Hidden Title Meanings
The titles for both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have produced a lot of theories over the past few years but, handily, this movie explains away both of them.
First of all, Rey admits to Luke that she’s afraid of the power she feels growing inside of her. “It’s always been there,” she tells him, “but now it’s awoken.” It’s obvious what Rey is talking about here, confirming that her raw power is what The Force Awakens refers to. Though Rian Johnson did recently confirm that it also links to Kylo Ren as well.
Meanwhile, much was made about the many potential meanings for The Last Jedi before its release, but this is cleared up several times throughout the movie when Luke is called “the last Jedi.” However, the ultimate message of the film is that there will always be more Force-sensitive people out there, meaning the Jedi will never truly end.
Royal Cameos
The Force Awakens was famously littered with celebrity cameos that were easy to miss, including Simon Pegg as Unkar Plutt and Daniel Craig as a stormtrooper. While The Last Jedi doesn’t have quite so many guest spots, there are a few in there that fans can challenge themselves to spot.
The two that are most talked about are the appearances from Princes William and Harry, who got the chance to dress up as stormtroopers for a scene when they came to visit the set. Tom Hardy is also in the film somewhere as a stormtrooper, as is Gary Barlow, lead singer of British band Take That. It’s thought that the odd quartet might appear in the same sequence together, but John Boyega confused matters recently when he suggested they all might have been cut.
Meanwhile, Joseph Gordon-Levitt revealed on Twitter that he has a cameo in The Last Jedi. It was apparently a mandatory thing for director Rian Johnson to get Levitt in the movie as he features the actor in every one of his projects (most famously, 2011’s Looper). Likewise, Noah Segan is also in the film somewhere. Alongside Levitt, the actor has appeared in Johnson’s four movies to date.
Luke’s Training Parallels
The Last Jedi makes some distinct connections between Luke’s training with Yoda on Dagobah and Rey’s training with Luke on Ahch-To. Though, to be fair to Johnson, the methodology of the training is very different, he can’t help but sneak in a few nods to The Empire Strikes Back.
A few we picked up on include the darkness beneath the island calling back to the cave that Luke entered on Dagobah. Just as Rey was shown her inner demons by the mirrored wall in the island’s caverns, a young Luke was shown his greatest fear – that he has something of Vader in him.
Also, while it’s only on-screen for the briefest scene, at one point Rey notices a crashed X-Wing in shallow water just off Luke’s island. This tells us how he came to arrive on Ahch-To but it also acts as a nod to the X-Wing stuck in Yoda’s swamp in The Empire Strikes Back. Although, the movie stops short of having Luke use the Force to pull it from the water.
Finally, there’s a running joke about Luke berating Rey for thinking that using the Force is all about lifting rocks. This was, of course, a key part of Luke’s own training by Yoda. Later on, that skill also proves to be of use to Rey as she has to lift a load of boulders to free her friends on Crait.
