The Deleted Scenes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Slashfilm has just made a report about several deleted and extended scenes in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, including a few we’ve discussed in the past. Click ahead to see some of the highlights of their article.
Obviously, major spoilers will ensue, so read at your own risk.
Some of the key scenes described include the following:
- The infamous rumor of the lightsaber floating in space sequence was actually true, and the scene was originally going to kick off the movie. Even weirder was that it didn’t take place in the present, but about a minute of footage was set in the past before jumping into the assault on the Jakku village. The space-faring lightsaber scene would later be revisited in the flashback sequence (which itself was significantly abridged in the final cut – more on that later). I think we can all agree that this was a good cut to make due to the nonsensical nature of the scene and the jarring interruption of the narrative that it would have created.
- Korr Sella, the character who we see react in horror as Starkiller Base fires upon the entire Hosnian System, originally had a slightly larger role. Before her untimely demise, she was going to be seen reporting to General Leia to discuss her next course of action (which was to go to Hosnian Prime on her behalf to testify to the senate about the danger of the First Order). The scene would explain the the political climate of the Galaxy Far, Far Away by showing the First Order’s corrupting influence within the New Republic and how Leia’s efforts to fund the Resistance were seen from within the government. This would have been the only “political” sequence in the entirety of the movie, but it seems like it would given Hosnian Prime’s destruction and Sella’s subsequent death more of an emotional torque.
- A sequence on Takodana where Unkar Plutt tracks Rey down to get “his” ship back and to get even with her for taking the Millennium Falcon (shown above). He steals her weapon and corners her, but Chewbacca comes to her aid. Plutt bullies Chewbacca for his wound and asks what good a one-armed Wookiee is… only to get his arm torn off and tossed across the room, much to the annoyance of a few gamblers after it lands on their playing desk. A reader of ours, King3000, informed us of this very scene over a year ago.
- Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke had a discussion about Darth Vader. Snoke says that he viewed Vader as an exemplary individual who let sentiment get the better of him, and Kylo agrees. The conversation also reveals that Snoke was old enough to have witnessed the Clone Wars in their entirety.
- During the flashback, Rey actually saw Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader during the brief vision of Cloud City at the very beginning of the sequence. This is something we talked about on The Resistance Broadcast, but it didn’t quite make the cut in the end. The scene was included in the flashback in order to clarify how the lightsaber got from Bespin to Takodana.
- Maz was originally shown going to D’Qar and handing the lightsaber over to Leia, most likely discussing the Force in the process. The scene was cut because Maz didn’t get to do anything after that.
- After the Millennium Falcon‘s crash-landing on Starkiller Base, Snowtroopers were apparently meant to discover it and find it empty. Kylo, having sensed it, visits the ship himself and mournfully reflects his life as Ben Solo.
- The movie was originally going to have a speeder bike battle on Starkiller Base. Some eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed that when Finn and Rey arrive at the thermal oscillator, they’re standing right by a speeder that wasn’t shown in any previous shot. In an earlier scene, Finn and Rey hijacked the speeder to divert Stormtroopers from chasing Han Solo and Chewbacca while they installed the detonators. Finn drives and Rey guns, but eventually the two have to switch places to take down their pursuers.
The bright side to all of this is that the Blu-Ray for the film is expected to have 15-20 minutes of deleted scenes, which ought to make up the vast majority of what was seen in the film’s first cut (which was 2 hours and 40 minutes). We have a similar article planned to cover additional information about the movie’s cut content, so stay tuned for that.
For the full article make sure to go to /Film.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
except the lightsaber floating crap it almost all should have been in the film. looking forward for the speeder sequence and the political discussion thing
I agree. Hard things to edit this movie it seems so I just hope we see an extended cut etc.
The only scene out of the bunch that I would have preferred to be in the movie would have definitely been the speeder scene; would have fit well and not left a minor hole, also would have given a massive rise in adrenaline to be demolished by the following sorrows.
its in the visual dictionary
Is it? Put it in the movie, then i’ll care.
I enjoyed the novelization largely for its inclusion of a lot of these scenes…All of the scenes mentioned above were in the novel with the exception of the floating lightsaber and Maz talking to Leia. The novel also explains how Poe survived on Jakku and how he got off-planet. Good stuff; can’t wait for the Blu Ray!
How did Poe get from Jakku to D’Qar?
He came to and managed to land the TIE fighter (somewhat) safely and crawled out of the wreckage with his life. He happened upon an alien scavenger on a speeder and hitched a ride. They were then followed by a thug on another speeder who intended to rob the scavenger. Poe offers to drive and manages to lose the would be thief. In gratitude for Poe helping him maintain his salvage, the alien pulls some strings with a friend who secures transport for Poe. It’s nothing extravagant, and is probably better left out of the film, but it did offer an explanation and was wisely included in the book.
Thanks! This puzzled me the most.
A quick shot of footprints away from the crash would have sufficed.
There’s a Hasbro Jaaku speeder vehicle toy with a Poe figure. Perhaps this toy is based on this deleted scene?
What novel are we talking about here?
The film novelization by Alan Dean Foster
Those snow troopers look so cool, would have liked to have seen a lot more of them.
Likewise the Knights of Ren.
I think we will see more of the KoR in episode 8. I think the clip in the flashback was just meant to be a teaser.
Hope so. They are a really fresh idea and should fit well in the SW galaxy.
That actually makes a lot of sense. One issue I’ve been struggling to get my head around has been the timing of everything – how long Luke was training students, when the attack happened, etc. Luke has supposedly been gone 20 years, so if we are seeing Kylo Ren in the flashback, it can’t be the destruction of the academy. Another village (Rey’?) makes a lot of sense.
Think also in that scene there’s too many dead bodies on the ground to all be Luke’s apprentices at the academy.
I still do NOT understand why they cut down the FlashBack scene —- if we had SEEN Vader and Luke fighting on Bespin, it really would have made the FlashBack emotionally impactful and it would have made more sense. The FlashBack in the film itself was a bit jarring and did not tell a solid narrative.
The camera work was very distracting and nearly takes you out of it.
Agreed
Thankfully we get a new director in the next one who seems less prone to “cool” camera tricks.
They should have kept the Senate scene. Based on the book, it would have really set the scene in terms of how much power the Resistance, Republic and First Order each have, and showed what the galaxy thinks of Leia (a war monger).
Agreed. I really liked this part of the book.
And that’s where scenes and moments like this work best — in the books, not movies.
Ugh…I’m still asleep from the senate scenes in the PT. I think a senate scene would have triggered my PT PTSD…
Yeah, the space politics were never in the forefront of the original trilogy — it was all just “in the background” and left up to our imaginations and discussions among fans, and elaborated upon in the EU and novelization. And I think that’s what they should keep doing for Episodes 8 and 9.
The visual dictionary has a photo that shows Rey sitting in the first order snow speeder too.
I’m not buying any more merchandise, not until this film is edited properly.
Do you think these delete scenes will be properly edited and have the added effects? That would be amazing!
I hope Disney are holding back the proper edit because this current one sucks balls. Pardon my French.
Do you think this content would be included on the DVD release? I don’t own a blu ray player.
I don’t either lol. Might have to get one just for the BR release… Don’t tell my wife that’s the reason though…
Get one. For $60 you get a much better picture and most of them also have apps that get your TV onto things like Netflix, Youtube, Pandora etc. Worth the investment if you can swing it.
I wonder if there will be an extended edition. With so much cut from the film it feels like Disney wanted the run time down so they could fit more showings. If that was the case, then I expect an extended edition of some sort, eventually.
None of those deleted scenes ook important or necessary to me.
You seriously don’t think seeing Vader vs Luke would have improved the FlashBack?
Not for me. I would have thought it was a little too easy. Might have even rolled my eyes. We’ve already seen that before. Just my opinion…we have diff’t taste. I like the ambiguity as is…gives me questions and leaves me wanting. I like that.
Nobody will give you a gold star for sucking up to Disney
After all the many months of hype and speculation surrounding Maisie Richardson Sellers’ casting in TFA, she ends up mostly on the cutting room floor. Gotta feel for her.
Blame J.J. for putting his action movie mentality before the story. The current edit for this movie is aimed predominantly at casuals.
Yeah because making a film to satisfy 0.1% of a film’s audience is the right thing to do
What are you blabbering on about?
I was fine with Kylo and Han’s relationship but for those who wanted more, Kylo walking onto the Falcon would have been a great scene. It would have made people believe there was a chance at redemption for him. Making that scene with Han even more dramatic
This further confirms that the leaked synopsis we read 10 months ago was completely accurate. As I was watching the movie and reading these deleted scenes, all I could remember was the leaked synopsis. Let’s face it, we’re all curious and most of us will read the spoilers. I hope they do a better job at stopping leaks for Episode 8 and 9!
yep – kylo on the Falcon would have added more DEPTH to Kylo’s struggle with light and dark —- that moment would have been more riviting than the lame XWings vs StarKiller
It could have used an extra 10 minutes or so.
The main problem area in the pacing occurs during the start of the second act. The freighter scenes and Maz Kanata’s castle. If these are expanded in an extended cut then it’ll make for a better movie.
Of these scenes, the only ones I would be interested in having in the movie are the political scene and the conversation between Snoke and Kylo Ren. I think the first would have helped provide some broader context and the second would have explained why Kylo idolizes Vader, something that is not explained in the movie. Overall though, I am glad they did not make a bloated 3 hour movie!
It’s so hard to say if any of this would have worked within the film. Some of it sounds like it would have been helpful, but impossible to say for sure without actually seeing that cut.
I would have liked the scene of Kylo and Snoke discussing Vader make its way into the final cut. 5 more minutes would have given even more depth to both their characters.
Seems like every time I hear something I didn’t know before about Snoke, it begins to sound more and more like he could be Plagueis
360 view of The Finalizer’s hangar http://www.starwars.com/the-force-awakens/
I really hope those deleted scenes help to fix the movie in some way. This film was a mayor disappointment.
You’re put of a very small percentage of people that don’t like this movie. No worries, you’re in the minority.
I was in the minority wen I saw the flaws of the precuels. I warrantee you, this movie will age very, very bad, same as Jurassic World… Unless episode 8 justify and fix all the plot holes and another inconsistencies of this pseudo-remake/reboot movie. Even if that was the case, sadly we will never be able to consider this movie a real piece of art.
lol
93 days too early, mate.
Lawrence Kasden stated that he didn’t want to tell the audience every last detail, he told jj Abram’s to trust in the audience to piece it all together. Luke clearly powers down R2 until needed again, Rey obviously has history with the force and it is AWOKEN she has contact with Luke’s sabre, and Kylo clearly isn’t as powerful as he makes out. There are no plot holes, people just really need to look past their anger of Disney, JJ, and lucas not being involved and enjoy a pretty solid good star wars movie.
And we know how people worship Larry Kasdan’s Empire Strikes Back.
..which he wrote decades ago. I’m not even knocking the writing, it was simply ruined by editing.
Hmm this is the first movie of a trilogy…a movie that states the beginning of a story that has no end…plot-holes will be there cause it’s creating story arcs that will encompass in 3 movies…all first movies in a trilogy present the same type of storytelling…what don’t you get about a movie that’s the start of a trilogy?
I’d pay to hear their analysis on so many complex Movies… Wow
The movie’s already aging. There are fundamental errors with the story and the blow could be softed by a better edit.
They should read all The constitution of The new repúblic, ALSO, give us a hint of what The inhabitants of The repúblic thinked about The first order and The resistance, like, some wookie thinking while cooling, they also didn’t clear enough what wookies EAT, they should expand on how rey goes to The bathroom in The middle of jakku, it’s a major plot hole!!
Maybe they should take The movie swallow, regurgitate it AND make barney explain it to us…
Such a bad movie… They didn’t told us The end of IX already…
Booohoooo
“will age very, very bad, same as Jurassic World… ”
I respect people who don,t like same movies but Jesus…
Actual blockbusters are for silly people, scripts and dialogs have high levels of stupidity, computer images have no sense at all and producers think all viewers are stupid.
Yes, some people thinks TFA is a disappointment, with their reasons, but it,s their problem.
I really enjoyed TFA but Jesus, i will never compare it with any actual movie.
At least TFA has good characters, tangible scenes, coherent humor and brilliant cinematography and visuals, well in my opinion.
Some deleted scenes could add interesting explanations, i will not deny it.
But the rest is up to my imagination.
It was a major disappointment because you didn’t get all the answers? Sucks to be you, bro. You’re definitely entitled to your opinion though
94% on Rotten Tomatoes. I rest my case.
I’m not going to enjoy a movie just because everyone else likes it. What sort of argument is that? Are you 12?
fucking faggot slave…im gonna murder your family
Can we stop pretending that RT scores (and box office for that matter) are a reliable comment on quality? RT scores represent the percentage of reporting critics who have, based n RT’s highly subjective, and sometimes questionable determination, turned in a review which was on the whole more positive than negative. It’s not like getting an A on a paper, it’s, at best, a statement that most critics didn’t COMPLETELY loathe something.
One thing I did miss when watching the movie was some clarification of the political situation. What is the relationship between the Resistance and the Republic, really? Is the First Order just an ambitious fascist movement or already a rival “government” and “state” in its own right? And just why should we care when the Hosnian system is blown up? The deleted scenes with Korr Sella would apparently have clarified this, but apparently somebody was scared of any “politicial” scenes because there was supposedly way too much “boring politics” in the prequels. (Actually I also miss one of Padmé’s deleted scenes in Episode II, where it became clear how she boldly resisted as the Republic was sliding towards war.)
The Visual Dictionary said that there’s an armistice between the Empire and New Republic at the start of the film and The First Order and Resistance are splinter groups of sorts. Kind of a key plot point that they mystifyingly left out of the final cut of the film.
Wasn’t the armistice a few years after ROTJ, but by the time we’re in the TFA era, the Empire essentially disbanded and remaining elements of it were re-absorbed into the New Republic? (The Empire was originally the Republic in the Prequel era.)
Yes. Would have made a lot more sense had they had a line or two saying just that.
The peace treaty or “Galactic Concordance” was actually agreed upon during the battle of Jakku (approx. 1 year after ROTJ) and was what actually ended the fighting. The Empire pulled out and agreed to the cease fire and was from that point on forced to discontinue weapons and fleet production as well as the Stormtrooper corps. A remnant of the Empire retreated into the Unknown Regions where it could rebuild in secret and it became known as the First Order. The two main weapons manufacturers in the galaxy also formed a secret and highly illegal joint venture to supply them with weapons, vehicles, and tech.
I don’t care about the visual dictionary, everything important should be explained in the movies. This is poor story-telling, fact.
I agree completely! But Disney made this new trilogy to sell new merchandise since that’s where all the money is now.
The latter part felt like it was very rushed to me, maybe some of these scenes would have made for better pacing and an understanding of what was at stake at time, especially the Hosnian system
The destruction of those five planets didn’t have enough emotional weight – that is where the movie started disrespecting the SW universe.
good lucas cant write for shit…star wars was garbage till this movie came out and had actual plot story and characters…get out of her fucking faggot slave
I agree with your comment – I didn’t feel there was much emotional weight when those planets were destroyed.
Correct..I was much more invested in Alderaan and it only took a few lines of dialogue to make me realise what it meant to Leia
All these scenes sound important. Hopefully they actually finish and edit the scenes for the blu ray release.
I am glad these scenes were cut. These scenes seemed to either echo even MORE stuff from previous films or were just too much exposition. I’m 95% satisfied with the final edit. I’m in love with TFA! But…I still have some gripes, but these DO NOT dampen my love for this beautifully told story. Might even be my favorite Star Wars movie. However, here are my gripes:
1) The CG space-beast scene after the escape from Jakku felt more like a JJ Abram’s Star Trek scene
2) The Death Star III (Starkiller). I would have preferred more of the Finalizer star destroyer instead…maybe it could have had a super weapon that obliterates cities…kinda like a nuclear weapon but with some super cool weapons effect we’ve never seen before. After all…the New Order is just yet flexing itself so it felt like Starkiller was kind of a garish and lazy plot device.
3) Carrie Fisher’s performance (sorry!!! just being honest)
Agree completely with 1 and 2.
I agree with number 1, but I think more than anything that was more of a plot device to get rid of the gangs.
A speeder bike chase? Oh god, that would have really over done it
I disagree vehemately – a SNOW speeder chase would have been incredible and much better than XWings vs Starkiller blah
Most of these would have added a lot to the film and made key parts a lot less confusing. I hope they re-insert some into the DVD/BD.
The decision to leave the political background out of the movie was necessary in order for TFA to be appealing to new viewers who might not have seen previous SW movies and avoiding to slow down the pace of the film. After all, we got very very little background on the empire vs rebellion in EP IV, and it worked out quite well!
the only problem with that is that the politics of the OT were very simple: evil empire, noble rebellion. besides, we still knew it was ruled by an emperor who dissolved the senate and left the day to day operations in the hands of people like tarkin(all from ANH, mind you). in TFA, we have a new republic run by some one(then blown up), a resistance that is and isn’t affiliated with said republic, the new order which i think is a remnant of the empire, which i think is run by snoke. the new republic for some reason wasn’t fighting the first order directly, yet the FO considered them threat enough to pearl harbor them. there are sooo many moving pieces here and i haven’t a clue what the score is. i guess i have a lot of reading in my future. 😉
I agree with what you are saying – I was simply referring to the fact that I feel the writers wanted to leave the “evil First order / noble resistance” dualism, as a parallel to ANH, since it obviously worked out really well for an audience back in 1977. Just like then, a simpler political background allowed more room for people to get emotionally closer to new characters. No “new” character from the prequel managed to charm audiences as much as Rey and Finn did on TFA, even people such as Qui Gonn or Darth Maul, as cool and iconic as they are, feel a bit overshadowed by the fact that the movies focus more on the chain of events that led to IV rather than on building a special relationship between the characters and the audience – I do think they could have done a better job at defining the current state of the galaxy, but I also understand their choice – (SPOILERS AHEAD) I have a feeling they’ll dig deeper and tie loose ends on EP VIII, where Luke’s return, Kylo Ren’s background and Rey’s relationship with the force will need a lot of backstory. 🙂
In episode IV it was the prequels’ job to do the explaining. This movie is coming right after episode VI, so I definitely would’ve liked some more explaining, instead of leaving it to extra material like books (which I think they’re gonna do).
It wouldn’t even have to be a lot, but give us something more than “resistance = good, first order = bad” after ALL that happened in the last six movies. There’s even a new government in place and they literally spent no time on telling us what’s going on and blew it up. That’s slowly becoming one of my biggest issues with the whole movie, because the more I think about it the more I realize I don’t even know what the fuck is going on in this galaxy. And that was never the case in any of the other movies except episode I, and that was the first episode so it’s kind of expected there.
i can honestly see a tv show or cartoon taking place between return of the jedi and force awakens once rebels is done in a year or 2
The prequel weren’t exactly a thing when Episode IV was released, and even if Lucas had the idea in his mind, Episode IV was released in 1977, while the prequels began in 1999. What I am saying is that Star Wars managed to appeal to a large audience who quickly empathised with the concept of “rebellion” and “empire” even years before anyone had seen the prequels or got any further insights from any expanded universe story.
Bottom line: when IV came out, viewers knew what was going on in the galaxy as much as they do with TFA, if not slightly less, since they weren’t even attached to pivotal characters such as Han, Leia or Luke…everything was new and the movie was a success 🙂
That’s definitely true. I’d argue that that’s more because of how great star wars is and how new it was at the time. Now we’ve seen and read and heard a lot of star wars, so giving me a new movie with no explanation of what’s going on in the background is a problem. And I think in the original star wars it was easier to get, because the empire was in clearly power and they were clearly an oppresive regime. In this movie the republic is/was in power.. and now they’re gone. The first order isn’t in power but they have the potential to be..? I don’t know what the state of the galaxy is, I think they should’ve addressed that in a scene or two at least.
so snoke is old enough to have seen the clone wars in person, eh? one more point for the plagueis camp. i don’t mean to keep harping on this, but at this point i can’t see how else they can easily explain another powerful dark side user lurking in that era. or being that old, for that matter.
Plus it would explain why Sidious totally ignored him if he thought he was dead.
exactly. it would raise far more questions then answers. besides, a sith dabbling in immortality would be a huge threat to confront.
Yup. Especially since it says he was experimenting with lost technology in the development of the new Star Destroyers. I’m pretty committed to this theory now.
I like the idea that he’s a Sith Holocron, myself.
I really hope he’s not a holocron. I’d rather the leader of this huge army actually be alive and not be someone’s consciousness stored in an artifact.
I doubt it, given that Han and Leia seem to know exactly who he is. Interesting idea though!
That could work too. Definitely original.
Yeah, I think Snoke is the real name of Darth Plagueis. For some reason, he no longer goes by his Darth forename. I expect this will be revealed and we’ll get an explanation in Episode 8 as to what happened to the hierarchy of the Sith and Darth naming system.
Yep, in the novelization he says he watched the empire rise and fall. So he’s been around a while
Please let us be able to run an extended cut version of the film. I really like the Kylo in the Falcon and Korr Sella’s scenes. I think it would add to the film. The rest are either good choices or unneeded in my book.
The Snow Speeder chase would have been incredible….and LUKE vs VADER with unused footage from ESB !
Agreed! Thats the scene I would have like to have included and it would have validated the toys, also
It was supposed to be in there, hence the toys 🙁
I believe they actually filmed the scene (or at least intended to do so) with Vader and a Luke stand-in from a distance. I actually expected to see this in the film and was kind of disappointed it was cut.
Disney deliberately cut out content to put it on the DVD, but I want the extended version.
The “FLASHBACK” sequence was my BIGGEST disappointment with the film. The scene showed us NOTHING – a figure in a Black Robe touches R2 and Kylo stands in the Rain? It was incredibly LAME as it ended up. The original version with Rey SEEING Vader vs Luke (from a DIFFERENT ANGLE than in ESB) would have been one of the coolest and most emotionally-engaging moments ever in a Star Wars Film and I can’t get over that this was edited out.
The figure is Luke with Artoo after the downfall of his Jedi academy, betrayed by a young Ben Solo. The Knights of Ren have just massacred some village that came into possession of Luke’s lightsaber. This took place many years after the Jedi academy as Ben Solo is now Kylo Ren (master of the KoR). It’s my understanding that Maz happened to be at that village during that time, took Luke’s lightsaber, and kept it ever since. I believe the connection to all the scenes is destiny. Luke’s lightsaber is destined for Rey (it belongs to the light side) and not Kylo Ren. We see this later when both Rey and Ren are force calling to it in the snow, with the lightsaber eventually going to Rey.
Everything you said is true ! But I’m saying that the “FLASHBACK” presented in the film was terribly lame compared to what it was supposed to be.
Personally I really enjoyed those scenes. From Rey hearing the screams, to Maz entering the frame afterwards. Really like the open-endingness of it. Have to disagree about it being lame. Found it effective at hinting at a backstory that will be flushed out in a future instalment.
Would have been better if they hadn’t deleted the Darth vs Luke moment – that would have been iconic. Just seeing Kylo standing in the rain did nothing for me LOL
Would be great if the home release has those scenes in it, so we can decide what works best.
Luke vs Vader is not up for a “debate” on what works best
— that would have been amazing b/c that is the very heart of Star Wars, the Skywalker struggle.
i understand why they most likely left it out though. it wouldve all but given it away who rey is
Not necessarily. I’ve seen reasonably solid cases (with evidence from the movie) built for Rey to be Luke’s daughter, Han and Leia’s daughter, or even a descendant of Obi-Wan. Seeing Luke fighting Vader (which would have been awesome) doesn’t conclusively prove who Rey’s parents are.
Precisely matthew !
I agree with you – as long as they do end up fleshing out the backstory properly. Which I’m pretty sure they will.
To add to this, I think the evidence is really strong that Rey is a Skywalker because the saber — fabricated originally by Anakin — went to her, not Kylo/Ben (who is a Skywalker family member, too).
To me, Rey being Luke’s daughter is just too obvious. It’s practically screaming out at us. If it wasn’t for the 2nd teaser trailer with the Luke “The Force is strong in my family… you have that power too”, I would have dismissed Luke as the father as a red herring, much like Finn as a Jedi. It most likely is Luke’s daughter, but there’s a niggly feeling in the back of my head that she’s not.
I’ve seen reasonably compelling cases for Rey to be Luke’s daughter, Han and Leia’s daughter, or even a descendant of Obi-Wan. I kind of like the mystery.
I think Rey is going to be one of Luke’s new Jedi who he hid after Ben went psycho.
Plus he forgot the Cloud City hallway where Vader fought Luke. She was shown walking thru it in the vision.
Yeah, that was enough for me. With the “Nnnooo” in the background.
Not enough. Seeing the battle in a new movie would have been so emotional for viewers.
Another movie butchered by editing and second guessing. They cut out too much and the result is a thin feeling Ridley Scott space-action movie.
Hans death is also foreshadowed in the vision. The ship leaving young Rey which turns into a beam of light is the same visual that occurs when the light illuminating the bridge runs out.
My favorite part of the movie:
Luke Skywalker: “…”
Just joking guys! It was worth the wait.
I just cannot believe the fact that by the time TFA comes out on blu rey, principle photography on viii will be finished, and we’ll be roughly a year away from its release
Just 8 months away from Rogue One too!
Sick overthinkers…
Still complaining because they didn’t show The brand of The mask of Kylo Ren? What material?
Poor story telling…
A lot of this I notice is in the novelization as well, so thankfully I didn’t miss out on too much
That political scene is actually the only one that I really missed from the movie. I was very curious about the fate of the Republic and the state of the First Order. I think the movie could’ve used another 5-8 minutes of sreentime. The pacing is very fast, so I think slowing down for a little bit wouldnt mind anyone.
Imo a couple of mintues about well written and interessting (so not prequel like, rather House of cards/Game of Thrones style) politics would make the movie better.
Perhaps but i think they feared it is too much like prequels.
This prequel-hate is ridiculous. I mean they are shit movies, but this phobia from everything prequel-realted is unncessary. Politics in a movie can be very interessting if its done well. And I think the movie really needed to give some explanation about the state of powers 30 years after ep VI. And the destruction of the Hosninan system would’ve had a lot more depth with those particual Korr Sella scenes. Im looking forward to watch the extended editions. I always watch the extended version of LOTR aswell when I rewatch them.
This. As long as the political scene is controlled and not the focus of the movie, using 1/2 minutes of it to explain the context would have made the film far better. On the plus side, it means that the film is going to be better soon. On the minus side, we’re still missing that “travel scene” in the millenium falcon that would have served to reinforce the relation between Han and Rey by giving it time to blossom and added a sense of vastness and adventure to the universe. I wish we had that one instead of the weird doublecrossing scoundrel scene (which could have been as funny as an anecdote told by Han to explain who he currently is)
The cantina scene also flashed by too quickly, I would have liked to have seen Han interacting with Bazine Netal , maybe a hint of some history between those two and then she double crosses him.
Everyone needs to get over the prequel hate, we did a marathon before watching 7. They were not that bad, The Phantom menace had many cring worthy moments for sure but we did get Darth Maul from it at least.
So the First Order — still in its nascent stage — managed to create a super weapon more powerful and bigger than the original Death Star? How? The empire was at its full strength back then…
More nonsense… The kind that gets more insulting as the days pass…
Ehh i dont know 30 years of research could do something with that. Or empire could already building Starkiller base when Death Star 2 blow up.
Death Star plans dated back into clone wars era if EU saying truth.
Actually you can see death star on ep III
Yeah i almost forget so Empire could start building Starkiller Base evan during episode VI like secret project and First Order just finished it.
Do you think any contractors would take the job on after what happened to the DS 1 & 2 ? Don’t they have a union in TGFFA
And you can see a hologram of it in ep II. It looks like they’re discussing the plans for it.
Exactly, I believe The mistake is to overthink the movie…
well, you’d think they would have better defenses. Resistance was able to destroy the whole planet with 10 x-wings, grandpa solo, a wookie (badass wookie admittedly) and a janitorial stormtrooper reject????
I see your point to an extent. But if you think about it, although the technology is significantly more advanced, largely due to the passage of time – Starkiller Base is really not that much bigger than the Death Star if you just consider the man-made portion. They did use a planet for the foundation. If the entire facility was man-made I definitely agree with your argument 100%.
That being said, I think the Resistance is small enough that a full scale fleet to fleet battle would have made more sense and been just as sufficient. Imagine the entire First Order fleet showing up at the Republic’s door step and catching them unaware, virtually decimating the world below only to be held at bay by the Resistance in the last minute forcing the First Order to retreat. I always preferred ship to ship combat over the “small ships blow up big base” concept anyways. I don’t hate Starkiller base and I like the design, but in light of your point and other options which could have been used, I would have liked to have seen the movie go a different route here.
My biggest concern is not that First Order had the resources to build Starkiller base, but rather that the Republic and, apparently, even the Resistance were unware that the base was being built. I mean, don’t they have intelligence, Bothan spies and all that ? Assuming they knew about Starkiller Base, why didn’t anybody consider a preemptive strike ? The Republic presumably has a peace treaty with the First Order which would preclude a preemptive attack, but couldn’t the Resistance, which is officially a rogue insurgent movement, have done it ?
Appeasement 1930’s.
Yeah I thought of that too. They didn’t have to build a small moon and then somehow launch it into space. They just had to build a big hole and put some metal around it.
I think after the shine wears off, that people will realize that this movie was possibly the worst of them all. I’m not beating anyone up for liking it. But, the whole movie was just too much rehash with no originality and instead of standing on it’s own….just setting up for future movies and books.
94% from criticsand 91% from audience on Rotten Tomatoes and it already cross over 1 billion in sales. But yeah it worst Star Wars and everyone will see it. Just keep saying that yourself. I think you would repeat that for very long time.
This will be a case of “explaining it away”, but still, I continue… I can think of a few things working for the First Order.
First, they probably have or had access to some records and tech they managed to retain from the days of the Empire, from either direct transfer of ownership or theft/scavenging. So a lot of the research end could have been done for them.
Two, not sure if it’s been revealed anywhere, but construction of Starkiller could have been started in the days of the Empire for all we know. Or at least the plans laid out like in #1.
Three, the Empire was powerful, but also spread out pretty thin. The First Order was smaller, but not necessarily poor, and they could certainly happily sap the worlds they owned for the benefit of Starkiller’s construction. If I recall, they’ve technically not been in a war for 20+ years, so lots of time to tinker and focus on the big weapon while keeping a rather small fleet for operations.
They aren’t in a nascent stage. It is not well explained, but in the books you find out that the First Order was born out of the empire after the Battle of Jakku.
They signed a concordance/peace treaty and then did what the Germans did after the Treaty of Paris. They began militarizing in secret at an overwhelming clip.
Well you see when Poe is on the Finalizer he is taken back by how much the First Order has in their arsenal. I get the impression that the Resistance thought the First Order were more like a small terrorist group when in reality they are like a small country.
But why did they have to empty the whole sun Before it could fire? And wouldn’t it be very dark and very Cold once the sun was gone? Yes, yes, it’s just a Movie. But that starkiller thing was jar jar sucky. A giant mega fleet would have been better imho. Stiil good Movie though. I will drool once the blue ray comes in a hundred years.
And why do we hear sounds in space at all? there’s nothing to carry sounds! Also how on earth do starships have artificial gravity? What makes the lightsaber’s blade stop at a certain height? How is the Force even possible? (excluding midi-chlorians)
The laws of phsyics in the Star Wars universe differ from the laws of physics in our universe.
The star wars galaxy is the andromeda galaxy. E.T. came from that galaxy and you see a bunch of E.T.s in the senate.
Haha, that would be cool! Except that Andromeda is not a galaxy far, far away… it’s literally the galaxy next door, lol.
technically it is still far, far away… 2.5 billion lightyears means that at lightspeed (the one they use in the movie (again, even lightspeed is not depicted correctly)) you would take 2.5 billion years to get there. Mankind is younger.
If the scenes are complete, we could make a fan-made extended edition by ourselves.
It feels weird hearing that the fans actually *want* a Special Edition of a SW movie this time around. :3
But yeah, it’ll happen. J. J. said that he didn’t want to do a director’s cut, but the fans can easily make an edit.
– Pomojema
I can see why these scenes were cut out, every of them have a reason, but I still miss the political scene and the speeder chase. I’m ok with the rest. The floating lightsabert thing is ridiculous. Unkar Plutt’s scene slows down the story and adds almost nothing to the movie, Maz going to D’Qar makes no sense, and the snowtroopers on MIllenium Flacon scene also.(Chewbacca escapes with the falcon easily and remember in the beginning stormtroopers blow up an unflyable x-wing, why wouldn’t they’ve done the same or just guard the ship heavily?) I think the extended force back and the snoke kylo discusson were cut off because they hint too much about Rey’s and Snoke’s origin.
Makes sense that Plutt would come after the Falcon, they could have used him & his thugs in the freighter scene instead of one of the two gangs
If the scene with Korr Sella and Leia had been included, the impact of Leia’s first appearance after the battle of Takodana would have been lost and would have basically ruined the film. I’m glad the scene was cut.
Hux’s dialogue with Snoke and his very detailed speech before the weapon is fired tell everything the audience needs to know about the Republic and its connection with the Resistance.
The only scene I would have kept in the movie would have been Kylo talking to Snoke about vader, as it adds relevant information about how Ben interprets his grandfathe’s “fall” from the darkness and why he fears having the same fate.
I also agree the floating lightsaber was a horrible idea and I still can’t believe that was actually true (a flashback after the opening scrolls of a Star Wars movie ?). Besides, all the impact of the lightsaber being first introduced in the castle scene would also have been lost.
I would have liked to have seen a fiesty Leia arguing about the need for an army with the Republic leaders ..a Mon Mothma cameo would have been great. If someone we cared about died in the attack it would have more weight.
What would you rather have: Leia making her first appearance on the big screen in 30 years arguing about politics over a holocron link, or the emotional scene with C3PO meeting Han and Chewie on Takodana (“you’ve changed your hairs”, “same jacket” , etc.) ? To me, it is a no brainer.
Not saying she couldn’t have contacted the leaders in the Hosnian system after the Takodana attack had taken place and they were figuring out what to do..maybe to warn them / plead for backup / send her envoy
The Hosnian system was destroyed before the Takodana attack.
Well that puts a crimp on an otherwise damn fine plan
They could’ve done the political scene by not showing Leia, only talk about her or with her. Then show her on Takodana first. I think that would’ve enen created more tension to her actuall first showing.
problem is,,,,it wasn’t an emotional scene although it was supposed to be. The movie needed to share more to give you emotion for the planets blown up. as it stands, who cares that they were blown up. we know nothing and no one on them.
And who cared about Alderaan in New Hope ?
WE did because we knew it was Leia’s home..not some random planet
We know Leia for how long ? Half a hour ? Like seriously when i first watched i didn’t feel anything it was some random planet and from there was this princess. Actual feelings for Alderaan come much later on.
Like if it was major Earth colony and it was our Galaxy. Then yes shit got real Empire is at doorstep of Sol system. But we are in galaxy far away and New Hope didnt make me feel for Alderaan at all.
Know more about the Hosnian system how? Because of the new books? The average movie-goer won’t have read those. There were no books when A New Hope came out but we still got a sense of loss when Alderaan was destroyed..Obi Wan feeling the disturbance in the force as well. They destroyed 5 planets in TFA and gave us no reason to care,
The books mention that the New Republic was based in the Hosnian system. However, even if you hadn’t read the books, you could have easily inferred that from the movie as Hux clearly says they are going to destroy the system where the government and the fleet of the Republic are based and Poe later names the system that has been destroyed as the Hosnian system.
Quite frankly, as someone else mentioned in the Cantina forums, if this generation is unable to make basic inferences from implied context, then they truly deserved George Lucas’ prequels !
Obi Wan fell disturbence and i should care why exactly ?! As i said i was more emotionally involved in this because i know this universe and Republic. Just random moviegoer have probably same feeling as me when in New Hope destroyed Alderaan.
I’m with you
You have a good point on the Korr Sella/Leia scene, maybe something else should have done to explain the relationship between the republic, the resistance and the first order. But I’m ok with that, less politics, more adventure
So that explains the first order snow speeder Lego set. I was just wondering about that yesterday.
The snow speeder chase could have been kept in the movie. It would explain how Finn and Rey created a diversion so that Han and Chewie could enter the oscillator complex to put the explosives in place. The decision to cut that scene was probably just to speed up the movie and get quicker to the Han/Ben scene.
I think they took out the political scene because they were afraid of getting something usual of the PT. I want someone to ask Pablo Hidalgo wheter deleted scenes count as Canon
I can tell you that the ones that are in the book do count.
– Pomojema
The pace of the film was too fast. I can’t wait to see the deleted scenes. The state of the galaxy was too confusing and the TFA does not address political situation properly. My 71 year old mother thought the movie sucked because she had no idea what was going on. She has seen all six movies, but this one left her confused. I loved TFA, but my complaint that some scenes felt too rushed. I am watching Lawrence of Arabia and that movie is a slow burn (but I love it because you can get the feeling of the vast expanse of the desert). TFA feels like coke fueled adrenaline rush compared to the pace of Lawrence of Arabia.
Indeed. But if you make a good slow paced movie it won’t sell. The new generation has been brought up on this CGI/action crap and don’t know anything else.
The “political” scene should have been left in. As it is the political situation in the galaxy does not become clear to the viewer. What is the Republic? Do they have an army? Do they fight The First Order? Who has the upper hand? How influential is TFO? Apparently the republican fleet is very important but we never get to see it or know why.
Well it is just first movie in Trilogy. They can’t answer all questions.
They answered none. That’s different.
Well they answered who is force sensitive. Who dies from old cast. Who is Kylo Ren. And some other question but they answered enough for first part in trilogy.
Ask yourself what you knew about the state of the galaxy after SW? After TPM? Both have at least as much storytelling duties as TFA, yet both give you enough information to understand the state of the galaxy. I don’t expect ALL of the answers from the first of three films, but I do expect enough answers to understand the stakes the film is asking me to invest in. TFA did a lot right, but botched the world-building pretty badly.
What are you talking about ? The state of the galaxy is as clear in TFA as it was in ANH and the comparison material like the Visual Guide, Aftermath, and the novelization give additional information if you want to prove furthet.
So as long as you buy the visual dictionary, read all the books that make up Journey to The Force Awakens, play the battle of Jakku DLC for Battlefront, and hell, why not throw in watch all the Lego specials while we’re at it, you’ll be all set to see the film? That’s piss-poor storytelling by any standard. Regardless. that’s nonsense and you know it – SW gives you a clear-cut Evil Empire vs Scrappy Rebels state of the galaxy, TPM gives us a Republic grown so large, selfish, and corrupt that it struggles to get anything done while smaller, militaristic groups begin to splinter off an and threaten a galaxy at peace for a millennia. TFA? We’ve got a Republic, presumably re-established by the Rebel Alliance, with a massive fleet (all kept at one planet apparently) but for some reason unwilling or unable to act against the FO, which is kinda still the Empire, but not exactly for some reason…but who cares because the whole thing is wiped out in the same scene it’s introduced, and a third faction, the Resistance, headed up by all the leaders of the Rebellion who apparently re-established the Republic, and for some reason supported by the Republic, sorta but not officially…because “reasons”. In the final tally of the story, it’s needlessly convoluted and doesn’t give us any reason to care about the planets being destroyed.
Look, except for a few die hard fans most people don’t care about cartoons for children, novels or any of that expanded nonsense. What people want are movies that deliver a strong and interesting story, and that is exactly what the original films did. Both TPM and ANH could work as stand alone movies. Indeed ANH was probably meant to be just that. TFA is a mess in comparison.
They could at least answer one of them.
We know the Republic has an army, or rather a fleet, because Hux says so in the movie and we also see the fleet being destroyed by the superweapon. We also know that the Republic doesn’t fight the First Order directly, Instead, to quote Hux again, the Republic sits in a distant system and “lies to the galaxy while supporting the treachery of the loarhsome Resistance. ”
Again, everything that the audience needs to know about the Republic is explained in the movie itself.
Another apologetic post. What does that quote from Hux even mean? It makes nothing clearer. We all knew the Republic would probably side with the Resistance rather than with TFO. The movie answers none of the questions I posed in my previous post. TFO is apparently not not all powerful like the Empire, but how much of a major player is it? Is there a new Republic (like in the prequels) and this Resistance vs TFO thing is just a small conflict in the outer rim or what? I don’t think the audience cared about the destruction of the Republic (Coruscant?) at all since we did not know anything about it.
Gimme a “super cut” in April all you editors out there!!
Oh man. I want to see that Chewbacca ripping the arm off scene!
Me too !
not an exaggeration though because it was true in all six of Lucas’ SW movies, LOL
Phantom Menace?
well Maul was bisected so he got his whole top half chopped off
I feel like they cut the senate scene out of fear of the prequel hate but that was a bad call, even just 30 seconds to establish who the heck the new republic was before it got blown away would have been nice. Honestly all these scenes seem pretty awesome except the lightsaber in space shot
Not sure they ever shot actual senate scene. Did they even design how it looked? We just saw the crowds outside look at the red glow coming at them.
Who thinks they should have gone with Lucas’ story outline ?
Did we ever get word on what it was exactly?
No only vague rumours I think…It was said to be more about the grandchildren of the original characters. I would bet there wasn’t a 3rd superweapon though
I think at some point it’s possible Disney might incorporate some of his original stuff on some level and play that up. Perhaps at the start of their 2nd or 3rd trilogy, or something else entirely. But it’s still a massive asset and I don’t see TFA as definitely meaning that stuff (the overall stories/characters he created) has been tossed aside entirely.
Definirtely not. Who needs Cartoon-like planets/aliens and superpowered Jedi (lots of them BTW) ? I’m glad JJ gave us a retro movie instead.
Story outline…not prequel level visuals
I want to know what Georges story treatments were for sure. He would have included the missing mythology I always loved.
So, they basically cut out all the meat, the interesting stuff.
Thanks for being a ray of sunshine.
But I’m glad they at least were smart enough to cut one forced, unnecessary OT-callback (Wookies like to rip arms off, funny!)
Nah, that would have gotten a cheer and laugh, and given Chewie something to do in the second act.
That would have been SO FUNNY & popped a HUGE Crowd Cheer !
Thoughts everyone on whether the BluRay and the Digital version (with Bonus Features) will contain all the same content? I really just want the digital because i’ve moved away from physical media, but don’t want to plop down 20 bucks to Amazon only to find out i’m missing out on BluRay material…. Thoughts???
Vudu will certainly offer a lot of extras, definitely the deleted scenes, I guarantee it. (I have Big Hero 6 and Ant Man on my Vudu account and they both had a half dozen bonus materials included)
For me the scenes with Kanjiklub were unnecessary. Some more information on the politics and motivation of each side would have been good instead.
The lightsabre floating through space idea always seemed awful to me – so I am glad it did not make the final cut.
Screw “deleted scenes”.. How about we put this cool $#!& back in and call it the Extended Cut!
Limited IMAX release before the VOD/BluRay is available!
Take my money!
i pray that they have the snoke and ren scene in the collection of deleted scenes and i am very glad they got rid of the unkar Plutt scene.
They should have absolutely had the falcon scene with kylo reflecting on his past as Ben would have been brilliant.
I hope we get an extended edition. Im not feeling too confident after JJ is on record saying he doesnt like them. I hope he changes his mind!
Yeah, a Peter Jackson-style extended edition of Force Awakens would be a welcome surprise. And it would be amazing.
If they don’t do this fans will edit one with the deleted scenes. So we’ll get it either way.
true. and then I’ll just wish for it on a DVD.
No. Be active and demand it, and then when someone throws their edit on bit torrent off a blu ray rip, download it. … i mean to those in doubt you’d technically own it by that point if you did spend money on a blu-ray. All the bonus stuff will be online the moment that disc drops, and any fan edit you download off bit torrent would be well within your realms of personal viewership.
They should have left Korr Sella’s scenes in. It would have given Hux’s speech more background. To me it felt like they were destroying some random system.
So do you tjink that Hux saying they are going to destroy the Senate and the the Republic’s “cherished fleet” is not enough to indicate it was not a random system that was being destroyed ? I guess the digital age has indeed made audiences lazy after all ! It is also clear that George Lucas knew exactly the causal viewer he had in mind when he wrote the prequels.
Absolutely the contrary – the seeming ADHD afflicting modern audiences is what gave us a Republic, a fleet, and a center of government (apparently all critical to the narrative) all introduced and taken off the board in the same damn scene. It’s not “lazy” to expect the filmmakers to spend at least a few moments to make us care about this stuff before asking us to care that they’re gone.
THIS scene was desperately needed in the movie for Ben-Ren’s characterization and it’s absolutely retarded that it was cut.
“After the Millennium Falcon‘s crash-landing on Starkiller Base, Snowtroopers were apparently meant to discover it and find it empty. Kylo, having sensed it, visits the ship himself and mournfully reflects his life as Ben Solo.”
Putting the story at risk of a major plothole.
So, they find it, inspect it, Ren knows what it is…….and then they just leave it there for Chewie to just pick it right back up?????? It wouldn’t have made sense unless there was another scene, in the middle of the Starkiller battle and Finn-Kylo-Rey where Chewie kills multiple Snowtroopers. Just another scene tacked on.
your logic is unwelcome here, sir, get on outta here with that, thank you very much.
but you’re not wrong.
All these scenes would have been good especially the ren and Kylo talking about Vader and the force backs and speeder scene. Those sound like some perfect Star Wars scenes
and seeing LUKE VS VADER from ESB with original footage from a difference angle would have been mind blowing
Yes I love that scene
The movie definitely tried to do too much too fast. I liked it, but it really should have been 3 hours long. Or, 2 and a half hours and save the Starkillers destruction for later. Just disable the weapon that causes a long delay before it is active again. Some rare mineral or metal that is needed.
This was well done overall but the zooming past plot points not fully explained did hurt the gravity of it. While a fun movie for sure, it felt very top line. But then, maybe that was the goal. Then they can go deep once everyone accepts they can make good Star Wars movies.
I’m with those that want an extended version. Whether it be to slow the pacing down a bit, give more info or simply make it a better film.
A few cut scenes as single 1 minute footage found somewhere on a DVD/BR are not very exciting.
Build them into the film so they enhance the experience. Even better would be the ability to select if you want to watch the extended version or not. Like the Avatar BR. Then all are happy. They should have done that with the OT years ago. (but that’s a whole other can of worms)
Unfortunately JJ has said he’s not a fan of the Directors Cut version. Let’s hope Disney convinces him otherwise……
TFA had a lot of potential, and I think with a few changes could have been a gerat movie.
– The plot should have been all about finding Luke, nothing else. That is what they wanted to tell yet somehow got distracted. The whole Starkiller Base thing should have been left out. Instead there could have been a battle between the two fleets.
– The pace of the movie should have been slowed down, and some of the action cut out.
– Rey is too much of a superhuman. She’s a skilled pilot, amazing technician and apparently fights off anyone with her staff. Then she familiarizes herself with the force in one afternoon and defeats a skilled force user just like that. This is not believable. Took Luke years to acquire the same skills.
– The rathar scene is weird and unnecessary.
– The dialogue between Han and Leia is clumsy and would have been easily improved.
– Snoke is too much of an obvious Emperor rip-off.
– The political situation in the galaxy needed more explaining.
Luke was a farmer. Rey already had fighting skills to fend for herself in Jakku. She also made a living scavenging, fixing up and selling mechanical parts.
Also, Luke’s training with Yoda was quite short as well.
I hope they add the ones the filmed to the blu-ray!