8 Things Everybody Missed In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

8. The Hidden Use Of Imperial March

John Williams' score for The Force Awakens was chock full of callbacks to his other films, bringing back classical leitmotifs (most prominently The Force Theme) to strengthen the ongoing story. Interestingly though, the most famous Star Wars track outside of the opening theme was mostly absent from the film. That's right; Imperial March only explicitly appeared once, for a brief moment during the scene where Kylo Ren confronts Darth Vader's charred helmet. However, there is actually another, more subtle usage of the theme; in The Jedi Steps, the final piece of the score that plays over Rey finding Luke, when we finally get to see the Jedi Master a couple of familiar beats from the March play under the main score. The notion of the Force being a grey sliding scale plays heavily in The Force Awakens - with Kylo fearing the glimmer of Light within him, Rey feeling the pull of the Dark and various crew describing Luke as acutely aware of how susceptible he could be - so having the film's final piece of music, which is ostensibly hopeful, underscored by the original villain theme helps to reinforce that. Williams has done this before, with The Phantom Menace's final track, Augie's Great Municipal Band, being a sped-up, upbeat take on Return Of The Jedi's Emperor's Theme. Given how in that case it was subtle foreshadowing of Palpatine's true nature, could Imperial March here be pointing towards some key element of the sequel trilogy?