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Official ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Script Reveals New Details: Is Rey A Skywalker?

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 09:52 PST, Jan 4, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is nothing short of a global phenomenon, surpassing Titanic to become the No. 2 movie of all time and well on its way to the number one spot. With the film’s official script recently submitted to members of the Writers Guild of America for awards consideration, new details regarding its intriguing ending and flashback sequences have come to light, furthering our understanding of this new chapter of the Star Wars saga.

[Spoilers Follow]

The script doesn’t reveal any previously unknown or deleted scenes, as Indiewire points out. It does, however, shed new light on the interaction between Rey and Luke Skywalker when she finally finds him, revealing both the name of the planet on which he is hiding, and his mindset upon meeting the film’s heroine.

The planet upon which Luke hides is referred to as Ahch-To in the official script for The Force Awakens, and Star Wars fans have already begun to debate the meaning of this previously unknown world. Some have pointed out that “Ahch” is a Hebrew word meaning “brother,” suggesting that there could be a possible correlation between the planet’s name and Rey’s mission to find Leia’s brother. Alternately, Slashfilm points out that Ahch-To could be little more than a play on words, as Rey’s discovery of Luke there inevitably sets up Act Two of the sequel trilogy.

More importantly, the script reveals that Luke knows exactly who Rey is when he first lays eyes upon her. Much has been made of the potential relationship between Rey and the Skywalker family, as the Inquisitr has previously revealed, with several theories inspiring sharp debate across the internet.

According to the script, Luke looks upon Rey with “kindness in his eyes, but there’s something tortured, too.” In addition, the Jedi master “doesn’t need to ask her who she is, or what she is doing here.” When presented with his old lightsaber, the script instructs the camera to “HOLD ON LUKE SKYWALKER’S INCREDIBLE FACE, amazed and conflicted at what he sees, as our MUSIC BUILDS, the promise of an adventure, just beginning…”

Beyond the revelation that Luke recognizes Rey, The Force Awakens script also confirms many of the quick scenes shown in her vision, when first discovering Luke’s lightsaber in Maz Kanata’s temple. As some fans have theorized, the shot of Luke laying his mechanical hand upon R2-D2 is in fact a flashback to the night that Kylo Ren burned down the temple of the new Jedi order, resulting in Luke’s exile to Ahch-To. It also confirms that the men seen standing around Kylo Ren in the rain are indeed the Knights of Ren, a group only referenced in The Force Awakens, but theorized to play a larger role in future Star Wars films.

A close reading of the script also reveals other interesting, if not key, facts about the film. Rey was apparently left on Jakku with Unkar Plutt as a young girl, adding another dimension to the question of her origin. When Kylo Ren succeeds in killing Han Solo, he is momentarily stunned by his actions, standing dazed in a shock that is only broken by Chewbacca’s scream. According to the script, “Kylo Ren is somehow WEAKENED by this wicked act.”

One final factoid from the script may shed even more light on Rey’s parentage, the main question on fans’ minds after the release of The Force Awakens. At the end of her climactic duel with Kylo Ren, when she scars his face with Luke’s old lightsaber, Rey apparently feels the pull of the dark side.

“And she could kill him — right now, with ONE VICIOUS STRIKE! But she stops. Realizing she stands on a greater edge than even the cliff — the edge of the dark side. The earth SHAKES. The earth splits. A gully forms.”

The novelization of The Force Awakens takes this scene a step further, saying that Rey actually hears a voice in her head telling her to kill Ren. While the audiobook makes it seem that this voice belongs to Supreme Leader Snoke, there is another parallel that bears examining.

It is made clear over the course of The Force Awakens that Kylo Ren embodies a balance of both the light and dark sides of the force. He feels the call of the light side, confessing that fact to the remains of his grandfather. With Rey apparently embodying the light side but hearing the call of the dark, this scene suggests that she embodies a similar state, perhaps even the exact counterbalance to Ren.

Could Rey truly be another offshoot of the Skywalker clan, destined to restore balance to the force after it was decimated by Kylo Ren and Snoke?

As Lor San Tekka said at the beginning of the film, there can be no balance in the force without the Jedi. Star Wars fans have a long wait ahead of them for Episode VIII, however, when many of the most pressing questions from The Force Awakens will hopefully be answered.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

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