Breathless
It begins with a callback to The Force Awakens, which featured John Boyega’s Finn gasping against the desert backdrop of Jakku. This time it’s Daisey Ridley’s Rey, but…
Control
…she’s calming herself, not panicking. She knows what’s coming, and she’s ready. Here we see a familiar object. Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, then Luke’s…now it belongs to her.
Ignite
In The Last Jedi, the artifact was ripped in two in a clash of wills between Force-wielders Rey and Kylo Ren. She has clearly restored it. “The lightsaber Rey inherited from Luke Skywalker lives,” Ridley said in the Celebration panel Friday.
Screaming
Kylo Ren’s starfighter in The Last Jedi was called the TIE Silencer, which is funny given the shrieking noise it makes cutting across the desert toward her.
Faceless
We don’t see Kylo Ren’s face, just his hands, piloting the dart-shaped craft toward her. We know what he looks like, but there’s something ominous in not seeing him.
Exposed
In contrast, Rey is unarmored, without a mask or helmet, and seemingly alone.
Sprint
She starts to run, but not in fear. She’s building speed…
Flight
…for a daredevil leap over the cockpit of the razorblad ship. We don’t see what happens next, but based on the angle she is in a great position to slice off the right foil of that TIE Silencer — silencing it for good.
Cloudy
It’s unclear what world this is, but it looks like a rainy, rocky planet with a small community. For a moment, I wondered if it was Black Spire Outpost from the Disney Theme Park attraction Galaxy’s Edge, but…probably not. It’s too hard even to discern the type of ship.
Betrayal
This crimson forest has a storybook feel, but there are no happy endings to be found. Stormtroopers are in the background, and it looks like Kylo Ren is slashing down one of the Knights of Ren.
Restoration
“Take that ridiculous thing off,” Snoke said in The Last Jedi. Kylo responded by smashing his helmet to pieces. Now we see him repairing it, although it will remain covered in red scars — just like his actual face. (We don’t know if J.J. Abrams has moved that mark back to the middle of his face, after Rian Johnson shifted it to the side.)
Watchmen
Boyega’s Finn and Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron stand watch on a rocky outcropping. Hard to know what’s happening here, but Finn is now armed with Rey’s staff.
Pals
BB-8 has a sidekick, the wheelie droid D/O. There’s a big brother/little brother thing happening between these two, and less of an All About Eve robot rivalry.
Hyperspace
Lando is back in the cockpit of his old ship. The Millennium Falcon and Billy Dee Williams both have a lot of years on them, but it doesn’t appear to be slowing them down.
Smooth
Read the joy on Lando’s face. The yellow shirt and black cape Williams is wearing harkens back to Donald Glover’s wardrobe as the character in Solo. Still looks good.
Chase
A Stormtrooper goes flying in this race through a desert pocked with a series of mechanical arrays.
Shotgun
Poe Dameron pilots this new speeder, which has a kind of tank tread on the front of it, plowing through the desert dunes like a jetski blasting through ocean waves. Finn and C-3PO hang on in the back.
Embrace
Abrams added the late Fisher to the film by way of deleted sequences from The Force Awakens that they never used. Here, Rey and Leia share a moment in the woods.
Tears
Yeah. The audience feels this one, too.
Heroes
Three droids. Three humans. And one badass Wookiee. Abrams revealed this film won’t keep the central characters separated. They’re on this quest together.
Ruins
The focal lens of a destroyed Death Star rises from the ocean of an alien world. Is this the first one, or the second from Return of the Jedi. And what are they seeking here? As we hear the cackle of Emperor Palpatine, Luke says “No one is ever really gone.” That goes for the bad guys, too.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is out Dec. 20.