Thank you, whoever edited this deleted scene from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace so that the odious Jar-Jar Binks meets his end in a watery grave. Thank you.
While it probably wouldn’t have saved the film (or the prequel trilogy for that matter), a fan-edited deleted scene that depicts Jar-Jar’s death has been making rounds on the Internet these past few weeks. In it, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi surface an underwater vessel in the city of Theed … somehow … (we’re not sure about the topography) with Jar-Jar in tow.
In the actual movie, the scene cuts off there. In the deleted scene, the Jedi master and his Padawan make the unfortunate realization that they have surfaced right next to a waterfall, shoot off a tow cable, and make their escape without using the force even once. They get to safe ground while Jar-Jar sits in the vessel panicking and making … well … Jar-Jar noises.
The Jedi protagonists encourage him to grab the tow cable and join them ashore, but don’t bother to use their force powers to lift the craft out of the water (despite several instances in which Jedi are shown to be capable of exactly that).
Okay, I’m nit-picking here.
Anyway, in the actual deleted scene, Jar-Jar escapes at the last minute. In the edited version, he plummets down the waterfall along with the vessel, cutting off his trilogy screentime about 15 minutes in.
It wouldn’t have fixed the bad dialogue, poor direction, Jake Lloyd, etc., and no, it wouldn’t have made any narrative sense to introduce a character only to kill him minutes later in such an ignoble, anti-climactic way.
But boy, watching Jar-Jar fall to his death like that sure makes me feel better about my childhood.
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