First ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Clip: Rey And Finn Run Away From Spoilers… And Probably TIE Fighters
For over a thousand days,J.J. Abramswas the guardian of spoilers and plot details in the newly revivedStar Warsuniverse. Before the TV spots. Before the Disney marketing department.
After literally years of tight-lipped secrecy, the past few weeks have seen an explosion of new footage fromStar Wars: The Force Awakens. Once, we were hungry for footage of any kind, demanding it, begging for it, picking apart each and every trailer frame by frame. Now, when we wake up to a new TV spot, it’s just Monday.
And today, things have moved into the next stage. The first clip fromThe Force Awakenshas arrived – 15 seconds of uninterrupted footage standing outside of a trailer, eagerly awaiting your nitpicking. Check out the firstStar Warsclip after the jump.
It’s actually kind of hilarious that this debut clip consists almost entirely of shots we’ve already seen in other trailers, just placed in the right order with audible dialogue and a taste ofJohn Williams' new score. It’s certainly too early to judge anything too seriously from this brief snippet, but there’s more genuine energy in the filmmaking and passion in the performances in these few seconds than there are in entire sequences from any given prequel (sorry, Mr. Lucas). The sense of place provided by an actual, physical location lends an immediate energy to the footage.
Anyway, the clip finds Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boeyga), and BB-8 outrunning a First Order assault on a village on the desert planet of Jakku. On display: CGI lasers, practical explosions, and BB-8 rolling through the sand and looking adorable even in the face of chaos. That slick, fast direction is definitely that of J.J. Abrams (who is taking it easy on the lens flares). That riveting bit of music is definitely John Williams doing what he does best.
The clip debuted on last night’s American Music Awards, which aired on the Disney-owned ABC and therefore found plenty of time to squeeze tons ofStar Warsinto the broadcast. There’s also this new TV spot, which is mostly footage we’ve seen before, but it includes the first spoken dialogue fromOscar Isaac’s X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron and a super-cute new BB-8 moment:
And then there’s thisothernew TV spot, which focuses on the mysterious Rey, features more ofLupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata, and includes a shot where a huge crowd of Stormtroopers give a Nazi-esque salute as a nice reminder that the white-armored guys on so many lunch boxes are actually space Fascists:
