Editor's note -- this is the same story as before, but I just moved it over to "Top Stories" since it is blowing up everywhere.
Copernicus here. Both me and James Darling, my collaborator on Science Vs. Cinema, are massive STAR WARS fans, and we both flipped out at the recent trailer. So James mashed together a SUPERCUT from all the trailers for THE FORCE AWAKENS, even including a little footage from the Comic-Con behind the scenes video. I helped with a few editing suggestions after seeing the initial cut, but this is pretty much entirely James’ work. I think it came out great!
This isn’t a real Science Vs. Cinema article or video, in that I’m not going to go into the science — at least not yet. It is just something experimental, because we’re geeks. I’m toying with the idea of doing an article on THE FORCE AWAKENS when it comes out, but it will probably be a different style than some of my others. STAR WARS is solidly in the realm of space fantasy, so I don’t want to hold its feet to the fire too closely. In my previous article about the Science of Star Wars, I focused more on real-world applications of STAR WARS technology. Ok, I did later geek out a bit about the size of the moon in ROGUE ONE from the Celebration teaser to see what I could learn about the plot, if anything. That worked out, because Executive Producer John Knoll then emailed me with some cool info about their thought process and why they cheated a few things. And afterward, ROGUE ONE screenwriter Chris Weitz did reach out to both me and Neil deGrasse Tyson in an effort to add in a little scientifically accurate flavor. Don’t bother trying to bribe me to tell you what we discussed, because I haven’t even told Harry or my closest friends!
A few things struck me about James’ supercut. It puts together a few sequences of events that are scattered throughout the trailers:
- Now it is easier to tell that Rey is spelunking inside that crashed Star Destroyer (which is pretty damn epic). That must be where she got her salvaged stormtrooper goggles — such an awesome detail.
- Seeing Finn’s whole crash sequence strung together makes that sequence of events a little more obvious, although it was easy enough to figure out already.
- I like that seeing both bits of the Kylo Ren / Finn lightsaber together gives you a little more flavor of that scene, although there must be a piece in the middle where Kylo takes down his hood.
- Cutting in some behind the scenes footage of Poe Dameron being captured helps clarify how he’s in the hands of Kylo Ren at some point.
Besides all that, I find it intriguing that the Millennium Falcon now has a holo-projector for showing maps of planetary systems! That should make it easier to not “fly too close to a star or bounce too close to a supernova.” Or settle debates about he improper use of parsecs (don’t give me that retconned BS about the Kessel Run being a race to shorten distance). And maybe it will make the writers a little less sloppy about traveling between stars in hours or months at sunlight speeds as they do in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK on the Hoth-Bespin journey.
At any rate, if you like James’ work, and haven't seen our TV pilot for Science Vs. Cinema: THE MARTIAN, check it out. And thanks for all the great feedback on it and the accompanying article.
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- Copernicus (aka Andy Howell).
