‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Featured a ‘Monty Python’ Reference

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be released on Blu-ray in a few days and one of the impressive features of the home release is director Rian Johnson‘s audio commentary. The commentary gives viewers new insight into how The Last Jedi took shape, but it also reveals some fascinating trivia — including a couple of Monty Python references.

It turns out that the film’s opening scene was inspired by Monty Python. In the opening scene, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) contacts the First Order’s General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), distracting the General with a bit of comical trolling while the rest of the Resistance gets into position to attack. While the scene is a little divisive among fans, Johnson explained that it was all to set the tone of the film.

“I held onto this,” Johnson said in the commentary. “This was something where I felt like, first of all, I knew with all the heaviness of it being the middle chapter, I knew people were going to come in with all the expectations of the grand opera of it. I really wanted this movie to be fun. I love the tone that [screenwriters] J.J. [Abrams], Michael [Arndt] and Larry [Kasdan] set with The Force Awakens, and the tone of the original films has a spirit of fun to it. I felt like, at the very beginning, we had to kinda break the ice and say we’re gonna have fun here. We’re gonna try some fun stuff, and it’s gonna be okay to laugh in this movie. So, we started with a little Monty Python sketch.”

For those in need of a refresher, in The Last Jedi scene, Poe acts like he can’t hear Hux on the other end of the communication, continuing to say that he’s holding for Hux while Hux doesn’t realize he’s being had — until Poe makes a joke about his mother. It shares a bit of theme with Monty Python sketches in which one member of the British surreal comedy group is the “straight guy” and isn’t clued into the ridiculousness or joking from another person or persons in the sketch. And while the Poe/Hux scene has a similar feel to a Monty Python sketch, it’s not the only moment in The Last Jedi that Johnson revealed in his commentary track that was inspired by the legendary comedy group.

Later in The Last Jedi, Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) go off in search of a hacker that can get them the access they need to disable the First Order’s tracking device. When Poe asks Finn if they found the hacker, Finn replies that they found a hacker. It’s a nod to a line in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Sir Lancelot (John Cleese) arrives at Swamp Castle having received a note he believes to be form a woman forced to marry against her will. It turns out, however, that the note was from the effeminate Prince Herbert (Terry Jones). When Lancelot bursts in, Herbert declares that Lancelot got his note only for Lancelot to reply, “I got a note.”

While some fans enjoyed the humor, Johnson wove into The Last Jedi, there was a vocal minority of audiences who did not. The Last Jedi is arguably the most divisive Star Wars film to date, though Johnson recently told Fandango that the backlash to The Last Jedi hasn’t impacted his approach to his new Star Wars trilogy.

“I feel like every Star Wars thing that ever gets made has a big, loud response because Star Wars fans are passionate and that’s what makes them awesome,” Johnson said. “I don’t think it’s possible if you’re really telling a story you care about and having it come from your heart it’s just not possible to be intellectually processing what everyone else wants. Nor would it be a healthy thing, I don’t think that’s a good way to tell a story.”

The Last Jedi is available now on Digital HD and on Blu-ray March 27th.

[ H/T: Film School Rejects ]