Our favorite Star Wars moments
Photo Credit: [Rogue One: A Star Wars Story] LucasfilmAnother moment that deserves some mention comes at the end of my favorite Star Wars movie, Rogue One. After a desperate battle on the surface of Scarif, the Rogues have beamed the plans to a Rebel cruiser in orbit. The Empire however has dispatched its most sinister agent, Darth Vader, to recover those plans.
In a film that had already found a way to seize the fanboy in me in ways I never expected, comes a moment right out of a horror movie. The darkened corridor, wary Rebel soldiers waiting for a squad of Stormtroopers to charge in, a fire fight imminent; yet what comes is not a group of armored soldiers, but rather a single dark form. From the shadows erupts the crimson blade of a Sith Lord’s lightsaber, and any residual skepticism over whether Vader can still be a menacing villain with his past laid bare in the Prequels is put to a violent rest.
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It is barely more than a few seconds, but using the Force to pin the only means of escape shut, Vader begins to systematically annihilate the Rebel soldiers in front of him. Narrowly, and by sheer luck alone, the soldiers pass the plans onto a second smaller ship docked within the cruiser. As it speeds away, Vader stands watching, cape flowing, knowing he will pursue that ship as well.
It is a moment that forever changes the opening scene to the original film. You understand just how sure Vader is the Tantive IV has the plans on board, and how defiant Princess Leia Organa is to tell this monster to his face she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Rogue One may be the Star Wars movie I didn’t know I needed, but Vader’s rampage is the moment I didn’t know would make a classic even better.