Rey and Finn: Collision and Confusion

In the previous two reviews, I talked about why Rey’s character didn’t work for many fans. Now, it’s time to look at Rey’s story. Rey is a scavenger on a desert planet. The audience sees her going about her daily life, and, speaking personally, this is my favorite part of the movie. The writers took a lot of time showing Rey living her life.

As an aside, I think the musical score written for her is probably one of the only good things to come out of the trilogy. Before long, she comes across Poe’s robot, BB-8. She saves the droid from being scavenged, and the droid spends the night with her. The next day, when Rey goes to give her boss some parts she’s gathered, her boss offers her a large sum for the droid. She refuses, but he soon sends goons after her.

By the time Finn arrives in her town, she’s being assaulted by the goons but wins the fight. Finn realizes that BB-8 is Poe’s droid, but before he can say anything, BB-8 spots him and alerts Rey because Finn is wearing Poe’s jacket. Rey then begins chasing Finn. It doesn’t take her long to catch him.

She hits Finn with her staff, knocking him flat on his back. Finn then tells Rey and BB-8 that he and Poe escaped together, but he believes that Poe was killed in the crash. From this, Rey infers that Finn is a part of the Resistance, a mistake Finn doesn’t bother to refute, not that he has much time anyway because two stormtroopers appear and begin to chase the pair, hoping to catch BB-8.

Before getting into that, I want to take a moment to address a line from Rey that is rather irritating. While Finn is explaining how BB-8’s map finds Luke Skywalker, Rey says that she thought Luke was only a legend. This made absolutely no sense. “Hey, remember Ronald Reagan? I thought he was a legend!”

Thirty years have passed between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, yet Luke Skywalker is now only a legend? How could Rey live on a planet where she’d heard of Luke Skywalker, but at the same time, he’s only a legend? This wouldn’t be a plot hole if it were explained in the film, but it isn’t, and this is the sort of question that can take someone right out of the movie.

Once more, Abrams is introducing another story element meant to create an air of mystery, but all it does is create confusion because now someone has to wonder just how powerful the First Order is. Have they taken over the galaxy so completely that they’ve suppressed information about Luke Skywalker, hero of the New Republic?

The audience might be left with the impression that the First Order already runs everything, even though the title crawl would contradict this sentiment. This situation becomes even more confusing as the troopers spot Rey and Finn. 

It’s not like this film had no money, so why were there only two troopers and two TIE fighters chasing after them? In A New Hope, the town was filled with stormtroopers, which makes sense considering the Empire was searching an entire planet, so why did the writers choose to only have two troopers chase Rey and Finn? I couldn’t say, and the problem here goes back to, once again, stakes.

One moment the troopers are flooding a town and setting it on fire; the next, only two show up with blasters. And why have TIE fighters? What are TIE fighters going to do? Nothing except shooting the droid that contains the flash drive Kylo Ren is so desperate to find, which they try to do. Why? Kylo Ren isn’t going to be happy if the map is destroyed.

The TIE fighters would make sense if the pilots knew someone was going to fly off the planet, but they have no way of knowing that. It’s almost like they were placed there arbitrarily in preparation for an aerial chase scene.

Anyway, during the chase sequence, a notorious moment takes place. After giving this scene some thought, I’m not bothered by it, but remember, one of the main criteria I’m using for measuring the quality of media is immersion, and this line took a lot of people out of the scene immediately, myself included the first time I watched it.

While the two are running, Finn grabs Rey’s hand, trying to protect her from the troopers. Rey screams for Finn to let go of her hand twice before the two are thrown by an explosion created by the TIE fighters. Then Rey offers Finn her hand, and he takes it.

I think Abrams was going for a brief character moment where Rey decides to trust Finn. The exchange makes sense considering Rey has been isolated her entire life and has arguably never experienced someone trying to help her, but for many people this didn’t translate. They thought this scene was social commentary.

I will admit that this was my impression at first as well, but after listening to a critique by a YouTuber named MauLer, I’ve decided this wasn’t the writers’ goal. I believe MauLer is right to say that her rejecting the hand is in line with her character. Abrams was trying to quickly build rapport between Rey and Finn, but I think I can account for at least some of the reasons why the scene left a different impression on many fans.

For one thing, Rey acts enraptured with the Resistance when Finn claims he’s with them, which would imply that she does have some knowledge of the First Order. She’s already decided that Finn is one of the good guys, so she should also understand that the First Order are the bad guys before the chase begins.

Perhaps she was angry because she knew her way around the town, so Finn leading the way made no sense, but the writers never say that. Therefore, Rey’s line is jarring, especially after a scene meant to convey that Rey now trusts Finn. Then the line is repeated after Rey realizes that the First Order is after her as well as Finn.

The first time could’ve been interpreted as Rey being shocked or her not wishing to be caught up in whatever Finn is involved in, but once she realizes she’s now caught up in the situation, why is she still so fixated on the hand thing? Her motivations could’ve been explained by a throwaway line, but they aren’t, so some of the audience became confused, and the political climate of the time only exacerbated matters.

I can see why people were confused and irritated, and the confusion could’ve been avoided if the writers had taken a little more time establishing what Rey knows and her general temperament. I’ll cover what happens next in the following review.