You would think that after spending a couple years working on this movie
and getting to work with Larry Kasdan and getting to work with Harrison Ford,
and getting to be on these incredible, beautifully designed sets...
But then you go onto the scoring stage with John Williams.
It's a whole other God-like presence.
LAWRENCE KASDAN: When you have John Williams writing the music,
he has all the gifts that you need
to make a dynamic, exciting, delightful Star Wars movie.
(ORCHESTRA MUSIC PLAYING)
JOHN WILLIAMS: When we did the very first Star Wars film,
I didn't have any idea there would be a second one.
Perhaps George Lucas had that in his mind already, I really don't know.
When you think of his role in not just modern cinema but cinema,
the idea that he and I got to work together on a Star Wars movie
was thrilling.
I remember the first LP I ever got.
I remember my mother taking me to a record shop,
and I chose the Star Wars LP soundtrack.
And I just remember the double-gate fold and listening to it over and over,
and how it emotionally moved me
in a way that music had never moved me before.
KATHLEEN KENNEDY: Johnny's been amazing.
When he found out that we were doing another Star Wars movie,
he couldn't have been more excited.
So I think, in John's mind, he was starting to compose
very close to when we started shooting.
He's had a wonderful time putting together this score,
and I think he and J.J. have been a perfect match.
At 83 years old, he is writing music
that is as exciting and vital and beautiful and fresh as anyone.
To watch him with the orchestra, conducting,
has been and continues to be
an incredibly gratifying and a dream experience, truly.
WILLIAMS: I have to say, I loved working with J.J. Abrams.
He did speak to me about the feeling we would all want to have
that this is Star Wars.
And particularly connect it, if we could, to the earlier films.
There are references to earlier thematic connections
between characters and music and so on throughout Star Wars,
and that seemed a very natural thing to do, and
combine it with new melodic material for the new characters and so on.
MARYANN BRANDON: For me, the thing about John's music is
it's like dialogue.
It literally gives you a scene,
and it's written so intricately to what the scene is,
it's like if you cut a bit out, it's like cutting out a line.
KENNEDY: What are those themes that become
as iconic as the ones that we know today?
That's his real challenge.
WILLIAMS: Rey, for me, was particularly difficult.
It's an adventure theme, in a way.
It's feminine, but strong in a way that she is.
This is a girl who's been a scavenger.
She's been alone, she's without her parents.
I felt a lot of empathy for this poor creature,
who is at once brilliant, who can defend herself with that stick
and speak all of these weird languages,
but you want to touch something in her
that's vulnerable and that recognizes her need.
This feeling that she's a creature who is above the earth and sails and flies.
KYLO REN: I feel it again.
The pull to the light.
WILLIAMS: I approached the task of Kylo Ren
really just as an extension of Darth Vader.
If it could convey in a few short notes, as the Imperial March does,
this power, evil power, strength, threat.
It needs to be something that will hit you and is accessible right away.
He's managed to make every movie he's worked on extraordinarily better.
If you take John Williams out of Star Wars,
it would be a fundamentally different experience.
(ORCHESTRA MUSIC PLAYING)
WILLIAMS: So many scenes.
The first one that comes to my mind is the fight at the end of the film
between Rey and Ren.
It's powerful in the sense that we get principally three themes.
Rey's theme and certainly Ren, when he's dominating her,
and the Force theme carries through this thing in a very important way.
The trip to the island is Rey's theme.
And as she begins to walk up what we call the "Jedi steps," the mountain,
there's an entirely new piece.
It has nothing to do with the rest of the score,
which starts very softly and it grows with her climbing.
There's a kind of aspiration in it, if you like,
if nothing else than to just achieve the top of the mountain physically,
which she does.
She seems to be drawn to... She doesn't know what.
WILLIAMS: Luke is revealed musically to us and to her.
And as she offers the lightsaber, we hear the Force theme.
And the Force theme evolves into the Star Wars fanfare,
which is the end of the film.
(ORCHESTRA MUSIC PLAYING)
WILLIAMS: I felt very happy to be able to continue adding
to this glossary of themes from film to film.
I don't know how many more of them I can do,
but, having kept up with them this long,
I feel very fortunate indeed to have been able to do it.
I think one more standing ovation is necessary
for the absolutely incomparable John Williams.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)