<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/571a545591058424008be609-3600-2700/hires1-1.jpg" alt="supernova" data-mce-source="NASA/CXC/SAO" data-link="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2015-05" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2015-05">NASA/CXC/SAO</a></span></p><p class="caption">HAWC will allow scientists to study some of the most violent processes in the universe.</p></div><p></p></div></div>On the flanks of the Sierra Negra volcano in Central Mexico, nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, there is a giant field of water tanks. Three hundred water tanks, to be exact, occupying a space that's roughly the size of three football fields.</p><p>Collectively, this massive array is known as the <a href="http://hawc-observatory.org/">High Altitude Cherenkov Gamma Ray Observatory</a> (HAWC), and it's helping scientists measure high energy particles from outer space called <a href="http://home.cern/about/physics/cosmic-rays-particles-outer-space">cosmic rays</a> that are racing toward us at nearly the speed of light.</p><p>Cosmic rays are often called space messengers. That's because they carry information from distant parts of the cosmos, up to billions of light-years away. Just like astronomers use different wavelengths of light to understand different aspects of the universe, scientists can study different properties of cosmic rays - like their velocity, trajectory, radiation, mass and energy - to learn more about our universe, including its structure, composition and the processes happening within it. Using cosmic rays, scientists can try to answer questions about our galaxy and the universe that they wouldn't be able to using visual clues alone.</p><p><span>In addition to being messengers, cosmic rays </span><span>are a form of high energy radiation and</span><span> can be damaging to the human body, which is why it's a good thing that Earth's atmosphere blocks most of them from ever reaching </span><span>us at the surface. But astronauts in space who are un</span><span>sheltered by the atmosphere are </span><span>not protected from this radiation. Understanding how and when cosmic rays are produced can also help us protect them.</span></p><h2>The most sensitive map ever made</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/571a53d391058425008be614-800-600/crshower2_nasa.jpg" alt="cosmic rays" data-mce-source="NASA" /><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">This very second, billions of cosmic rays are smashing into out atmosphere.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Cosmic rays were <a href="http://timeline.web.cern.ch/events/victor-hess-discovers-cosmic-rays">originally discovered</a> in 1912 by Austrian physicist Victor Hess, but scientists still aren't sure where they come from. Some cosmic rays have such high energies that scientists believe they might have been created by some of the most violent processes in the universe - supermassive black holes, rapidly spinning super dense stars, remnants of exploding stars.</p><p><span>By figuring out exactly where these cosmic rays are originating, scientists will be able to probe these violent processes and get a better understanding of the universe. </span></p><p><span>That's why scientists at HAWC, a collaboration between national laboratories and universities in Mexico and the United States, are working together to get a closer look. <span>On April 18, after a little over a year of collecting data, HAWC released the highest energy and most sensitive map ever made of the sky.</span></span></p><p>"We spent four years working in the high mountains in Mexico, taking this green hillside and turning it into a laboratory," Jordan Goodman, the US spokesperson and principal investigator for HAWC, said. "Now we're getting to the fun part of actually doing the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> - making the highest energy map that anyone's ever made and seeing things no one's ever seen before."</p><p>But cosmic rays are charged particles, which means their paths in space are bent by magnetic fields. This makes it hard to retrace their steps to figure out what which forces catapulted them towards us. In order to get to the bottom of this mystery, scientists are studying the highest energy light particles out there, gamma rays.</p><p>The same violent processes that produce cosmic rays can also radiate gamma rays. And because gamma rays are light particles, or photons, they travel in straight lines through space unaffected by magnetic fields. Tracing these gamma rays back to their sources scientists might link their path to the mysterious cosmic rays.</p><h2><strong>So what's with the water tanks?</strong></h2><p>Both cosmic rays and gamma rays speed into our atmosphere, smashing into other particles and creating a <a href="http://www.physics.purdue.edu/astro/KASCADE/intro/air_show.html">cascade of secondary particles</a> called an air shower. As the air shower descends towards the ground at nearly the speed of light, the particles spread out, multiplying as they smash into other particles. They then form a particle pancake that contains billions of particles that can spread up to 10 miles wide.</p><p>This is where all those giant water tanks come in.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/571f8ea891058426008bef3b-2049-1537/hawc_from_lmt_aug_14_2014_02.jpg" alt="HAWC_from_LMT_Aug_14_2014_02" data-mce-source="Jordanagoodman" data-mce-caption="HAWC is a massive array of water detectors located near the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico." /><p class="source"><span>Jordanagoodman</span></p><p class="caption">HAWC is a massive array of water detectors located near the Sierra Negra volcano in Mexico.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Each of the tanks holds 50,000 gallons of purified water - an amount that required 3,900 tanker trucks driving up the mountain to fill them, Goodman told Business Insider.</p><p>When the high-energy particle pancake (the one that's traveling at nearly the speed of light) smacks into the water, the individual particles produce <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/cherenkov.html">blue cones of light</a> called Cherenkov radiation. A team of four extremely sensitive light detectors fixed to the bottom of the tanks picks up these flashes of light.</p><p>Because the vast majority of particles hitting the detectors are a result of the bent cosmic rays, scientists need to filter out them by the different footprints they produce. Then, by measuring nanosecond-size differences in the time it takes the particles from the gamma ray showers to arrive in each of the different tanks, scientists can reconstruct the direction they came from. The result is their high energy universe map.</p><p>"We are only now pinpointing what the actual sources of cosmic rays are," University of Mexico research assistant professor and HAWC collaborator Robert Lauer told Business Insider. "Now with this map we can really check individual objects in our galaxy and beyond and say this which sources are producing these particles."</p><h2><strong>Seven times more powerful than the most powerful particle smasher on the planet</strong></h2><p>So just how high-energy is this map? Well, most of the particles HAWC detects are just about the same energy as particles produced in the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle collider on the planet. But some of them can be up to seven times more energetic, much more powerful than anything we can create here on Earth. And the longer HAWC runs, the higher the energies it will pick up.</p><p>What makes HAWC unique is that unlike other gamma ray detectors, which can only operate on dark, moonless nights focusing on just a small section of the sky, HAWC is a detector that operates around the clock and looks at the entire overhead sky all at once.</p><p>Twenty thousand air shower particles per second hit our detector, Brenda Dingus, <span>the principal investigator of the U.S. Department of Energy funding for HAWC and research fellow at </span>Los Alamos National Laboratory told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2084761-water-telescopes-first-sky-map-shows-flickering-black-holes/">New Scientist</a>. This produces about two terabytes of data every day and nearly a petabyte per year.</p><p>Since the birth of gamma ray astronomy in the 60s, NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center and HAWC collaborator Michelle Hui told Business Insider, they've gone from having only a handful of sources to having over a hundred. In just its first year of data, HAWC picked up 40 different sources of gamma rays, many of which had never been seen before.</p><h2><strong>Black holes and exploding stars</strong></h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/571a535e910584716f8be328-545-409/herculesa.jpg" alt="cosmic rays from supermassive black hole" data-mce-source="NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) " data-link="www.space.com/18861-hercules-a-galaxy-radio-jets.html" /><p class="source"><span><a href="www.space.com/18861-hercules-a-galaxy-radio-jets.html">NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) </a></span></p><p class="caption">Supermassive black holes are one candidate for what might accelerate cosmic rays to such high energies.</p></div><p></p></div></div>One of these sources is located 400 million light-years away in a galaxy called Markarian 501. On April 7, <span>2016</span> HAWC detected a flare of gamma rays coming from Markarian 501 that lasted a little over a day before disappearing. Scientists believe that a flickering supermassive black hole living in the center of the galaxy might have produced this flare. If HAWC hadn't been running day and night focusing on the entire sky above, it would have missed it.</p><p>"We can see events that occurred 400 million years ago and still follow all of these interesting things that happened very rapidly," Lauer said. "It's a completely different way to look at the most extreme objects in universe - in our own galaxy and others."</p><p>Scientists found another source in the remnants of a supernova in our own galaxy. When a massive star dies, collapsing under its own gravity, it explodes into a supernova. The explosion sometimes leaves behind a pulsar, which is a super dense star (imagine the mass of our sun compressed into something the size of Washington, DC) that can spin more than 50 times per second. This spinning star generates intense magnetic fields, which scientists believe might produce a wind of high energy particles. As shockwaves spread through the shell of stellar material surrounding the pulsar that was left behind by the supernova explosion, the particles are accelerated to even higher energies and can emit gamma rays, which is what HAWC picked up.</p><p>The Fermi Telescope, a space observatory orbiting in space, had already been investigating the pulsar itself but HAWC has a unique perspective on the way the cosmic rays interact with the supernova guts surrounding the pulsar.</p><p>The next big project for HAWC, Hui said, is to compare the data with other experiments and look at how their findings overlap with other findings in the community to try to understand the bigger picture. Scientists at HAWC hope to work with the community to gain insight into new physics and possibly even put the hundred-year-old mystery of cosmic rays to rest.</p><p>"We've been looking at the sky for a long time," Hui said. "But now we have this new instrument up and we're still seeing new things that we hadn't seen before. Just to figure out what these objects are is exciting."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mysteriously-large-black-hole-explained-nasa-science-outer-space-2016-4">There's something very strange about this rare supermassive black hole that astronomers can't explain</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FxMjZvMjE6pYdJ0bWaREPXK_kZM15FO3" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'FxMjZvMjE6pYdJ0bWaREPXK_kZM15FO3',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A field of water tanks in Mexico is bringing us closer than ever to solving a 100-year-old cosmic mystery

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59d3e84f351ccf89468b6f6d-1067/pasted image at 20171003 0334 pm.png" alt="Mandalay Bay" data-mce-source="Mandalay Bay" /><p class="source"><span>Mandalay Bay</span></p><p class="caption">The floor plan of the Vista Suite, which Paddock stayed in.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Last Thursday, Stephen Paddock checked into a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mandalay-bay-hotel-room-las-vegas-shooter-suite-2017-10">$500 suite</a> at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. </p><p>Now, Mandalay Bay is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mandalay-bay-lawsuits-likely-after-las-vegas-shooting-2017-10">irrevocably linked </a>to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-shows-exactly-how-the-las-vegas-massacre-unfolded-2017-10">deadliest mass shooting</a> in modern US history, after Paddock opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people from the window of his hotel room. </p><p>He killed 58 people and wounded nearly 500, police say.</p><p>Often, sites of tragedies become an area of mourning and remembrance. However, the room on the 32nd floor where Paddock executed his killing spree is unlikely to become so. </p><p>"From my opinion, the room disappears," Anthony Melchiorri, host of <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">Travel</keyword> Channel's "Hotel Impossible," told Business Insider. </p><p>Melchiorri said if he were running the hotel, he would reach out to victims and their families to see how he could best help them.</p><p>Then, the room in question - which has been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mandalay-bay-hotel-room-las-vegas-shooter-suite-2017-10">identified as room 135 on the 32nd floor</a> - would likely "disappear" and no longer be available for guests to book. Melchiorri said he would go so far as to have the doors sealed up, removing any trace of the suite's existence. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59d58a43c68d7b282e8b75e3-1333/rts1f5v9small.jpg" alt="Mandalay Bay las vegas shooting" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Chris Wattie" data-mce-caption="A member of the FBI leaves the Mandalay Bay hotel following the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 4, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Chris Wattie</span></p><p class="caption">A member of the FBI leaves the Mandalay Bay hotel following the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 4, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Deanna Ting, hospitality editor at travel industry intelligence company Skift, agreed that the room would probably not be available to be booked - at least for a very long time. </p><p>Beyond the room in question, both Ting and Melchiorri emphasized the importance of Mandalay Bay reestablishing the hotel as a safe and secure space for guests.</p><p>Housekeeping and other members of staff will be retrained to say something if they see something suspicious. Ting predicts that a very <a href="https://skift.com/2017/10/03/wynn-las-vegas-increases-security-following-mass-shooting/">visible security presence</a> - such as metal detectors, X-ray machines, and armed guards - will likely flood Vegas hotels, at least in the short term. </p><p>Las Vegas hotels already have some of the best security in the country, with Melchiorri saying it has "more security per square foot" than any other city in the US.</p><p>Debra DeShong, a spokesperson for Mandalay Bay's parent company, MGM Resorts, told Business Insider in a statement that the company "works consistently with local and national law enforcement agencies to keep procedures at our resorts up to date, and are always improving and evolving."</p><p>However, for Mandalay Bay and other hotels in Las Vegas to convince guests of their safety, drastic and visible changes will be necessary. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-behavioral-finance-specialist-how-emotions-get-best-of-investors-2017-9">We talked to a UBS behavioral finance specialist about how emotions get the best of even the most experienced investors</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/R4sXUWSK-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

'The room disappears': Experts say the hotel where the Las Vegas gunman committed the deadly mass shooting will likely take drastic measures to erase the event

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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-business-insider-interview"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/597760dc5d8a2f24008b50c2-1201/bi%20interview%201200.png" alt="BI Interview 1200" data-mce-source="BI" /></a></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a36d3f74aa6b5bc198b5503-1200/bi-graphicsrian%20johnson%202x1.png" alt="BI Graphics_Rian Johnson 2x1" data-mce-source="AP; Business Insider, Samantha Lee"><p class="source"><span>AP; Business Insider, Samantha Lee</span></p><p class="caption">"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" writer-director Rian Johnson.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" writer-director Rian Johnson addresses the fan backlash that his movie isn't like the original trilogy.</strong></li><li><strong>He explains how the fan theories of where the story would go after "The Force Awakens" didn't affect writing the script.</strong></li><li><strong>He hopes a female director will make one of the "Star Wars" movies - soon or in the new "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/star-wars">Star Wars</a>" trilogy he's creating.</strong></li></ul><hr><p><strong><br>WARNING: Spoilers below if you haven't seen "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."</br></strong></p><p><em>It's getting into the evening hours in Los Angeles on the first full day "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is in theaters. Rian Johnson, director of the biggest movie of the year, has not stopped moving for a week.</em></p><p><em>First L.A. for the press junket. Then Japan. Back to L.A. for the flashy world premiere. Followed by a jump to London. Now back again to L.A. for a final round of press - for now.</em></p><p><em>When Johnson, 43, gets on the phone, he sounds weary from jetting around the globe. But he perks up when it's time to talk about "The Last Jedi." It's not just a movie he spent the last four years of his life writing and then directing. It's more than that. Johnson has been a lifelong fan of the franchise, and even chose to go to film school at the University of Southern California because "Star Wars" creator George Lucas went there. In many ways his entire career has been leading up to this point.</em></p><p><em>You can see many traces of Johnson's filmography in "The Last Jedi" - taking risks ("Brick"), lighthearted moments ("The Brothers Bloom"), and world building ("Looper"). But it's his love of the "Star Wars" franchise and drive to tell a story that builds on "The Force Awakens" with something new and challenging that really shines through.</em></p><p><em>It's that newness that's divided "Star Wars" fans about "The Last Jedi." Though many appreciated a movie that didn't just feed off the hallmarks of the original trilogy, others have voiced their disappointment with Johnson for breaking fresh ground.</em></p><p><em>That's where we began our wide-ranging conversation with Johnson. The director also touched on not being distracted by fan expectations, the challenge of bringing Luke Skywalker back into the saga, why Captain Phasma isn't more prominently featured in the movie, and what he hopes to accomplish with the <a href="http://www.starwars.com/news/rian-johnson-writer-director-of-star-wars-the-last-jedi-to-create-all-new-star-wars-trilogy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new "Star Wars" trilogy he's creating</a>. </em></p><p><em>The following has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.</em></p><p><strong>Jason Guerrasio: Like making any "Star Wars" movie, the director can't win. People complained that "The Force Awakens" was too much like the original trilogy. With your movie, the knock is it's nothing like the original trilogy. What are your thoughts when you hear that take?</strong></p><p><strong>Rian Johnson:</strong> Having been a "Star Wars" fan my whole life and having spent most of my life on the other side of the curb and in that fandom, it softens the blow a little bit. I'm aware through my own experience that, first of all, the fans are so passionate, they care so deeply, sometimes they care very violently at me on Twitter. But it's because they care about these things and it hurts when you're expecting something specific and you don't get it from something that you love. It always hurts so I don't take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter. That's fine. It's my job to be there for that. Like you said, every fan has a list of stuff they want a "Star Wars" movie to be and they don't want a "Star Wars" movie to be. You're going to find very few fans out there whose lists line up.&#xa0;</p><p>And I also know the same way the original movies were personal for [George] Lucas. Lucas never made a "Star Wars" movie by sitting down and thinking, "What do the fans want to see?" And I knew if I wrote wondering what the fans would want, as tempting as that is, it wouldn't work because people would still be shouting at me, "F--- you, you ruined 'Star Wars,'" and I would make a bad movie. And ultimately that's the one thing nobody wants. And let me just add that 80%-90% of the reaction I've gotten from Twitter has been really lovely. There's been a lot of joy and love from fans. When I talk about the negative stuff, that's not the full picture of the fans at all.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58ff93330ba0b8a2018b605c-1200/star%20wars%20the%20last%20jedi%20lucasfilm%20final.jpg" alt="star wars the last jedi lucasfilm final" data-mce-source="Lucasfilm"><p class="source"><span>Lucasfilm</span></p><p class="caption">Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) raises his villain status in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><strong>Guerrasio: Even though the movie is the second part of a trilogy, it really feels like a standalone. Was that a goal of yours?</strong><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Well, I wanted it to be a full meal. I wanted it to be a satisfying experience unto itself. Because when you go into a theater that's what you always want. I did want to pick it up where the last one left off, I did want to do service to these characters in a way that felt consistent. And I wanted to leave it in a place where you felt you were excited for the potential of what could come next and you're invested maybe a little more deeply in these characters and where they end up. In that way it is a middle chapter, it has to function like that. But, you know, it's also a movie and I wanted to give people a full "Star Wars" experience. I wanted to give them something where they come out of the theater and feel totally satisfied.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a36d4b94aa6b5a01a8b550b-400/bi-graphicsrian%20johnson%20quote%201.png" alt="BI Graphics_Rian Johnson quote 1" data-mce-source="Business Insider, Samantha Lee"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider, Samantha Lee</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p><strong>Guerrasio: Speaking for myself, the satisfaction is that you move the trilogy someplace beyond the hot takes fans had since "The Force Awakens." And you did that by making some very shocking choices on who we will no longer see beyond this movie, theoretically. Has it been fun waiting for this movie to come out knowing "The Last Jedi" is a very different movie than what fans expected? Or was it panic that maybe your take could miss the mark?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> [<em>Laughs</em>.] It's been a combination of both of those things. When I was writing the movie I was doing it while they were shooting "The Force Awakens." So it wasn't like I was reading all these theories online and being at my typewriter and going "Ha! Ha! Gotcha!" It was me coming up with a story. I was writing purely from a personal reaction to the script of "The Force Awakens" and what they were shooting. Snoke, for example, I probably would have done the same thing regardless.</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: Oh, yeah?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Yeah. Snoke's fate came entirely out of Kylo's arc and realizing that in this movie the most interesting thing to me was for Kylo to be ascendant. To start by knocking the shaky foundation out from Kylo's feet and then building him back up into a complicated but credible villain by the end of it. And one that Rey now has a more complex relationship with than just, "I hate you, I want to kill you." And once I kind of landed on that it quickly became evident that, okay, what is Snoke's place in this? If I build Kylo up to that point the most interesting thing to carry into the next movie is Kylo running things. Not any echo of the Emperor/pupil relationship. And you realize the dramatic potential of that and it just makes a lot of sense from the story point of view.&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a04873535876e5b758b4920-1828/screen%20shot%202017-11-09%20at%20114903%20am.png" alt="Luke Last Jedi Falcon" data-mce-source="Lucasfilm"><p class="source"><span>Lucasfilm</span></p><p class="caption">Finding Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) purpose in "The Last Jedi" was Rian Johnson's first major challenge.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><strong>Guerrasio: Was coming up with how Luke Skywalker would come out of his self-imposed exile a challenge to write?</strong><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Yeah. It's something that early in the process the first thing I had to crack in the movie is why Luke is on that island. I had to figure out something that made sense and you don't know much about where's Luke's head is at coming out of "The Force Awakens." But what you do know is his friends are out fighting the good fight and he's taken himself out of the equation. So for me growing up, I know Luke as a hero, I know that he must think he's doing the right thing by taking himself out of the equation, and that means he thinks the best thing for the galaxy is that he's not a part of this. And by extension that the Jedi are not a part of this. So that leads you down a certain path.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: And how did you come to the realization that this would be the end of Skywalker?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> As I worked out that his arc was going to be coming to a place where he does this big heroic act that is going to be spread throughout the galaxy - basically taking back the mantel of Luke Skywalker, a Jedi master, a legend - it just slowly became clear to me that it would be this big grand act. It would be an act of mythmaking. And if there was ever going to be a place in this entire trilogy to give him this emotional moment of a goodbye, this was probably going to be the most emotionally potent place to do it.</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: In many ways this is Luke's coda.</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Yes, exactly. But I also have to say, I'm not writing the next one and I'm not sure what J.J. [Abrams] and [screenwriter] Chris Terrio are going to do in the next one with Luke. But setting up possibilities for the next one, honestly, it seems much like Obi-Wan going where he did after "New Hope." The possibilities seemed even more exciting in terms of what Luke's place could be in the next chapter with him entering into this other realm as opposed to him having a lightsaber and being with our heroes. It opened more possibilities as opposed to fewer. I was holding my breath when I did it and I realized all these things. Though I also thought: "s---."</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: And how did Mark Hamill react to all of this?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> It wasn't the thing he wanted to necessarily hear. [<em>Laughs</em>.] Understandably so. Mark had all these years to think what Luke's triumphant return would be. Luke the hero coming back into this story, and the fact that this character and this movie could not be that. This character in this movie was by necessity what he had to be, and also in relation to Rey, that brought its own necessity. If he comes in as just an optimistic fighter for the good guys that gives Rey nothing to bounce up against, that's just an older version of Rey. So it's not what Mark had in his head initially and that's why he's spoken very openly about his being caught off guard by the script and where the character ends up. But I knew this is where it had to be. We got into the conversations, and we got into the work, and we talked, and we argued, and we discussed, and that process ended up being very good for the character and also for our working relationship. It was a very good one.</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: Like most movies, this one was crafted in post, you guys shot a lot.&#xa0;</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Yes.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a3040bf8229f226008b4d8f-1777/lastjedi3%20lucasfilm.jpg" alt="lastjedi3 lucasfilm" data-mce-source="Lucasfilm"><p class="source"><span>Lucasfilm</span></p><p class="caption">There was not a lot of of Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) footage shot, so don't expect much of the character in Blu-ray deleted scenes.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><strong>Guerrasio: Is the lack of Captain Phasma in the movie just simply that most of her scenes were left on the cutting room floor?</strong><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> There wasn't a ton of Phasma that we shot for this. The God's honest truth is, if you take a look at the movie, it's so full already. There are so many characters to serve already and it's tough because Phasma really enters the movie when she needs to and she does exactly what she needs to do in it. She's someone at the tail end of Finn's journey that represents his past for him to have this cathartic moment of being on the side of good and fighting her. The notion of having a side plot of Phasma throughout the course of the film, look, I love Gwen [Christie], I love Phasma, it would have been fun, but it just wasn't the story we were telling. There just wasn't a place for it. We already had quite a full plate to deal with in terms of all the other characters.</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: So what you're saying is you've basically helped build the next Boba Fett-level fan obsessed character for the "Star Wars" saga.</strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a36d4fb4aa6b5d3198b54e6-400/bi-graphicsrian%20johnson%20quote%202.png" alt="BI Graphics_Rian Johnson quote 2" data-mce-source="Business Insider, Samantha Lee"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider, Samantha Lee</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Johnson:</strong> [<em>Laughs</em>.] Look, I'm bummed about it too. Absolutely. I wish we could have more Phasma. Just the truth of it is there wasn't room for her in this movie. She's so badass, I wish it was her story but it isn't, maybe there will be one eventually at some point.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: I like that tease.</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> [<em>Laughs</em>.]&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: In regards to you taking on a new "Star Wars" trilogy, do you have a notebook filled of just ideas that would be cool to plug into this universe or are you really going into this with a blank page?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> What's exciting to me right now is the open blue sky of it and the potential of it. I wish I had a file cabinet full of "Star Wars" ideas just in case, but also it's great because I can start from the beginning and work forward. As opposed to having stuff I think would be cool, the thing that I think is cool is to figure out what the story will be and what character we're going to follow and build it from there. It's easy to come up with cool "Star Wars" stuff. It's just like grabbing your toys and starting to play. The real question is what the story will be. How are we going to create something that's really going to be a new and inspiring "Star Wars" story.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: It sounds like you will direct the first movie of this trilogy and then go on and produce the other two.</strong><br>&#xa0;<br><strong>Johnson:</strong> We'll see. I'm not sure yet.&#xa0;</br></br></p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a3509b04aa6b5b51a8b5441-1200/thelastjedichewbacca%20lucasfilm.jpg" alt="TheLastJediChewbacca Lucasfilm" data-mce-source="Lucasfilm"><p class="source"><span>Lucasfilm</span></p><p class="caption">Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and Rian Johnson on the set of "The Last Jedi."</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p><strong>Guerrasio: But if that holds, would you push to have a female director do at least one of those movies? Is that important to you?</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> Hell yeah. I think that would be fantastic. Again, I don't know how it's going to go. I'm going to write and direct the first one and tell the story for the rest of them. But yeah, there are so many talented female directors that I would love to see do one of these movies. Look, I hope it happens in a "Star Wars" movie even before that! Going forward that's something I would absolutely love to see.</p><p><strong>Guerrasio: Give me the one scene/shot in "The Last Jedi" that regardless how many times you've seen it you are pretty impressed that you pulled it off.</strong></p><p><strong>Johnson:</strong> [<em>Laughs</em>.] It was an early image that I had, I really love that slow-motion shot of Kylo and Rey back-to-back with the guards coming from all the sides in Snoke's chambers. And look, there were a lot of people whose work went into it to design the space and the guards, the stunt work, but that was a moment that I had just always held dear to me and it's one of those very rare things where the realization of it on screen I just feel like, "Ah, we got it!" It makes me happy.</p><p><em>"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is currently playing in theaters.</em></p><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q0CbN8sfihY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/10-details-missed-avengers-infinity-war-trailer-spiderman-thor-hulk-captain-america-black-panther-iron-man-2017-11">10 things you missed in the 'Avengers: Infinity War' trailer</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/wjyjGhgw-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div></hr>

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