Taking a break from the main story, this film takes place during the early years of the Galactic Empire and tells the background story of our favorite smuggler turned hero.
Ever since the Galactic Empire had been formed, it seemed like criminal acts were running rampant across the Outer Rim planets. On one planet in it's early days, Han is a young man who dreams of escaping criminal life and exploring the galaxy along with his girlfriend Qi'ra. After escaping a group of criminal worms, they bribe an Imperial officer with a hyperspace fuel called cocaxium. Unfortunately, Qi'ra ends up abducted. Promising to get her out, Han joins the Imperial Navy. Upon learning that Han has no family, the recruitment officer gives him the name Han Solo.
Three years later, Han is an infantryman who has been kicked out of the navy for insubordination. He then encounters some criminals, led by a man named Tobias Beckett, who are posing as Imperial soldiers, and attempts to blackmail Beckett into letting him join them. But Beckett has him arrested and thrown into a pit to be fed to a beast.......which just so happens to be a Wookie named Chewbacca! Realizing that he can understand Chewie's language, Han succeeds in getting him to cooperate to escape. Understanding the usefulness of a Wookie's strength, Beckett rescues the two and they both join the gang.
Later, he enlists their help in stealing some cocaxium on Vandor-1 that will earn them enough credits to retire. Unfortunately, the heist goes wrong when a group of Cloud Riders hijack the shipment. In the chaos that follows, Beckett loses two of his crew members, fellow pilot Rio and wife Val. After setting up monuments in their honor, Beckett reveals to Han that he was supposed to deliver the cocaxium to Dryen Vos, a high-ranking crime boss in the Crimson Dawn syndicate. Han and Chewie offer to help out with repaying the debt so that Beckett won't be killed. They arrive at Vos's yacht where Han is reunited with Qi'ra, who had been working with Vos for sometime and is now his top lieutenant. Han proposes a plan to steal stone unrefined cocaxium from the Kessel, to which Vos agrees to and has Qi'ra go with them.
Needing a ship to get to Kessel, Qi'ra leads the group to Lando Calrissian, a smuggler and pilot, who has a ship that will get them to their destination. After Han loses to a sabacc game thanks to Lando using a cheat card, he gets Lando to join in on the mission for a share of the profits. After boarding the ship, the Millennium Falcon, they take off for Kessel.
After reaching Kessel and inflating the mines, Lando's droid L3-37 frees enslaved droids and starts a slave revolt while Han allows Chewie to free some of his people, who are also enslaved there. During the chaos, they get the cocaxium, but L3 is fatally shot and Lando is wounded trying to save her. With some help from L3's navigational computer, Han makes a dangerous Kessel Run in order to evade an Imperial blockade, making the famous 14 parces run ("TWELVE! *huff* Fourteen").
Badly damaged (and becoming the famous "piece of junk"), the Falcon lands on Savareen to process the cocaxium when the Cloud Riders and their leader, a young girl named Enfys Nest, arrive, having tracked the team from Vandor. Lando leaves in the Falcon, deserting everyone else. Enfys reveals that she and her crews are rebels striking at the syndicates and the Empire. Sympathetic to their cause, Han ultimately agrees to help.
He tries to trick Vos, but he reveals that Beckett had already alerted him to the double-cross. He sends his guards to kill Enfys, but is rendered defenseless after the Cloud Riders overpower them all. Having figured out Vos's plan, Han tries to take the cocaxium, but Beckett ends up betraying Vos and escaping with it, taking Chewie with him as a hostage. Qi'ra kills Vos and sends Han after Beckett, promising to catch up with him. Instead, she contacts Vos's superior, who's none other than Darth Maul, and informs him of the mission's failure, blaming it on Beckett to protect Han. Maul assigns her to Vos's former position.
Finally catching up with Chewie and Beckett, Han confronts Beckett and after a standoff, shoots first, killing Beckett. Qi'ra leaves in Vos's yacht, and realizing that things will never be the same again, Han and Chewie take the cocaxium to Enfys, who offers them a place in the rebellion. Han declines, and Enfys hopes he'll change his mind in time. She gives him a vial of cocaxium, enough to buy a ship of his own.
The two track down Lando and he and Han engage in another game of sabacc, again the prize being the Falcon. This time, Han wins fair and square after stealing Lando's hidden card. When all is said and done, Han and Chewie decide to go to Tatooine to find a certain crime lord Beckett mentioned earlier who's putting together a big, profitable job. Together in the Falcon, the two future heroes jump off into hyperspace.
Voice Credits:
Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo
Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett
Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra
Donald Grover as Lando Calrissian
Thandwie Newton as Val
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37
Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca
Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos
Erin Kellyman as Enfys Nest
Jon Favreau as Rio Durant
Linda Hunt as Lady Proxima
Ian Kenny as Rebolt
Clint Howard as Ralakili
Anthony Daniels as Tak
Kiran Shah as Karjj
Warwick Davis as Weazel
Ray Park and Sam Witwer as Darth Maul
Dee Tails as Quay Tolsite
Jonathan Kasdan as Tag Greenplay (not in finished film)
Toby Hefferman as Bink Otauna (not in finished film)
YOU ARE READING
The Skywalker Saga Recap
AvventuraSo, it's been a while (maybe even a year or so if I could guess) since the story of Skywalker officially came to an end with episode 9, "The Rise of Skywalker." So in honor of this epic saga (and for May 4th, which is Star Wars day), I'll be doing a...
