The 10 Best Moments In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

After more than three years of waiting, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is finally here. Receiving unanimously positive reviews from fans and critics alike, the movie looks set to break box office record after record this weekend and my even be the one to finally dethrone Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all-time. Star Wars: The Force Awakens also proves that director J.J. Abrams has done the impossible by making a GREAT modern Star Wars movie, something which George Lucas failed to do with the prequels. With Star Wars: Rogue One set to be released this time next year and Star Wars: Episode VIII around eighteen months away, it's a great time to be a fan of the franchise, but before we look towards the future, what about Star Wars: The Force Awakens? The movie leaves us with a very long list of unanswered questions, but also a lot of incredible moments which we'll all no doubt be talking about for many years to come. So, with that in mind, join us as we take a look at best moments in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. 10) The Falcon Flies Again Rey, Finn, and BB-8 stealing the Millennium Falcon to escape from The First Order is an incredibly well put together action sequence, and seeing Han Solo's iconic spaceship once again take flight is nothing short of amazing. It's particularly interesting to see the very different way that the inexperienced Rey pilots it at first, as it bumps off the ground and crashes through her village. Later, however, she pulls off some incredible moves which you have to believe not even Han and Chewie would have thought of. The thrilling chase through the ship graveyard on Jakku is real edge of your seat stuff and it plays particularly well on IMAX screens (presumably the format it was shot in). Overall, this scene is the perfect way to introduce new viewers to the ship and welcome back old ones as well. 9) Meet Supreme Leader Snoke Going into Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the film was the appearance of Supreme Leader Snoke. We've known for a while that Andy Serkis would be playing him via motion capture, and while the movie doesn't really provide any firm details about who he is (the popular fan theory is that he's the Emperor's Master who Palpatine mistakenly believed dead), we do at least get to see his face. Horribly scarred and seemingly very old, Snoke makes for a rather terrifying figure, something which is driven home by his gigantic size that's apparent the first time we see him talking to Kylo Ren and General Hux. The reveal that he's a hologram is very well handled, but each glimpse we get of Snoke in the movie is massively compelling and makes him a character that we won't stop talking about for a very long time. 8) BB-8 Gives A Thumbs Up This is only really a very small scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it's also perhaps the funniest. Despite the fact that the trailers gave the impression that this would be a very dark movie, there's a surprising amount of humour, with Finn, Han Solo and Chewbacca instantly springing to mind when it comes to delivering some big laughs. However, loveable droid BB-8 also delivers in this respect. The sweet and very charming droid has some great moments of physical comedy, though the one which got the most laughs at the screenings I've been to came when he uses a lighter contained within his round body to give Finn the thumbs up. It's totally unexpected, perfectly timed, and quite honestly one of the movie's funniest scenes by a long shot. 7) Finn Fights For Rey A highlight of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has to be the fact that Rey is never portrayed as a damsel in distress, even when she's captured by Kylo Ren. However, this doesn't mean that Finn won't do his utmost to save her when the time comes, and perhaps the best example of this is when the former Stormtrooper wields Luke Skywalker's lightsaber to battle the villain outside the Starkiller Base. While he's clearly had some combat training thanks to The First Order's teachings, he's hopelessly overpowered and essentially ends up sacrificing himself to save Rey. While he'll no doubt wake from that coma by the time Episode VIII rolls around, this was a powerful moment and one that will be interesting to see expanded on moving forwards. 6) General Hux's Speech Domhnall Gleeson takes a very interesting approach to playing General Hux in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and while some might say that he goes over the top as the fierce villain overseeing the Starkiller Base, it works absolutely perfectly for this particular character and surprisingly never feels out of place. This is most evident when he addresses The First Order and fires off their superweapon for the first time. There has frequently been comparisons between the Nazis and Empire in the past, but this is arguably the closest the franchise has ever come to really addressing those parallels, as the General delivers a rabid speech which is very similar to the ones Hitler was known for. It's a fascinating scene to watch, and Gleeson does an awesome job at nailing it. 5) Daniel Craig's Surprise Cameo Despite denials from Daniel Craig and director J.J. Abrams, the James Bond actor really does make a surprise cameo appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I didn't pick up on it the first time, but there was definitely something familiar about the Stormtrooper's voice who Rey manages to use the Force on in order to free herself from Kylo Ren's restraints, and yes, that member of The First Order really is 007. On a repeat viewing, it's easy to tell that it's Craig's voice, and while he isn't credited for his role, it's kind of bizarre to think that the star of Spectre is part of this world and responsible for one of the movie's funniest scenes. Whether Craig will ever acknowledge his involvement remains to be seen, but this is a great moment nonetheless. 4) Finn And Poe's Escape All of the Star Wars movies have had pretty memorable opening scenes following that now iconic crawl of text, and Abrams wastes no time in getting straight to the action in The Force Awakens. After establishing on Jakku that Finn isn't like the rest of The First Order, him helping Poe Dameron to escape (mostly because he needs a pilot to help him do so) is a moment which feels earned, and one which is followed by a downright awesome sequence which sees the two heroes essentially battling out with a Star Destroyer from within a single TIE Fighter. Other than with Darth Vader in A New Hope, we've never really got to spend an extended amount of time in one of these iconic spaceships, so that too helps to make this scene even more memorable. 3) Rey Is The Jedi Fans have suspected for a while now that Star Wars: The Force Awakens might reveal that Rey is actually this trilogy's Jedi character, with all those shots of Finn wielding the lightsaber existing solely to throw everyone off the scent. Well, it worked, and the reveal that the scavenger from Jakku is actually the one with a connection to the Force is really well handled by Abrams. The scene in which she manages to overpower Kylo Ren as he attempts to extract information from her using his powers is great, but perhaps the best one comes when she embraces her destiny and picks up Luke's lightsaber to take on the villain. It's going to be a welcome and refreshing change of pace to have a female lead, and Daisy Ridley looks set to do this role justice. 2) The Death Of Han Solo While this is a heartbreaking moment which it would be easy to get mad at J.J. Abrams about, it's handled so well that the filmmaker deserves applause and not scorn. Watching this scene, it's hard to shake the feeling of what is inevitably about to happen despite the fact that Kylo Ren (or should that be Ben Solo?) is clearly conflicted and struggling to vanquish the Light from within him. Murdering his father to do so is a horrific moment, but in many ways it pales in comparison to the hard to watch and tear inducing scene which sees the dying Han stroke his son's face one final time before dying. In just a single movie, Abrams did with Ben Solo what George Lucas failed to do well in an entire trilogy revolving around Anakin Skywalker's younger days. 1) Luke Skywalker Revealed Amazingly, coming out of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we know as little about Luke Skywalker now as we did a few years ago. Those rumours about him turning to the Dark Side (and essentially being Supreme Leader Snoke) were thankfully false, and the moment he removes his hood to face Rey is one which is sure to go down as one of the franchise's most iconic. It's hard to get a read on his emotions when we see Luke, and there are a very long list of questions which Star Wars Episode VIII is going to need to answer. However, this cliffhanger ending (a storytelling device which often doesn't work in movies) is the ideal way to bring Star Wars: The Force Awakens to a close. The next eighteen months are going to be tough to get through, that's for sure...