The Force Awakens
Decades after the defeat of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine at Endor, the Republic has been restored but is still terrorized by remnants of the Empire now known as the First Order, led by General Hux and Kylo Ren, a self-styled but temperamental disciple of the dark side of the Force. A resistance movement has arisen to combat the First Order, and one of the Resistance’s best pilots, Poe Dameron, has gone to the planet Jakku to search for clues to the whereabouts of missing Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. Poe gets the information he came for, but he has been followed by the First Order. Poe seals the secrets inside his trusty droid, BB-8, and sends it away for safety; Poe himself is captured, and is tortured by Kylo Ren. Poe finds an unlikely ally in a stormtrooper who wants to escape and defect from the First Order, so they steal a TIE Fighter and blast their way out of a Star Destroyer’s hangar, only to be shot down over Jakku. The former stormtrooper, given the name “Finn” by his new comrade, ejects from the fighter, but finds no sign that Poe survived. He heads for the nearest settlement he can find on foot, where he meets a young scavenger named Rey, who has befriended BB-8. Finn tries to help Rey out of a scrape with some other scavengers trying to take the droid off her hands, but quickly discovers that she’s actually more capable than Finn is at fighting her way out of the situation. But the arrival of First Order forces is more than either of them can handle, and they try to make their escape in a dilapidated Corellian freighter that hasn’t taken off in years. Rey manages to get it flying – barely – and with Finn manning the guns, they’re able to fight their way into space, where the neglected, cannibalized ship promptly breaks down, leaving it helpless as a larger freighter takes it on board. Finn, Rey and BB-8 prepare to mount a last-ditch defense when their newly-acquired ship is boarded by its former owner, Han Solo. With Chewbacca beside him, Han is delighted to take back his old ship, the Millennium Falcon, but is more than a little annoyed to find two young people and a plucky droid aboard. At the first mention of BB-8’s mission to take vital information to the Resistance, Han is once again being pulled into saving the galaxy, whether he likes it or not. Taking the controls of the Falcon and abandoning his smuggling life again, Han takes Rey and Finn to a watering hole on another planet, intending to hand them over to his friend, Maz, who has with ties to the Resistance. But Maz is able to pick up on other things as well: she knows Finn is a coward on the run, and not the hero he claims to be, and she has a gift for Rey – a Jedi lightsaber that once belonged to Anakin Skywalker and was then passed on to his son. Even touching the saber fills Rey’s head with unfamiliar visions and a few painful memories of her own childhood, such as being left on Jakku by her parents. Rey races outside, and when Han, Chewie and Finn try to find her, they witness a terrifying sight: a vast beam of energy streaking across the sky, the superweapon of the First Order’s planet-sized Starkiller Base firing at the seat of the New Republic government and destroying every planet in its solar system. The First Order storms in, and Kylo Ren kidnaps Rey because he can sense that Rey has seen BB-8’s partial map to Luke’s whereabouts. Resistance X-Wing fighters arrive, and as Han and Chewie blast their way through legions of stormtroopers, Finn takes the First Order in with the lightsaber that Rey rejected, only to find he doesn’t have the skill to fight with it properly. The Falcon follows the Resistance fleet back to its base, which is Starkiller Base’s next target. Han is reunited with Leia, and tells her that he has seen their son – who happens to have taken the name Kylo Ren. The Resistance prepares an audacious attack on Starkiller Base itself, but Finn wants to do something even more outlandish: he wants to go there and rescue Rey. Leia wants Han to go with Finn and bring back the son they lost to the dark side of the Force when he rejected Luke’s training. As Starkiller Base charges its weapon to wipe out the Resistance, the Resistance makes a last desperate play to relieve the First Order of its seat of power…and it’s a mission from which not everyone will return.
written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt
directed by J.J. Abrams
music by John Williams
Cast: Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Max von Sydow (Lor San Tekka), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca Double), Pip Andersen (Lead Stormtrooper), Simon Pegg (Unkar Plutt), Kiran Shah (Teedo), Sasha Frost (Jakku Villager), Pip Torrens (Colonel Kaplan), Andrew Jack (Major Ematt), Rocky Marshall (Colonel Datoo), Greg Grunberg (Snap Wexley), Emun Elliott (Brance), Brian Vernel (Bala-Tik), Yayan Ruhian (Tasu Leech), Sebastian Armesto (Lieutenant Mitaka), Maisie Richardson-Sellers (Korr Sella), Warwick Davis (Wollivan), Cailey Fleming (Young Rey), Mark Stanley (Knight of Ren), Ken Leung (Admiral Statura), Iko Uwais (Razoo Quin-Fee), Anna Brewster (Bazine Netal), Harriet Walter (Dr. Kalonia), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Erik Bauersfeld (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Kipsang Rotich (Nien Nunb), Michael Giacchino (FN-3181), Nigel Godrich (FN-9330), Judah Friedlander (Bar Patron), Victor McGuire (Bar Patron), Miltos Yerolemou (Bar Patron), Francesca Longrigg (Bar Patron), D.C. Barnes (Bar Patron), Matt Johnson (Bar Patron), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Leanne Best (Min Sakul), Crystal Clarke (Ensign Goode), Jeffery Kissoon (Rear Admiral Guich), Claudia Sermbezis (Lema Eelyak), Gerry Abrams (Captain Cypress, Jim McGrath (Vice Admiral Resdox), Philicia Saunders (Tabala Zo), Morgan Dameron (Commodore Meta), Jessica Henwick (Jess Testor), Tosin Cole (Lieutenant Bastian), James McArdle (Niv Lek), Stefan Grube (Yolo Ziff), Dixie Arnold (Resistance Soldier), Hannah John-Kamen (First Order Officer), Tom Edden (First Order Officer), Kate Fleetwood (First Order Officer), Richard Riddell (First Order Officer), Jefferson Hall (First Order Officer), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (First Order Officer), Jack Laskey (First Order Officer)
LogBook entry and review by Earl Green