The Best Choice A Villain Ever (Tried) To Make

Beware: Spoilers. For a couple of movies.

Kylo Ren’s decision to fire on Luke Skywalker from his position inside the AT-AT is one of the best movie moments ever made, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Yes, there have been many iconic movie moments in the past. From Gandalf standing against the Balrog declaring, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” to Jack (Nicholson) yelling, “Here’s Johnny!” as he shoves his face into the gap his axe has made in the door during his attempt to murder his family are just a few choice standouts. And I’d like to point out that I’m not saying this particular Star Wars movie moment subverts any of those. There’s a difference to being iconic and what is, essentially, an amazing script choice. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that people would claim the iconic moment of that movie – or at least that section of it – would be Luke staring up at the AT-AT and dusting off his shoulder; the equivalent to a big middle finger to Kylo Ren up above. Nice try, hotshot, but not good enough.

What makes this moment so fantastic is that it completely circumvents everyone’s expectations and does what myself and many others have always wanted to have happen. Luke steps onto the battlefield, which clearly makes it a game changer for everyone involved. What we, as the audience, fully expect Kylo Ren to do is acknowledge Luke’s presence, announce that he must go down and face Luke himself (a la Obi Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader in A New Hope), and then do so. The entire battle between the First Order and the Rebels halts while the two fight and one emerges victorious. Except this doesn’t happen. At least, not right away. Eventually it does, much to Kylo Ren’s chagrin, although it doesn’t fully go as intended either because Luke isn’t even physically there for him to contend with. But the focus here is what Kylo Ren does in the first place.

He orders the men piloting the AT-AT’s to fire upon Luke. Not just one – all of them. Every single AT-AT on that field shoots Luke so much they create a crater around him (and lead General Hux to think Kylo Ren is completely unhinged…which may not be far from the truth in this moment). This instance is amazing simply because it is so unexpected. Kylo Ren does what no movie villain ever does. It harkens back to Scott Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery when Dr. Evil insists upon not only killing Austin Powers in the most ridiculous way possible, but not even seeing him die:

Dr. Evil: “All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism. Close the tank!”
Scott Evil: “Wait, aren’t you even going to watch them? They could get away!”
Dr. Evil: “No, no, no. I’m going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying. I’m just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?”
Scott Evil: “I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I’ll get it, I’ll come back down here, BOOM, I’ll blow their brains out!”

It’s rare to see either villains or heroes actually make a serious effort to dispatch their rivals. Even during Infinity War, Thanos tells Thor that he should have aimed for his head. Instead, Thor’s axe is wedged in Thanos’s chest which leads to the failure of the heroes to stop the dreaded snap. Villains and heroes always have to have their dialogue, or their moment when they stare at one another and contemplate how they got there or the hero has a moral dilemma of killing the villain and thus becoming a killer just like their foe. Villains, for their part, tend to drag things out – perhaps not as elaborately (or ridiculously) as Dr. Evil, but their need to gloat or monologue or make the hero suffer in some fashion always leads to the hero’s escape and eventual triumph.

But in The Last Jedi, Luke appears, Kylo Ren sees him, and decides he’s not playing this game. He’s had it with this Jedi trash. He’s not going to go down there and do some kind of convoluted Jedi one-on-one with Luke. He’s going to take the fastest, easiest, and presumably the smartest route and shoot the ever-loving hell out of Luke instead. And it was amazing. After my immense disappointment in Kylo Ren’s murder of Han Solo – something that could be seen coming from lightyears away – imagine how thrilled I was when a villain who aspires to be like Darth Vader, who enjoys the spectacle of being a dark lord with frightening powers, who takes time to speak to Rey and attempt to lure her over to his side of the Force, decides to do what no one sees coming and orders every single walker to shoot Luke. I was floored, I tell you. Because that never happens. That’s what makes it so special.

You may be able to rattle off other times heroes or villains have done such things, but in the big scheme of things, they’re few and far between. And in some cases, more expected. John Wick, for example, is satisfying because he doesn’t just dispatch the men trying to kill him, he makes sure to finish them off with a bullet to the head. Double-tapping, as it were, to borrow from Zombieland. But then John Wick is a professional hitman (or was, given that he’s trying to retire) so it’s less of a surprise than Kylo Ren’s move.

Funny enough, the only other time I can think of off the top of my head when a battle should have ensued and did not is Indiana Jones. The improvised moment in which Indy is supposed to have an epic swordfight with another man in a town market is cut short when Indy (since Harrison Ford was ill at the time the scene was being shot) simply pulls out his gun and shoots the guy. The actor plays along, falls down dead, and we’re left with the iconic scene – yes, that one is definitely iconic – that we have today. Hm. Like father like son then, I suppose.

Kylo Ren’s scene may never become one people remember as well since it’s up against many others within that movie. General Leia Organa’s force return from space was a larger one for many people, and of course Luke’s actual end. But for me it is the best, and it’s the moment I will always tune into if someone else is watching the movie. Kylo Ren may not have succeeded in what he hoped to do, but damn it all if he didn’t try, and in doing so for a brief moment time became the one sort of villain every other villain aspires to be. Or at least thinks they are.

Guess we’re doing this after all.