Last Jedi Minute 42: The New Blow-It-Up Guy

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Date

March 30th, 2021

Summary

Finn reveals the secret of the Cloaked Binary Beacon to Rose but it will take more than that to impress guest commentator Tim Barnes!

Guests

Tim Barnes

Notes

Film

• Starts with Finn saying Rey will find him and be safe, and ends with Poe suggesting they blow the lead Star Destroyer up.

Podcast

• Tim asks how time works in Star Wars
  • We have brought this up before recently.
  • Alex references Coruscant Standard Time.
• Mentioned: the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (and the number 42).
• The movie wants to add more to Poe's character than just blowing stuff up, but that's really all we want to see him do. Maybe they could have invested that character development in someone else (like Finn).
  • The competition for "leading man" in this movie.
  • We didn't need to know more about the back story of Han Solo in the original Star Wars Trilogy.
  • Poe is perfectly content and happy and good at his job, whereas Han was terrible at his job as a smuggler.
    • Finn has a built-in in arc as A First Order
• Tim heard an interview with Rian Johnson where he said that originally he wanted Finn's side quest to have both he and Poe, but backed off because they are too similar as characters. Do we agree?
• People mistakenly blaming Kelly Marie Tran for how the character of Rose was structured. You can't blame Ahmed Best for the way that Jar Jar was written; he had nothing to do with that.
  • You shouldn't blame the actors, you should blame the "suits" upstairs, the powers-that-be.
• Rose calls Finn a "selfish traitor" which is actually completely accurate. Referenced: Back to the Future.
  • This could be a running thing with Finn.
  • Is he called traitor in the third installment?
    • Phasma is appears two out of the three movies but the OCD in Alex wanted it to be three out of three.
• Finn not being able to feel his teeth reminds us of Jar Jar not being able to feel his tongue when you get zapped by the power coupling.
  • It would have been worse though if he'd gone the full Bill Cosby.
  • It hammers home that Finn is playing the comedy relief role that's more geared towards children.
  • What does it mean that he can't feel his teeth, is it normal to feel your teeth? We're all feeling our teeth now.
• If you don't understand how lightspeed works in the Star Wars universe, this minute is going to give you a crash course. Mentioned: Gravity's Rainbow.
• Rose just heard about active hyperspace tracking a second ago, and they already have a near-perfect plan for how to escape it..
  • Pete is on record as loving the scenes in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" where Geordi and Data and usually Wesley or Barclay are standing around the table in engineering figuring out how to solve a tech problem. This is a little bit like that.
• Because Rose is not introduced until this far into the film, her different emotions have very little breathing room and she has to get them all out of the way at once.
  • All in one minute she expresses:
    • Mourning the loss of her sister.
    • Excitement about figuring out the active tracking.
    • Maybe a spark of romance with Finn.
  • It would have been nice if we could have met her earlier and spent more time with her.
• Pete's plan to go to the Academy Awards library to read this script, which was submitted for consideration (editor's note: but not nominated) for best screenplay. That's why he moved to California in the first place.
• Reminder: Finn used to be a janitor. He's mopped a lot of First Order ships/bases and such.
  • How he got reassigned from sanitation to the front lines. Was it explained in some ancillary material?
  • The Apple-inspired Stormtrooper mop that he probably had.
  • Why would they even have janitors when they have droids? Maybe he just supervises a mop droid.
• Seeing Star Wars actors in other movies before they were in Star Wars.
• Sifo-Dyas versus Ochi from Rise of Skywalker.
  • Ochi's appearance in the Darth Vader comics.
  • Tim's dad had a 3D printed Ochi's dagger made for him.
• If you're just a listener, consider becoming a viewer and watch the show on YouTube.

Meta Minute

• 28:13 podcast episode length.
• The heightened awareness of one's teeth caused by viewing this minute of the movie [Trigger warning] results from the same psychological quirk that causes the You Are Now Breathing Manually effect. Both of these may in turn have been inspired by this Peanuts comic.
• Alex bringing up the notion of "it's like letting the air out of a balloon" as the catch-all analogy for solutions to any technical problems has become a bit of a running joke. It is a reference to the "Futurama" episode Where No Fan Has Gone Before.
• The winner of the 2017 Academy Award for best original screenplay was Manchester by the Sea. Maybe Pete can read that one too if he ever makes it to the Academy Awards library.

Quotes

• Alex: Every surgeon wants to operate, every X-Wing pilot wants to blow up a star destroyer.
• Pete: (re: Poe in The Rise of Skywalker) Quick! There's only an hour left, what's your backstory?
• Alex: (re: the Sequel Trilogy) <sings the first few notes of shave-and-a-haircut but leaves out the "two bits" at the end>
• Pete: It's costing me a fortune in rent just to read this screenplay.
• Alex: (as Finn, upon learning that his job was now to kill people) Hey I'm just in it for the mopping.
• Pete: Our old "blow it up" guy died; we need a new blow it up guy, you're it.

Links

Audio only

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2021/03/30/last-jedi-minute-42-the-new-blow-it-up-guy

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_1jBnBnMBA

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