Just when it seems the Rebellion’s fortunes are at their lowest ebb, things get worse: a message from Emperor Palpatine, threatening the coming of the “Final Order”, is sent across the galaxy, and an incredibly risky intelligence-gathering mission carried out by Poe, Finn, and Chewie reveals that the message is genuine. Somehow, the Emperor is back from the dead, and has the resources to amass a huge fleet. Also looking for the source of the message is Kylo Ren, though he’s significantly closer to tracking down the message’s origins, thanks to the discovery of a Sith wayfinder. The device leads him to the hidden planet Exegol and a face-to-face meeting with the Emperor, being kept alive by technology and an army of adherents and acolytes who worship the last remaining Sith Lord. If Ren can fulfill one mission for Palpatine, the new fleet and the vast army it contains will be his – and the mission is to kill Rey.
Rey also learns of the Sith wayfinders from the ancient Jedi texts she purloined from Luke’s hideout on Ahch-To. With or without Leia’s blessing, Rey is determined to find the way to Exegol. The quest leads her to a desert planet where retired Rebel General Lando Calrissian hides among the locals; years ago, he and Luke came here in search of clues to the whereabouts of Exegol, and the secrets may still lie in an abandoned ship in the desert. Kylo Ren knows that Rey will be looking for a wayfinder and lays a trap, not only capturing Chewie but demonstrating to Rey that dark Force energy comes to her naturally. With hours remaining until the Emperor’s new fleet is deployed, further clues are investigated at great risk. A mission to rescue Chewie leads to Poe and Finn being captured, and Kylo Ren reveals to Rey her true lineage and the reason that Force powers associated with the dark side seem to be at her fingertips. Escaping with Poe, Finn, and Chewie, Rey’s next stop is the third moon of Endor, where wreckage from the second Death Star still fills one of the planet’s oceans. She finds a Sith wayfinder there – which Kylo Ren then arrives to destroy. In a furious lightsaber battle, Rey deals him a mortal blow, but then heals him with the Force before leaving in his own TIE Fighter. She returns to Ahch-To, determined to exile herself as Luke did, before Luke appears – now one with the Force – to remind her that facing Palpatine is her final trial in becoming a Jedi. She discovers the other Sith wayfinder in the wreckage of Kylo Ren’s fighter, and with that – and Luke’s X-Wing, recovered from the seafloor – she is finally on her way to Exegol.
Rey meets the Emperor, only to discover that her arrival has been anticipated, and is a calculated part of a Sith ritual to grant him immortality, whether she gives in to the dark side or not. But what neither Rey nor the Emperor anticipate is that Ben Solo – not Kylo Ren – lives again to throw the Emperor’s master plan into disarray.
screenplay by Chris Terrio & J.J. Abrams
story by Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow and J.J. Abrams & Chris Terrio
directed by J.J. Abrams
music by John Williams
Cast: Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Naomi Ackie (Jannah), Domnhall Gleeson (General Hux), Richard E. Grant (General Pryde), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Keri Russell (Zorii Bliss), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Greg Grunberg (Snap Wesley), Shirley Henderson (Babu Frik), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Dominic Monaghan (Beaumont), Hassan Taj (R2-D2), Lee Towersey (R2-D2), Brian Herring (BB-8), Dave Chapman (BB-8), Robin Guiver (D-O), Lynn Robertson Bruce (D-O), J.J. Abrams (voice of D-O), Claire Roi Harvey (Maz Kanata performance artist), Richard Coombs (Maz Kanata performance artist), Matt Denton (Maz Kanata performance artist), Nick Kellington (Klaud), Mandeep Dhillon (Lieutenant Garon), Alison Rose (Lieutenant Draper), Amanda Lawrence (Commander D’Arcy), Tanya Moodie (General Parnadee), Simon Paisley Day (General Quinn), Geff Francis (Admiral Griss), Amanda Hale (Officer Kandia), Amir El-Mary (Commander Trach), Aidan Cook (Boolio), Patrick Williams (voice of Boolio), Martin Wilde (Knight of Ren), Anton Simpson-Tidy (Knight of Ren), Lukaz Leong (Knight of Ren), Tom Rodgers (Knight of Ren), Joe Kennard (Knight of Ren), Ashley Beck (Knight of Ren), Bryony Miller (First Order Officer), Cyril Nri (First Order Officer), Angela Christian (First Order Officer), Indra Ove (First Order Officer), Richard Bremmer (First Order Officer), Mark Richard Durden-Smith (First Order Officer), Andrew Havill (First Order Officer), Nasser Memarzia (First Order Officer), Patrick Kennedy (First Order Officer), Aaron Neil (Resistance Officer), Joe Hewetson (Resistance Officer), Raghad Chaar (Resistance Officer), Mimi Ndiweni (Resistance Officer), Tom Wilton (Colonel Aftab Ackbar), Chris Terrio (voice of Colonel Aftab Ackbar), Kiran Shah (Nambi Ghima), Debra Wilson (voice of Nambi Ghima), Josef Altin (Pilot Vanik), Vinette Robinson (Pilot Tyce), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Kipsang Rotich (voice of Nien Nunb), Annie Firbank (Tatooine Elder), Diana Kent General Engell), Warwick Davis (Wicket W. Warrick), Harrison Davis (Pommet Warrick), Elliot Hawkes (Spice Runner), John Williams (Oma Tres), Philicia Saunders (Tabala Zo), Nigel Godrich (FN-2802), Dhani Harrison (FN-0878), J.D. Dillard (FN-1226), Dave Hearn (FN-0606), Rochenda Sandall (Sith Fleet Officer), Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (Sith Fleet Officer), Andreea Diac (Lander Pilot), Liam Cook (Ochi of Bestoon), Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles), Carolyn Hennesy (Domine Lithe), Lynn Robertson Bruce (Sith Alchemist), Paul Kasey (Cai Threnalli), Matthew Wood (voice of Cai Thernalli), James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader), Andy Serkis (voice of Snoke), Josefine Irrera Jackson (young Rey), Cailey Fleming (young Rey), Jodie Comer (Rey’s mother), Billy Howle (Rey’s father), Hayden Christensen (voice of Anakin Skywalker), Olivia D’Abo (voice of Luminara Unduli), Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka Tano), Jennifer Hale (voice of Aayla Secura), Samuel L. Jackson (voice of Mace Windu), Ewan McGregor (voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi), Alec Guinness (voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi), Frank Oz (voice of Yoda), Angelique Perrin (voice of Adi Gallia), Freddie Prinze Jr. (voice of Kanan Jarrus), Liam Neeson (voice of Qui-Gon Jinn)
LogBook entry and review by Earl Green
Review: There’s a lot of movie to discuss here, and truth be told, this probably could have been (and perhaps should have been) two movies, splitting the grand finale Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows-style. Some really important developments happen off-screen, relayed to the audience only by the opening scroll, but the sheer shock and dread of Emperor Palpatine’s voice being broadcast across the galaxy really should have been seen and shown, not just mentioned, and it might only have taken two or three minutes to accomplish, with a few Spielbergian reaction shots of horrified Rebels and members of the First Order alike, a device which Abrams has utilized in plenty of his other work. But instead, we’re told that somehow, he came back. Um…okay.
That’s not the only piece of connecting tissue that’s missing from this final chapter in the story of the Skywalker dynasty that has seemed, at times, be doing as much harm as it does good. A great deal of importance is placed on keeping the fleet of Sith 
Star Destroyers from leaving Exegol, though once that goal is accomplished, we’re shown numerous scenes of Star Destroyers plummeting out of the sky at Bespin, Endor, and other places – how was the remainder of the First Order affected by Palpatine’s final fall at Exegol? Are these scenes the result of, as Finn says, people rising up across the galaxy? If so, the connection is left vague at best. Don’t get me wrong, the final scene of Rey abandoning a family legacy that she never chose, and taking up the Skywalker mantle, is satisfying on a surface level… but it seems like so many major incidents in the story are glossed over, ground down, and turned into pavement for the runway to reach that conclusion.
Much of The Rise Of Skywalker seems to be trying to atone for the perceived sins of The Last Jedi, all but retconning them out of existence. Rose Tico is reduced to a mere cameo; she has as many lines as Dominic Monaghan’s character, but at least she gets more to say than Snap Wexley. How she recovered from the critical 
injuries she sustained in The Last Jedi? Dunno, guess we’re leaving that for the novels and comics. To be honest, a lot of what happens at the Rebel, um, sorry, Resistance base is a bit disjointed, partly because it has to be woven around scenes that the late Carrie Fisher shot for The Force Awakens but landed on the cutting room floor. And even then, she has to be revived in CGI form for a few scenes to try to tie those scenes together. What she does to distract Kylo Ren during his duel with Rey is inferred more than it is shown, and ironically it’s implied that she’s doing the same kind of astral-projection-via-the-Force that Luke did (fatally) in The Last Jedi. So there’s a bit of strange cherry-picking going on where Rise Of Skywalker‘s predecessor is concerned.
Abrams’ reverence for the original trilogy continues, not just with the inclusion of Palpatine but the crowd-pleasing comebacks for Wedge and Lando Calrissian, the latter of whom really should’ve been a bigger part of the sequel trilogy all along. But even here, Rise Of Skywalker could have benefited from being split into two movies. When Rey, Poe and Finn make a stop at the site of Return Of The Jedi‘s Death Star debris, we’re introduced to a character who, at the end of the movie, tells Lando she never knew her family, and it’s hard to tell if his response is one of genuine interest or if he’s hitting on her. (The novelization makes it clear that this is probably Lando’s lost daughter, so this ambiguity, combined with the age difference, is a bit alarming.) A movie that clocks in at two hours and 21 minutes, and still feels like it’s leaving a lot of story untold, feels like a movie that should have been a couple of two-hour movies that explained everything a lot better.
Instead, what we’re left with is a final chapter in the story of the Skywalker family that seems destined to be remembered not for entertaining, for enlightening, or for satisfying, but for frustrating its audience. Considering that Abrams left the long-term plotting of something as seemingly intricate as Lost to his deputy showrunners, I’m not sure that anyone, realistically, should’ve been expecting Abrams to deliver the Grand Summation of What Star Wars Is All About, but 
it’s hard not to notice that, as of this writing three years after Rise‘s premiere, what Star Wars has ceased to be about is: movies. Thriving as a series of interconnected streaming series on Disney Plus, both live-action and animated, Star Wars in episodic TV form benefits from a strong central vision with at least a vague road map of Where It’s All Headed, courtesy of the tag team of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. But the real forehead-slapper is that Star Wars, and Lucasfilm, and Disney, didn’t need someone to come along after the fact and show them how it’s done; Kevin Feige was already providing a great demonstration of that with Marvel Studios, also under the Disney umbrella. It’s not like the best possible model of managing a sprawling fictional universe was locked away at a competing studio – it was right down the hall. If there’s anything to pin squarely on the shoulders of those involved in making The Rise Of Skywalker, it’s somehow not learning a thing from their colleagues who were already on top of the complex-fictional-universe heap.