In a month from today Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released worldwide in theatres and IMAX in 2D and 3D. The movie, which marks the return of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to the saga for the first time in 32 years. Very little information has been revealed about the movies narrative, but from what little information has been released and the trailers and TV spots released thus far we believe with a high degree of certainty how the movies opening moments will unfold.
The events depicted in all of the Star Wars movies occur “in medias res”; a Latin term which means “into the middle of things”. As such we can most likely expect that The Force Awakens will carry on this tradition. Another tradition is that of the opening, establishing shot of the movie, which has also been repeated throughout all of the Star Wars movies, in which after the crawling text the camera pans down (up in Attack of the Clones) to reveal a spacecraft in space. As to which spacecraft will be seen in the movies opening moments is anyone's guess, but considering each of the original movies and the last movie in the prequel trilogy all panned down to reveal a Star Destroyer, then that is going to be our educated guess. And a Star Destroyer opening the movie could help us speculate as to the where in The Force Awakens story the movie will begin...
For this we look to one of the movies most overlooked characters, X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron, portrayed by Oscar Isaac. We know this character plays a pivotal role in the movies two epic battles on (presumably) Yavin IV and the Starkiller base, fighting alongside his comrades in the Resistance, but it seems many are overlooking one of the few information snippets released. First reported by EW, was the news that Poe is sent on an important mission by General Leia. Because of the epicness of the aforementioned battles they can be discredited as being this “important mission”.
However there are hints in the trailers as to what Poe's mission may be; to send a message via R2-D2 (much like in A New Hope) to Luke Skywalker – In the trailers released thus far we have seen Stormtroopers led by Captain Phasma and the mysterious Kylo Ren laying siege to what looks like a desert planet at night (pictured above). We have already made mention of how these scenes fit cinematically with the only released footage of Luke.
From what we have seen the planet of Jakku, reported to be the graveyard of an awesome battle that took place after the Battle for Endor, the planet looks peaceful, with its main character of interest Rey seeming living a quiet, uneventful life. As such, and considering a leaked image from the movie showing General Hux and Captain Phasma looking at a holographic display of Finn we can speculate that the aforementioned scenes of First Order Stormtroopers laying siege to a desert planet at night did not occur on Jakku. Unless director J.J. Abrams is going to introduce yet another desert planet to the Star Wars universe in this movie we can deduce that the aforementioned scenes took place on Tatooine.
We suspect these scenes on Tatooine will culminate in the capture of Poe, whom will then be taken aboard Kylo Ren's shuttle to the Star Destroyer in orbit, whereupon the unlucky X-Wing pilot will be tortured by the mysterious Ren. While its is known, to a certain degree that Poe will then be rescued by Finn before the latter escapes in a TIE Fighter (pictured below), only to be shot down and crash land on the desert planet of Jakku, it is not known what event causes Finn to abandon his career as a Stormtrooper. If Kylo Ren is as knowledgable of the Force as presumed it could be that after Poes capture the star system in which Tatooine resides in is destroyed by the First Orders new Starkiller base, in a bid to destroy Luke Skywalker and any threat he represents to Kylo. This heinous act (pictured above) could be what causes the Force to awaken, much like how a disturbance was felt by Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope when the Death Star destroyed Alderaan.
Much of what we have speculated above fits in with reports from across the board that have suggested that Luke Skywalker is the driving point of the narrative of The Force Awakens, and will play an important role in the films climax. Taking into account that both J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson have filmed scenes with Mark Hamill in Skellig Michael in Ireland for Episodes VII and VIII respectively it would appear that in the closing moments of The Force Awakens some of our hero characters meet with Luke Skywalker on a planet other than Tatooine, where some shock revelation is unveiled before the movies closing credits; a revelation that will carry straight over into the next episode.
Of course there are still many more mysteries that The Force Awakens has yet to to reveal, such as the true identity of Andy Serkis' character, why it seems that Kylo Ren actor Adam Diver was caught on location wearing an X-Wing pilots flight suit and of course the parentage of Rey and Kylo Ren, oh and do Ewoks really eat humans?
