William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken
Page 2
FN-2187
Apologies, fair captain. None was giv’n.
PHASMA
Pray, mine thy heart for true obedience,
And make report to my division soon.
[Exit Captain Phasma.
FN-2187
O, now sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all of life o’erwhelm them, to mine eyes.
[Exit FN-2187.
SCENE 3.
On the planet Jakku.
Enter REY. Enter UNKAR PLUTT aside, in an outpost stall.
REY
Pull’d by a longing deep within my soul,
Each day I struggle merely to endure:
Repeating mine endeavors day by day,
Content to wait for those I know shall come.
Here on Jakku, I make my simple way:
Among the junkyards I go scavenging,
Not to discover aught of treasure, nay—
Collecting merely remnants, bits and scraps,
Enow to earn the food that keeps me whole.
I climb within the mighty fallen crafts,
A’scrambing o’er a starship’s inward parts.
My body able, fit for such a task,
Strong both in sinew and in mind am I—
Of more than just a scrounger’s heart possess’d.
Methinks it is a solitary life,
E’er looking to the skies or to the stars
And hoping for my dear ones who did leave—
Now long ago—to make their homecoming.
Continually do I yearn for them,
E’en as I spend my hours in toil and want.
Still, there is plenty here to fill my time:
The careful ravage of the Ravager—
One of the many ships through which I seek—
Revisiting the wreckage ev’ry day,
Observing some new salvageable piece.
Requiring patience, care, and bravery,
Collecting junk from starships is my lot.
Hours pass, until ’tis time to leave the ruins;
I make descent with newfound parts, and then
Load them upon my trusted sliding sand board.
Departing quick atop my speeder swift,
O’er all the dunes, past rank steelpecker birds,
Fly I across the barren wilderness.
Hie then to Niima Outpost with my wares,
I drag my sand board ’cross the golden silt.
My things I polish with the utmost care—
There seated near the older scroungers, who
Have spent their lives entire in drudgery—
E’en there I scrub the junk with wearied hopes.
Fate hath, it seems, no other thread for me.
At last, I go to junk boss Unkar Plutt,
Baseborn and rude, a scoundrel full of greed.
Looks he upon the scraps I have discover’d,
E’er cheating me a little more each day,
Decides he, then, what paltry sum he’ll proffer.
Jakku is not a planet for the weak,
Especially for those who shrink in fear.
Determination is the only virtue
I’ve found to be a safeguard in this place.
One who hath vigor, wit, and fortitude,
Belike shall be the one who doth prevail.
In past times, I believ’d I’d not survive.
With age comes strength, with strength comes perseverance,
And thus I persevere. Pray, know my name:
Nearby, the sun shines bright; I am its Rey.
[Rey approaches Unkar Plutt and hands him her junk scraps.
UNKAR
What thou hast brought me here today is worth
One quarter portion.
REY
—Thus it swiftly goes:
They’ll hate who shall, while I must shake it off.
[Exit Unkar.
Back to my humble shelter I return,
Inside a walker of Imperial times.
The portion giv’n to me by Unkar Plutt
Becometh that on which I dine by sunset.
Veg-meat and polystarch have little taste,
Yet shall maintain my health as I have need.
I shall be seated on the sandy ground,
And take my meal whilst donning this gray helmet,
Which once a warrior did proudly wear,
Who now is but a hidden skull and bones.
Another dusk hath fallen on Jakku—
I’ll mark the time with scratch upon the wall
As I have done for many thousand days:
The record of mine isolation here,
Each line a blemish on my youthful soul.
Enter BB-8 aside, in a net pulled by TEEDO riding astride a LUGGABEAST.
BB-8
Blav blicflir bleeflib zzwa flit blisblox blee,
Flliblik roohzoon zooz zzwaflew blav zoom blee!
REY
[to Teedo:] Talama parqua!
TEEDO
—Da—bee da padoo!
REY
Nadan ta parqua!
[Rey begins to cut BB-8 free from the net.
TEEDO
—Nee, dee yan, duh rookah.
REY
Huh nomah!
TEEDO
—Reeya boonja bonganoo.
[Exit Teedo.
BB-8
Blik flli blayblis roohzilf roil bloozzwa blee?
REY
’Twas no more than one Teedo, he most vile,
Who wants to take thee for thine inward parts.
He hath respect for naught and no one, nay.
Come, let me look on thee, for I can see
Thou hast a bent antenna. Come, I prithee.
[Rey fixes BB-8’s antenna.
Whence hast thou ventur’d to Jakku, my friend?
BB-8
Flewzzwa zoodrooh, bluuflit blav flliblox blis
Zoomblic bluuroil zooz zzwa flewblis blay blis
Flig flliflig zilfflir flliflit blee blavzood.
REY
’Tis classified, indeed? Ah, me as well.
A most profound and well-kept secret, I:
Mysterious unto the last—ha! Nay,
A secret is but secret if there is
Another soul within the galaxy
Who’d care to know it. I am too alone
To be wrapp’d up in secrets, verily.
But there’s an end with talk of secrets: if
Thou roll’st thyself most spherical in that
Direction, Niima Outpost thou shalt find.
Yet, be forewarn’d: go not near Kelvin Ridge,
And stay far from the northern sinking fields,
Lest thou mayst drown within a sandy tomb.
BB-8
Blox flliblik zood zoozflig rooqbloo zoonflew
Blip flliblox flit bluu roohblis flitzilf rooh
Blav bleeflir blee.
REY
—Nay, follow not with me.
Thou must go thither if thou’d reach the town.
BB-8
Zoom blisblik flit rooqzzwa blooblay rooq flew
Reej flliblav flitflig roohzoom zoomzoon blee,
Zooz flli flitblip rooqflir zoonzzwa flew blay.
REY
O, follow, then.
BB-8
—Zoomreej bluubloo flewblay!
REY
Yet in the morning thou must go away,
For ample struggle have I in this place
To keep myself alive, much less a droid—
E’en such an amiable droid as thou.
BB-8
Bloozoom blavblay bloxflit rooq roohblip zzwa
Reejzoon zilfblok bleeblis.
REY
—Thou welcome art.
[Aside:] This droidly friend I had not hop’d to find,
Yet presently our two fates are entwin’d.
[Exeunt, traveling to Rey’s shelter.
SCENE 4.
&nb
sp; Aboard the Finalizer.
Enter KYLO REN on balcony. POE DAMERON is aside, also on balcony, unconscious and bound to an interrogation chair.
KYLO
The dark side is the calling I embrace,
For ’tis the heritage I have receiv’d:
To bring the final Jedi to disgrace.
The Knights of Ren did first give me my place,
And in their care my gifts were first conceiv’d—
The dark side is the calling I embrace.
Luke Skywalker’s last steps my mind shall trace
Until, at last, his capture is achiev’d
To bring the final Jedi to disgrace.
Thus I’ll interrogate this pilot base,
Until the information is retriev’d;
The dark side is the calling I embrace.
And when, at last, Skywalker I outpace,
The dark side’s strength by all shall be perceiv’d—
To bring the final Jedi to disgrace.
Thus let the interview proceed apace—
Mine expectation shall not be aggriev’d.
The dark side is the calling I embrace,
To bring the final Jedi to disgrace.
[Kylo Ren approaches Poe, who awakens.
POE
You nevermore shall win, you villain vile.
KYLO
I did not know the bravest pilot of
The small Resistance was aboard our ship.
Art thou most comfortable, Resistance brute?
POE
O, evil thing in robe of sorrow, nay.
KYLO
Thou hast impress’d me by thy seeming might:
Though we have tried, none yet hath broken thee,
Or pick’d the lock of thy most fasten’d mind
To find what thou hast done with th’map we seek.
POE
Your keys and other instruments have fail’d,
For I am not a door that may be open’d,
Or trunk that holds a mystery for you.
Where I have kept that secret, none shall know,
And thus my hidden mem’ry is to me
Like some enchanted far-off isle in some
Tumultuous sea, where you cannot reach.
KYLO
[aside:] Now come, O dark side of the Force severe,
And move within me to unbolt his mind.
[Kylo Ren uses the Force to try to extract thoughts from Poe’s mind.
[To Poe:] Where is it? I will know, and shall, indeed.
POE
Let your heart from its present pathway part!
The brave Resistance shall not be coerc’d:
Intimidation shall not break our will.
KYLO
Where is it? Thou shalt tell me.
POE
—O, alas!
Would I could wake—my soul is sorely shaken!
[Poe screams as Kylo Ren overcomes his resistance to the Force.
Enter GENERAL HUX, on balcony.
KYLO
[to Hux:] The map is in a droid, upon Jakku,
Within a BB unit.
HUX
—Very well,
Our troops shall have it soon within our grasp.
KYLO
Pray, make it so. ’Tis now within your care.
Yea, Luke Skywalker shall escape us ne’er.
[Exeunt.
SCENE 5.
On the planet Jakku.
Enter REY and BB-8. Enter UNKAR PLUTT aside, in an outpost stall.
REY
Whate’er thou do, make sure thou keep’st thy hope,
For ’tis what shall sustain thee on Jakku.
Whoe’er thou waitest on may yet appear,
O droid call’d Classified. Believe thou me,
When waiting is the subject, I am master.
BB-8
Blox flewblic rooh reej blooblay flli flirblis
Zoon blit zoozblit blip roohblik blooblox bluu
Blay flewflib zzwaroil flli roohflit bluublee
Reejblis zoonflit rooq zilf flit blooblox flir?
REY
My family are they whom I expect;
They shall return one day, I know ’tis true.
Come with me now, we must to Unkar Plutt.
[Rey and BB-8 approach Unkar Plutt, and Rey hands him her junk scraps.
UNKAR
These pieces five, by mine own reckoning,
Are worth a mere half portion.
REY
—What? Thou knave!
Last week they were worth half a portion each;
Belike the sum should be two and a half.
And now thou sayest ’tis one half alone?
Is junk so plentiful upon Jakku
That ’tis no longer valuable to thee?
Can junk make decrease or increase in value,
For still it is but junk. It this not so?
UNKAR
Enough of prating: say, what of thy droid?
REY
What of him, eh?
UNKAR
—I shall pay thee for him.
Full sixty portions he is worth to me.
REY
[aside:] O, riches I have ne’er imaginèd!
This vast amount would feed me for a year.
Yet look at this poor droid, so innocent
And clearly with a mission on his mind.
If I abandon him to Unkar Plutt,
’Twould be no better than when I was small
And felt bereft by mine own family.
O, give me strength: I must reject this deal.
[To Unkar:] I shall decline; the droid is not for sale.
Come, BB-8, let us withdraw anon.
[Exeunt Rey and BB-8.
UNKAR
[into communicator:] I bid thee, though it seemeth paranoid,
Pray follow her and bring me back the droid.
[Exit.
SCENE 6.
Aboard the Finalizer and on the planet Jakku.
Enter FN-2187.
FN-2187
My mind hath been decided, finally,
Though far too long I’ve thought on this decision.
I shall escape the harsh First Order soon,
And shall the netted pilot fly withal.
Between his skill and mine own uniform,
We have the things we need to flee this place.
Enter a STORMTROOPER with POE DAMERON, who is bound.
[To trooper:] Ren swiftly would receive the prisoner.
Unbind the fiend; I shall escort him thither.
[The stormtrooper unbinds Poe and exits.
I prithee, hear my words anon, good fellow:
If thou wilt listen, I shall help thee flee.
POE
What dost thou mean? If I hear thee aright,
Thy words do fall like starlight on a pall.
FN-2187
Herein doth lie a rescue: follow’st thou?
Hast thou the talent TIE fighters to fly?
POE
Thou art an emblem of the glow of hope.
Art thou with the Resistance, sirrah kind?
FN-2187
Nay, nay, I merely am thy ticket off.
Canst thou, I prithee, fly TIE fighters?
POE
—Aye.
There is no vessel that hath bested me,
For I can pilot anything that flies.
But wherefore art thou helping me, my friend?
How many thoughts of what entombèd hopes
I dar’d to dream, but near had given up.
FN-2187
’Tis but the fair and noble thing to do.
POE
Forever changing places, by my troth!
Thou dost a pilot need, my friend. ’Tis true?
FN-2187
Forsooth, I need a pilot.
POE
—This shall be.
I’d go with thee in sunshine and in shadow.
Enter many STORMTROOPERS and
GUARDS as FN-2187 and POE DAMERON proceed to the Finalizer’s main hangar.
FN-2187
O, be thou calm, ne’er fearful. O, be calm!
POE
I am most calm. My heart is brighter than
The many stars within the sky above.
FN-2187
I am but speaking to myself, not thee.
Now here, fall speedily aside with me!
[FN-2187 and Poe step quickly aside, into a waiting TIE fighter. They enter its cabin.
POE
Long have I wish’d to fly one of these ships:
Twin ion engines, legendary TIE,
The mystery which binds me still in awe!
Tell me, my newfound comrade, canst thou shoot?
FN-2187
Of blasters, certainly, I know full well.
POE
The principle’s the same within this ship.
The toggle thou shalt find upon the left
Can switch ’twixt cannons, missiles, and mag pulse.
The sight’s upon the right wherewith thou aim’st,
And use the trigger for to fire. Dost see?
Pray let thy heart be light, upraise no dirge!
FN-2187
O, complicated system of controls!
[They begin to take off but are stopped by a cable attached to the TIE fighter.
POE
Alack! Yet I shall clear this snag forthwith.
Our star dials all are pointed to the morn—
We two shall steer their course and fly anon!
Enter COLONEL KAPLAN and OFFICER THANISSON above, on balcony.
THANISSON
I’d not believe it, yet mine eyes do see:
Unsanction’d, a departure from bay two!
KAPLAN
Alert the general, e’en Hux, and stop
That fighter from departing from the ship!