Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker resolves one big plot hole from The Last Jedi
Admiral Holdo’s big move hasn’t been repeated for a good reason… **CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS**
2017 Star Wars movie The Last Jedi was chock-full of exciting and innovative action scenes, but perhaps one of the most memorable came from an unlikely figure – Laura Dern’s Vice-Admiral Holdo, who towards the end of the film crashed a cruiser at lightspeed into a First Order Star Destroyer, destroying it (and herself) entirely.
Playing without sound, it was a haunting moment in Episode VIII – but it also raised a few questions. If such a lightspeed attack was possible, why weren’t the Resistance doing it all the time? In fact, for that matter, why hadn’t Star Wars characters been auto-piloting ships through their enemies since the time of the prequels?
Well, now we have our answer. In newly-released Star Wars movie The Rise of Skywalker, Holdo’s big move is addressed onscreen when the Resistance fighters discuss tactics for taking on The First Order once again.
In the scene, Dominic Monaghan’s character Beaumont Kin (not named on-screen – thanks IMDB!) notes that they should try using a few “Holdo Manoeuvres” to really take out the First Order forces quickly, only for pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to reveal that there’s a very good reason they haven’t so far.
“Come on, that move is one in a million,” he says.
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In other words, what Holdo did in The Last Jedi was a desperate roll of the dice, a last-ditch attempt to save her fellow Rebels that almost certainly shouldn’t have worked, and only did because of some perfect combination of characteristics that are unlikely to be repeated.
Or, to put it another way, clearly since then a lot of Resistance fighters have tried it and just found themselves accidentally deserting during battles or only blowing themselves up, so it makes sense why it’s not been used much elsewhere.
Now, if we can just figure out how Holdo managed to find such a cracking hairstylist on the run, we’ll have all the Last Jedi’s lingering mysteries wrapped up.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is in UK cinemas now
