| Jillian Nelson |
Rogue One plays at the Trylon Cinema from Friday, June 6th, through Tuesday, June 10th. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org.
Rogue One follows a ragtag group of Rebels who fight to obtain Imperial Death Star plans that reveal a self-destructing weakness in its system. At its core, the film is a story about finding hope in revolution against fascism. It explores this theme through three character journeys: Galen Erso’s resistance while working within the Imperial system, Jyn Erso’s newfound belief in the rebellion after years of political indifference, and Cassian Andor’s jaded personality. Unlike the typical Star Wars blockbusters’ rigid boundaries between good (Jedi/Rebels) and evil (Sith/Empire), Rogue One dissects these characters’ moral ambiguity. They’re also normal people, not Jedi. These divergent traits create a more palpable message to viewers, illustrating how, even when placed in supposedly powerless positions, ordinary people can make a difference. Hope is the revolutionary superpower in Rogue One. Therefore, watching this film today strikes a chord with a predicament we presently face: our hope for freedom as we witness rising fascism in our country and the world, and an increase in U.S. imperial action. Through Galen, Jyn, and Cassian, the film serves as an inspiring lesson in the moral complications of rebellion and the resistance to fascist oppression.
Galen Erso: Resistance From Within
The film opens with a strong emphasis that not all acts of resistance occur from outside forces. Galen Erso, for instance, is a former Imperial scientist who broke away and went into hiding with his wife, Lyra, and daughter, Jyn. In the first scene, Director Krennic forcibly captures Galen to work on building the Death Star, killing Lyra and sending Jyn into hiding. In his hologram message to Saw Gerrera, a Rebel extremist leader who raised Jyn, he reveals his knowledge that Krennic would discover his replaceability, so he made himself crucial to the project. This allowed him to place a flaw deep within the Death Star. His character demonstrates that some of the most powerful acts of rebellion take place within the system.
Speculatively, the figure Galen’s closest parallels are government whistleblowers. I acknowledge that the two aren’t identical. However, the results of their divulgence of government wrongdoing are similar. Fascist, imperial regimes depend on everyone within them moving in unity to create an image of complete power. Government officials who take a stand from the inside expose this image as an illusion. Thus, they hold tremendous resistance power that directly weakens oppressive systems. Whistleblowers have already proven a vital force against Trump’s second presidency. Recently, Stacey Young, an eighteen-year veteran at the Department of Justice who resigned, came forward to expose how Trump’s purge at the DOJ, specifically on workers who don’t align with his administration, has affected department members. Her resistant action exposes that the unified image Trump is trying to construct in his purge is an illusion built on a hand-picked group of those who will serve his agenda. As the U.S. government increases fascist and imperial action, these figures will continue to play an essential role in resistance.
Jyn Erso: Politically Indifferent to Rebel Hero
We meet adult Jyn as a prisoner in an Imperial Labor Camp on Wobani. Over the years, she’s grown resentful of the Rebellion and indifferent to the Empire’s reign. While some of her impassivity is due to her separation from her father and Saw Gerrera’s abandonment, I believe her attitude is also a symptom of living under a fascist government. Fascism operates on an overbearing oppression spiral. Constant change in laws. Constant public presence. Constant breaching of privacy. These repressive acts happen so fast and frequently that the chance to reflect on one’s oppression becomes difficult to keep track of, to the point where one, like Jyn, is pounded into an apathetic state. When Saw Gerrera asks her, “You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy?” this symptom is present in her response: “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.” Jyn’s sentiment rings true to the bouts of hopelessness felt post-election. Constant bill proposals rolling back human rights. Every day, prices skyrocket while wages remain stagnant. Every day, a new thing concerns the mind, drawing out hopelessness and then drilling that feeling until it’s all that’s felt. Until one just doesn’t look up anymore. This is exactly what fascist regimes need to thrive.
Jyn’s story arc provides a lesson in breaking free from this cycle as she finds inspiration in others and becomes invested in rebellion. She finds hope after witnessing her father’s hologram, unveiling his revenge plan to destroy the Death Star. From there, Jyn fights to bring his work to fruition and garner the Rebel forces to her cause. She also learns to find hope in the rebellion through Cassian, who challenges her to see that “Rebellions are built on hope.” Later in the film, these ideals are present in her rallying speech to the Rebel council, stating, “What chance do we have? The question is ‘what choice?’…The time to fight is now!” Her speech emphasizes what she’s learned from Cassian: hope is a choice. Hope doesn’t mull over the chances of failure (sorry K-2). Hope is to believe wholeheartedly that rebellious action will make a difference. Jyn’s storyline teaches us to find the fight in ourselves and others so that we muster the courage to look up.
Cassian Andor: Jaded Revolutionary Who Finds Hope in the Unexpected
Unlike Jyn, Cassian expresses deep loyalty to the rebellion. However, when we meet him, he has a jaded demeanor due to the violence he’s enacted and experienced. In his first scene, his informant on the Empire’s weapon can’t escape as Stormtroopers close in, causing Cassian to shoot him in the back. As the informant falls, regret and dismay flash across Cassian’s face. He’s a stark reminder that the commitment to rebellion comes with bloodshed and the toll that takes on revolutionaries. However, it’s precisely his hardened exterior that initially prevents him from trusting Jyn and Galen’s knowledge of the Death Star plans, and thus, an inability to see beyond carrying out orders.
Jyn challenges his distrust and the moral greyness in his loyalty to the Rebellion. After Jyn states that it’s easier to imagine her father dead, Cassian questions her blindness to the truth that he’s a living contributor to the development of Imperial weapons. Jyn replies, “I’ve never had the luxury of political opinions.” Jyn has only known immediate survival. Political ideology and choice become secondary. Her words sharply question Cassian’s moral high ground, showing him that political affiliation isn’t appealing to everyone. She further interrogates his morality after he nearly follows orders to assassinate Galen on Eadu. Jyn confronts, “Orders? When you know they’re wrong? You might as well be a stormtrooper.” Although he technically disobeys instruction, Jyn sharply demonstrates how his loyalty to the Rebel Alliance prevents him from exercising free will in taking resistant action. It’s his found trust in Jyn and in her cause that allows him to defy direct orders from his Rebel superiors. Through Cassian’s story, the film demonstrates the importance of questioning one’s actions, even if they’re noble.
Political Luxury
The ways Jyn and Cassian clash before fully trusting one another illustrate the film’s complexity. This is most prominent in their different opinions on what counts as a luxury in terms of having and maintaining a political investment. Jyn considers full commitment to political ideology a luxury. When Jyn compares Cassian to a stormtrooper, he counters her stance, responding, “We don’t all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something. Suddenly the rebellion is real for you.” For Cassian, the thought of political disengagement is a luxury. Neither of them is right nor wrong. Rather, it’s what they learn from each other in these moments that allows them to join forces. Cassian, in a way, learns to politically disengage—not from his belief in the rebellion, but from the ideology behind the Rebel Alliance hierarchy. This enables him to band together a Rebel group and propose going rogue to retrieve the Death Star plans from Sacrif. Jyn, on the other hand, becomes engaged in the political ideology needed to help lead that mission. Their strongest act of rebellion is generated from each other.
“Do You Think Anyone’s Listening?” “I do.”
Overall, a similarity that weaves these three characters together is that they tirelessly fight without questioning the chances of failure because hopeful rebellious action, in and of itself, means the oppressor has lost. Some of Cassian and Jyn’s last words to each other poetically illustrate this. Once they transmit the Death Star plans, Cassian asks, “Do you think anyone’s listening?” and Jyn replies, “I do.” In their nature, resistant acts are always heard and will always make an impact, even after death. Yes, we’re living in frightening times, but Rogue One reminds us that the strongest tool against oppression is hope. Hope is a daily choice. Hope trusts. Hope makes a stand. Hope is the breath of rebellion.
Edited by Olga Tchepikova-Treon
Well said! The comparisons are dead on.