21 pop culture moments in 2017 that spoke to the zeitgeist

Still from Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer. Image via Lucasfilm/Disney.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

There’s no way J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt could have anticipated the political implications The Force Awakens would have when they wrote it. Sure, they modeled the First Order after Hitler’s Germany. Back in 2015, though, most people thought Nazism as a mass movement was safely consigned to the dustbin of history. I remember stifling laughter during the rally scene when I saw TFA in theaters; now, it’s chilling.

2016’s Rogue One evokes similarly accidental reminders with its narrative of rebellion against tyranny. It technically came out after Trump’s election, but production presumably wrapped long before, even taking the reshoots into account.

So, The Last Jedi is the first Star Wars movie of the Disney era whose real-world resonance was likely intentional. Rian Johnson refrains from using obvious iconography like Abrams did, but it is impossible to watch Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux bluster and whine his way into power and not think of a certain world leader. The writer-director also doubles down on TFA’s portrayal of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) as an embodiment of millennial male rage, lashing out at those who dare disappoint him. As Slate’s Sam Adams points out, the fact that these villains are sometimes laughable only makes you more wary of them.

Parallels infiltrate the Resistance as well, particularly in the subplot following Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron. Even after receiving a demotion for disobeying orders, Poe is dismayed when Leia (Carrie Fisher) gets taken out of commission and replaced by Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern). His frustration deepens when Holdo refuses to disclose her plan to him, and he proceeds to stage a mutiny. Many critics have interpreted Poe and Holdo’s conflict as commentary on workplace gender dynamics. It struck me more as an analog to the Democrat Party, which devolved into in-fighting after the presidential election.

Either way, what really makes TLJ ideal for 2017 isn’t any specific reference, but the feeling of desperation that pervades it. Throughout the film, the Resistance gradually shrinks, decimated by the First Order’s fleet. No matter how many times they jump to light-speed, they can’t seem to shake the pursuing ships. While not quite as intense, the situation recalls Dunkirk and Battlestar Galactica’s “33”: an army, already defeated, endures constant enemy bombardment. They know they can’t beat the enemy; their goal is simply to survive. I don’t remember any other Star Wars forcing its heroes to spend the entire time on defense.