Star Wars: 12 Homages To Classic Cinema In The Last Jedi

4. Vertigo

At the tail-end of the fathiers sequence, Rose and Finn are abruptly thrown from the backs of their new companions and they very nearly fall off the edge of a cliff. As Finn and Rose look down at the drop beneath them, we are treated to the age-old Vertigo shot.

The Vertigo shot is a dolly zoom shot that creates an uncanny, in-camera effect that makes the subject seem elongated or stretched in a strange way. The reason this is more commonly known as a Vertigo shot is because of Alfred Hitchcock. The legendary director pioneered the shot in his immortal classic, Vertigo.

In that film, as James Stewart scales to dizzying heights, the shot is used to re-emphasize the height and danger inherent in the scene. The shot has become a cinematic go-to in the decades since Vertigo, with several films using it in different and unique ways.

However, Last Jedi goes a few steps beyond the typical reference, in that it is a near-exact recreation of the shot. Finn and Rose may be looking over the edge of a cliff, but the shot's purpose and placement are exactly the same as they were for James Stewart all those years earlier.