In December of 2015, the Force heard its alarm clock, winced, squirmed in its high-thread-count sheets, contemplated hitting the snooze button, then thought better of it and chose to awaken. This week, Disney and Lucasfilm are finally picking up the threads laid down in "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens" and revealing what the nutty ol’ Force does next in "Episode VIII — The Last Jedi."
But two years is a long time in our dense media environment. What if you can’t remember all the mystical ins and outs of what went down such a long time ago in a Galaxy so terribly far away?
Deep breaths, my young apprentice. We’re here to tell you where everybody left off.
The Resistance and the First Order
Although it may have seemed like everything was wrapped up in a nice bow at the end of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, politics is a messy business. Even after the destruction of the second Death Star, fighting continued between the evil Galactic Empire and the generally nicer Rebel Alliance, which founded a new government called the New Republic.
Eventually, a peace treaty was signed, but there was no unconditional surrender — the remnants of the Empire were allowed to survive in circumscribed sections of space. Over the years, warmongering revisionists from those areas moved into the Galactic hinterlands and formed a movement called the First Order, which sought to regain the glory of the Empire.
It came to be controlled by a mysterious dude named Supreme Leader Snoke, who seems to have some kind of connection to the Dark Side of the Force. The New Republic didn’t want to jeopardize the peace by attacking them, but it looked the other way when erstwhile princess Leia Organa formed a paramilitary force called the Resistance to fight the First Order.
That turned out to be a good idea, but it arrived too late: In "The Force Awakens," the First Order deployed a superweapon/planet called Starkiller Base, which destroyed the New Republic’s capital and starfleet. The Resistance destroyed the weapon and sent the First Order into retreat, but both sides remain bloodied and viciously at odds.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
Despite having literally zero lines in "The Force Awakens," everyone’s favorite walker of the Hero’s Journey loomed large in reputation. Back in the original trilogy of "Star Wars" flicks, Luke went from podunk farm boy to last living practitioner of the ancient Jedi arts.
After he and his buddies defeated Emperor Palpatine, Luke set out to find and train new Jedi. He set up a school for them and one of his students was his own nephew, Ben Solo, the child of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Alas, Ben turned evil, adopted the name Kylo Ren, killed all his fellow students, and burned the school to the ground.
Luke felt responsible for what happened and went into self-imposed exile, searching for the first temple of the Jedi. The First Order wanted to find and kill him, and he became something of a legend throughout the Galaxy.
He found the temple on a planet called Ahch-To and thought he could have some damn time to himself, so imagine his surprise when he stepped outside at the end of "The Force Awakens" and saw …
Rey (Daisy Ridley)
Luke had no idea who she was and, to a certain extent, neither do we. She was one of a handful of new protagonists introduced in"The Force Awakens," but her past is a mystery. When she was a little girl, she was abandoned on the desert planet of Jakku, never knowing anything about her parents or lineage.
Though she dreamed of off-world adventures, she was stuck in the life of a scavenger until fate intervened: She came across a Resistance droid named BB-8, who was on the run from the First Order, then ran into a deserter Stormtrooper named Finn.
When the First Order came a-calling, the trio escaped on Han Solo’s old ship, the Millennium Falcon, which happened to be right near where they were all situated (you have to get used to such convenient coincidences in order to enjoy"The Force Awakens").
Han tracked down the Falcon and joined up with them, and they went to the castle of a diminutive alien named Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o) for assistance. Rey was drawn to some mysterious noises and found Luke’s lightsaber, which Maz possessed for some reason. When she touched it, she experienced a vision in which she saw her younger self being abandoned on Jakku, then saw Kylo destroying Luke’s Jedi academy.
Maz told Rey that her destiny was calling and that she should take the lightsaber, but Rey declined and tried to leave behind the mission. The First Order and the Resistance both showed up and launched into a battle, during which Kylo nabbed her. He attempted to torture her for information on Starkiller Base, but she surprised herself by using the Force to resist him and break out, demonstrating that she’s a potential Jedi.
She ran into Finn, Han, and Chewie and the three of them planted bombs around the base, then watched helplessly as Kylo killed his papa, Han. Rey fought Kylo with Luke’s lightsaber, which Finn had held onto. She managed to knock him down and scar his face before an earthquake separated them and prematurely ended the scuffle.
Chewie picked her and Finn up in the Falcon and they fled back to the Resistance base right before Starkiller Base was destroyed. The good guys figured out where Luke was, thanks to the combined efforts of BB-8 and fellow droid R2-D2. In the finale of "The Force Awakens," Rey, Chewie, and R2 flew off to Ahch-To and find the grizzled Jedi Master. She offered him his lightsaber, and the credits rolled.
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