Set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," the story begins amidst a galactic civil war. The Galactic Empire, led by the tyrannical Darth Vader, has completed the Death Star, a massive space station capable of destroying entire planets. The conflict ignites when Princess Leia, a leader of the Rebel Alliance, hides the Death Star's secret blueprints inside a droid named R2-D2 before being captured.

The droid, along with his companion C-3PO, ends up on the desert planet of Tatooine, where they meet Luke Skywalker, a young farm boy dreaming of adventure. After discovering a holographic message from the Princess, Luke encounters Obi-Wan Kenobi, an aging hermit who reveals himself to be a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan introduces Luke to the ways of the Force, a mystical energy field that binds the galaxy together, and gives him his father’s lightsaber.

To deliver the blueprints to the Rebellion, they hire the cynical smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca, aboard their ship, the Millennium Falcon. The group embarks on a high-stakes mission to rescue the Princess and launch a desperate, last-ditch assault on the Death Star. The film follows Luke’s transformation from a farm boy to a hero as he learns to trust the Force to save the galaxy from total annihilation.