Solo [Official Info] Woody Harrelson (Tobias Beckett) in Solo

He’s been great in every single clip I’ve seen so far, so, yeah.

 

One of the few good moments is gunslinger Woody Harrelson shooting and killing people.

 

I need secondary opinions

Was Beckett a big shot outlaw past his prime? Or was he a two bit thief with no luck?

At times in the movie it sounded like him, Val and Rio had been running jobs for ages and were seemingly good at it.

Then he meets with Dryden and it sounds like he's blown through his 3 strikes already.

Then he's incredibly competent on Kessel.

Then he's scared and runs then betrays and fails.

So was he a good outlaw or a bad outlaw?

 

I think he was an accomplished professional outlaw whose heart wasn’t in it, which contributed to his lapses in judgment (including bringing on Han). He really wanted to get out and retire with Val to Glenn Anselm and learn the varichord. Pretty tragically written, I think. More than I expected.

 

Something really irritated me about his portrayal. I honestly couldn’t stand that he preached about trusting literally no one after Val died for him. Am I missing something?

 

Val notes that sometimes Beckett puts his faith in the wrong people. So in this scene with Han, he’s recognizing his own (perceived) weakness and warning Han to avoid that weakness. He’s also specifically warning Han about Q’ira in this scene, because he knows where her allegiances lie. But because he knows Han is defensive about her, he generalized. It’s actually a pretty nuanced bit of writing from the Kasdans.

 

Okay but why would it be a weakness to trust anyone when Val died to save his ass? Obviously it was correct to trust Val...?

 

Well, Val died because Beckett trusted intel from a friend about Enfys Nest not being aware of the train job. This is what leads Val to say that he puts his faith in the wrong people. I also think Beckett is deliberately contradicting/ ignoring the example of Val being trustworthy in order to make his point to Han about Qi’ra. Han even says to him during that conversation that Beckett trusted Val and that was the right thing. Beckett essentially responds by saying “forget about Val - she’s different. Qi’ra’s not.” So I think he’s primarily just trying to make sure Han doesn’t screw up the job (and his life) by trusting Qi’ra, who he knows is ruthless. At least that’s how I read it.

 

Yeah I remember Han bringing up Val and I found Becket’s response aggravating. My recollection is he didn’t say that Val is different. He emphasized that Han should trust no one, period, as though Val hadn’t just died for him a scene ago. I get that Qi’ra shouldn’t be trusted (although he was wrong there too because Qi’ra does nothing but martyr herself for Han throughout this movie) but it seemed really tone deaf and illogical to me right after Val’s sacrifice. Becket just made himself look like a terrible person to take advice from, not to mention heartless. I think I just don’t get what the Kasdans were going for.

 

They were going for a conflicted character I think. An fatigued yet still very competent outlaw who wants to hit one last big score to get out of the game and play his valacorde back on Glee Anselm. I'm guessing he has been double and triple-crossed too many times than he can care to mention in the past, and likewise has done the same to others. When Han mentions Val, you can see from Woody's acting that the youngster has struck a chord and he's not even sure of his own perception of people anymore, yet still feels like he wants to give Han some advice because - as bad as he is - he probably sees something of his younger, less jaded self in Solo.
I felt like the father/son dynamic was played well between them, as broken and impossible as it was, you could sense that Han wanted to emulate and impress Beckett to a degree, all the while not going too hard into it due to his Correllian scumrat wiles of self preservation.
And here is the question, Han of course shot first (yay!) at the end, but did some small part of Beckett force him to draw slower, hoping in fact to die and be free?

 

I see some are comparing Han killing Beckett to Kylo killing Han.

Funny that Han, in a way, went out like he took out Beckett.

 

That’s a great take. I think Beckett definitely gave Han some time (and extra advice) there at the end. He wanted to be free, and I don’t think he relishes the idea of shooting that poor kid - who was more like him than he cared to admit.

 

Yeah, I actually thought Beckett was going to betray him much earlier in the movie and end up spending more time as antagonist than he did. After the convoy raid went awry he screams 'Solo, you coward!' and given Val's death I thought they were going to cut to a few years down the line and Han being on the run from a revenge seeking Beckett. I was surprised that he forgave him so quickly and wonder if that wasn't evidence of re-writing somewhere. As a side note, I loved the slow dawning on Woody's face as he realises the coaxium is real at the end, and the Scooby-do-esque line of 'Wait...so....if that's not the.....and that's the...'

I like a bit of cheese sometimes.

 

I like to think Beckett and Major Derlin had a drink somewhere.

 

Whoa, later this year there will be a Beckett action figure. They should go quite nicely at a bar playset, like the Creature Cantina, along with the Norm-esque figure of Morn from "Deep Space Nine."

 

Initially I didn't think it was good casting, but once I saw the film, his character grew on me.
Still, I didn't like his haircut nor his very non-Stawarsesque name (Granted, "Tobias Beckett" would fit in a Sci-Fi film, albeit one that takes place in the Earth universe).

 

Will my Gamorrean Guard figure work for Norm? How about my Beast X-man figure for Frazier? Now we just need Ted Danson....

 

Beckett was rather tragic.

 

In ROTJ, Lando's alias while working as a guard in Jabba's palace was Tamtel Skreej.
In Solo, does Qi'ra call Beckett "Toal"? Maybe it's Tull, or something with a similar spelling. We'll probably see the proper spelling in the novelization.

I'm inclined to say we'll not see this uniform again, since the Falcon has been stolen multiple times, and the uniform was probably looted. I think a third appearnce would be overdoing it.

 

I think one point the movie really drives home is that -- for the outlaw -- survival is a victory in and of itself. So yes, I would say he's a good one

 

I liked Woody Harrelson's performance.

 

A couple thoughts on Beckett, a character I appreciate more with every viewing and further thought:

1) Beckett and Han ended up meeting the same fate in life. Beckett stuck to his selfish ways and lost the love of his life before being killed by a young man he mentored. Han saw the light and still lost the love of his life before being killed by his own son. The difference, of course, is that Han's life (and death) had much greater meaning because he was willing to trust and serve others. But it's a cruel twist of fate that they both had a similarly tragic end.

2) Beckett turned out to be Han's "false mentor" in the film (to use a screenwriting term). In the end, it was Enfys Nest who turned out to be Han's true mentor. She was an infamous outlaw who nonetheless had principles and fought for the greater good.

 

Harrelson as Beckett fits the fringe setting perfectly. Would fit right in with the Legends fringe.

Anyone else notice that Beckett is basically Han's Walter Donovan?

"Because he didn't take my advice."

Well, Val didn't just die for him, she died on him.

 

Why does Beckett say "come in Tatooine, we're putting together a crew" out of nowhere, if he already knows that he's going to betray Han?

 

lol yeah I don't know. It's clearly a forced Jabba/ANH reference. It's awkward, especially since ANH is still ten years away.

And is Han going to hook up with that crew after killing Beckett? Who vouches for him?

It's a pretty dumb line.