A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars: The Last Jedi—What Happened to Luke?

Some tiny details from Luke’s big moment you might have missed.
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Courtesy of Lucasfilm

This article contains considerable spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. If you want to go into the film pure as the driven salt on the mining planet of Crait, you should wait until later to read this. Otherwise, join us for some insight on the meaning behind the fate of the original Star Wars hero: Luke Skywalker.

After Carrie Fisher’s death in 2016, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed to Vanity Fair that Episode IX, the final chapter in this trilogy, was meant to have a central role for Leia. In other words, as much as Episode VII belonged to and dealt with the death of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, Episode IX would belong to Leia—and Episode VIII, The Last Jedi, belonged to Luke Skywalker. Each member of the holy trinity was supposed to get their own send-off. And while the franchise has to scramble to figure out what that will mean for Leia, this latest film gave Luke Skywalker the grand farewell he deserved.

Does Luke, like Han in The Force Awakens, die at the end of the film? Well, death is a bit more complicated for Jedi Masters, isn’t it? In a neat little twist, the film reveals that Luke never physically left the island of Ahch-To. When he shows up on Crait to say goodbye to his sister, square off against Kylo Ren, and give what’s left of the Resistance time to escape, Luke is astrally projecting his image. That’s not something we’ve ever seen a Jedi Master do in a Star Wars film, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable that Luke Skywalker, a.k.a. a (if not the) Chosen One, would be able to do it. Especially if, thanks to Rey’s meddling, he’s opened himself back up to the Force for the first time in years.

There are a few hints that the Luke we see on Crait is not exactly the same as the man Rey met on Ahch-To. He’s younger, for one, with a darker beard and shorter hair. This isn’t simply vanity: Luke has styled himself to look the same way he did the night he fought with a younger Ben Solo. If he wanted to mess with his nephew’s mind, this was exactly the right look to choose. There’s also the fact that Luke is wielding a blue lightsaber when he squares off against Kylo; audiences had just watched Rey and Kylo snap that thing in half at the end of their duel on Snoke’s ship. Finally, look closely and you’ll see that unlike everyone else on Crait, Luke doesn’t leave red footprints in the salt as he dodges and weaves away from Kylo’s strikes. There’s even a close-up of his booted feet in order to drive that tiny detail home.

The truth is, Luke couldn’t have left Ahch-To if he wanted to. Earlier in the film, we see his X-wing sunken below the water just off the shore of the island; pieces of the ship have been recycled to make things like the metal door on Luke’s hut. Still, at the beginning of the film, Luke asks Rey incredulously if she expects him to “walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order.” In his own Jedi way, that is exactly what he winds up doing.

Whether the strain of that effort, or simply a diet of too much green milk, is what ultimately does Luke in, his body gives up by the end of the film. But we can be fairly certain that won’t be the last that audiences, Rey, and Kylo see of him. Kudos to Luke for restraining himself from directly quoting Obi-Wan Kenobi’s famous Episode IV line—“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine”—but he does make a similar threat to his nephew. Strike me down now, he promises, and I’ll always be with you—just like your father. He puts a jaunty button on it with a very Han-esque “see ya ’round, kid” before vanishing off Crait.

We later see Luke on Ahch-To, staring off at two suns on the horizon—a fun callback, of course, to the double sunset on Tatooine that introduces him in A New Hope. Like Yoda and Obi-Wan before him, Luke then vanishes, leaving nothing but a pile of clothes.

This is not something all Jedi do when they die. Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn, you might recall, burned on a funeral pyre. Funnily enough, though, it was Qui-Gon who—according to Star Wars lore—re-discovered the ability to reappear as what’s called a “Force Ghost.” You know, those blue-tinged apparitions who like hanging out in the woods and dispensing wisdom.

But for those truly enlightened Jedi who have, to borrow an oft-repeated Rogue One phrase, become one with the Force, a spent body simply vanishes. To disappear upon death requires great strength in the Force, great wisdom and understanding of its ways, and for the person who dies to be at peace. All of this certainly applies to Luke at the end of his life.

This leaves the door wide open for Mark Hamill to appear—whether physically or as an echoing voice—to help Rey, bedevil Kylo, or possibly even guide his sister to an afterlife in Episode IX. As Rey puts it to Leia in the film’s finale scene, she felt Luke disappear with “peace and purpose.” That purpose, we can guess, is to rejoin the fight and help Rey bring balance, once again, to the Force.