Star Wars IV - Sci-Fi Movie Review, Cast & Crew, Transcript and Trailer

The galaxy is in a state of civil war....the rebel alliance have stolen secret plans to the Galactic Empires death star, a space station with enough fire power to destroy a planet. Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan has possession of these plans, and before being captured manages to hide them in a droid, along with a holographic message. The droid, R2D2 and another droid, C-3PO, escape the ship and onto the surface of the planet Tatooine. Once on the planet both droids are captured by Jawas, who sell them to a farmer (Owen Lars) and his nephew....Luke Skywalker. Whilst cleaning R2D2 Skywalker accidentally triggers part of the holographic message, in which Leia requests the help of Obi Wan Kenobi, whom Luke knows tobe an old hermit who lives on the planet.

Later R2D2 escapes, leaving Luke and C-3PO to follow. On the way they meet old Ben, who reveals himself to be Obi Wan Kenobi. He also reveals that he was once a jedi knight and tells Luke all about the force, before explaining to Luke that he knew his father Anakin Skywalker. We learn from Obi Wan that Anakin had been betrayed and murdered by Obi Wan's former pupil, Darth Vader, before Obi Wan gives Luke his fathers lightsaber. Obi Wan watches te message from Princess Lea, in which she begs him to take the droid and the death star plans to Alderaan, where her father will be able to retrieve and study them. Obi Wan asks Luke to go with him and learn the ways of the force, and whilst he is reluctant at first the death of his uncle and aunt at the hands of the imperial stormtroopers (who are searching for the droid) persuade him to go along. The planet by this time is crawling with stormtroopers, and at the Mos Eisley Spaceport the group find a smuggler (Han Solo) and his wookie sidekick, who agree to transport them. They make a hasty retreat and prepare a hyperspace leap to Alderaan.

Meanwhile Leia is being held on the death star and interrogated by Grand Moff Tarkin, the deaths stars commanding officer, and Darth Vader. In an attempt to get her to reveal the location of the rebel base they threaten to destroy her home planet of Alderaan, and after getting the answer they wanted they destroy it anyway. The destruction of the planet is felt by Obi Wan aboard Solos ship, the Millenium Falcon, and upon arriving at the planets co-ordinates they find that the planet is no longer there. However they do see what appears to be a small moon....which turns out to be the Death Star. It snares the Falcon in its tractor beam and they are pulled towards the ship.

Using hidden compartments to surprise Imperial stormtroopers and donning their armor as disguises, Han and Luke escape to a command room to wait while Obi-Wan attempts to disable the tractor beam. While they are there, R2-D2 discovers that Princess Leia is scheduled for termination. Han and Luke stage a rescue on the cell block, but are forced into a garbage chute when their escape route is cut off. Making their way back to the Millenium Falcon, their path is cleared by the spectacle of a lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Warning the dark lord that he will become "more powerful than you can possibly imagine", the old Jedi allows himself to be struck down as the others escape toward a hidden rebel base. A beacon hidden aboard the ship allows the Empire to track their route.

After arriving at the location of the base, Yavin IV's moon, the death star plans are analyzed by the Rebel Alliance and they decide that the death star can be destroyed by a single manned fighter slipping past its defences and firing into the core. Luke joins the assault team and Solo decides to leave, and whilst the attack proceeds, heavy losses are suffered. During the single fighters runs Darth Vader engages the ships in ship to ship combat and destroys the rebels forst two atempts. However Luke makes the third run and uses the force to fire a sucessful rocket......the death star is destroyed and Darth Vader's ship spins out into space.