'Star Wars 9' rating leaks may confirm some major Palpatine plot rumors

International rating for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are hitting the internet, and they’re full of spoilers hot enough to melt your face off. As various movie-rating agencies reveal exactly which moments in Episode IX are too intense for young children, they may be inadvertently confirming some of the biggest leaks about Emperor Palpatine’s evil plan in the new movie.

Huge potential spoilers follow for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The biggest reveal may come from the British Board of Film Classification’s official listing for The Rise of Skywalker (via Instagram-based Star Wars leaker Bespin Bulletin). In the “Ratings info” section of the listing, it says, “Fights with fantastical weapons include impalements.”

So… somebody gets stabbed with a lightsaber? It’s also possible that the weapons wielded by the Knights of Ren also count as “fantastical.” Several of them carry blades, so they might be doing the stabbing. What comes next, however, links up with specific alleged details that have already leaked.

“A character’s face is melted by fantastical energy,” the British Board of Film Classification continues. Here, Bespin notes that this references an alleged scene “when Rey deflects Palpatine’s lightning back at him at the end of the film.”

Sound familiar? This would parallel the scene from Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine shoots lightning at Mace Windu. The Jedi reflects it back, causing Palpatine’s face burn and scar. Palpy’s wrinkly visage is all we remember from the original trilogy.

Describing the movie’s “Threat and horror,” the rating also describes the following sequence:

A young woman finds herself alone amidst an arena of sinister enemies, taunted by their leader. A character briefly becomes fanged and demonic.

This presumably happens at the end of the movie when Rey confronts Palpatine on Exegol where he’s surrounded by many Sith Acolytes. Who else would be the lone woman confronting evil but Rey? And who else would become fanged and demonic if not Palpatine? (Maybe Dark Rey.)

The Swedish Cinema Department also released a similar rating with sparse details, most notably mentioning “a frightening man who draws the life force out of people.”

Assuming all of these are accurate, it would seem to confirm rumors that Rey and Ben Solo confront Palpatine together. Palps then drains their life force via something called a Force Dyad, giving him renewed youth and vigor, but Rey melts his face by reflecting lightning back at him.

The way these details describe events from The Rise of Skywalker might sound unintentionally hilarious, but they’re also a bit unsettling and leave us with several tough questions.

Does Rey really confront Palpatine by herself at one point during the movie? Who gets stabbed? And is it by a lightsaber? Is somebody we know and love going to get killed by a lightsaber? Dare we ask: If it’s not Palpatine who gets their face melted, who might it be instead?

We’re now getting so close to the Episode IX premiere that these details are starting to feel startling and accurate. If there was ever a time to hide under your Jedi robes and avoid Star Wars spoilers, it’s now.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released in theaters December 20, 2019.