14 things Star Wars fans will love about The Force Awakens

While no key plot twists are given away, this article does contain mild spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

1. The music

Star Wars simply wouldn’t be Star Wars without John Williams, no matter which Abramsian master of imitation they hired in his place. It’s worth bearing in mind that the maestro is 83 years old, so the supply of scores he can still give us won’t be unlimited. In The Force Awakens, he threads old themes beautifully with new: gotta have that fanfare, need the keening nostalgic pull of Leia’s theme, and his other gorgeous minor-key balladry. But the new is so good, as well: Rey gets an inquisitive leitmotif, announced on piano, that gives you the prickly excitement of knowing you’ve just been introduced to someone important. Williams’s undimmed enthusiasm for this world roars out of the Dolby with gusto.

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2. Leia hugging Chewy

Amid all the reunions and warm embraces bringing us back into the fold, there’s a simple moment – it lasts just a second or two – when Leia goes right in for a Chewbacca hug, letting her face burrow down into his fur while he emits one of his great, low, trilling purrs. Carrie Fisher has never looked so purely contented in her role, or more as though she’s truly happy to be doing this. It’s like digging about in your parents’ loft and finding the huge teddy from which you were once inseparable.

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3. Quips for Harrison Ford

Ford gives such a good performance here – leagues above his Crystal Skull comeback – but it helps that the script’s so canny at mellowing the wisecracks. They never come on too strong or feel crowbarred into the scene: his dialogue’s more often touchingly straightforward, as if he’s realised sarcasm is just unnecessary effort at this age. Every so often, a touch of the old Han springs up: there’s a brilliantly funny one-two-combo diss where he mocks Finn’s rudimentary understanding of the Force and Chewbacca’s kvetching about the weather, practically in the same breath.

4. John Boyega, generally

Finn, aka Stormtropper FN-2187, might be the single wittiest addition to the Star Wars universe since 1983 – he’s a hero (conscientious objector) and a coward (freaks out constantly), a stalwart guy and a habitual liar, both comic relief and myth in the making. Boyega nails his part with a frankly ovation-worthy grasp of what’s going to make him endearing, real, and hilarious. His sweaty panic moments are the first things to hook us concretely into the story; his fumbling curiosity about Rey is adorable; his fibs are winningly see-through; his timing’s off the hook.

5. The rusty banger that is the Millennium Falcon

The trailer already gave us a taste: but before Han and Chewy are home, Finn and Rey are clambering around inside it, practically holding their noses. It’s been sitting round back of Jakku market gathering luminous mould for what looks like centuries, in the clutches of a trader who looks like he’d sell his mother for a new hyperdrive. Expect audience cheers the first time you glimpse it, and relish the banter between Han and Rey on board it, as they compete to show who – the old smuggler or young scavenger – can jerry-rig this clapped-out unit and get it back to light speed.

 

6. All the Poe Dameron bits

He’s “the best fighter pilot in the resistance”. He’s kind to droids. He’s got a nice line in quippy comebacks, even when being questioned (and tortured) by the First Order. He makes fun of Kylo Ren’s voice. Yes, Star Wars fans: while Han Solo will always hold the number one spot, Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron is definitely a serious contender for the title of Second Coolest Man in the Galaxy (C-3PO sadly doesn’t qualify because he’s a droid). In a film that’s packed with memorable moments and great performances, Isaac’s scenes still spark and fizz with energy.

7. Kylo Ren’s lightsaber temper tantrums    

Thanks to his mask and long, swishy black cloak, it’s tempting to compare new villain Kylo Ren to the most iconic Star Wars baddie of all time - and, watching The Force Awakens, it’s clear that Ren compares himself to Vader. But while the Sith Lord of the original trilogy was a powerful, assured leader, with years of experience in Being Evil, Ren is more erratic: frequently losing his temper and wildly slashing at everything in his vicinity, like an irate three-year-old armed with a lightsaber (the poor First Order IT technicians must get fed up of fixing all the equipment he regularly slices and gouges in his rages).

His instability gives him a certain snake-like air of danger( it’s never clear exactly when he’s going to snap) but also provides the film with some sly humour. Whenever Kylo goes into angsty-slashy mode, you get the impression his stormtroopers and crew are secretly having an “oh, god, not again” reaction. Fans will love a moment in which two stormtroopers are on the way to report to Ren, hear the Dark Jedi’s carnage, and decide to carry on walking.

8. Maz Kanata’s bar

Maz Kanata's pirate hideout will be a familiar treat for fans, echoing the famous Mos Eisley cantina scene. There is even a band featuring Bith players – the same race as Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes who played in A New Hope. And where the cantina was the first place we met Han Solo, who organises the transport of secret plans held by Luke, Obi-wan and their droid, it’s here that Han and Chewie try to organise crafty cover for the new generation and the droid in their possession. There are also shades of Jabba The Hutt’s palace. There is more languor here than the Mos Eisley scum-den, and while it may not be all about foul decadence as in Return of the Jedi, you do get a sense it’s a sanctuary where the shady can kick back.   

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9.  THAT moment with a blaster

JJ Abrams’s vision of Star Wars sticks quite rigidly to an organic, lo-fi approach, keeping CGI to space scenes and X-Wing/TIE Fighter/Millennium Falcon dogfights. But there is a superb moment at the very beginning of the film in which Kylo Ren uses the Force stop a laser blast in midair. This is something we haven’t seen before (the closest we’ve come is Vader using his hand to stop a laser blast in The Empire Strikes Back). Just as with the lightsaber fights in the new film, where you see the very texture of what is meant to be smooth, here the blue ray crackles as it keeps its shape, suspended in space. When we’ve forgotten it’s there, it is let go and continues its trajectory, which comes as a bonus shock.

10.  The Abrams touch

He’s tackled three existing franchises in his short career as a feature film director, but J.J. Abrams brings his own team of collaborators and trademarks from one to another. Director of Photography Dan Mindel and costume designer Michael Kaplan have worked with Abrams several times, most notably on his two Star Trek films. But Greg Grunberg, who plays Resistance pilot Snap Wexley, goes back much further. The pair started making films together as children 40 years ago, and Grunberg has at least cameoed in almost every film and TV show that Abrams has made since. The director calls Grunberg his lucky charm, and with good reason; it’s worth noting that he did //not// appear in the disappointing Star Trek Into Darkness. Finally, listen out for a reference to a place called “Kelvin Ridge” on the planet of Jakku. Abrams was close to his maternal grandfather, Henry Kelvin, and includes a reference to him in all his films.

11.  General Hux’ sneer

Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux barely got a line in the trailers; just a really great coat and a sneer. So it was a surprise to see that he plays a large role as a spitting fanatic of the First Order whose every gesture speaks of utter contempt for, well, everyone. There are echoes of Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin in Gleeson’s role, although Hux is significantly less warm and cuddly. And while Tarkin’s relationship with Vader enjoyed a level of mutual respect, Hux and Force user Kylo Ren are like teenage rivals for the attention of Supreme Leader Snoke, their awful boss. Kylo Ren might have the advantage in power, but in the lip-curl game he can’t hold a candle to Hux.

12. C-3PO can still ruin a moment

It’s a while before we meet Threepio in The Force Awakens, but when he does appear, he does so at the most awkward possible time. The golden droid cuts in on an emotional moment between Han and Leia, babbling greetings and filling Han in on his new arm. You’ll remember that he did something remarkably similar in The Empire Strikes Back, interrupting the couple’s first kiss to crow that he had “isolated the reverse power flux coupling”. He has progressed enough that he does, eventually, realise that he’s in the way, but there’s something marvellous in his continuing inability to read a moment. No doubt the droid will explain fully how he acquired that bright red arm in Episode VIII. Probably when Luke is busy trying to meditate.

13. The references to previous Star Wars films

A stormtrooper bursts in on a prisoner who's being held on a First Order ship …before removing his helmet and announcing he’s here for “a rescue”. Han “has a bad feeling” about something. A beautifully retro game pops up on-board the Millennium Falcon. Fans of “spot the reference” needn’t worry: The Force Awakens is stuffed to the space gills with nods to the original films.  For first-time audiences , identifying them (they’re really not all that subtle) and turning to each other with knowing smiles will all be part of the joy.

14. The opening shot

After the opening sequence (and that familiar, beautifully evocative scrolling yellow text), the film opens with a shot of space: a deep, wide place, glittering with stars and heavy with the promise of adventure. A large moon looms into sight – and then – with stately, threatening grace – a giant First Order Star Destroyer slowly passes by, blocking out the moon’s glow. It’s a thrilling scene, and one which heralds a visual interplay of light and darkness that will continue throughout the film. It's also, of of course, incredibly fun. Who doesn't love big scary spaceships?

By Tim Robey, Helen O'Hara, Jonathan McAloon and Rebecca Hawkes