"Brazil" reference in "The Last Jedi"?

Question

Am I crazy or was there a reference to Terry Gilliam's Brazil in The Last Jedi? It was either in the scene where Poe is being escorted off the bridge or when Finn and Rose were being dragged to jail, I could have sworn that one of the guards taking them away says something like "We're going to have to fill out form 27B stroke 6." Did I mishear that, and if not, why the reference? It seems like a really odd movie to have such a reference, though it was very subtle.

Answer 1

No, You're not crazy!! There is a Brazil reference in The Last Jedi, according to Vulture:

The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson has picked up the baton and drawn on an array of respected cinematic works for inspiration. As was noted by Slate’s Sam Adams, Johnson’s franchise picture owes debts to Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffmann, and Kurosawa’s Ran. But there’s one milliseconds-long reference point that has largely gone unremarked-upon: Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.

There’s a scene in the middle section of The Last Jedi where Finn and Rose find themselves at the mercy of some cops in the gambler’s paradise of Canto Bight. They’ve parked their ship in a tow zone, it seems, and when they’re caught by the authorities, they’re accused of committing parking violation 27B/6. It’s important to note that the “/” is spoken aloud as “stroke,” meaning the full phrase is “twenty-seven-B-stroke-six” — and that combination of syllables should perk up the ears of any fan of Gilliam’s 1985 dystopian masterpiece.

In it, put-upon Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) finds himself experiencing a problem with his apartment’s air ducts. He puts in a call for repair, but it’s intercepted by vigilante handyman Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). He shows up and starts some pro bono repairs, pointing out that the proper bureaucratic channels would have stalled because they’d need to fill out a 27B/6 form. He, however, has no such constraints. Sure enough, when the powers that be send along representatives from “Central Services” to do the repairs a few minutes later, Sam is only able to stop them from finding Tuttle and getting both of them in trouble by stopping them in the corridor with a question: Do they have a 27B/6? The mere mention of the paperwork sends them into an emotional tizzy and they have to leave. http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/did-you-catch-the-brazil-reference-in-the-last-jedi.html

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Just came back to add this nice comparison piece between Brazil and The Last Jedi from writer Bryan Young with Slash Film

“To me,” Terry Gilliam said in an interview with The Believer, “the heart of Brazil is responsibility, is involvement — you can’t just let the world go on doing what it’s doing without getting involved.”

And that’s exactly what happens through Finn’s story in Canto Bight. He’s chasing a dream — Rey — the same way Sam Lowry chases the mysterious woman in his dreams and they come to the realization that the only way to save these women in their lives is to get involved. For both, that realization might have come too late when they’re forced to finally choose sides. For Sam, it’s at the cost of his mind and his freedom. For Finn, it comes at the cost of risk for the Resistance.

And a little bit more...

Another theme through Brazil is the oppressive nature of bureaucracy. Every time Sam is about to win, some bit of paperwork is shoved back into his face. In fact, the rescue attempt by Robert DeNiro’s Tuttle is ultimately foiled when he’s consumed completely by the debris of passing paperwork. This is exemplified in The Last Jedi with the parking tickets and violation 27B/6 that land Finn and Rose into jail. That bit of paperwork is an overt reference as well. The 27B/6 is the form that allows Central Services to fix Lowry’s heating unit.

It’s easy to see DJ as being a character that could have been the Tuttle sort, swooping in to save our heroes in a time of need, and that’s what’s so brilliant about the subverted expectations that a thematically inherent in Johnson’s Star Wars film. For those of us who know Brazil, we see DJ explaining to Finn the reality of the world and we think that he might be a good guy since he’s helping. When he isn’t, the rug is pulled from us as drastically as it is from Finn and Rose.