh- shut the f- up, kindly. You Killed Luke, Han and Leia, you don’t get a say anymore. But seriously, what were you thinking LucasFilms? But alas, here we are, at the end of an era, and the beginning of anew. So what more of a definitive statement could you make to that notion, than adding a short cold open before the rolling theme of Star Wars. Ushering in a new era, through concluding a legacy. If you ask me, It would have been bold, brilliant and beautiful.
ACT 2
Ok ok, enough about this. So we are now in it. The Sith Kyber Crystals are in the possession of Rey, Kylo and the Knights are at her doorstep - what the hell is going on! Ok ok, here we go…
Kylo explains to Rey that he had a vision. A vision of the past and of the future. A vision that showed him the Jedi Order was tied to the Sith and the Sith to the Jedi. There could be no hope for a Jedi Order for good, with the current Order surviving. It must be destroyed along with the Force Ghosts. If it is not, then the Jedi will always fall to the Sith. Always. Rey says she will not kill Jedi, but she believes him. Yoda’s force ghost advises Rey as he verifies what Kylo has said. They devise a plan to trap all Jedi, Force Ghosts and Sith in a parallel dimension where using the Force only strengthens the bounds of the dimension. A perfect place for the trap.
The next little bit is a full on victory lap around the track as the champions of Sci-Fi, you go find all the great Jedi and have intellectual conversations and fun Star Wars adventure where ALL the Jedi and Jedi Ghosts agree to the plan and as we end Act 1, we have the weight of the Jedi Order and the Knights of Ren as we go into a full on Ghost Sith hunt of our favorite Sith Masters.
It is epic, most importantly Dooku, General Grievous, and Darth Maul, until the “Boss” level Act 2 final, Darth Vader and Darth Plagueis (I KNOW RIGHT!) Thwart the capture of Darth… YUP you guessed it Sidious. Weakened, VERY weakened, Sidious nearly escapes, with two of the most famous sith, as they prepare for an Act 3 showdown.
ACT 3
Here we use the first third of Act 3 to see the likes of Lando, Boba Fett (The REAL Boba Fett please), and others that I can think of when someone actually pays me to write this. But as the journey continues, it is LUKE’s Force Ghost that appears and helps. Where might one think the Sith are hiding… certainly not the swamp planet of Dagobah, where Luke had found Yoda all those years ago. But Alas, they are! Why Dagobah, you might ask? There is something beautiful about going to the place where it all started for it to all end. Oh! You meant the plot reason why? Well, that's simple: it has a high level of Kyber crystals and the Sith are trying to mount an army to take back control of the empire.
So here we are at the ending, a lot of saber fights happen and the Jedi win while nearly losing, bla bla bla, trust me, this will be cool as hell when it's actually written. But the key plot point is this: once all the Sith are captured in the parallel dimension, the Ghost Force Jedi start going through as well, one by one, until it's just Kylo, Luke, Yoda, and Rey. Luke gives an awesome speech about how he failed Kylo but is prouder of him than he could ever know. We all cry- I’m not crying, you're crying… And then he goes through the portal. Yoda looks at Kylo and nods, smiles at Rey, and says a Yodaism, then walks through. Leaving just Rey and Kylo. And by this point, if you didn’t think there was some hot tension between the two of them, then you clearly haven’t been reading, but as all Jedi stories go, solitude is the way. And Kylo has been holding a secret from Rey.
CONCLUSION
Part of his vision showed that he would have to go through the portal and unleash the full power of the force ensuring the dimension seals shut. They have a moment, it's cool, a little cringey but it's Star Wars, so it's fine. And then Rey asks “Why not me?” and Kylo says, as he walks through, “Because you are the chosen one, to rise above all Skywalkers (because he’s a Skywalker too, if you didn’t know) and lead a new Jedi Order. And with that, the portal seals, and Rey is left there alone, stunned, and conflicted as to what comes next.
And NOW…
“The Rise Of Skywalker” Title ACTUALLY makes sense. Gee Golly.
And BOOM cut to credits and you have a clean slate with the Jedi you have put your chips in with (this is also based on the fact Rey is part of the next 3 films, so I did not want to break that cannon) and set up a “Where does Star Wars go from here?” narrative which is exactly what you want.
Not the current narrative of “What the BLEEP was that?!”
Stay Curious, and Keep Writing.
Herø Projects, Gungnir, and other musings…
I wanted to take a moment during our intermission here to shamelessly and directly promote my two companies. Gungnir Entertainment, a genre-focused publishing company with best-selling titles from yours truly hitting shelves nationwide this Fall. With books focused on classic sci-fi ideas like “What does it mean to be human” and “is the bible right?” “Adventures throughout the stars” are just a few of the prompts for the books you can dive into with Gungnir. Gungnir’s website will launch this summer, and you can stay up to date on the forthcoming titles on my Instagram, @matthewmedney, or at my author page on Simon & Schuster.
And then there is Herø Projects. The Perennial leader in custom comics and animated services, Herø is a state-of-the-art creative studio that has worked with talents such as Floyd Mayweather, Shaggy, Nghtmre, and brands such as Remi Martin, Live Nation, and Rolling Loud. If Branding through storytelling isn’t your thing you can check out our original titles, the Onyx line with books such as Stable, Remnant, and Best Selling Comic The Red. To learn more about Herø Projects visit us at heroprojects.io
Hope you enjoyed this Inaugural writer’s take, keep a look out as we will have more spread-out writing tips coming up in between the big movie or tv show breakdowns!