Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Opening Crawl

 * Episode IV


 * A NEW HOPE


 * It is a period of civil war.
 * Rebel spaceships, striking
 * from a hidden base, have won
 * their first victory against
 * the evil Galactic Empire.


 * During the battle, Rebel
 * spies managed to steal secret
 * plans to the Empire's
 * ultimate weapon, the DEATH
 * STAR, an armored space
 * station with enough power
 * to destroy an entire planet.


 * Pursued by the Empire's
 * sinister agents, Princess
 * Leia races home aboard her
 * starship, custodian of the
 * stolen plans that can save her
 * people and restore
 * freedom to the galaxy....

The Galaxy's Most Desperate Hour
The Galactic Republic has fallen. The Galactic Empire, under Emperor Palpatine controls the galaxy with an iron fist. The Empire is not without resistance, though. The Tantive IV is carrying precious cargo, vital to the Rebel Alliance. Unfortunately, the Tantive IV is intercepted by the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator, and Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Luckily, before her capture, Princess Leia puts the information inside R2-D2's databank. R2-D2 and C-3PO escape, and land on the remote planet of Tatooine. R2-D2 and C-3PO are "recovered" by Jawas after being separated from each other.

Luke's Destiny
The droids are then bought by moisture farmer Owen Lars and his nephew, Luke Skywalker. R2-D2 escapes from the Lars' homestead in search of an Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom R2 claims to be the property of. Luke and C-3PO find R2 the next day, just before being attacked by Sandpeople. Luke and his droids are rescued by Obi-Wan Kenobi, or as Luke knows him, Ben Kenobi. Obi-Wan takes Luke to his home, and so starts Luke's adventure.

Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father, and his relationship with him. After discovering Princess Leia's message carried by R2-D2, Obi-Wan attempted to persuade Luke into accompanying him to Alderaan. Luke refused to go until the shocking discovery that his aunt and uncle have been brutally murdered by Imperial stormtroopers searching for the droids. Luke, Obi-Wan, and the two droids travel to Mos Eisley to find passage to Alderaan, the home planet of Princess Leia.

They find a ride in the person of the smuggler, Han Solo. For 17,000 credits, Han and his first mate, Chewbacca agree to take the foursome to Alderaan aboard their ship, the Millennium Falcon. After a brief scuffle with the Empire and Jabba the Hutt, they escape Mos Eisley and set a course for Alderaan.

Rescue of the Princess
Instead of Alderaan they find what seems to be an asteroid field. The planet was indeed destroyed by the dreaded Death Star, at the behest of Grand Moff Tarkin, to set an example of the power of the Empire. The Millennium Falcon is pulled aboard the Death Star by its tractor beam.

Hiding within hidden smuggling compartments, the crew of the Millennium Falcon evades detection by an Imperial scanning crew. They emerge and after a quick deception of the stormtroopers sent to scan the ship, the group begins to find their bearings to figure out how to escape. Obi-Wan Kenobi separates from the group to disable the tractor beam, leaving the others alone. While connected to the Imperial Network, R2-D2 discovered that Princess Leia was aboard the station. Luke convinces Han and Chewbie to rescue her with the vague promise of a grand reward. Han and Chewie agree. After another deception of Imperial officers, they make a dramatic attempt to rescue the captive Princess. While she is indeed freed from her holding cell, the group is attacked by Imperial Guards. They dive into the trash compactor. It eventually starts to close in on the group. Mere seconds before death, R2-D2 shuts it down.

After escape from the trash compactor, they must get back to the Millennium Falcon and hope that Obi-Wan shut down the tractor beam. Of course, they encounter stormtroopers on their way to the ship.

Sacrifice and Victory
Obi-Wan on the other hand, must meet with Darth Vader. Obi-Wan battles his former Padawan, but this time, Darth Vader gets the best of him. As Luke watches in terror, Obi-Wan allows himself to be taken down by Vader. Horrified and angered, Luke takes his final blasts at the stormtroopers and runs onto the Millennium Falcon.

After battling past a vanguard of TIE fighters, the Millennium Falcon meets up with the Rebel Alliance, and the information in R2-D2 is turned over. General Jan Dodonna plans the attack on the Death Star, an attack so audacious as to receive an unenthusiastic reaction from the pilots, notable Wedge Antilles. To add to Luke's dismay, Han leaves, after receiving his reward.

The Rebel strike force begins its attack on the Death Star, as the space station approaches the Rebel base on Yavin 4. The final Rebel ships enter the trench to hit the target that will destroy the Death Star. Most of the ships are destroyed, save for Luke Skywalker's X-Wing. Just before Darth Vader can destroy him from his own personal TIE Advanced, Han returns on the Millennium Falcon and clears away the attacking Imperial fighters. Luke fires the proton torpedo and the Death Star is destroyed.

The few remaining ships return to Yavin 4 and a victory celebration commences, complete with awards for the heroes, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

Trivia

 * On May 26, 1977, New York Times described Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope as "the most beautiful movie serial ever made".
 * The Millennium Falcon was modeled after a hamburger next to an olive.
 * The sound of TIE fighters was created by combining an elephant's scream with the noise of a car driving on wet pavement.
 * Other films that opened in May 1977: Smokey and the Bandit, The Car, and Day of the Animals.
 * Sissy Spacek auditioned for the part of Princess Leia, and Christopher Walken and Robbie Benson read for Han Solo. Spacek and Walken would later co-star in the movie Blast From the Past.
 * An early draft title for the screenplay of Star Wars: "The Adventures of the Starkiller".

The DVD release


On September 21, 2004 the three original movies were finally released on DVD. There have a few further minor changes to the film on this release - such as sound effects and improvements to the visual quality of the film.

Characters and Cast

 * Luke Skywalker - Mark Hamill
 * Han Solo - Harrison Ford
 * Princess Leia Organa - Carrie Fisher
 * Grand Moff Tarkin - Peter Cushing
 * Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi - Alec Guinness
 * See Threepio (C-3PO) - Anthony Daniels
 * Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) - Kenny Baker
 * Chewbacca - Peter Mayhew
 * Darth Vader - David Prowse
 * Voice of Darth Vader - James Earl Jones
 * Uncle Owen - Phil Brown
 * Aunt Beru - Shelagh Fraser
 * Chief Jawa - Jack Purvis
 * General Dodonna - Alex Mccrindle
 * General Willard - Eddie Byrne
 * Red Leader - Drewe Hemley
 * Red Two (Wedge) - Denis Lawson
 * Red Three (Biggs) - Garrick Hagon
 * Red Four (John "D") - Jack Klaff
 * Red Six (Porkins) - William Hootkins
 * Gold Leader - Angus Mcinnis
 * Gold Two - Jeremy Sinden
 * Gold Five - Graham Ashley
 * General Tagge - Don Henderson
 * General Motti - Richard Le Parmentier
 * Commander #1 - Leslie Schofield

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope has grossed $775.4 million dollars worldwide: $461M in the United States and $314.4M in the rest of the world. It currently lies 17th in the All Time Worldwide Box Office Chart and 2nd in the All Time US Box Office Chart. However, when taking inflation into consideration Star Wars is only the second movie to gross over a billion dollars in the US alone - Gone With The Wind being the other.

The Great Renaming
1977 Opening Crawl


 * It is a period of civil war.
 * Rebel spaceships, striking
 * from a hidden base, have
 * won their first victory
 * against the evil Galactic
 * Empire.


 * During the battle, rebel
 * spies managed to steal
 * secret plans to the Empire's
 * ultimate weapon, the
 * DEATH STAR, an armored
 * space station with enough
 * power to destroy an entire
 * planet.


 * Pursued by the Empire's
 * sinister agents, Princess
 * Leia races home aboard her
 * starship, custodian of the
 * stolen plans that can save
 * her people and restore
 * freedom to the galaxy . ..

Episode IV was not Episode IV from the beginning. Initially, it was only "Star Wars."

For the first re-release of Star Wars following the 1980 release of "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back," the opening crawl was altered to read, "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope."

(Other changes were made in the opening crawl at that time that few have remarked. The line width was changed to produce more pleasing word-wrapping and spacing.  And the "r" in "rebel spies," originally lower-case, was capitalized.) See above for all the differences between the two crawls.