How I Would've Made The Rise of Skywalker

Opening Crawl:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.....

The Curse of the Force

It is a time of civil unrest across the galaxy. After the Resistance took a stand against the First Order on Crait, jedi master Luke Skywalker has put hope back into the masses with his selfless sacrifice. With the spark ignited, the Resistance is growing. Leia Organa has went on a diplomatic mission to Coruscant to try and re-establish the Resistance as a more organized and important face of the New Republic. As political unrest threatens the diplomacy of both the light and the dark, smugglers and thieves have risen up across the galaxy. With the First Order losing its grip, it seeks to control the galaxy in other ways by getting its hands into organized crime syndicates to cover its tracks, thus resurrecting Crimson Dawn. As Rey accompanies Leia on her mission, Poe Dameron and Finn are on their way with Chewbacca to Tatooine to settle business with an old friend who may have ties with the Knights of Ren, the main link keeping the First Order crime chain in tact and under wraps....

Basic Rundown and Synopsis:

The film would be set approximately three years after the events of The Last Jedi. The film opens with Rey training with Leia, becoming frustrated. She goes into a cave on Ach-To and is visited by Luke's force ghost that leads her through a meditation exercise as she constructs her very first lightsaber. Between the two films, Finn has learned to tap into his force sensitivity and Rey has taken him on as her apprentice. Much like Luke leaving to try and save his friends in Cloud City, Finn leaves Rey on Ach-To because he has a vision of bad things happening to Rose and Poe under the hands of Kylo Ren and the First Order. Because of the growing crime that is secretly being funded by The First Order to cover its tracks and resurrect Maul's old Crimson Dawn syndicate, this means the galaxy is vulnerable and people like Poe and Finn are the perfect fit to investigate. On Finn's journey, he encounters a group of ex stormtroopers like himself and also discovers that they are mildly force sensitive. He leads them to free a colony of prisoners that defied the first order and take out a group of gangsters led by a mysterious hooded figure.

Clues are left behind that point to Tatooine. Finn is able to meet up with Poe and Rose by finding the Millenium Falcon's tracking beacon. When the ship arrives, Chewbacca has Lando with him who immediately recognizes one of the former stormtroopers as his long lost daughter. As they reconvene, Finn learns to come to terms on this trip with who he truly belongs with. He sees how much Rose cares about him and how she risked her life to save him, and in a way what happened to him at the end of Force Awakens mirrors what happened to her at the end of Last Jedi. He sees how they are kindred spirits and how perhaps Rey is more of a mentor and a friend to him than a potential girlfriend. As awkward tensions develop over this, a complication arises: the First Order lead by new Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is tracking our friends through light speed and knows where they are headed. Whatever is on Tatooine is an important piece in figuring out the red herring of the crime syndicate and how it is tied to the first order.

Elsewhere, Rey is still in telepathic contact with Kylo Ren. She attempts to get through to him, but is unsuccessful. Rey and Leia arrive on Coruscant and the whole planet is very starkly divided between the wealthy and the poor. While there's no longer a sith lord in power, the New Republic is still just as blind and corrupt as the Republic from the prequels. People on the streets are starving, many of the clubs have closed, but the senate chamber has been completely rebuilt to its former glory with Yoda's claw marks from Revenge of the Sith still being there. Leia uses her adopted parenthood from Bail Organa to try and strike a chord with them and get them to recognize the power the Resistance could have if they worked together. It would give the poor from the slums of Coruscant something to fight for as well as a living wage, but those in charge don't see it that way. The new government of Coruscant is much like the Sovereign from the second Guardians of the Galaxy film and have been allowed to rule apathetically for so long that they have become a dictatorship while ironically holding little power outside of their respective planet. A place that was once a hub for the Jedi and the Republic is now basically like a rich neighborhood in Hollywood adjacent to a homeless shelter.

Rey uses her ability to sense the history of objects through the force to touch the claw marks left in the senate chamber and has a vision of Yoda's battle with Sidious. Rey believes the great evil that filled the senate is still there and that the dark side is controlling them. Discouraged, Rey and Leia leave empty handed. Kylo convenes with her in the force and taunts Rey about how he knew she'd find nothing of value because the galaxy has betrayed the Republic, just as it betrayed his grandfather. Rey tells Kylo he has no idea who his grandfather really was and that Vader is dead. Leia overhears this conversation and manages to walk in on Rey, causing Kylo to briefly see her. Kylo shuts himself off from the connection temporarily as he hears Leia call out "Ben'", which shakes him to his core. Going to his chambers, Ren touches the mask of Vader, but this time feels nothing. He says "time to let the past die" as he smashes his grandfather's helmet just as he smashed his own to symbolize him seeing himself as a better sith. Dispatching the Knights of Ren, Kylo decides it is time to turn Rey to his side once more. Hux comes in as this is going on and points out how careless and reckless he is being. Hux believes his army is being wasted and that he has put in a ton of effort with nothing to show for it. He tells Hux that he received word from Phasma who was hiding out on Coruscant that Leia and Rey were there. Kylo decides it is time to show just how much power they really have.

Hux thinks it would be best to dispatch the Knights of Ren to capture Finn, Poe, Rose, etc. because they are in route to Tatooine, but Kylo believes it would be better to catch them off guard and make them think they are safe. Kylo instead dispatches the Knights of Ren to Mustafar, to Vader's castle. Kylo accompanies them as they wipe out the local population and rather than find a sith wayfinder leading to Exogol, they find blueprints for a new Star Destroyer with miniaturized Death Star tech. Ren believes that Vader's castle is a puzzle map to finding said tech and he wants to use it to destroy Coruscant and Tatooine. Kylo talks to Hux via hologram and gives him the schematics which they begin blueprinting and trying to search for. The smuggling unit on Tatooine is warned and told to stall, thinking they are going to get out safely. Upon arriving on Tatooine, Finn and friends are captured and taken to the Sarlaac pit from Return of the Jedi. Lando is able to free them and help them escape, but Chewie loses his arm and is given a robotic one. While on Tatooine, Finn feels something he's never felt before: he senses someone else in the force. To Kylo Ren's chagrin, Finn is able to see him and where he is headed. They exchange awkward looks and Finn tells them they have fallen into a trap and it is time to go.

Finn sends out a distress signal telling Rey, Leia and others about what the First Order is planning and that he knows where Ren's lead ship is going. If they can catch them off balance before they can retrieve the new planet destroying tech, they could potentially win the war. As this is going on, tensions rise between Ren and Hux as Kylo and the Knights of Ren land on yet another planet finding more clues for the tech. This causes Hux to lash out at Ren, who mimics his grandfather by force choking them and then replacing him with his next in command. This startles the Knights of Ren, who believe he is being unhinged. Kylo senses the uneasiness and tests them. He reminds them of how they were "brainwashed by Skywalker" but he took them under his wing to give them a new purpose. One of the Knights steps up and believes he knows where the new tech is: buried beneath the senate chamber on Coruscant. He makes the remark that the "curse of the force" is that what you need is always in the last place you'd think to look, which is normally the most obvious.

Kylo decides to scout this out on a hunch, but in the mean time orders troops down to Tatooine. A huge brawl ensues in which Finn, Poe, Rose, Chewie, Lando and his daughter, C-3Po, and R2 face off against hundreds of stormtroopers only for rebel forces to come in and assist them at the last second. They are able to flee Tatooine, but when they do, the Falcon's light speed capabilities are damaged as well as its engine and they are stuck drifting in space. Finn uses his new found ability to reach out to Rey and Leia in the force. Rey isn't sure what to do because she sees a vision of her with Kylo Ren sitting on the senate throne together in Coruscant. At the same time she senses her friends dying, the same warning that led Finn into a trap. Leia tells her to trust her feelings, and she decides to go to Coruscant. In the mean time, Maz Kanata rescues our dying heroes from space and hauls the falcon back to her bar on Takodana. As the ship is being prepared, Maz tells our heroes the story of how she found Luke's saber in the garbage on Bespin. She explains this wasn't the first time she had been able to sense an object powerful in the force. She explains that the reason she brought up this story is because during a recent trip as far out as Geonosis, she came into contact with an object strong in the dark side, an old Inquisitor saber that had been abandoned.

She tells them a tale of an old junk dealer that we can assume used to be her lover or partner. They specialized in collecting force artifacts as well, but those of a dark side nature. After realizing said person was tapping into the dark side, they parted ways during the Clone Wars. Maz describes them as becoming old, fat, and lazy but that they have their own private army consisting of reprogrammed battle droids and old war relics on Geonosis. She thought they were dead but picked up on their presence last time she was there. The significance of this is that while the Knights of Ren are the middle men between the First Order and the Crime Syndicate, said person is the actual leader of the Crime Syndicate and because of things coming to a boil, the First Order are planning to take him out and make it look like he was behind everything. Maz believes they can dissuade their friend so Finn, Rose, and Lando's daughter decide to accompany her there. In the mean time, Poe, Lando, and the droids decide to meet back up with the Resistance in space to come up with an attack plan while Ren is away and working on finding the tech.

Going back to Coruscant, Leia and Rey find a secret route that leads under the senate chamber and find all kinds of artifacts strong in the dark side of the force including Palpatine's old discarded saber. Upon completing some intricate Indiana Jones esque puzzles, they unlock a secret chamber that contains the giant laser Ren is looking for. As this is happening, the First Order has dispatched a severely burned Phasma with a new, black armor to the planet with a group of her best troops. The senators attempt to take them out, but are all killed. In a twist of irony, it is actually the people who rise up and defeat them. With only Phasma left, Rey and Leia team up to take her out. Rey cuts off her hand and spares her, and Phasma escapes. She receives word from Kylo Ren that Finn, Rose and co have been spotted with Maz Kanata on Geonosis. In the mean time, Kylo Ren has arrived on Coruscant to face down Rey and his mother. A saber battle ensues in which Rey uses a yellow saber and Leia a blue one. During this battle, Rey figures out that she can pass objects through the force. Simultaneously, Finn, Rose, and friends are in a huge battle on Geonosis. Maz's friend has reprogrammed a ton of old, obsolete battle droids, super battle droids and destroyer droids he took in as scrap after the battle of Geonosis and reprogrammed to obey his commands. The team is over whelmed and Rose is shot in the arm as a call back to Leia being shot in the arm in Return of the Jedi. As Finn helps her, it is in this moment he realizes they are meant to be together and they share a kiss.

The new ability Rey has comes into play here, as Rey is able to sense where they are as she is fighting Ren with Leia and before he can intervene, Rey passes Luke's old saber to Finn who uses it to take out the remaining droids. Maz's friend runs scared, but she is able to cut him off due to her small size, climbing through a vent and knocking him unconscious as he enters his chambers. As Finn stands over him with a lightsaber, he reveals he has a few more tricks up his sleeve. As he hits a big red button, a giant rancor comes out and the team must run from it and figure out how to kill it. At the same time this is happening, Captain Phasma appears and wants a rematch with Finn. As the two battle, Finn quickly realizes that Phasma's staff is made out of beskar and he cannot cut through it. With a new robotic hand, Phasma seems to be at an advantage. Finn taps into the force just as Rey did in the forest and is able to defeat her, knocking off her helmet and scarring her across the eye. Just as Rey did to her earlier, he attempts to spare her, but she tries to shoot him in the back only for Rose to jump in the way. Shocked at what has just happened, Finn uses the force to push Phasma towards the rancor, which eats her and begins spitting out chunks of beskar. Dragging their friend away to try and revive her, the leader of the syndicate reveals that the whole place is rigged to explode.

Realizing they cannot defuse the situation, they manage to flee just as the man's escape craft is leaving. Finn attempts to pull it down using the force, but he is stopped in his tracks when the Knights of Ren appear in the skyline and shoot a huge blast at him, knocking him unconscious. Finn stands and faces off the Knights, managing to take out three of the six and sparing the other three which he is able to capture. One of them unmasks themselves and explains that they were the Knight of Ren who led Kylo Ren to Coruscant where the tech is actually hidden. He explains to Finn how he made a mistake in joining Ren and that "his father would be disappointed in him". Finn confusingly asks him who his father is, to which he doesn't answer. Back on Coruscant, the relentless fight continues with Rey and Leia fighting Ren in the senate chamber just as Yoda fought Palpatine. Leia shows just how much she has grown in the force as she throws senate pods at Kylo. She manages to finally hit him with one, breaking his shoulder. Channeling his pain to fuel his hatred as he did with his hip wound in Force Awakens, he keeps fighting anyway. He manage to use the force to throw Rey into a wall and knock her out, but in fighting Leia he does the same finishing move he did on Finn in the forest and slices across her back. Immediately regretting his decisions, Ren has a flashback to killing Han Solo, and just as he hear Leia call out "Ben" to him earlier, he now hears the voice of his father. He turns and sees Han Solo for a split second before he disappears.

Kylo takes off his outer robe, stripping down to the clothing he would've worn as Ben Solo. Going into the jedi temple, he touches the ground to try and get a sense of what happened there. We hear the sound of sabers, clone troopers yelling, and as he makes his stop in the council chamber, we hear echoes of the conversation in which Anakin was denied the rank of master. Kylo attempts to unbleed his broken crystal, to try and restore it to a blue color as his original saber, but in the process the crystal explodes and destroys his saber, giving him third degree burns across half his face. As he looks at his reflection in the room's glass, he sees a vision of Anakin burning on Mustafar. Just like Rey was transported in her visions as if she were really there when touched Luke's saber, Kylo has a similar experience when he sees his reflection. He stands next to Ewan Mcgregor's Obi Wan, trying to get him to stop and help Anakin as he burns alive. As he walks up to him to grab him as he walks away, his hand passes through him. Kylo goes down and sees Anakin as the flames extinguish and he rolls around in the soot. To his surprise, he can actually touch Anakin.

Anakin calls out to Kylo: "h.... help... me.... save me.... Padme." Kylo asks who Padme is, when the force ghost of Anakin walks up behind him in the vision and explains that Padme was his grandmother. He smiles and greets Kylo with a hug. He sits him down next to the lava as they speak on the hillside. We see Sidious and clones approaching. Kylo begins to stand to try and confront them but Anakin holds him back, assuring him they cannot see them. Anakin explains how he was the chosen one and brought balance to the force and that ever since then, people are trying way too hard to live up to the legends the jedi and sith have been made out to be in order to fill the power void in the galaxy. He refers to this as the "curse of the force", that it is a power source that binds all things together, but people make it all about the jedi and sith. Anakin is able to convince Kylo that he was wrong and tells him there is still time to make things right. Kylo is taken out of the vision as he looks out the window and sees his own troops blowing up the city around him. Anakin then appears to him supposedly in real time, sitting in one of the senate chairs. He tells Kylo to go find Rey and Leia, that there is still time. When he asks him what of Crimson Dawn and "FN-2187's quest to find the link" he tells him not to worry about it, it'll resolve itself. As Kylo looks on, Anakin disappears.

Back on Geonosis, the captured Knights of Ren are taken aboard the Falcon and interrogated. The redeemed of the three says his real name is Ken and that his dad's name is Kyle. He says he's still alive. No one really knows why that is important. The other two knights of Ren attempt to fight back, and one of them uses a sith dagger to slice open Chewie's leg. They take Chewie to the medical bay and Ken finishes off his friends, launching them into space along with the dagger. When asked why he responded so aggressively he explains that the dagger was an old sith war relic they found laced with sith poison. It causes whoever is harmed with it to go insane and experience violent mood swings and hallucinations. Chewie begins tearing up the falcon, knocking out Maz Kanata and ripping apart a blaster with his bare hands. He gets ahold of C-3PO and rips off his arms. Finally, they are able to give him a strong sedative and strap him down, knocking him unconscious but not before he causes the ship to crash land right after jumping into light speed.

Conveniently enough, the coordinates were set for Coruscant. Upon arriving, Finn goes to tell Rose that everything is going to be alright, and the last Knight of Ren is on their side now. He attempts to shake her awake, but she has passed on. Finn becomes distraught and informs the rest of the team. Leia is informed of her sacrifice and uses a signal inside the Republic senate to send out a message to all of the Resistance fighters that Rose's death be not in vain. Poe and a huge squadron sees this and are inspired as they take on a huge blockade of ships. While there are many of them stationed around both Coruscant and Tatooine when the signal is given, they are caught off guard. Several ships crash into star destroyers, Snoke's ship that Kylo took over goes down and crashes into Mos Eisley, and a huge dreadnought is destroyed. All over the galaxy, people are celebrating as if the war is over, but on Coruscant, things aren't quite there yet.

Kylo steps out of the jedi temple wearing jedi robes he found in storage. He walks down the same steps Anakin walked up with the 501st legion. In a reverse act, he takes his hood off and drops to one knee in surrender. Rey greets him with a nasty head gash, and they embrace. To his amazement, Leia is behind Rey and still kicking. The three have a conversation and Kylo tells Leia what he told Han, that he knows what he has to do, but doesn't know if he has the strength to do it. Leia stands in the same position he was in and hands Kylo her lightsaber. As this is happening, Finn and company land and things take a nasty turn. Finn tries to kill Kylo and a duel ensues, but Kylo purposely tries not to hit Finn. Finally, he is able to freeze him in the force and explain what happened. This is when he sees Ken get off the ship. Kylo refers to him as a Katarn. Realizing Kylo has switched sides, he decides to re-pledge his loyalty to him. Kylo gets him up to his feet and tells him that Kylo Ren is dead and Ben Solo is alive and that from now on, he should go by his real name: Ken Katarn. Kylo explains to Leia he needs to pay for his actions. Everyone tries to talk him out of it, but Kylo believes it is his responsibility to take out the fleeing smuggler who could expose everything. He believes it will make extinguishing the first order a lot more complicated. He tells them his plan in secret, which is to evacuate the main cities of Coruscant to the underground so that the First Order can bomb the senate thinking they are killing the Resistance but in actually they would be taking out their own men along with the death star tech. Kylo's plan works and the First Order realizes they have destroyed their last hope.

Elsewhere, a group of bounty hunters has caught whiff of Crimson Dawn's renewed grip on the galaxy, but without a strong leader, their grip has been loosened. Led by an elderly Boba Fett along with Dyn Jarren they find out that the new leader is hiding out on Dathomir, Maul's home world and send a beacon to the New Republic that he is hiding there. Recruiting forces from around the slums of the galaxy, this team begins heading for Dathomir to fish him out. Ren arrives on Dathomir and is tempted back toward the dark side by the Nightsisters, but through the power of Anakin, he is able to resist it. Rey senses a disturbance in the force and she accompanies Finn and Ken there to try and help him. Kylo is able to channel into the dark side without being consumed by it to have a final showdown with the Crime Syndicate leader. Maz Kanata shows up to try and talk some sense into her old friend, but is ultimately finished off by him. It is revealed he had one more trick up his sleeve, something he had hidden on Dathomir by cloaking it in the planet's dark magic: the reprogrammed body of General Grievous. Now 100% machine and not a slither of man, the reprogrammed droid is only his former self in voice and appearance, there is no organic material left. Rather than wielding four stolen jedi sabers, he wields four discarded Inquisitor sabers that the leader of neo-Crimson Dawn had attained.

Proving as a big distraction, he attempts to escape again but he is thwarted by Ken Katarn and Finn. Taking his dying breaths, he is about to shoot Ken in the back when Finn tries to jump in the way and copy what Rose did earlier. What happens instead is that Kyle Katarn shoots first and takes out the big leader. Revealing himself to Finn and Ken, he explains that he was a friend of Luke's who helped teach at the new academy until they had a falling out. It was actually Kyle's unorthodox tactics that eventually rubbed off on Luke and convinced him the best way to be a jedi wasn't to police the galaxy, but to end the jedi and make something better. He explains that Luke's plan wasn't to literally end the jedi, but to rebuild it and get it back to its roots where the force is viewed as something for everyone, not a light that dies with the jedi. We see a flashback in which Kyle shows up at the temple to retrieve his son just moments after Kylo destroyed it and left with Luke's students. He kneels down next to Luke who is beside R2 as he watches his temple burn. An argument ensues and Luke pushes Kyle away. He reveals to him that his son has become one of the Knights of Ren and that Kyle was right about him. Kyle feels deep guilt and leaves Luke on Ach-To, shutting himself off from the force just as Luke did. For several months, we see through flashbacks that they telepathically stayed in contact, but once Luke began wallowing in self pity seeing the rise of Kylo Ren and Kyle went back to being a smuggler and bounty hunter, they severed their connection and the dyad in the force passed from them on to Kylo and Rey.

Kylo and Rey are having trouble defeating the reprogrammed Grievous. Kylo gets sliced in the leg and Rey's saber is sliced in half. Kyle and Ken step in as Kyle reveals he kept Luke's green saber and also has his son's. They team up and take down Grievous similar to how Luke took down an ATAT by wrapping his legs up and causing him to fall before Rey and Kylo chop him up. Disgruntled first order troops arrive on Dathomir to try and arrest Kylo for his insurrection, but Fett and his squad of new allies help liberate the planet and wipe them out. After everything has ended, there is a meeting with literally everyone on Yavin IV. Many people outside of Leia's circle don't care that this is her son and want him executed. The stress of the situation causes Leia to have a heart attack. In what is initially believe to be a dying moment she convenes with Luke in the force and is able to see a place known as the netherworld of the force. Here she speaks with Anakin, Qui Gonn, Yoda, Master Windu, Ahsoka, Kanan and Ben Kenobi. They explain to her that it is time, and that she must pass on one last time what she has learned. With every major character in one place, the remnants of the First Order have joined forces with those working with the Crime Syndicate to bomb Yavin IV in an Avengers Endgame style attack (think Thanos destroying the headquarters). There are multiple casualties and all seems to be lost. As Leia rises one last time, she stands with Rey, the Katarns, Ben, and Finn. The power of all the jedi enters them as the force ghosts of old appear in physical form and assist them as they use the force to hold back the huge league of ships that has appeared over head. A huge blast is held back with the force and destroys the ships, ensuring victory in the galaxy. After this has happened, Leia dies of exhaustion and Rey has taken the blunt of the blast. Kylo tries to save her, but he's still too attached to the dark side. He makes eye contact with Finn who grabs Rey and runs away. Kylo tries to stop him, but Finn passes enough of his life energy into Rey to save her before allegedly dying.

Seeing the damage he has done and all of the chaos around him, he realizes this is his own doing. He tries to talk Rey into ending him as they fight over a saber. Finally, Kylo uses the force to turn it on, thus ending himself. He looks at her and smiles just as he did to his father Han Solo, saying "thank you". Kylo becomes one with the force and Rey is comforted by the Katarns. All around the galaxy, everyone celebrates. Kyle Katarn being a former stormtrooper himself decides to work with his son to lead the group of force sensitive ex stormtroopers that Finn found through Lando's daughter. Elsewhere on Canto Bite, broom boy is discovering more about his abilities in the force and is visited by Mando and Grogu, who is now older and wiser. "This the one, kid?" to which Grogu nods yes. It is explained they found him by revisiting the focusing stone and being lead to him.

Rey is on Ach To training new found students as she looks into twin suns and Grogu, Mando, and broom boy are looking off into a single sun. Rather than roll to credits, we instead get closure with Ben who appears to Rey as a force ghost. He explains to her that Anakin did bring balance and Ben was living out a lie as Kylo Ren. He thanks her along with his mother for helping to free him. After this happens, Ben says "don't just thank me" before disappearing". This leads to Finn appearing behind Rey, surprising her. He explains that they were able to get him back and he'd been in a coma for two weeks. He calls Rey master and asks her if they can finish what they started. She tells him she has so much to show him. As they enter into a cave where Rey keeps the sacred jedi texts, she hears the voice of Qui Gonn calling to her.

Convening with Jinn, he explains to her about how her master Leia is in the netherworld of the force and that "no one is ever really gone". She tells Rey that she too can experience this and pass it along to her students, but to be weary, for with the balance now swaying, new forces will arise. Rey and Finn look off into the sunset together thus ending the saga as we also see Grogu helping broom boy on to a rebuilt Razor Crest.