Raiders of the Lost Wayfinder
The Rise of Skywalker is partially an adventure film about a treasure hunt, with Rey and her friends seeking a Sith Wayfinder to help them find the lost planet Exegol. To emphasize this genre twist, the filmmakers pay repeated homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones adventure. This makes Rise a tribute to not one but two of George Lucas’ signature creations.
When Rey accidentally explodes a transporter, supposedly killing Chewbacca inside, it’s a reference to how Indy accidentally explodes a truck, supposedly killing Marion inside. In both films, the character presumed dead was smuggled aboard an identical vehicle.
The sequence on the planet Kijimi is a throwback to the Nepal sequence in Raiders, since the setting is a snow-covered mountain village at night, complete with tavern. On Kijimi, Poe meets a former flame, Zorii Bliss, who is still mad at him, just as, in Nepal, Indy meets a former flame, Marion, who is still mad at him. Both women possess something the men need: a metal disc. It’s no coincidence that the discs are both called medallions.
When Rey aligns the jagged edges of the Sith dagger with the ruins of the Second Death Star to direct her to the Wayfinder, she mimics how Indy uses sunlight shining through Marion’s medallion in the map room of Tanis to determine the location of the Ark of the Covenant. In both films, the protagonist does this because someone with a high-pitched voice helped interpret the markings on the object. Babu Frik reprograms C-3PO so he can read the Sith runes on the dagger, revealing where to find the Wayfinder. In Raiders, an imam translates the hieroglyphics on the medallion, instructing at what height to place it in the map room.
In the finales of both films, the villain coerces the heroine, and the hero who followed her, to attend a cultic ritual. Palpatine wants Rey to kill him so that his spirit can possess her. When Ben Solo comes to her rescue, Palpatine seizes them both and uses their Force-bond to draw new strength. In Raiders, Marion is to be present when Belloq opens the Ark. When Indy tries to rescue her, Belloq convinces him to surrender, and both are bound while the ritual takes place.
During both rituals, dark skies are pierced by pillars of light: by Palpatine’s Force-lightning in the one, by the glory of the Ark in the other. But the powers unleashed rebound onto the villains who sought them. When Rey deflects Palpatine’s lightning, he is obliterated, beginning with the melting of his face, recalling Belloq’s fate when he opens the Ark. When Palpatine dies, all his Sith acolytes die with him, just as, when Belloq dies, all his Nazi collaborators die with him. In both cases, the couple who refused to partner with the villains are the only ones to survive the profane attempt to harness the supernatural for evil ends.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Babu Frik / Chewbacca / Kylo Ren / Palpatine / Poe Dameron / Rey / Zorii Bliss
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: power and weakness / rituals / treasure
Influences: Indiana Jones
READ MORE ABOUT…
Follow The Jedi Archives on…