Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Producer: J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk Director: J.J. Abrams Company: Disney Release Date: December, 2015 Website: StarWars.com
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens is episode VII of the Star Wars storyline.

Synopsis

Act One

Decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire at the Battle of Endor, peace is threatened by the First Order, a militaristic remnant of the Empire that seeks to wrest power from the restored Republic. For unspecified reasons, the Republic does not use its military forces to directly attack the First Order, instead using an organization known as the Resistance as a proxy.

Both the First Order and the Resistance are attempting to locate Luke Skywalker, who went into seclusion after his new Jedi order was destroyed from within. Leading the search for the First Order is Kylo Ren, a former student of Skywalker who turned to the Dark Side.

Leia Organa, leader of the Resistance, sent pilot Poe Dameron to recover information on Luke's whereabouts from informant Lor San Tekka on the planet Jakku, the site of one of the last battles of the Galactic Civil War. Poe obtains the information, but the meeting site is soon attacked by the First Order. During the attack, Poe's fighter is damaged, so he stores the information in his astromech droid, BB-8, and sends it away before being captured. Following the fighting, First Order Stormtrooper FN-2187 chooses not to fire on defenseless captives.

Fleeing the scene of the attack, BB-8 encounters local scavenger Rey, who agrees to take the droid to a settlement where it can attempt to contact its owner.

On a First Order Star Destroyer, Kylo Ren interrogates Poe Dameron. Using the Force, he is able to learn that the information is in Poe's droid, still on Jakku. Shortly after the interrogation, FN-2187 removes Poe from his cell, informing Poe that he intends to free him, but Poe will have to fly them off the ship. They successfully steal a two-seat TIE fighter and escape the docking bay, but the fighter is damaged and crashes on Jakku. Ejected from the crashing fighter, Finn (renamed by Poe) finds only Poe's jacket in the wreckage.

Rey takes BB-8 to the settlement. While selling her salvage, the dealer offers an exhorbitant amount to buy BB-88. After Rey refuses the offer and leaves, the dealer contacts thugs to steal the droid.

Finn makes his way to the nearest settlement, where he sees and recognizes BB-8 from Poe's description. He sees the goons attack Rey and starts to intervene, only to find that she is quite capable of defending herself. The thieves defeated, BB-8 sees Poe's jacket on Finn. Rey and BB-8 chase Finn down, but he claims to be a Resistance member who freed Poe, only for them to be shot down. He believes Poe to be dead.

They are spotted by Stormtroopers searching for BB-8 and flee. TIE fighters begin strafing the settlement, so Rey leads the others to the airfield, where they can board a ship and attempt to escape. On the airfield, they find the Millennium Falcon and use it to escape.

Act Two

Due to either damage or neglect, the Millennium Falcon requires emergency repair, which Rey starts on. While they work, Finn confesses to BB-8 that he is not a proper member of the Resistance, but that BB-88 should still lead them to the Resistance base. Before they can attempt the journey, the Falcon is tractored into the cargo bay of a larger ship. Finn and Rey discover that they have been "captured" by Han Solo and Chewbacca, who were able to track the Falcon once it was powered up again.

Han explains that Luke went searching for the first Jedi temple after the disastrous betrayal of his own students, and the First Order has been searching for him since. He agrees to take them somewhere that they can get BB-88 to the Resistance. Before they can get started, however, criminal business associates of Han's board the freighter trying to collect debts from him. Trying to manipulate the ship's doors to trap the criminal gangs, Rey accidentally releases the ship's cargo of dangerous animals. In the ensuing chaos, Han, Rey, Finn, BB-8, and Chewbacca escape on the Falcon.

Since the First Order might track the Falcon as he was able to, Han takes his passengers to a bar run by Maz Kanata to get a "clean ship" to take them to the Resistance. Both First Order and Resistance spies report their arrival at the bar. Rey asks for transport to the Resistance, but Finn asks for transport as far from the First Order as possible, revealing in the process that the is a runaway Stormtrooper, not a Resistance member. Rey is unable to convince him to change his mind, and Maz directs him to a transport captain who will take him to an outer rim world.

After talking to Fin, Rey wanders into the basement of the bar/castle where she finds a lightsaber in an ornate box and experiences disturbing visions upon picking it up. Maz finds her and tells her that the weapon belonged to Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker and was now calling to Rey. Rey gives it to Maz, saying she wants nothing to do with it, and runs off into the forest surrounding the castle/bar.

Tipped off by an agent at the bar, First Order forces arrive and attack to capture BB-8. Rey sends the droid deeper into the forest to hide while she takes pot shots at some Stormtroopers. Maz gives the lightsaber to Finn and sends him to find Rey, but he, Han, and Chewbacca are soon overwhelmed and captured.

Fortunately the Resistance also received a tip, and their forces arrive, led by Poe. As the Resistance attack puts the First Order into retreat, Kylo Ren finds and captures Rey, taking her into his shuttle for transport to Starkiller Base.

Act Three

The First Order having retreated, Leia Organa lands at the site of the battle, where she is greeted enthusiastically by Chewbacca and awkwardly by Han. Their conversation reveals that Kylo Ren is their son. Everyone returns to the Resistance base, where BB-8's data is analyzed and found to be an incomplete map to Luke's whereabouts. Attention turns to Starkiller Base, which the Resistance is determined to destroy. Given the amount of energy the weapon requires, an attack on one of the base's surface facilities that stabilizes the energy will destroy it, but the entire base is shielded. Finn claims that he knows from working at the base how to disable the shields, and Han offers to use the Falcon to get him to the surface. Once the shields are down, Poe will lead a starfighter attack on the surface facility.

Meanwhile, on Starkiller Base, Kylo Ren interrogates Rey, but finds her surprisingly resistant. As he tries to pry into her mind to retrieve her memory of BB-8's map, she turns the tables and learns about his own insecurity. Kylo Ren stops the interrogation to seek advice from Snoke. Realizing she does have some affinity for the Force, Rey attempts to compel a Stormtrooper to release her and -- somewhat to her surprise -- succeeds, leaving her cell in search of a way to escape the base.

Han gets the Falcon onto Starkiller Base via the incredibly risky move of not emerging from hyperspace until the ship is inside the shield. Once there, he, Chewbacca, and Finn enter the base to find a way to disable the shield and rescue Rey. Finn reveals that he really has no idea how to deactivate the shield, he just came for Rey, but he does know someone who can deactivate the shield. The team capture Captain Phasma and force her to lower the base's shields. While on the way back out, they run into Rey emerging from her hiding place.

Poe's X-wing squadron arrives to execute their attack on the base, but despite repeated attack runs, they are unable to do much damage to the heavily armored exterior, and First Order fighters are overwhelming them. Han decides to sway the fight by going to the target facility and planting explosives on the inside to help them.

His search for Rey fruitless, Kylo Ren senses the presence of Han and enters the facility in search of him. Han spots him first, and confronts him on a high catwalk, pleading with "Ben" to abandon the First Order and return home. Kylo clings to the Dark Side and murders his father. In response, Chewbacca blasts Kylo with his bowcaster and then detonates the explosives.

Although wounded, Kylo Ren pursues Finn and Rey as they flee to the Falcon and catches up to them in forest. He quickly disables Rey with a telekinetic Force push. Finn tries to fight him in lightsaber combat, but even wounded, Kylo Ren is more than a match for him.

With the facility compromised by the internal explosions, Poe is able to fly his fighter through a gap in the armor and put his X-wing's firepower to good use on the inside of the facility. The damage destabilizes the Starkiller weapon's power supply, and the Poe and the remains of his squadron retreat.

Rey recovers just as Finn falls, and the lightsaber of Anakin and Luke flies to her hand, despite Kylo's attempt to call it. Kylo pursues her through the forest, but Rey eventually finds the inner calm to fight and defeat him. The upheaval of the base starting to come apart separates them, however. Chewbacca arrives in the Falcon to rescue Rey and the severely wounded Finn, and First Order forces rescue Kylo Ren.

Back at the Resistance Base, R2-D2 awakens and reveals the missing part of the map to Luke's location. Finn is still unconscious, and Rey tells him goodbye while he rests. Rey and Chewbacca leave in the Falcon, following the completed map to an island on an undeveloped planet. Rey follows a path to the top of the island, where she finds Luke Skywalker. Rey wordlessly offers him the lightsaber.