Warning: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi are in this article
By now, you've probably seen or heard that Kylo Ren is shirtless in a scene in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The internet has been losing its collective mind over the brief scene in the film, which seemingly caught many - including Rey - by surprise.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi establishes some sort of Force connection between Kylo Ren and Rey - similar to what we've seen in past
Star Wars movies, but on a much stronger scale. They are actually able to communicate and have conversations with each other from across the galaxy. In one of the scenes, Kylo Ren appears with his shirt off, and Rey, clearly uncomfortable, admits she'd "rather not do this right now," and asks him to put something on. He doesn't, of course.
Turns out, there's actually a specific reason director Rian Johnson chose to have Kylo Ren appear shirtless in the scene - and it wasn't just to give the audience the pleasure of five minutes of Adam Driver shirtless.
“The way in which [director Rian Johnson] decided to create the Force connection by just simply doing vertical cuts without using any CG ... it’s pure simplicity in terms of filmmaking with visual cuts. We cut to her side; we cut to Kylo Ren; we cut to her; and back and forth,” explained Star Wars: The Last Jedi co-sound supervisor Ren Klyce.
By having Kylo Ren appear shirtless and having Rey comment on it, it shows the audience that their Force connection allows the two to not just hear each other, but see each other as well.
“That was important to establish what she was actually seeing,” Klyce continued. “Was she hearing his voice or seeing his face or just his eyes? And so that [shirtless scene] is to inform the audience, ‘Oh, she can see his body.’”
Of course, "It's also good humor," Klyce added.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi editor Bob Ducsay confirmed Klyce's analysis as "exactly right," explaining that the Force connection scenes were meant to be shot "as if they were in the same room together, even though they're not."
“Over the course of those sequences, you come to understand all the rules of” that Force connection, Ducsay elaborated. “Ultimately, it’s just good storytelling if the audience is learning things the same time the characters they’re following are, instead of ahead or behind.”
Well, there you have it. Turns out even the littlest of details in Star Wars: The Last Jedi have purpose.
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