Solo Choo Choo! Solo Train Sequence Discussion

great scene although still never sure why Thandie Newton's character, Val, blew herself up (and I've seen it 5 times!) as for train instead of flying, well, the most important thing is that it's a Great Train Robbery from an old Western heist. So that's why it's there. In universe? Eh, the coaxium and the blah blah blah. Maybe they didn't want it landing in their spaceship engines and flying into a mountain so it works better by rail.

 

It’s a lot easier for pirates to steal floating cargo than cargo attached to rails. We covered this in the previous page.

 

I meant for me. Corellia was a nice intro, but I wasn't sure about the White Worms gang as an antagonist. Mimban was a bit too set-like for me, and I had hard time seeing what was going on.
Vandor is where the movie found it's footing for me. And became my favorite of the 4 Disney SW films.

 

Went looking for shooting location for Mimban.
Found https://twitter.com/i/moments/1001910726280204289?lang=en , which has a bit at the end on the conveyex.
Would love to know where that shooting location is. If it cannot be found, then it was probably stage with very good green screen. Controlling and maintaining the mist and correct lighting might not be economically possible / feasible for location shooting.

 

Brilliant sequence. I love the music, especially when Val fires her grappling gun. Those security droids spilling out to ad to the mayhem were brilliant too.

Now I really want to watch it again and I'm supposed to be preparing some work. Aaaarghhh!

 

I love that part of the score too!

 

Great scene. I love the effortless way it, and subsequent scenes, introduce layers to the world. First, you have an Imperial train carrying fuel for Imperial military purposes. Then you have thieves trying to steal it. Then you have a band of pirates trying to steal it from the thieves. Then you learn that the thieves were working for a broader criminal organization. Then you learn that the broader criminal organization is so powerful that it can execute regional Imperial governors with impunity (and hosts other Imperials at parties). Then you learn that the pirates from earlier are actually proto-Rebels trying to finance a revolution against the Imperials.

That’s how you seamlessly build a world. Compare that to the ST’s “evil space Nazis and space good guys, with a couple of criminals and war-profiteers thrown in for color.” Just doesn’t compare.

 

That's the backbone of Star Wars. Don't get me wrong, I like that we're starting to see shade of gray, but I don't mind straight up good vs evil either. I just like it all really. Well, not the prequels so much.

Mentioning gray reminded myself of this:

“First comes the day
Then comes the night.
After the darkness
Shines through the light.
The difference, they say,
Is only made right
By the resolving of gray
Through refined Jedi sight.“
Journal of the Whills 7:477

Hope we get more things like this in Episode IX.

 

I have no doubt that the train scene in Solo was heavily, if not primarily, influenced by the Ord Mantell level in the Shadows of the Empire game on Nintendo 64. Obviously the graphics in Solo are much better than the graphics of a N64 game from 20 years ago, but the resemblance is undeniable.

This is the best walk through I found. It's better in 3rd person to show the resemblance. Skip to about 2:50 (or watch the lead up if you want):

 

I disagree that the OT was that simplistic. Yes, we had the Empire and Rebels. But we also started the series with talk of Senates and regional governors, junk traders and farmers, smugglers and Imperial cargo, gang leaders, nomadic raiders, spies, bounty hunters, etc. Tatooine was a hugely rich and complex world, and that’s the very beginning of Star Wars. The ST stripped that down to simply facsists and freedom fighters, with a touch of local color. The beginning of TFA being the best, but it all dropping off considerably after that.

 

A similar list could easily be made regarding TFA and TLJ. There were multiple spies and informants in Maz's castle, gangs, bounties, weapons dealers, code breakers, and so on, but just like with the Original Trilogy, that is all just the world around the main conflict.

 

I agree that the anthology films are providing a rich and thorough depiction of the various layers of a complicated universe such as that portrayed in SW. I am definitely enjoying them and looking forward to them far more than the ST.

The scene in Maz's castle was one of the things that got me excited for the ST for the very reasons you mentioned. Same with Bala-Tik and his gang of mercenaries, I felt as though he was going to be the Boba Fett of the ST. I also agree with @Bor Mullet that the introduction scene of TFA was a very strong lead that looked as though it represented a complicated universe. TFA on its own is a very good film.

But, without getting into it too much, TLJ kind of derailed all that. And made it a simplistic run of the mill black and white space action adventure. If I'm being honest about it, I'm just not that interested in the ST any more as a result.

 

Fair enough. I certainly think it's a better sequence than the Kessel mines, which really feels like a rush job.

Yes, but in TLJ (and I'd argue, after the first act of TFA), those layers feel really thin. Like window-dressing as opposed to organic features of the world. Hard to explain that difference, but to me, it's significant.

 

In my headcanon, the coaxium is volatile enough that the manufacturer's prefer to ship it by rail, rather than have it subjected to possibly destabilizing effects of anti-grav fields utilized by most flying transports. So the train robbers were taking more risks to hijack it and fly away with it, and the owners were overconfident that no one would be foolish enough to try it, hence they assigned less security than we'd expect.

 

The easiest explanation to defend is that it’s far more difficult to steal a train car attached to a rail than to steal a train car that’s...not attached to a rail.

 

People asks why are there trains in the Star Wars galaxy when there are spaceships. I can ask why are there trains on this planet when we have planes.

 

The Mimban battle scenes would've been WAY better if the extended scene of said battle would've been left in the movie. Much more emotional weight.

 

Yep! I thought of SOTE as soon as I saw that sequence in the trailer. While it was cool to see that the Kasdans were influenced by it, another part of me was like "Darn it, Shadows should've been made into a movie! This sequence should be in a Shadows movie!"

 

At a time when SW fans are clamoring for any OT era material, it's astounding that Shadows hasn't been moved up the short list as a priority to get done as soon as possible. Personally, I thought Alden Erenreich would have made for a great Dash Rendar, so I consider that a wasted opportunity. So many good actors could pull of Xizor as well. A well executed Shadows production, like a mini series on Disney+, could really open up the flood gates for OT era material. They are sitting on a treasure trove with this, especially with an already built in following for it. It could even lead to Thrawn getting green lighted as the next major SW villain. Unfortunately, it probably won't happen until new leadership takes over LucasFilm. So hopefully that happens sooner than later.

 

Not to mention the fact that it has a ready-made soundtrack!

But I've heard rumors that the story group doesn't like SOTE, and I'm pretty sure it has to do with Xizor.

 

You would think that Xizor could make for the perfect villain in this day and age. Makes too much sense I guess.

 

You'd think they would be jumping at the opportunity to have Guri also. Give her a bit more modern marvel superhero look, and have her use her super strength fighting skills everywhere.

 

I answer the train commentary simply: it’s a direct route for resources to travel. It’s the old West but in space, which was the tone of the film. No more thought needed other than that.