23
The Rebel Alliance arrives
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy
Director: Gareth Edwards
Fist. Pumping. Moments.
These are what Star Wars fans live for. The music soaring. The action heavy. The stakes high. And the heroes seem to be down and out. But, then, boom, the tide turns. In one moment, it all changes and our collective fists pump in celebration. This is the fun and promise of every new Star Wars adventure. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story delivered not only one of the best fist-pumping moments, but also one of the most inspirational when Admiral Raddus and the Rebel Alliance arrive to save the day during the Battle of Scarif.
The Rebel Alliance had been building to this moment. Slowly, over the course of nearly two decades, the stirring opposition became the fiery Rebellion. Separate cells started coming together, still unsure of how to fight together as much as they were sure of wanting to fight together. Ships, equipment, and resources were gathered and shared. Leadership started to emerge. Then Mon Mothma gave her speech. The Rebel Alliance was formed, but it had yet to make its move.
Sympathetic politicians still very much in office were still afraid and overly cautious as they clung to the faint hope that diplomacy could still work. Some just straight denied the existence of the Death Star despite hearing from witnesses to the destruction of Jedha. Military leaders were no different. They couldn’t decide on the best way to fight and most feared that it was a war they could no longer win. But Admiral Raddus had heard enough. Designed in part to look like Winston Churchill and, according to the performer that voiced him, Stephen Stanton, sound like George C Scott’s General Patton, the gruff Mon Calamari leader declared, “I say we fight,” when no one else was ready to take that final leap.
Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and their brave band of volunteers that comprised the unsanctioned Rogue One squad went off on their own mission and Raddus leaped into action. It’s no small moment that, upon learning of this, Mon Mothma smiles. Admiral Raddus was providing a spark—helping her to light the fuse she had needed to catch fire for years.
All of this leads to the grand fist-pumping moment when all hope appears to be lost on the surface of Scarif, but the cavalry arrives. Chills go down your spine as the fleet drops out of hyperspace. They are all there. X-wings, Y-wings, U-wings, blockade runners, Hammerhead Corvettes, Nebulon-B frigates, even the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels, and at the center of it all is the Mon Calamari battlecruiser, the Profundity. It’s a ragtag collection of ships, but all of the pieces are on the board. As a classic Star Wars music cue trumpets their arrival, Admiral Raddus barks out, “This is Admiral Raddus of the Rebel Alliance. All squadron leaders, report in.” Simple. Direct. Keeping within the protocol. He is here, the fight goes on, but it is much more.
This was a statement.
After years of hiding in the shadows, fighting when they could, and hoping for a new dawn, the Rebel Alliance was here. These were the heroes we cheered on in the original trilogy. These were the ships and weapons we daydreamed seeing in action. This was what the opening crawl of A New Hope meant when we first read “Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.” As you pumped your fist and cheered these Rebels on, you, like the Empire, were realizing that this was no longer a movement. This was a war.