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So in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Finn survives the crash of the TIE Fighter on Jakku.

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He's alive, he's shaken, and he's also drenched in sweat. He is only able to retrieve Poe's jacket from the wreckage and he's ditched his Storm Trooper outfit as much as possible, both to avoid appearing like a Storm Trooper but also, I have to assume, because it's really hot and that can't be comfortable

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When he gets to the village he's now wearing the jacket

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I don't understand why he put on the jacket. I mean, I get the plot reason - BB-8 needs to recognize something from Poe to move the plot forward - but it's a million degrees outside. He's still sweating profusely in the jacket in a later scene

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If it's oppressively hot outside why would you put a jacket on to begin with? Just to blend in? Maybe I'm a huge wimp but it seems to me that ditching the jacket to begin with would have been the more logical move.

Later in the movie he's in environments that aren't deserts, and even the snowy surface of the Starkiller base, so I guess it's good he kept the jacket but is there a reason other than plot convenience to have donned the jacket on Jakku?

Note that I may be overthinking this because I just went through a record summer of heat in Texas...

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  • Normally I'd say probably to protect from sun damage to his skin, but he's also wearing a long-sleeves shirt, so maybe he just got tired of carrying it?
    – KutuluMike
    Sep 2, 2016 at 16:28
  • Check this page for Rey's Goggles to see she is not just wearing goggles but also a complete head covering. High UV rates on Jakku?
    – Andrew Thompson
    Sep 2, 2016 at 16:53
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    "he's ditched his Storm Trooper outfit as much as possible, both to avoid appearing like a Storm Trooper....." - establishing a non-Storm Trooper identity, by a personally identifiable piece of clothing that is distinctly non-Storm Trooper, just takes his his subterfuge to a higher level.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Sep 2, 2016 at 17:06
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    Deserts get cold at night...have you seem how they dress in our deserts?
    – Paulie_D
    Sep 3, 2016 at 13:45

3 Answers 3

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Maybe I'm a huge wimp but it seems to me that ditching the jacket to begin with would have been the more logical move.

Then you wouldn't survive long!

Finn keeps the jacket to shield himself from the harmful rays of the sun.

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He also uses it to protect himself in a sandstorm.

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I don't understand why he put on the jacket.

Because that's the easiest way to carry it. I guess he could have slung it over his arm, but he's pretty dehydrated and tired - wearing it is the simplest option. He needs to keep the jacket in order to survive.

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  • Interestingly enough I was looking on [starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jakku] and the climate is stated as cold. I understand that it gets cold at night but would that define the climate by so much?
    – Ocean Knight
    Sep 14, 2016 at 16:35
  • @OceanKnight: it also occurs to me that besides the sweat angle, the other thing I was thinking of was the making-of special where they were talking about worrying about heat exhaustion while filming these scenes. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the planet of Jakku itself is supposed to be hot, it could be cold. Maybe it's San Diego all year long there (whatever a year on Jakku is)
    – Tom Kidd
    Sep 15, 2016 at 13:27
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This picture shows why he would wear a jacket. The jacket not only will protect him more than the clothes he has on, it also makes him stick out less. If being a storm trooper is the only thing he has know then will try his best to not look like one. It is the only thing he has with him. He could sell or trade it off for something he wants more.

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Keep in mind that jackets don't keep us warm by generating heat. They keep us warm by trapping the energy level inside, and isolating from the outside - in a word, insulation. Insulation keeps energy/heat from transferring from what is contained withing and what is outside.

A thermos container will keep your coffee hot for a long period of time. Coffee left in a well-insulated container will still be very warm, at least, the next day.

But the opposite is also true. If I store something cooler, within, it prevents the greater heat from outside from getting into the container. That same well-insulated thermos container, if filled with ice water, will still have ice cubes present (but smaller/more melted) the next day.

On a cold, comfortable or hot day, trapping that body heat, 98.6 degrees F/37 C. is going to make the person hotter, less comfortable or maybe even endanger the person wearing the jacket because it keeps their body heat from dissipating. But what if the temperature outside was 110, 120, 125 degrees with direct sunlight? Then the jacket would keep the hotter outside air from adding even more heat than what is trapped inside, and would also protect the body from other types of sun-related energy, like UV.

Of course this doesn't take into account things like sweat evaporation, but I just wanted to plant the idea that, when the outside is 20 degrees hotter than body heat, maybe trapping that body heat at body heat temperature isn't always a horrible thing.

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