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The hallway massacre
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Darth Vader is a bad guy. From about the midpoint of Revenge of the Sith to the last few moments of Return of the Jedi, the soul that once was Anakin Skywalker is bad. I mean, sorry, he IS conflicted, still at war with his former self, and never fully trusting of his dark master. Yes. There are layers there. Especially now. However, we all know the truth: Darth Vader has done horrible things since joining the Sith. From killing Younglings to hunting down Jedi to helping to oppress and enslave most of the galaxy, Vader has been one evil villain. He is a bad guy.
Yet, when rumors started circulating that Darth Vader would be appearing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a groundswell of anticipation started to build. While it was widely believed he would not be a main player in the story, the hope was that we all would get to see Vader “in action.” This would be the Darth Vader we all dreamed about seeing as a kid. And we wouldn’t just see it in an animated show or read about it in a book. This was going to be Vader in his prime on the big screen. Weird when you stop and think about it because we ALSO knew that Rogue One would be very close to the events of A New Hope, so it would make little sense that Vader’s prime didn’t also include A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. (We’ll allow for the idea that he was slowing down a bit by Return of the Jedi. Tired of his boss, looking for a retirement plan.) But, in truth, that’s playing around with the in-story aspect. The subtext of this anticipation was that we wanted to see Darth Vader swing his lightsaber and choking his foes in the era of more modern filmmaking. For all of its advancements of the film industry, the original trilogy was also of its time. Vader is almost reserved in the trilogy. Striding menacingly around Star Destroyer command bridges, standing ominously in front of his foes, or sitting in cockpits killing Luke’s best friends, Darth Vader doesn’t, you know—follow me on this because I don’t mean to be sacrilegious—do much. We wanted to see Vader in action.
Well…see him in action we did, and it was absolutely, undeniably, unflinchingly horrific. Just like we’ve always wanted.
As we know, Vader appears earlier in the movie at his castle. However, at the end of the day, he was just taking a business meeting with an employee. Orson Krennic has essentially been called in to talk about his poor work performance. We want more from Vader. A lot more.
The story of Rogue One rolls on and we almost forget about Vader. There’s a lot going on. Rebel spies are racing around, trying to steal the Death Star plans, Imperials are actually hitting their targets on the ground, and the Rebel fleet knocking Star Destroyers out of the sky. Then Grand Moff Tarkin takes the Death Star over to the battle and mentions that Vader will be “taking care” of the Rebel fleet.
Gulp.
The entire audience sat up a little straighter. No sodas were sipped, and all snacks put on hold. Darth Vader was on his way. Your mind immediately started speculating wildly what this could mean. Is Vader going to fly around in his TIE Advance, cleaning up Rebel X-wings and Y-wings? Is he going to drop to the planet’s surface and try to rip the Death Star plans out of Jyn Erso’s hands? Is Darth Vader going to use the Force to simply crush Rebel cruisers like this was some sort of video game? What is Darth Vader going to do?!?!?
Then, well, nothing happens. Or at least nothing with Vader. The battle rages on and the Rebels actually manage to beam the stolen plans safely up to the Rebel ship above and try to escape. The Death Star fires on its own base and people and our heroes die in the blast on the beach of Scarif. It’s over. The battle has been won and the Rebels start to get out of there and fast, starfighters and ships alike jumping to lightspeed. Well, I guess this movie is over—
BAM.
Vader’s flagship the Devastator emerges from hyperspace. Rebel ships crash into it and shatter upon contact. The battle is NOT over. Darth Vader has work to do.
At the moment the story jumps into the Rebel ship the Profundity and then into the familiar, pristine white hallways of the Blockade Runner we know belongs to Princess Leia, we get a sense of what’s coming. Alarms blare, fueling our anticipation and, honestly, our fear. Rebel soldiers, dressed in the blue, black, and gray we first saw in 1977 (or whenever you had the pleasure of first seeing A New Hope) have the plans, but run into a malfunctioning door. They’re trapped and turn to face a sound in the darkness. A sound we all grew up hearing and associating with THE villain of our favorite galaxy. A crackle and hiss. That red lightsaber appears.
What transpires next is Star Wars crossing into a new genre. Mark Reilly of Collider Video once said in their old show Collider Nightmares that this was pure horror. The Rebels are trapped, and pure evil is advancing. There is nothing they can do. Vader hacks them into pieces, pulling blasters away with the Force, choking them, destroying them, and slicing a poor Rebel in two. The screams in the darkness fade away until no one remains. The plans make it through the door and another soldier races away with them. One of the last and most effective shots we see is outside of the darkness. In that familiar bright, white hallway, Darth Vader is loose and, as a Rebel trooper crouches in fear, Vader, the bad guy we grew up not-so-secretly admiring, swings his crimson blade down right on him. In this era of modern filmmaking, it is all very real and palpable. It IS pure horror. Darth Vader is a monster. Just like we always knew he was.