Should Luke have been in the movie at all...?

Episode VII (Alternate ending)

The Millennium Falcon lands on the island. The ramp lowers and out walk Rey, Chewbacca and R2-D2.
"Good luck!" both Chewbacca and Artoo seem to say in their differing dialects.
"Thanks" Rey smiles. She then begins to follow a narrow winding path up into the higher areas of the island.

*fade to black. Long pause, then fade back to bottom of the island.*

Several hours later, Rey walks slowly back towards the Falcon with a blank emotionless expression on her face and rejoins Chewbacca and Artoo back inside the Millennium Falcon's cockpit. She reports her findings to her new friends.

"This isn't the island I'm looking for...." Rey says slowly, seemingly in some kind of trance.
Chewbacca glances at Artoo and shrugs, then restarts the Falcons engines....

*Iris in and fades to end credits and music*

 

Yes, that was the money shot of the film. The search for Luke was the story also. He was needed.

 

While I can see where an ending more like the one from ESB might have worked (Rey and Chewie and Artoo flying off in search of Luke, the way Chewie and Lando flew off to find Han) I think showing Rey finding Luke was the right choice. Luke was, after all, the McGuffin of the film. The very first thing we learn, first sentence of the opening crawl, is that Luke Skywalker has vanished. This sets up one of the main plot threads as the search for Luke, and main plot threads that span an entire movie need (in most cases) to be resolved before the end credits roll.

By the end of the TFA, there wasn't really any mystery left as to where Luke was - that had been solved the second that Artoo "woke up" and projected the remainder of the map. To end it before Rey meets Luke would have been rather pointless, IMHO, since there would have been no cliffhanger there. Rey knew where Luke was, and we knew that that's where she was going.

As it stands, the very last shot of the movie resolves the very first sentence of the opening crawl, and I think that "other shoe" really needed to drop.

 

Just back from my third time too

I thought about this as well, but I think it's good to end with Luke, because the magic of it is there's no words spoken, just a very strong looking to each other. It's pretty emotional, it's intense, it's the best ending possible for the movie, yet we know nothing about Luke at this point. Why was he looking for the temple? Is Rey her actual daughter? Many hints to it, but no confirmation which is interesting. What are those eyes telling to each other?

"Dad, I found you"?
"Luke, the galaxy needs you back"?
"Honey, I thought I'd never see you again"?
"Who the hell are you and why do you have my lightsaber? WHERE'S MY ARM?????"?

 

Having a visual of Luke at the end was the payoff, and you got just little enough of him to have far more questions heading into VIII. It's perfect really. I wouldn't have changed a thing.

 

I kind of agree. Keeping him completely out would've been even more ballsy.

 

For me it would have been much better if Luke hadn't been there and seeing as how many of the OT characters were portrayed I'd say that I would have prefererd for none of them being in the movie at all. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not gouing to turn this into another hate post but I really disliked what JJ did to my childhood heros. Rey, Finn, Poe and BB8 were all cool and likeable characters and I think they would have run the movie on there own quite smoothly. Having them alone in the film would have avoided making some of the wierd things that JJ did like having R2 wake up out of the blue and saying beep fwit tweeu weeu toot weep boop (translation=Hey dudes I have the star map!) C3PO could have eaisily been replaced by PZ-4CO and it wouldn't have made a differance either. for me, no OT characters at all would have made the movie way better even though I love those characters from childhood.

 

I'd say no, for two reasons.

1) Fan backlash. Even though it was incredibly brief, many fans were sated with it.

2) It'll allow for a better intro into Ep VIII. It's brief, but it shows her finding him. Now we can cut to her in the middle of training or whatnot, instead of having to dedicate a whole portion of the next film to the search and initial meeting, first discussion, etc.

 

I saw the thread question....
"SHOULD LUKE HAVE BEEN IN THE MOVIE AT ALL...?"

Of COURSE! So I immediately voted YES! Because he absolutely needed to be in--- WHAT THE---? Why did so many others vote NO???
... then I discovered that the POLL question is THE EXACT OPPOSITE QUESTION!
"Should Luke have been left out of the ending of TFA?"

Thread title: Should he be IN?
Poll Question: Should he be LEFT OUT?

You really should fix that.

 

Probably needed him in at the end to ramp up expectation for the next movie moreso than for the story itself. I've seen many people refer to the last shot as epic, or the best of any star wars movie etc. I really don't see that. Yeah, it was cool to see Luke again but it was just two people staring at each other on a cliff. If he wasn't in it wouldn't have made a big difference to the story itself but as I said its more about setting up expectations for the next one.

 

I voted no because what was the reason for having him in the build up & not making any sort of appearance, I'm sure he could have been used during the Starkiller base battle but after seeing the movie Finn & Rey held their own, the only thing I want is Mark Hamill have good health for the May 2017, it would be a terrible shame for him to pass away before the second movie, the same for the other original cast

 

As upset as I was initially for reading the MSW report about Luke and then having enough time to contemplate it and accept it, I felt Luke wasn't needed. It was great to see him, don't get me wrong but I think he could have not been in it and built him up even more for the big reveal in Episode 8.

 

Man.....Without saying any words on this movie his presence ALONE is telling us that this is going to be GOOD.Can't wait for SW8....

 

Same here, I can't wait for his first line & Rey's response.

 

The movie was to find him and we did....And YES i hope he(and ALL the original cast members)will be with us to see SW8 and SW9 be finish....

 

I know it took a map to do that, I read so much eu that force sensitive could sense & find each other no matter how big the galaxy was. It looks like Leia did not use the force enough in that 30 years absence.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_sense