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Every ‘Star Wars’ Ending, Ranked

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Every ‘Star Wars’ Ending, Ranked

The neverending Star Wars saga is paradoxically often quite good at endings. Following great battles and heightened stakes, the movies typically provide endings that are somewhat quieter by comparison. A Star Wars ending also needs to provide a moment that makes the audience feel something before John Williams’s ending fanfare crashes in to release whatever tension was just built to.

Star Wars movies have ended with notes from the celebratory to the sad, often working to both close one chapter and set up the next. Most of these endings are distinct and instantly recognizable to fans, with sounds and imagery that have become iconic since the initial release of these films.

RELATED: Every ‘Star Wars’ Opening Sequence, Ranked

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11. The Rise of Skywalker

The Rise of Skywalker does everything it can to make Rey (Daisy Ridley) a vessel for fanboy nostalgia. After two movies on her own journey and one scattered mess, Rey’s story ends with her going to the home planet of her mentor, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). It’s on Tatooine that she buries the saber that called to her in the woods, along with one that belonged to Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher).

For context, this burial takes place on the planet Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) hated, close to where he buried his mother, where Luke’s aunt and uncle were brutally murdered by stormtroopers, and also on the same planet where Leia was briefly captured and made to be a giant slug’s sex slave.

To top it all off, the last shot of the movie copies and pastes a flipped image of Rey from earlier in the movie over an uglier version of the iconic twin suns, which have absolutely zero meaning for Rey. This scene also features one of the most groan-inducing (and heavily meme-d) moments of any Star Wars movie. Rey somehow meets yet another person with an odd fixation on last names, and declares that she is “Rey Skywalker.” Sure.

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As for the positives, John Williams writes a gorgeous score for this scene that it does not deserve, and Rey finally shows off her new lightsaber, made from pieces of the staff she’s carried with her for three movies.

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) tracks down young Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) for the Sabacc rematch that wins him the Millenium Falcon. Both Ehrenreich and Glover give good performances that capture the spirit of their predecessors while avoiding slipping too much into impression territory. Just as importantly, the two actors share a chemistry that fits what audiences already know about the long-standing complicated friendship between Han and Lando.

After winning the game, Han and Chewie hop into the Falcon and head off to do a job. The script teases the audience with a mention of a gangster, most likely Jabba the Hutt. It’s all very fan-servicey, but charming enough to be mostly enjoyable.

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9. The Phantom Menace

The Phantom Menace ends with a celebration after the Republic has triumphed in the Battle of Naboo. Young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) stands with his newly massacred hair alongside a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), and Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).

While there certainly isn’t anything wrong with the ending of The Phantom Menace, it just doesn’t stand out as much as some of the more memorable Star Wars movie finales. When it was released, it was the third ending to feature a victory celebration, and despite some highlights (Padme’s jubilee dress, for one), it didn’t quite live up to those that came before.


8. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Yes, the Vader scene rules, and yes, it is essentially meaningless fanservice. Every once in a while both of these things can be true. After boldly killing off all of its main characters, Rogue One retreats into safer territory, easing audiences back into what they already know. This ending basically works to get everything in place for an immediate viewing of A New Hope. It’s cool and exciting, bolstered by Michael Giacchino’s excellent score, but not quite as meaningful as the scene just prior at Scarif. Also, CGI Leia looks super, super weird.

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7. A New Hope

After successfully destroying the Death Star, Luke and Han (Harrison Ford) are given ceremonial medals by Leia. A triumphant score swells over the two new heroes (and Chewbacca) as they stride toward the princess. A fitting, feel-good end to a movie that didn’t need a sequel, but we’re so glad it got one.


6. Attack of the Clones

Attack of the Clones ends with the secret wedding of Anakin and Padme. Their Naboo wedding is cut to right after the first clone army is deployed under the command of the Republic. Both events are thought to be positive by the people involved but share a foreboding undercurrent. Of course, neither part of this story has a happy ending; the clone army is used to kill the Jedi, and Anakin’s love for Padme is manipulated and used by Palpatine to turn him to the dark side.

However, it’s lovely while it lasts: “Across the Stars” plays over the image of Anakin and Padme (wearing a gorgeous wedding dress and veil) sharing their first kiss as a newlywed couple in a shot that mirrors the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

5. The Force Awakens

Rey’s journey in The Force Awakens takes her from a lonely outsider and puts her on the path towards her own journey to figuring out who she wants to be. This culminates in her being the one sent to talk to Luke Skywalker in his self-imposed exile.

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After R2D2 chooses the most convenient moment on record to wake up from a nap, the map everyone spent the movie searching for is finally complete. With these coordinates, Rey and Chewie board the Falcon and head to Ahch-To. Rey makes the journey to the top of the island alone and finds Luke in his full Jedi attire, standing alone. Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill do great work as Rey silently extends her hand, containing the lightsaber that belonged to Luke and Anakin. The movie ends with one of the biggest cliffhangers in Star Wars history.

4. Revenge of the Sith

After Padme’s death and the fall of the Republic, Obi-Wan takes a newborn Luke to be raised on Tatooine by his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. The ending of Revenge of the Sith gets everything in place for the twenty years that take place between the events Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

As a rule, Star Wars typically follows heartbreak with the promise of hope. The tragic end of Rogue One is followed by the Rebels receiving the Death Star plans that saved the galaxy, and Han’s fate in The Empire Strikes Back is followed by Lando promising Leia that they’ll find and rescue him. Revenge of the Sith contains probably the saddest ending of all but leaves the audience with the image of a baby Luke in a place where he’ll be raised safely until he can one day save the galaxy.

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3. The Empire Strikes Back

As Luke gets his mechanical hand installed, Lando ensures him and Leia that he and Chewbacca will find Han. The trio has taken heavy losses, what with Leia losing Han and Luke losing his hand. The Empire is as powerful as ever, and Luke’s just found out that his greatest enemy is his dad. Despite things looking dark, he and Leia have each other, and the movie ends on a hopeful note for the Rebels.


2. Return of the Jedi

Return of the Jedi gives the whole gang (and the whole galaxy, really) a happy ending. Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2D2, C3PO, and a rhythm-less Lando stand together, celebrating the fall of the Empire and the end of the war. Luke has succeeded in bringing his father back to the light, while Leia, Han, and Lando did their part to beat the Imperial forces on the ground and in the Death Star.

The official ending of the war calls for celebration. An Ewok celebration, including drums made from the helmets of their dead enemies. These little bears are brutal. Throw in a few Force ghosts and a whole lot of hugging and you have yourself a genuine, completely uncynical happy ending.

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1. The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi’s ending encapsulates what Star Wars is all about. A group of impoverished and abused children sits around retelling the legend of Luke Skywalker, and how he came out of exile to face down the entire First Order and save the Resistance.

When their storytelling session is broken up, the nameless boy who appeared earlier in the movie runs outside and grabs a broom to get back to work. As he does, he takes a moment to look up at the sky. Among the stars, a ship can be seen jumping to lightspeed. The boy grips the broom handle tighter in the hand bearing a ring with a Resistance insignia. From behind, the boy looks like he could be holding a lightsaber, gazing up at the stars.


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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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