Quantifying How Much the Force Is Used In Star Wars (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Bloomberg has posted a data visualization for a very important subject: how much, how often, and to what effect The Force is used in Star Wars movies. As you may expect, we see the light side of the Force used much more often than the dark side. Luke Skywalker spends about 11 minutes using the Force, but pre-Vader Anakin clocks in at under 3 minutes of Force time — less, even, than Palpatine. It also turns out that Jedi really love Force Leaping, while the dark side has a monopoly on making lightning and choking people. It's kind of silly, but also kind of cool. Bloomberg even posted their methodology: "To arrive at a figure for total on-screen Force time, we decided to measure cumulatively, by scene. That means when multiple people use the Force simultaneously, we counted the time only once. Light-side and dark-side times are the cumulative durations that characters associated with each side are depicted using the Force. When multiple characters associated with the same side at the same time use the Force, that time is also counted only once. When light-side and dark-side characters use the Force at the same time, the durations are scored separately. Each recorded duration is rounded to the nearest second, and no use of the Force was assigned less than one second in duration." (That's just a fraction of it.)

Comments

You forgot JarJar!

[lgw]

Bah, they forgot all the times Darth JarJar used the dark side of the force, from the force jumps to using a combat droid attached to his leg as an aimed weapon.

Re:You forgot JarJar!

[Anonymous Coward]

In addition to his acrobatics, don't forget all the times that DarthDarth Binks waves his hands around while convincing people to work for him.

Re:You forgot JarJar!

[lgw]

I never understood the hatred of JarJar - I think he was just picked as an effigy for the problems with the whole movie. Having a "comic relief character for the kiddies" is barely annoying - Star Wars was never a serious drama. Of the deep and never-ending flaws in the prequels, JarJar doesn't even make my short list.

Even so, I'd still support a constitutional amendment banning cartoon rabbits from prequel trilogies - think of the pain it would have saved in the wretched Hobbit movies.

Where is the estimation of force * distance?

[ttucker]

How does the Jedi force reconcile notions on the conservation of energy? Is a Jedi knight a perpetual motion machine?

One great thing

[110010001000]

One great thing I learned in the latest SW movie is that you don't even need any training to use the Force! Just select a Stormtrooper and say slowly and firmly a command. If it doesn't work the first time, just close your eyes and breathe out and try again. Voila! It will work! And then after that you can use that same new found power to kill a guy who has been trained to use the Force. I don't know why Luke would even bother to try to train Jedi in the Force. You can pick it up in 15 minutes.

Re:One great thing

[Anonymous Coward]

In the flashback scene, the girl was clearly a Jedi trainee as a small child. She didn't spontaneously use the Force, she used half-forgotten lessons.

Re:One great thing

[OzPeter]

There's probably a Coursera or Khan Academy cert you can get in your spare time to boost your income.

Well depending on the universe that would be a Khaaaaaaaaaaan Academy cert.

Re:One great thing

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Interesting! I must have missed that part. I'll need to watch it again. But obviously training is overrated. If you can kill one of the major Dark Force guys using half-forgotten lessons it must not be very difficult to master. Maybe just a short course is all that is needed.

Luke used to bullseye womprats in Beggar's Canyon back home, and they're not much bigger than two meters, which apparently is amazing marksmanship, and that was possibly before he had even heard of the Force. And he was able to hold his own against Vader for a while at the end of Empire, despite the fact that his formal training on Dagobah lasted.. maybe a week, tops? And he had no formal training before the amazingly acrobatic fight with Jabba's gang in Jedi.

So it would appear that, yes, at least for certain people, proficiency in using the Force is more a matter of natural talent, and knowing what's possible with it, rather than a result of repetitive drilling. Which, frankly, is kind of what one might expect when you're dealing with a mystical and ineffable power that pervades the very fabric of reality.

Re:One great thing

[shadowrat]

just like american ninja! This is the thing that keeps me going in life. One day i'll remember all the training i received as a child and subsequently forgot.

Re:The Force Awakens?!?!

[Fwipp]

When Luke enters Jabba's palace in RotJ; I believe he force chokes/throws one of the pig guards. It's been many years since I watched it, so I could be mistaken.

Why that made sense

[SuperKendall]

That is of course, assuming you are strong in the force to begin with and just had a huge demonstration on how the force is used to get into someones mind...

Why do you not think she would be able to use force persuasion immediately after she successfully resisting Kylo's mind assault? It would have opened up new pathways into understanding how something could work, kind of like riding a bicycle successfully suddenly clicks with you...

What's sad is that every one of the supposed "plot holes" like this one you picked are in fact not holes at all if you simply take ten seconds to think about what happened in the movie up to that point.

To see someone tear apart mot of the other similarly small-minded supposed "holes", read this.

Re:Why that made sense

[mrchaotica]

It's the same reason why the entirety of Star Wars is an OSHA nightmare (bottomless pits everywhere; no guardails): who the fuck cares, it's a movie!

Re:Why that made sense

[vux984]

What's sad is that every one of the supposed "plot holes" like this one you picked are in fact not holes at all if you simply take ten seconds to think about what happened in the movie up to that point.

*spoiler alerts -- not that you'd be this far in the thread if you were trying to avoid them*

No, that movie is full of holes. Ray and a turncoat stormtrooper, both with basically no significant relevant training defeating Kylo at a lightsabre duel was LUDICROUS. Don't give me that shit that he was expertly trained in "energy baton fighting"... like a different obviously more experienced stormtrooper was. That he'd get within half a mile of landing a solid shot on Ren was still absurd.

See that's the issue right there. In IV-VI we only had Vader as an example of what a force user in his prime was like --- and he set the bar as: un-FUCKING-touchable. And you got the same sense that Ben and later Yoda while both old were still potent, if either of them was walking around Mos-eisley at night, they'd still be just fine. A random mugger wasn't going to get the best of them, they weren't going to die as bystanders in a drive by shooting, etc. Jedi Knights and Jedi Masters, and sith lords... they don't get hit be 'regular folks'; Han can't put a blaster round into Vader. (Bespin). Even Luke can't even land a good hit on Vader in Empire despite training with Yoda.

But hey... a green storm trooper with no real combat experience, and some presumed basic training in energy baton fighting ... he can land a solid blow on Ren. And then Ray, who might be alright with a quaterstaff ends up with a sabre in her hand, she gets the job done.

That's one place the first trilogy went off the rails too. It starts out good... QuiGon and Ben start out pretty untouhcable; clearly weren't overly concerned about going in as a duo onto the trade federation ship; and clearly the trade federation leaders were extremely concerned about their chances of walking away alive from the encounter despite having a droid army with them.

But by the middle of the trilogy we are seeing full on jedi, even jedi MASTERS being taken out left and right by droids and stormtroopers. It was just so utterly disappointing.

Vader, again, was pretty much untouchable. And yeah, Ren wasn't up to Vader's level, we got that. But, I mean, if you want to explain it by saying Kylo was completely and totally ineffective and impotent idiot sith wannabe sure... but if that's the case the plot hole was making him the primary villain. Because there's no way he'd be in a position of such power if he was that easy to defeat. Somebody actually competent would be.

R2D2 waking up was deus ex machina at its finest. Sure YOU can explain it a variety of ways if YOU want to make excuses for the movie, but the movie doesn't give us anything at all.

Ray using the force to control a storm trooper was likewise absurd; suggesting she picked it up after 2 tries after being probed for information by Ren is not reasonable.

kind of like riding a bicycle successfully suddenly clicks with you...

Right, like we saw Luke deflect those remote drone bolts during sabre practice... fail, fail, fail, fail, click he got it. Right? The difference between that and this however is monumental. In THAT scene, the context was that Bben was TEACHING, and the way it cut to the scene made it indeterminate how long Luke had been practicing up to that point, or what else he'd been taught so far... but the reasonable presumption was "more than nothing".

The Ray scene, by contrast, she picks up force suggestion after basically experiencing a different force power used on her.

To return to your bicycle analogy it; It would be kind of like clicking how to ride a unicycle after someone crashes into you on a skateboard. Call her "naturally" inclined if you like, but that's shitty story writing no matter how you slice it. (aka a PLOT HOLE). And that's just scratching the surface... there's so many more.

Re:Force Leap isn't a thing

[Coren22]

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki...

It isn't? I must be confused than, cause I remember Yoda hopping all over the place in his battle scene, and as that site mentions, Luke used it in his battle with Vader in Cloud City.

Luke Force Choked

[painandgreed]

while the dark side has a monopoly on making lightning and choking people.

Actually, didn't Luke force choke on of Jabba's guards at the beginning of RotJ? Then again, I've also read articles talking about how he was probably a darkside force user at that point on some head cannon webpage.

Re:Luke Force Choked

[shadowrat]

yes, and that's the interpretation i've always gone with. in RoJ, luke is on the cusp of succumbing to the dark side. he dresses in black. he is part machine. His lightsaber is green, not blue, not red. He's walked the line since his "failure in the cave"

The movies aren't really that subtle about it. They've established these symbols over and over. Darth Vader and the Emperor spit it right out and say they can feel the conflict within him.

Re: The Force Awakens?!?!

[loufoque]

what "awesome" movie are you speaking of? All I'm aware of is JJ Abrams' farce.

Re:The Force Awakens?!?!

[naasking]

When Luke enters Jabba's palace in RotJ; I believe he force chokes/throws one of the pig guards.

You are correct. At least, it certainly looks that way. Or they were simply unusually intimidated by his stare and waving hand.

Re:It's more subtle

[Livius]

Anakin brings about balance. But there never was balance.

For a thousand years (or maybe generations), the Jedi had completely driven the Sith underground, gratuitously violated the civil rights of the civilian population, controlled information, and meddled in politics at the highest possible level.

Seriously, what did you think 'restoring balance' was going to look like?

be sure to tip your waitress

[Thud457]

Summation of Force used?
Nah, that sounds like Work.

Not sure how you are getting that vibe

[SuperKendall]

Let's be honest in real consumer terms with regard to long term value the movie is not doing so well,

You have got to be kidding. This is the only movie in over ten years that I have even wanted to see multiple times, much less actually gone to do so (I've seen it twice now and have plans to see it at least once more). It's already gone over multiple box office records but more importantly people are still going to see it in large numbers, and people are doing repeat showings. Go on any weekend and there are still lines for the theaters before it opens... contrast that with the Martian which I saw about a month after release, there were six people total in the theater and four were my group.

If you thought the stories were lame, you missed out on the REAL stories being presented and I feel very sorry for you.

I really don't understand where the hate for this movie in some people comes from, but from talking to people from all walks of life I do know you are in a tiny, tiny minority of people and that is borne out by not just sales numbers but what real people are doing in regards to movie visits...