In Star Wars The Last Jedi we are introduced to a young A-Wing pilot with the Resistance, Lieutenant Tallison “Tallie” Lintra.
Tallie is a squadron leader from Pippip three, where she learned to fly from her father, who used an old RZ-1 A-Wing as a crop duster.
Tallie is mature for her age, and a competent leader, but unfortunately she only gets twelve seconds of screen time before she’s seemingly killed.
Yep, that’s right: one of the newest and most fascinating characters of the entire film buys the farm when a concussion missile fired by Kylo Ren detonates inside the hanger bay of the Raddus.
The question is, did she and the other pilots really get killed? To answer that, we need to examine the factors involved with this incident.
First, we will look at the weapon being used, then at the Raddus itself. Finally we will examine Tallie’s A-Wing fighter to determine what if any chance she had to survive.
Concussion Missiles
Starfighters are generally equipped with weapons designed around ship to ship engagements, such as medium or heavy laser cannons.
These weapons are normally supplemented by kinetic energy weapons such as concussion missiles, mag pulse warheads, and proton torpedoes.
The assortment and type of weapons payload depends upon the size and type of fighter, and what role it is designed for.
In The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren is flying a TIE Silencer, which is an updated and more heavily armed variant of it’s predecessor, the TIE Interceptor.
The TIE Silencer was designed to both engage enemy fighters, as well as capital ships. The Silencer is equipped with four Concussion missiles, and Kylo Ren flies into the Raddus‘ amidships area, which protects the hanger bays, before firing two of these missiles.
We see on screen as both missiles penetrate the magnetic field and detonate inside the hanger bay. The Concussion missile is designed around a solid penetrator they can pierce a ship’s hull, before the warhead itself detonates.
The destruction is caused by the concussion wave from the blast, as it rapidly expands outward in all directions.
The Raddus
The Raddus was an MC85 Mon Calamari star cruiser, purpose built for the New Republic Defense fleet as a warship.
It was larger than the preceding MC80c class, better shielded, and heavily armed. After it was retired from service during the New Republic draw down, it found it’s way to the Resistance as a gift from the Mon Calamari government.
The Raddus was equipped with a newer, experimental shielding that could withstand heavy bombardment from enemy weapons.
It’s weakness was in the hanger bay. When it was attacked by Kylo Ren, both of his concussion missiles struck the interior bulkhead of the hanger bay before detonating.
The delayed detonation instantly ignited nearby fuel cells and munitions, which in turn destroyed most of the vulnerable fighters on the flight deck.
Had the missiles simply detonated inside the hanger, the resulting blast would not have caused the same amount of damage.
In either case, the blast would have destroyed the magnetic field, opening up the hanger to the vacuum of space, which would have instantaneously extinguished any fires In the bay.
At the same instant the ship’s systems would have detected the pressure and temperature change, instantly sealing the blast doors to the hanger bay.
Tallie’s A-Wing
Tallie Lintra was flying the RZ-2 A-Wing Interceptor, the latest evolution of the ship designed by Kuat Systems Engineering.
Among other features, the RZ-2 incorporated a reinforced canopy, and armored hull. The cockpit was also protected by it’s own individual deflector shield generator.
On the flight deck, it’s unlikely that Tallie would have powered up the deflector shields, however she did have her canopy sealed.
Another advantage was in the positioning of her fighter; it was parked beside Poe’s X-Wing, near the back of the hanger bay.
During the attack scene, we can actually see Tallie’s A-Wing as it is slid across the deck, slamming into the bulkhead before the blast doors automatically sealed.
So what happened to Tallie Lintra? What we aren’t shown on screen is that as soon as those blast doors closed, the hanger bay was exposed to the vacuum of space to extinguish the fire inside of it.
The instantaneous depressurization of the hanger bay would have blown everything inside of it out into open space, including Tallie’s A-Wing.
The most logical conclusion is that Tallie was not killed, merely renderd unconscious from a concussion.
She and her fighter would have drifted out into space along with the other debris. The First Order would not have considered inspecting the debris field, as their objective was to annihilate the Resistance fleet.
As for her fighter, the hull most likely was intact, but not flyable. Presuming that the cockpit remained pressurized, Tallie would have had enough oxygen onboard to survive for roughly thirty six hours before succumbing to oxygen deprivation.
So technically, Tallie could have survived. The question is, did she? If you want to find out, you’ll have to wait for the upcoming novel Rebel Strike to be released. Good luck, and May the Force be with you….
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