SPOILERS AHEAD: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you want to read our spoiler-free review, click here. The rest of you, read on… but know that you have been warned.
The complete screenplay for The Force Awakens has been sent out to members of the Writers Guild of America, for consideration for their year-end awards. While the script doesn’t include anything that we didn’t see in the final film, what it does do is lay out in a bit more detail several of the scenes that were not necessarily clear on the screen. One of the scenes that we’re the most curious about is the vision that Rey has when she touches Luke’s lightsaber, and the screenplay does clear up a few things in that regard.
The first place that Rey finds herself after touching the lightsaber is in a dark hallway. According to the script, which was reviewed by Slashfilm, the hallway is located "deep inside Cloud City." It’s a fitting place for any vision to start based on the lightsaber, since Cloud City was the last place that Luke was in possession of that lightsaber, at least as far as we’ve ever seen. The script also mentions the mechanical breathing and "disembodied voices" that we hear, but does not apparently give us any detail regarding who they are or what they say.
While it is not specified where we are when we see Luke and R2-D2 in the vision (pictured above), it was safe to assume that we were witnessing the attack on Luke’s training facility for young Jedi. The script confirms this, as it says that there is a "burning temple" in the background of the shot with Luke. As far as the man who is stabbed with a lightsaber in that scene, the script also gives us the ability not go looking for more information where it doesn’t exist. The man is only referred to as "a warrior" and so the specifics of who he is do not appear to be important. He’s a guy that got killed. That’s really all that matters.
Finally, the script also confirms that the men standing with Kylo Ren at the end of that sequence, are, in fact, the Knights of Ren. It was an obvious assumption to make, but now we don’t need to assume, as the script confirms it. There are six knights in addition to Kylo Ren. We’re sure we’ll run into them again.
While there’s nothing earth-shattering here, it does clarify a few things, which is helpful as it allows us to focus on the areas of true mystery, and not waste our time looking for alternative meanings of the obvious. There are a few aspects of the vision which are much more interesting, after all. Click that link to find out how some major Star Wars history worked its way into the scene. Great nod, Mr. Abrams.
