Much of the story is different, with characters like Zorii Bliss and adorable internet fave Babu Frik absent, but the most notable absence is Emperor Palpatine. The late Sith lord does appear in Trevorrow’s script, but not as a living (or whatever the hell it was in Rise) entity. As in Abrams’ version, Kylo Ren travels to Mustafar, but Trevorrow’s script actually follows him there and shows the audience what he’s been up to while Rey tries to figure out if she’s worthy of being a Jedi or if Jedi should even be a thing anymore. While Kylo searches Mustafar for a Sith “holocron”—an artifact that will aid his nefarious plans—he’s tormented by the Force ghost of Luke, who taunts him with lines like, “This is where the dark path leads: an empty tomb.”
The holocron opens to reveal a hologram of Palpatine, apparently leaving his last will and testament to Darth Vader. Should Luke kill the wrinkly old space wizard, Palpatine says Vader should take the young Skywalker to see Tor Valum—the Sith master who taught Palpatine everything he knows. Throughout Duel Of The Fates, various characters attempt to reach Kylo Ren and bring Ben Solo back into the light. General Leia remains skeptical, but Rey believes that anyone can change; she tells Finn that his actions proved this.
Meanwhile, Kylo tracks down Tor Valum, who turns out to be a 7,000-year-old (extremely Adam Driver voice) ghoul described as “Lovecraftian” in appearance—a note that should make everyone shriek with grief at the lost possibility of something so f#&%ing cool. Anyhow, Kylo Ren trains with Tor Valum, confronts a Darth Vader phantom, loses, and stomps and broods his way over to Rey. There’s also a cool bit somewhere in there where the holocron wounds Kylo’s face, which is repaired with smelted Mandalorian armor.
As many fans speculated/hoped, this iteration of Episode IX would have seen Rey and Kylo working from similar motives, with both characters fighting against the binary ideologies that have governed their world for ages. Ultimately, unlike Rise, Rey’s attempts to coax Ben Solo out of his Kylo Ren angst helmet fail, and he is “extinguished”—but not before revealing that he killed Rey’s parents (who were, indeed, “nobodies”) on Snoke’s orders.
There are several other key points, including Chewbacca flying an X-Wing, the Resistance gang stealing a Star Destroyer, and a droid described as being similar in appearance to Darth Maul (again, cool). Of course, Trevorrow’s movie might not have been “good” by whatever metric you use (this is the same auteur behind The Book Of Henry, after all), but there are some great ideas and concepts here, including the aforementioned ancient Lovecraftian Sith ghoul whose name sounds like a Norwegian black metal album.
ark) with the Son being the big bad in this movie, being killed by the Dagger like his Father and Sister (he was not in the arc, instead ended by Anakin's lightsaber in the back). Matt Smith (of Dr. Who and The Crown fame) was hired to be in the film to play as the Son, but was dropped when the storyline was deemed too esoteric.
