In the past, I thought the writers in Hollywood believed that we would accept anything from their low I.Q. minds. The theater attendance rates say otherwise, and that gives me hopeful optimism for America’s future.
I noticed writers’ idiocy in Rise of Skywalker that I must report on.
Rey and Kylo Ren are in a contest of the Force by trying to pull down an ascending transport. The spacecraft has two rocket motors, which must’ve exceeded 500,000 pounds of thrust. Both of them are standing on a mixture of loose earth and sand. Therefore, neither of them can be using the Force to anchor themselves to the ground. The physics dictate that the spacecraft would have carried both of them aloft.
The next violation of proven physics would’ve made Albert Einstein jump up from his seat and scream, “You idiots! You cannot transport mass instantaneously over any distance!”
Kylo Ren is aboard a spacecraft that is light-years away from the planet that Rey is on. Somehow, Kylo Ren can have a real-time Force talk and see Rey on that distant planet. The transmission of information is limited to the speed of light. But okay, I’ll go with it. What happens next is what would’ve made Albert Einstein storm out of the theater. Kylo Ren reaches out his right hand to Force-snatch the necklace from Rey’s neck that an alien child had given her. The proven Theory of Relativity states that the rest mass of an object remains constant. However, as an object approaches the speed of light, its relativistic momentum and total energy increase exponentially. This creates an infinite resistance to further acceleration, requiring an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light.
Therefore, to transport the mass of the necklace instantaneously over the distance portrayed in this scene is impossible because the required energy is infinite; moreover, the Force transportation exceeded the speed of light many times over.
Grok’s review of my criticism:
You’re not wrong on the physics complaints—The Rise of Skywalker (and the sequel trilogy in general) leans hard into “Rule of Cool” over scientific rigor. Hollywood writers often treat physics as optional when it gets in the way of dramatic Force moments. Your points highlight classic sci-fi/fantasy hand-waving. Let’s break them down.1. The Transport Ship Tug-of-War: Rey and Kylo Ren are both yanking on an ascending transport with massive thrust (those engines look like they’re outputting hundreds of thousands of pounds of force, easily). They’re standing on loose sand/earth with no obvious anchoring.
- Newton’s third law (action-reaction) and basic mechanics say the loser of that pull should get dragged along, or at minimum, the force should overcome friction and launch one (or both) skyward. The ship isn’t magically rooted; it’s fighting gravity and accelerating.
- In-universe justification? The Force lets users “anchor” themselves through telekinesis or some invisible grip on the environment. But yeah, it’s inconsistent—even in earlier films, Force users get knocked around by much smaller forces. This scene prioritizes the symbolic “they’re equally matched” duel over plausibility.
It’s the same franchise where people survive explosions, falls, and space vacuums with minimal consequences. Suspension of disbelief is mandatory.2. Instantaneous Force Necklace Grab Across Light-Years. This is the bigger howler. Kylo is on a ship far away (likely multiple light-years or at least planetary distances), yet he sees Rey in real-time, “talks” to her, and physically yanks the necklace off her neck.
- Special relativity caps information and causal influence at c (speed of light). Anything faster requires infinite energy as you approach c, per the relativistic mass/energy increase you referenced (E=mc² and the Lorentz factor). Mass doesn’t literally become infinite, but the energy required does, making FTL (faster-than-light) transfer impossible for anything with rest mass.
- Even “seeing” her in real-time violates light-speed delay. The Force here acts like instantaneous quantum entanglement or hyperspace magic, not physics.
- Star Wars has always done this: “Force bonds,” projections (like Luke in The Last Jedi), and long-distance influence ignore relativity entirely. It’s space fantasy, not hard sci-fi like The Expanse or Interstellar.
Einstein would’ve facepalmed, yes. He’d probably join the crowd that prefers the original trilogy’s more grounded (for its era) tech and mysticism. Broader Context: You’re right that audience pushback (via box office and discourse) has limits on how much lazy writing people tolerate. Rise of Skywalker had massive built-in hype as the saga closer but still faced criticism for retcons, rushed plotting, and these kinds of spectacle-over-substance moments. The Force was always “magic” (George Lucas drew from mythology, not textbooks), but the sequels amplified the inconsistencies.
Next, I shall report on the series The Last Ship.
Published by Editor, Sammy Campbell.