'Last Jedi' Luke Lightsaber Duel: 3 Subtle Clues Everyone Missed
Not just the color of his beard or lightsaber.
By now, most Star Wars fans know all about the fate of Luke Skywalker at the end of The Last Jedi. But what about his big shoulder-dusting-off badass moment before the end of the film? Many of your friends will probably tell you they knew a twist was coming a parsec away, but there’s no way everybody caught all the subtle hints about what was really up with Master Skywalker.
Spoilers for The Last Jedi ahead.
On Wednesday, The Star Wars Show released a special segment featuring a roundtable discussion with the Lucasfilm Story Group talking about all sorts of different aspects of The Last Jedi. But, the small hints about Luke’s plan were probably the most nuts. We all know by now that Luke wasn’t really there, but instead using the Force to project an image of himself halfway across the galaxy. Some clues were obvious: he shouldn’t have had his old lightsaber because we saw it get destroyed by Kylo Ren and Rey. He looked way younger and had a totally different outfit. It doesn’t seem like he should have had enough time to get a haircut.
But, there were some smaller, more subtle hints that Luke wasn’t really there. Here are three highlighted by The Star Wars Show and the Lucasfilm Story Group.
Luke Skywalker's shoes. No footprints.
Luke Doesn’t Leave Any Footprints on Crait
A previous scene established that if you walk on the salty surface of Crait, you’ll leave some pretty sizable footprints. But, in his deft avoidance of Kylo Ren’s blows in the final duel, Luke leaves no footprints. He’s a living ghost!
He Moves Soundlessly When He Enters the Rebel Base
Though he speaks, Luke doesn’t make any footfalls when he enters the base. As Pablo Hidalgo observes in the new video, Leia is in on, and we’re meant to believe that “she is experiencing something that’s not what everyone else is experiencing.”
None of the Dust or Flakes Actually Land on Luke
There are small indications that flakes during the fight are hitting Kylo’s lightsaber, but not Luke’s. As Andi Gutierrez says, when Luke brushes off his shoulder “there’s not even anything there.” Which, really makes Luke’s shoulder brushing joke, twice as badass. Living Force ghosts don’t get dusty, but if they did, Luke wouldn’t care.
The Last Jedi is out now in wide release. Watch the entire discussion from the Lucasfilm Story Group below.
