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Bodhi Rook Makes It Right

The purpose and death of

a working man

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Writers: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy

Director: Gareth Edwards

There is a key moment in Rogue One when Bodhi Rook, Imperial pilot turned Rebel, talks with Jyn Erso about her father Galen. Bodhi was entrusted by her father with the all-important message of how to destroy the still-in-construction Death Star. That is literally the weight of the galaxy on the shoulders of a “simple” cargo pilot for the Galactic Empire. Yet Bodhi Rook is no menacing agent of evil. He’s a working man, a blue-collar denizen of the galaxy, who joined the Empire because it was a way to stretch beyond his home world of Jedha, support his family, and find his place in the galaxy.

Though he aspired to be a fighter pilot (the “I wanna be a quarterback” of the Star Wars galaxy), Bodhi settled into his cargo pilot gig, seemingly unaware of the abominable intentions of the Empire, which is a notion that is not hard to believe. The Empire is truly “galactic” and if you’re serving it in a small corner of a larger picture, you might not have the chance to see the damage done. Some Imperials on the Death Star weren’t even sure what had happened when Alderaan was destroyed by the very space station they were working on. Bodhi Rook was truly just doing his job, for better or…as he started feeling…worse. Bodhi’s soul starts to waver and wander and that’s when Galen finds him. He was compromised in the best of ways.

So, Bodhi, still shaken by the effects of the mind-melding interrogation wrought on him by Saw Guerra’s Bor Gullet creature, mumbles to Jyn that her father entrusted him with the important message along with the words, “This would make things right.” Bodhi hadn’t directly brought evil to the galaxy, but he was a small cog in the Imperial wheel. The look in his eyes is that of man facing down his purpose and knowing it’s a hard road. A road he has to take. By this point, he had already taken the message and defected to the good guys. He truly did want to make things right and felt he was doing his part to bring peace and justice to the galaxy. The cost was his life.

Bodhi took this path for himself, for his family, and, yes, the galaxy, but you have to assume that, all along, Bodhi was feeling good about the actions he had taken. Oh, he probably wasn’t worried about the glory, but he was probably looking forward to the adulation after and knowing that, when he saw his family again, he’d be a hero to them. Not part of the fire fight raging around him on Scarif, Bodhi is suddenly tasked with the mission-saving action of manually connecting the ground crew to their Rebel saviors in the skies about them.

Bodhi steps out of his comfort zone, into the crossfire, and succeeds, directly communicating with the great Admiral Raddus and the Rebel fleet. The lowly cargo pilot has saved the day. He’s made things right and not just for himself. He quietly whispers, “This is for you, Galen.” Sharing the justice with another character who died trying to make things right.

In a split second, a life-ending beat, a fragmentation grenade is tossed onto the stolen Imperial pilot ship and lands in front of Bodhi Rook. It’s one look, one read, but it’s one of the best acting moments in Star Wars. Riz Ahmed captures the panic, pain, confusion, loss, resignation, and resolve Bodhi Rook feels in that moment. He’s about to die. He took a chance. He risked it all for the greater good and there will be no parades, no medals, and no adulation. The only thing Bodhi Rook, a simple cargo pilot, received is knowing that he succeeded in what he had originally set out to do: make things right.