A long time ago in a galaxy, far, far, away….
Star Wars
Episode VII: The Search for Skywalker
Luke Skywalker has vanished! In his absence,
an alliance of pirates, the Onyx Order have formed
willing to destroy the legacy of Skywalker.
Chancellor Leia Organa, willing to save her planets
from destruction, has dispatched her search parties
to find information on her brother’s whereabouts.
Leia sends her son to the graveyard world
of Jakku to retrieve information on Luke
and restore balance back to the galaxy…
The film opens with an X-Wing heading to the planet of Jakku. A planet consisting of a backwater, deserts and mostly shipwrecks, junk, and other wreckage from all eras of the three Trilogies: the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, and the Age of the New Republic. Inside the X-Wing, we meet the son of Chancellor Leia Organa, Sam Solo, and his droid SR-3 AKA “Surley”. He lands in a junk village with a Trade Federation Battleship chapel owned by Force Bishop Lor Sen Tekka who gives him a piece of memory bank from an astromech droid.
Before Sam can view or dissect the piece of memory bank, a squad of pirates unleashed by the evil Onyx Order arrives at the village and slaughters all the villagers and captures Bishop Lor Sen Tekka. Sam luckily puts a memory piece into SR-3 and he flees into the desert. Sam is captured too and we are introduced to Darth Neto, the Jedi Killer who interrogates Tekka and Sam, and when Tekka tells him not to ignore his heritage, it enrages him and his ignites his crossguard lightsaber and kills him and orders Sam Solo onto the transport.
We are also introduced to the young pirate, Finn who has been riddled with PTSD from being raised with pirates, and his father was killed in combat in the opening battle and back on the Onyx Order’s Pirate Star Destroyer, he throws up over his horror. His commander is Haarah, a twi’lek female who abuses Finn and was a commander and chief to his father and him. She makes him go off the deep end when she orders him to launch a group of some prisoners from the village into space by an airlock which is the final tipping point for him and he decides to make a move.
Back on Jakku, we see a young woman named Kira exploring a Republic Star Cruiser from the Clone Wars and she grabs some valuable things like a Clone helmet and some droid parts. Afterward, she skims across the sands and water to a junk town where she meets her caretaker, Minch Unattu, who helps her buy her daily food portion and clean water supply.
She travels to her house which is a downed AT-AT Walker where we see her make her dinner and watch into the distance as starships take off into space. She is joined by someone else, a glowing yellow and white figure, an angelic figure, Kira’s imaginary friend, “Ethereal.” They talk for a bit until Kira hears of SR-3’s beeping and she sees a hunter named Teedo fighting with him and she frees him and she gives him a place to stay for the night, but “Ethereal” suggests to look into the droid some more. It could give her an answer to something she’s always wanted.
Meanwhile, Darth Neto is meditating and Lady Temptress, a female seductress, and his counterpart enters asking if he was successful in finding the clue to Skywalker. But he hasn’t. She starts seducing him and trying to woo him into making him think about his choice and he gets an idea, to mind probe Sam which he does and he plots to send out the Onyx Order to find SR-3. But before he gets out more information on where he is, Sam escapes with Finn on a Pirate Ship but is taken down by the Pirate Star Destroyer’s cannons.
That night, Kira discovers the piece of memory bank in SR-3 and asks if she can view it in him but when it does, it doesn’t work. At that same time, Sam and Finn crash in the desert and make their trek through the desert and into the night. Finn too has to use some debris like a wagon to help Sam since he’s broken both his legs.
By sunrise, the Onyx Order has returned to Jakku, and Kira and SR-3 are scouting around in junk piles outside the junk town to see what can play the piece of memory bank and they find R2-D2’s scorched head. They head to Minch’s and with his help, R2’s head comes to life and beeps and they view a hologram map of the galaxy. But this map is a puzzle, it’s missing a few planets and it has some sort of chunk missing in it as pointed out by Minch. At that same time, Sam and Finn enter a town and are confronted by some thugs, Kira comes to rescue and SR-3 zaps them too and Sam is happy to be reunited with his droid, dispute not using his legs.
Finn explains he is part of the Onyx Order but defected and he’s trying to get Sam back to the New Republic but when Kira explains the map and R2-D2’s head, the two get confused. Especially when they find out R2-D2’s name since they’ve never heard of R2-D2 but Sam was familiar with R2 units before they went out of commission. They take the R2-D2 head and the map from Minch and are confronted by Onyx Order pirates who attack the village and Minch suggests taking his ship, the Millenium Falcon to escape.
Along the way, Minch gives Sam a power chair (similar to the one owned by Cliegg Lars from Episode II) which helps him out so much.
The trio and SR-3 hop aboard the Falcon and Sam starts fangazaming over that this was his father, Han Solo’s ship and now he’s flying in it at last. The trio flies from the Onyx Order’s best fighter pilots and through a graveyard of Rebel Alliance ship leading into an Imperial Star Destroyer where the Falcon manages to blast them all thanks to Kira’s piloting and her instincts from “Ethereal” guiding her.
Once off Jakku, the trio finally gets a proper introduction to each other and Kira decides to show off the map again using what parts are lying around to reprogram the R2-D2 head and this time she accidentally turns on a hologram of Bishop Lor Sen Tekka, logging of his progress on his mission to find Luke Skywalker and his record on the most popular planets he’s been since the Battle of Endor. If the map can be shown in its entirety, it needs a full R2 unit because of the map’s programming and old data. Knowing what must be done, they must find the rest of R2-D2 to complete the map of Luke Skywalker.
Back on Jakku, Darth Neto and Lady Temptress examine the wreckage of the Junk Village and a captured Minch, who before he is killed by Temptress, spills the word of Kira helping Sam and Finn and them being on the Millenium Falcon, which interests Neto.