STAR WARS:
The Force Awakens
CUT TO THE CHASE
NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
The opening crawl reads that Luke Skywalker has mysteriously vanished. The First Order, successor to The Empire, is actively seeking him out. With help from The Republic, General Leia Organa has been leading The Resistance in their efforts to locate Luke. Leia has sent her best pilot to the planet Jakku to find a clue that can lead them to her brother.
We start on Jakku where a whole team of Stormtroopers are gearing up for an attack. In a small village, the pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) meets with Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow) to obtain a piece to a map that leads to Luke's whereabouts. Poe stores his piece inside his little droid BB-8. The Stormtroopers arrive and start to lay waste to the village, forcing Poe to run. He tries to escape on his ship but stays to fight back. With BB-8 holding the map, Poe sends the little droid to run away and find someplace safe. Poe uses his blaster to take out some Stormtroopers, but he is quickly outnumbered.
The Stormtroopers take Lor San Tekka to their new leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). After some final words, Ren takes his lightsaber and executes Lor San Tekka. Captain Phasma (Gwendolyn Christie) arrives and awaits orders from Ren. He orders her and the Stormtroopers to kill the rest of the villagers, which they do. One Stormtrooper, FN-2187 (John Boyega), stands by in horror after witnessing this and the death of one of his comrades. The Stormtroopers then capture Poe and bring him onboard.
We meet a scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley), who lives alone on Jakku. She scours for spare parts to trade in for portions, barely making enough to feed herself for a day. She finds BB-8 as he is nearly captured by another scavenger. Rey tells the droid to take a certain path into town, but BB-8 chooses to follow her. Reluctantly, Rey allows him to tag along.
On the First Order ship, FN-2187 takes off his helmet and tries to calm himself down after witnessing the chaos from earlier. Phasma enters and orders him to put the helmet back on and report to her station for reconfiguration. Meanwhile, Ren goes to Poe, who is strapped to a chair, to demand the map to Luke. He uses The Force on Poe to learn that BB-8 is holding the map. Ren then goes to consult with General Hux (Domnhall Gleeson) to send out more soldiers to Jakku to retrieve the droid.
FN-2187 finds Poe and helps him escape, as he is trying to redeem himself. They hijack a TIE fighter ship with the intention of Poe to fly it and FN-2187 to shoot. The two quickly become friends, and Poe decides to call the Stormtrooper "Finn". The other Stormtroopers see the ship trying to leave, forcing the two heroes into action. Finn shoots at the villains as they try and make their escape. They take off, but Poe says he wants to go back to Jakku for BB-8, which Finn disagrees with. Their ship is shot down and it hurdles toward Jakku, crashing in the badlands.
Finn wakes up and gets out of the ship's wreckage. Poe is nowhere to be found, leaving only his jacket behind. The ship sinks into the sand and is destroyed. Finn takes the jacket and walks into town where he comes across the market where Rey is taking her latest batch of scraps. The shop owner gives her one-half portion, but then spots BB-8 and offers her 60 portions. Tempted, Rey considers until she looks at the droid and decides he's not for sale. As she leaves, the shop owner calls someone to follow Rey and notify The First Order of BB-8's presence.
Two villains try to grab BB-8, but Rey beats them down with her rod. BB-8 spots Finn and identifies him as a threat to Rey, prompting her to chase him. She corners him and demands to know where he got the jacket. Finn explains he got it from Poe and recognizes BB-8 as the droid Poe described to him as being valuable. Finn lies and claims to be part of The Resistance. A bunch of Stormtroopers then begin an airstrike on the area. Finn, Rey, and BB-8 run for it. They head toward a ship, only for it to get destroyed and leaving them with a ship that Rey calls "garbage"...the Millenium Falcon. Not having been used in forever, the Falcon is turned on once again as Rey pilots the ship out of there. Finn mans the blasters and shoots at the villains. The heroes escape Jakku.
The Falcon starts to break down, leaving the heroes to stop for Rey to fix a possible gas leak. Suddenly, they hear a noise and approaching sounds. A door opens, and it's Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). "Chewie...we're home." Han is glad to be back on The Falcon. He meets Finn and Rey and learns that they are searching for Luke. Han says that Luke disappeared after an apprentice of his turned to The Dark Side. BB-8 projects the map, which is incomplete, but brings them another step closer to finding Luke. Before they can make any more moves, Han is cornered by two bounty hunters that he owes. Finn and Rey hide as the bounty hunters are also looking for them and BB-8. Trying to stop them, Rey accidentally sets loose a couple of creatures that were being stored onboard the Falcon. They attack the bounty hunters and nearly get the heroes too. One creature takes Finn, but Rey stops it by shutting a door on the creature's tentacles.
Ren and Hux report to Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). He informs Ren that BB-8 is onboard the Falcon with his father, Han. Ren, conflicted with his draw between the Light and Dark Sides, is told that in order to distance himself from the Light, he must kill Han. Ren later takes a moment to speak to the burnt mask of Darth Vader, the man he aspired to become.
Han and Chewie take Finn, Rey, and BB-8 to the planet Takodana where they arrive at a watering hole/bar to meet Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), a pirate that has known Han for a long time and who can help them take BB-8 to The Resistance. She sits with the heroes and looks at Finn, stating that she can see he is running from something. He defends himself by saying all he can do is run in the life he leads. He tries to convince Rey to join him, confessing that he's not with The Resistance and that even though he wants to do good, they need to run to survive. Instead, Rey tries to convince him to stay and fight. Meanwhile, two separate people spot BB-8 and alert The First Order.
Rey enters a vault that holds a box. In it is Luke's old lightsaber that once belonged to his father. When she touches it, she sees visions that haunt her, including one of herself as a child watching someone she loves leaving Jakku on a ship. Maz finds Rey and knows what she saw, saying that the lightsaber is calling to her. She refuses to take it and runs away.
The First Order launches another attack against Maz's bar. At the same time on Starkiller Base (a planet converted into a superweapon, ten times the size of the Death Star but with similar capabilities), Hux rallies his troops and launches a strike against the Republic's Hosnian System, destroying their star system and killing thousands of people. Finn, Han, and Chewie fight against the villains, with Finn using Luke's lightsaber for the first time, while Ren encounters Rey in the forest. Knowing that she's seen the map, he instead captures her and leaves BB-8. Finn and Han witness her being taken away on the ship. They are captured by Stormtroopers but are immediately saved by a team of Resistance X-wing fighters, led by Poe.
Finn, Han, Chewie, and BB-8 are taken to the Resistance base on D'Qar, where Han reunites with Leia (Carrie Fisher) after so long. They discuss Ren, their son, and Leia says she knows there is still good in him. Han also reunites with C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). BB-8 comes across R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), who hasn't been on since Luke disappeared. More unfortunate, R2 holds the rest of the map to find Luke. The Resistance fighters then meet and plan to destroy Starkiller Base by attacking their shields and hit the weak spot.
At Starkiller Base, Ren tries to use The Force on Rey to learn what's on the map, but she shows great resistance and even sees that Ren is afraid he will never be as powerful as Darth Vader. After he leaves, Rey calls upon a Stormtrooper and uses The Force to get him to remove her restraints and allow her to escape.
The Resistance fighters gear up for the attack, as Starkiller Base is preparing to fire upon D'Qar. Finn goes with Han and Chewie while the X-wing pilots fire at the base. Han and Chewie use small explosives to give the fighters a better chance. They reunite with Rey and head out, only to be found by Ren. Han approaches his son, calling him by his true name, Ben. He tries to bring his son back toward the Light. Ren asks Han to take his lightsaber from him. Han reaches for it, but Ren won't let go. Instead, he activates it and runs it through Han's chest, to the horror of Finn, Rey, and Chewie. Han falls into the chasm below, and Ren leaves.
Poe and the fighters manage to strike Starkiller Base, leading to its imminent destruction. Ren corners Finn and Rey in the forest, where Finn battles Ren with Luke's lightsaber. Ren strikes Finn in the back, wounding him and leaving him unconscious. Rey takes the lightsaber and duels with Ren, eventually using her grasp on The Force to defeat him. Chewie brings The Falcon around to get Finn and Rey. Meanwhile, Hux reports to Snoke over their defeat. Snoke orders Hux to get Ren and bring him to Snoke for the next part of his training. The heroes leave as Starkiller Base is obliterated.
The heroes reunite with The Resistance. Rey and Chewie mourn Han's death with Leia. R2-D2 then reawakens and displays his part of the map, with BB-8 connecting his. Rey now knows where to go. Before leaving, she goes to Finn's still-unconscious body and vows to see him again soon. She kisses his forehead, and he appears to crack a small smile.
Rey, Chewie, and R2 go to a distant planet. Rey walks up a hill and finds a cloaked man standing over the edge looking out into the distance. It's Luke (Mark Hamill). He turns around and takes off his hood to face Rey. She holds out his lightsaber toward him, waiting for him to take it back.
