Star Wars: Episode VII – The Darkness Awakens

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising (also known as Star Wars: Episode VII – Dark Force Rising) is a 2015 American epic space opera film produced, co-written, and directed by Rian Johnson. The sequel to Return of the Jedi (1983), it is the seventh film in the Star Wars main chronology. The ensemble cast includes Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow.

Dark Force Rising premiered in Los Angeles on December 14, 2015, and was released in the United States on December 18. The Knights of Ren (2017) and Duel of the Fates (2019) followed Dark Force Rising, rounding out the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Plot
Twenty-five years after the Galactic Civil War, the New Republic has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire and with it, the New Jedi Order has been founded. Luke Skywalker, married to former Imperial assassin Mara Jade, is introduced as the teacher and mentor of his nephew Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Despite his incredible gift in the Force, Ben finds himself isolated from the rest of the academy.

Ben finds himself consulting with only Rey, a stowaway child from the garbage-ocean planet of Jakku. Finn, a former child soldier who was forced into war crimes by an imperial remnant.

Recalling a story Luke once told him about his grandfather's master, Ben uses his lightsaber to murder Mara Jade in her sleep. Before he can bring himself to kill his uncle, Luke awakens and briefly duels Ben, before Ben severs Luke's cybernetic hand and defenstrates him with Force lightning. As Ben begins to massacre the rest of the Jedi Order, Han confronts Ben, imploring him to abandon the dark side. Ben seems to consider this, but ultimately kills his father instead. Devastated, Chewbacca shoots Ben in the chest. Mon Mothma orders Grand Admiral Thrawn to mobilize a ship above the capital but demands him to hold his fire.

The injured Ben pursues Rey and Leia Organa into the capital of the New Republic. Finn fights Ben with Anakin's lightsaber to protect Rey before Kylo knocks both of them unconscious. Leia takes the lightsaber and channels the Force to defeat Ben in a duel by severing all of his limbs. Meanwhile, Thrawn mutinies against Mothma to stop the massacre and bombs the capital. Before Leia can try and save Kylo, the two are separated by a fissure from the bombing.

As Ben awakens in the ruins of the capital, Thrawn arrives and offers to use Jar Jar to train Ben in neither the Dark side nor the Light side of the Force. Christening him the name "Kylo Ren," he fits him a cybernetic body reminiscent to that of his grandfather, the film ending with Kylo helming himself with a highly modified mask of Darth Vader.