Page 100 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2019)

she has a job—or at least a purpose— When she is back outside, Rey By the time Rey points the Falcon
and that she is physically strong. Later, unmasks and bangs the last drops of toward space, our time spent with her
when she and Finn are fl eeing Niima water from her canteen. She may be on Jakku has established many of the
Outpost, he says, “We need a pilot,” and brave, but she is still vulnerable to the traits that will drive her character arc
Rey tells him—and us—“We’ve got one.” elements. A wide shot reveals her location in the future. The vulnerability on Rey’s
This brief telling of information leads into as a ruined Star Destroyer in an otherwise face as she scrubs her scavenged wares
an extended sequence of showing, with Rey featureless desert. She is isolated—not reappears in Maz’s castle on Takodana.
running up the Millennium Falcon’s ramp, only geographically but also from the Her self-sufficiency comes back into play

ordering Finn to the gunner station, and her heart of the action. The ship is a relic following her escape from Kylo Ren’s
hopping into the pilot’s seat and quickly and the battle that downed it is long over. torture chamber on Starkiller Base.
taking the freighter aloft. This sense is reinforced as Rey dines Most importantly, the self-belief that
Examples of similar tells followed by alone in the shell of an AT-AT. It is has sustained her during perilous
shows from A New Hope include Han a stark contrast to The Phantom Menace scavenger hunts on Jakku continues to
telling Obi-Wan about the Falcon’s speed and A New Hope, where food is used to serve her well when she summons the
capabilities before escaping Imperial pursuit bring family dynamics into focus. Image courage to close her eyes and call upon
on Tatooine, and Luke telling Wedge he used after image frames our hero as small, the Force to help her defeat Kylo Ren.
to bulls-eye womp rats in his T-16 before from her speeder passing the starship
making the impossible shot that destroys graveyard to her standing below Unkar
the first Death Star. Plutt waiting for her trade. Combined with A DIFFERENT TYPE

By the time Rey guides the Falcon a lack of dialogue during Rey’s fi rst
in its hair-raising escape from Niima minutes on screen, the imagery leaves OF HERO
Outpost, the story has already laid the us in no doubt about the harsh, empty
groundwork to prepare the audience for world that Rey inhabits. As so far revealed in The Force Awakens,
the thrilling chase through the ship Yet, while contrasts such as Rey’s Rey shares many characteristics with

graveyard. Rey first appears with her face lonely meal reinforce the idea that we her predecessor protagonists, Anakin
obscured by a mask, in a shot tightly are seeing something new, images and Luke. However, she exists in a
framed behind a hatch she is opening. such as Rey on her speeder hark back wider world of storytelling (across

This first impression doesn’t defi nitively to previous films in the Star Wars saga. all media) where female characters

imply gender, but the costume suggests It is not uncommon for movies to draw do not share parity with their male

practicality and a little flair (see sidebar). on well-known archetypes to create a counterparts in either quantity or
Rey clings to a nearly vertical wall, then visual lexicon to which the audience can quality. In the past few years, the
jumps across to a rope. As the camera relate, but Star Wars is in the unique White House and the United Nations
angle shifts, it reveals that she is position of being able to draw from its have championed initiatives to promote
descending into a massive man-made own widely recognized iconography. STEM (science, technology, engineering
cavern. This person is shown to be brave, Previously, both Luke and Anakin had
maybe even reckless. Immediately we guided their own speeders across desert
know that—whoever this is—they share landscapes (dressed in similar attire)
some of the attributes we associate with before setting out on adventures that put
being a pilot of the Millennium Falcon. their piloting skills to more dramatic use.

100 INSIDER

30/10/2018 12:28
SWI2019_098_103_Rey_part1.indd 100 30/10/2018 12:28
SWI2019_098_103_Rey_part1.indd 100