ST Han Solo/Harrison Ford Discussion Thread

IMDb says that his role is uncredited, which was probably done to keep his involvement as hushed as possible. However, I think many were expecting him to show up in some form regardless.

 

James Earl Jones plays Palpatine playing Vader. He, Jones, is credited as 'Vader' in TROS - which is true and isn't.

More importantly, that's not hushed in the film, but made explicit: 'I have been every voice[...] inside your head'.

Harrison Ford is playing someone else playing Han Solo, but Ben is not supposed to know.
https://boards.theforce.net/threads...in-episode-ix.50047219/page-142#post-56299165

 

yes but its still Harrison lol. If he's not in the credits it's an uncredited cameo.

 

Yes, I was talking literally about Harrison Ford being in the film (He is not credited). I wasn't talking about his specific role in the film in anyway. Disney wanted his appearance to be a surprise, so they didn't credit him (not having to worry about the billing order and making it less likely that people would that know Harrison Ford was in it before seeing the movie).

 

does this mean Harry didn't get paid?

Anyway, I kind of love it that Han's final line in the saga is "I know." It's too perfect. Kind of better than "When he comes back, I won't get in the way." he ended in ROTJ. Or "Yes, anything." in TFA.

And I'm not 100% personally on the "just a memory" train, even if Han isn't a Force Ghost (which I am actually also okay with but that's totes silly) the proximity to Leia contacting her son in the Force and then Ben seeing his father makes his appearance feel a bit more Force-y than just Kylo talking to himself.

From Qui-Gon's spirit (not technically a Force Ghost but whatevers) chatting to Yoda in TCW

"All energy from the Living Force, from all things that have ever lived, feeds into the Cosmic Force, binding everything and communicating to us through the midi-chlorians. Because of this, I can speak to you now."

 

He was probably paid the most.

 

Err, because Ben's not just pulling that personality out of his ass, maybe? It's an accurate take on how the older, mellower, parent-Han we know from TFA would feel on the matter?

It's not "convenient". Han would still think Ben's worth trying for even after what he did to him in TFA. Would still think there's an element of good buried way deep down. Especially given no doubt over the years he & Leia have been filled in by Luke on the basics at least of Vader's last minutes, and they know damn well how much of Anakin's traits and shortcomings (therefore likely inheriting the positive possibilities too) Ben's come to display.

As for your "suddenly Ben didn't burn down the temple" nonsense, that's on you if that's what you inferred from the first two movies. That was never established, like at all. All we get is Luke's assumption: Luke as both an unreliable narrator having just omitted the full truth to Rey the first time, and the guy who was unconscious when it supposedly happened.

You're making the Luke mistake. Which is probably the point.

 

I definitely wanted Anakin/Hayden in rhr film. And this would have been a perfect opportunity. But Ford’s cameo was emotionally perfect. There were 2 other situations where Anakin could have shown up.

 

Luke should have killed him and saved trillions of people, frankly, that was the mistake. I don’t know what else you’re supposed to get from him standing with his buddies in a field with everything on fire in TFA and Han’s story but he killed them. JJ and RJ retconned it so Kylo is the ultimate victim. Luke, Han and Leia accomplished nothing and died for nothing, but I think it’s hilarious that Benny Bunny croaked too. Too bad his fans have decided he was some sort of neglected martyr.

 

Or, you know, it wasn't the intention with TFA, and TLJ toyed with some misdirection among their perspective-play.

Also, TFA doesn't show the temple on fire in the same shot with Kylo & the Knights, from memory, it's a different environment in the force vision. It's Luke & R2 seeing the temple on fire.

Which squares with TLJ & TROS. Luke came to, the temple's burning, he & R2 are mourning, Ben's already left and the three Jedi have gone in pursuit due to drawing the same conclusion Luke did.

 

That wouldn't have made for much of a trilogy either would it? You could have had Luke, Han and Leia on their allotments I suppose, or playing bingo.

 

Snoke and Palpatine would still be out there if Ben were dead, as would all the forces of the First Order and Final Order.

 

More than we will ever see in six lifetimes, I'm sure.

It doesn't bother me that Ford doesn't like Han or Star Wars. He doesn't have to like what I like after all. I just hate that he got his way in this one thing. The heroes shouldn't die. Their fates should be left to the imagination. And if they should die, then why wasn't Rey Poe and Finn killed off in episode nine?

 

Mentor characters nearly always die, that is probably part of Fictional Storytelling Law. They die so that the younger characters have to find the strength within them to continue on without their guidance, and thus grow as a result.

I knew as soon as Hamill, Ford and Fisher were announced as being involved that at least one of their respective characters wouldn't make it to the end of The Force Awakens.

That is the way of things, the way of the Force.

 

I still consider it a minor miracle that not only is Ford in these films, but he's so great in them. His appearance in TROS was a perfect evocation. "I know."

 

Han dying didn't bother me conceptually. Heck I expected it to happen before the ST even began and out of the Big Three he make the most sense to kill off imo. It was HOW he died, how they regressed his character beforehand, and how they killed ALL of the Big Three in these films, that bugged me.

Also them doing the "I Know" thing made me cringe as much as aping the Twin Suns did with Luke. Talk about meaningless symbolism.

 

Poe was supposed to die in TFA. Again, all 3 signed for all three. Talk to JJ about Han dying.

 

Ford has also said, I believe at Celebration, jokingly, that they finally had something interesting for Han to do and then they killed him off.

He is legit great in both TFA and TROS though anyway. The no look blaster shot is fantastic.

 

I agree. I would even go as far as to say that Leia actually connected Ben with Han, in a type of Force Skype. Leia is holding Han's metal from ANH, during her Force reach out to Ben. I don't think that is a coincidence. She even dies after Ben turns around from throwing away the lightsaber, and seeing that the vision of his Father was gone.

 

Yeah, the Leia thing's interesting. Not necessarily how I see it, but it's a cool thought.

 

One of the best scenes in the movie in terms of making me feel something. Without a doubt.

I like how JJ tied Leia's final moments and reaching out with the Force while holding Han's medal in with Ben having thoughts of his father and his heart turning back to the light.

My reading is that Leia is holding Han's medal because it signifies when Han returned to help them blow up the death star when he was thought to be lost, selfish and left her and her cause to die. Now, Leia needs her son to make a similar unlikely return to come back, make the right decision and help her cause and the galaxy. The medal is everything. It was a masterstroke of symbolism.

Also Leia calls out "Ben" and only that, just how Han called out "Ben!" in TFA to get his attention. There was other dialog JJ could have had Leia saying through the force, but he chose to use only Ben's name and I like that. It's all connected.

This really worked for me, and Rey's sacrifice of healing Kylo in that moment too, really set up his turn as well as could have possibly been done, IMO. This is one thing TROS got right.

 

But she 'dies' before that, while Ben is dueling Rey. Rey notices it after stabbing Ben/Kylo.

There's another explanation, that of Han being Luke. This is Luke being Han:

The first thing Han says in TROS is 'hey kid'.

'You will take both sabers to Exogol', he says to Rey in TROS. That's after Ben turns.

 

yah there's definitely a lot of ways to interpret the "why/how" behind the Han scene in TROS, from the explicitly literal of him being a memory to Force influenced ethereal. Emotionally it works fantastic and both are great which is the most important part.

Han isn't in Last Jedi at all but the few references to him hit really hard.

And Force Awakens is definitely the most Han we got in the ST and Ford is just so awesome in it. "Jakku?! That junkyard!" and "That's not how the Force works!" elbowed it's way into some of the best Han lines ever which is saying something. I've always wondered if "Oh, really, you're cold?" was another Ford improv or if it was scripted originally, cuz it's hard to believe that all of TFA goes by without a Ford Solo improv which he dropped into every movie in the OT.

 

The Harrison Ford improv (yes, his idea) was Han touching his son's cheek over where he would later be scarred. J.J. actually hated the cheek touch during the death scene. Harrison won out.

Harrison likewise is the one who renamed the character after his own eldest son because he hated the name in the script. Han's the first character to speak and reveal the true name.

 

Where's that coming from?