Saw It For You: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer (2014)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer (2014)
Shot-by-Shot Description
- A stir of trilling violins and a vast expanse of desert sand. A deep, brooding voiceover: “Have you felt it?”
- A stormtrooper, sans helmet, leaps up into frame. He’s not a Jango Fett clone. He’s panicked, sweating. He turns to look behind him as the sound of an Imperial probe droid looms in the distance. Smash to black.
- A small droid that resembles an R2 unit balancing on a soccer ball, rapidly turning. It is speeding along the ground on front of what might be a Mos Eisley-like desert spaceport. Behind it, it is towing via magnetic cable a hovering cargo box. The box is labeled “Wildstone.” Smash to black.
- A troop transport, lined with stormtroopers in some kind of black mesh armor. A cloaked figure stalks the narrow space between rows. He barks: “Cortosis up.” Each trooper touches a control on their gauntlets, and the black mesh hums and turns a matte gray. Voiceover: “They have no idea what’s coming.” Smash to black.
- The rolling droid rolls up a metal ramp, dragging the cargo box behind it, and the camera pans ahead of it to show a large desert outpost gate opening. Bustling beyond are rebels and civilians, making preparations. The sign above the gate reads “Wildstone Solo Enterprises.” Smash to black.
- A huge, darkened hangar. Lights above turning on in rows, illuminating mech suit after mech suit — resembling desert-camo versions of General Grevious. A woman in flight suit steps into one of them and takes hold of two armatures as it appears to power up. Smash to black.
- Voiceover on black screen: “The Sith…”
- Fade up on a close low shot of black boots, walking on a metal pathway. Ominous horns bray uneasily as the camera pans up, revealing that the pair of boots have no one in them — they are confidently striding forward by themselves. They stop. The camera pulls away from them to reveal a larger room, with tense and confused civilians staring at the boots. Smash to black.
- Voiceover on black screen: “… have evolved.”
- Smash to the same shot. The purr and ignition sound of a lightsaber, but much lower than any we’ve ever heard: two red saberbeams erupt from the black boots, but join as they jolt upward, instantly forming a glowing lightsaber-red blade man. A man made of lightsaber light. Smash to black.
- Voiceover on black screen: “Now, where is your son… Mister Solo?”
- Fade up on Harrison Ford, lit from beneath. He’s strapped to some kind of rack, bent over a glowing torture panel reminiscent of the one from The Empire Strikes Back. He’s dirty and tired, but his eyes sparkle unnaturally. Ford looks directly into the camera, and intones: “Call me Han. And the Sith aren’t the only ones who’ve evolved.”
- Han Solo’s eyes erupt forth into green beams of light — not beams, but lightsabers — destroying the torture machine. He turns his head to glance at his left hand, swiveling the eye-saber directly onto the restraint, which explodes in a shower of sparks. Smash to black.
- The familiar blare of horns that is the main Star Wars theme! Quick cut: The lid of the “Wildstone” box opening. A mechanical hand connected to a saber-energy arm reaches in and retrieves Han Solo’s old blaster.
- Quick cut: Four B-Wings join cockpits, becoming an X-Wing with four pilots.
- Quick cut: A platoon of Desert Grieftroopers, running head-on into a battle on the sands. One carries a telescoping standard, which extends and unfurls a flag with a “W” logo, and beneath that: “Wildstone.”
- Quick cut: A space battle in orbit above a lush green planet. A star destroyer’s tip begins to blossom open into four pieces. It may be an X-Wing.
- Quick cut: The mechanical hand from before raises the blaster to a teen’s face. He has a bright pink undercut, and John Lennon-esque shades which darken, Transitions-style, as the bright saber-arm light reflects off of them. He dons a shit-eating grin. This is Wildstone Solo, Han’s son.
- Quick cut: Camera angle from an extreme low angle. Grieftroopers run forward at the edges of the screen. Wildstone runs in and stops in frame. A hero shot. He whistles and says “Falcon, on my target.” A moment of silence… then the nostalgic roar of the Millennium Falcon‘s engines as the beloved Corellian freighter glides forward on Wildstone’s command. The freighter is Wildstone’s pet to command.
- The camera turns on multiple axes, keeping the speeding Falcon in frame as the blue skies above the desert erupt into laser fire. The Falcon’s target? A Death Star-shaped dropship… releasing thousands of bright-red Sabersith onto the battlefield. Smash to black.
- The score soars to its crescendo. The logo on a starfield: Star Wars. The words “Star” and “Wars” separate to reveal the subtitle between them: The Force Awakens.
- Beneath Star Wars: The Force Awakens appears the words “Episode VII: The Rise of Wildstone.”
- Smash to black. “Coming December 2015. Awaken the Force in you at whatsmysaberbodycolor.com.”