16. Rey meeting Luke (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
Did The Force Awakens leave us with the biggest cliffhanger of any Star Wars movie? It was the first Star Wars movie that I had the chance to watch in theaters since I wasn’t into Star Wars just yet when the prequels initially released. At the tail end of the movie, we see Rey confront Luke on Ahch-To and it ends as she goes to hand him his lightsaber.
The wait to see what happened next felt like a long one, even if it wasn’t too terribly long. The two didn’t even really get to interact with one another before the scene cut. While we see a lot more of that in The Last Jedi, we were left having no clue what would happen next.
Part of the reason this moment is so shocking is that Rey and Luke didn’t even know each other. Leia could have been the one to go find her brother, but she sent Rey, Chewbacca and R2-D2 instead. To be fair, Rey had to climb a lot of stairs and while Leia is strong, her age may have hindered her a bit in that instance.
When Rey pulls out the lightsaber, there’s a look on Luke’s face that tells you everything you need to know. He doesn’t have much of an interest in having his lightsaber again, but he also wasn’t expecting to see it. The two don’t have to say anything at that moment, which makes it a powerful cliffhanger.