All we want for Christmas is the latest episode in the Skywalker saga that is Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Some of us are making the wait easier by re-watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first movie in the new trilogy. But for those of you don’t have the time, we’ve put together a quick-ish recap of all the main events of Episode VII. You’re welcome!
Fair warning: Needless to say, if you haven’t watched The Force Awakens yet, everything that follows is a spoiler.
It’s been 30 years since the Rebel Alliance – led by Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo — defeated the evil Galactic Empire, but there’s no happy ending for the most dysfunctional family in the universe, it seems.
A new disturbance in the Force sees a shadowy organisation called the First Order seeking to finish what Darth Vader began — never mind that he turned to the light side right before he kicked the bucket — and annihilate the democratic state, the New Republic.
Fighting the First Order is the Resistance, now led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and both sides are now hunting down her brother, the last surviving Jedi, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has been missing for a couple of decades.
Leia sends her trusted pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to the planet of Jakku (read: not Tatooine, no matter what you’re feeling right now), where he meets with another old friend of the New Republic, who has the missing link to a map with Luke’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, a scuffle with First Order Stormtroopers leads Poe to leave this top-secret information with his cutesy droid BB-8. (Any of this sound familiar, yet?)
Leading the Stormtroopers is Kylo Ren, a skinnier version of Darth Vader, who also happens to be Darth Vader’s grandson, seeing as he is the offspring of Organa and Solo, also making him the nephew of Luke.
Some flashback: Ren, who used to be Ben Solo, defected to the dark side, allegedly because he felt neglected by his hero parents. A Jedi knight in training under the watchful tutelage of his uncle Luke, Ben in a fit of rage killed all the Jedi younglings before he left to join the First Order, seduced to the dark side by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), a pruny-but-imposing figure who is powerful in the dark side of the Force. These events drove a deep wedge between Solo and Organa, who separated, and also forced Luke into a life of exile, breaking up the dream-team trio of the original trilogy.
Back in present time, a stormtrooper decides he’s had enough of wearing that ridiculously unbearable uniform and deserts the First Order, rescuing Dameron in the process. Dameron names the stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and thus begins the best bromance of the Star Wars franchise.
The two then head back to Jakku, to retrieve BB-8, but they crashland and Dameron is assumed dead. Finn manages to find BB-8, who is now hanging out with a mysterious woman, Rey — a hardened scavenger who was orphaned/abandoned on the planet many, many years ago.
Finn, Rey and BB-8 narrowly escape more Stormtroopers in a dilapidated Millenium Falcon they find just casually lying around; and in a bizarre coincidence that can only be credited to pure Disney magic, they run into Solo and Chewbacca.
They head to meet Maz Kanata who has been hanging on to Luke’s lightsaber, at the touch of which Rey discovers that she’s somehow connected to the Force and to Skywalker himself.
More events lead to Rey being kidnapped by Ren and taken to Starkiller Base (wannabe-Death Star), where he finally takes off his wanna-be Darth Vader-y mask to reveal his beautiful face.
But Rey surprises both of them by using a Jedi Mind Trick on Ren, and she escapes and meets up with Solo, Chewie and Finn, who are there to rescue her and destroy Starkiller Base. (Solo and Organa have had a tearful reunion in the meantime. And so have Finn and Dameron, who turns out to be not dead).
Solo, having promised Organa he would bring their son back, and against everyone’s better judgement, decides to have a heart-to-heart with Ren (who, by the way, spends his alone time speaking to Darth Vader’s broken helmet). Ren being Ren kills his own father, and the audience is left to watch Solo plunge to his death from the Starkiller Base. Chewie’s tormented wail echoes our own feelings of loss and despair.
Rey and Finn proceed to fight Ren in lightsaber duels (looks like Rey is not the only one who has awakened to the Force), and Rey, incredulously, defeats Ren. Ren, however, escapes with the help of one General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), who is his First Order colleague and arch-rival, as the Resistance blows up Starkiller Base, and the two head off to meet Snoke.
Using the missing piece to the map from BB-8, the Resistance finds Luke’s location, and the The Force Awakens ends with Rey handing over to Luke his old lightsaber, the one he lost while he fought his own father all those years ago.
Fin.
Don’t miss it
Star Wars: The Last Jedi closes the Dubai International Film Festival on December 13 at Madinat Arena. The film releases in UAE cinemas on December 14.
