Leaked Star Wars: The Force Awakens screenplay answers heaps of questions

Still yet to see Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens?

Then turn back - the leaked screenplay of Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams and Michael Arndt will only ruin your experience of the latest entry in the Star Wars saga.

Picked up by SlashFilm after Disney released the screenplay to members of the Writers Guild of America for awards consideration, the detailed screenplay adds some insightful scene descriptions and directions that help clarify certain plot points.

With the spoiler warning in place, here are the most interesting revelations to be gleaned from the document.

[Via: SlashFilm]

The importance of Simon Pegg's Unkar Plutt

Simon Pegg was revealed to be the human inside junk trader Unkar Plutt's unfortunate frame - but the script confirms that it was this Plutt who Rey was initially left in the care of.

'A little girl. Rey as a child. She is sobbing, hysterical. Unkar Plutt’s meaty hand holds her thin arm. She is on Jakku, watching a starship fly into the sky, abandoning her.” Rey yells, “No, come back!” and Unkar Plutt responds, “Quiet, girl!” as the “ship flies towards the desert sun, which is strangely eclipsed, as if being eaten by darkness.'

All of which means that Plutt was left with both the Millennium Falcon and Rey. Could it be a link to Han Solo? Rey mentions that the Falcon ended up in Plutt's hands from "the Irving Boys, who stole it from Ducain", but could this be a story that Solo provided Plutt with to keep Rey from realising her parentage. 

We're thinking that Rey could in fact be the daughter of Han and Leia, brother of Ben. After Ben turns all nasty, Han and Leia could put Rey in hiding, hoping her own Force powers don't take a dark turn like her brother's. 

Rey's visions given detail

Upon finding Luke's old Lightsaber, Rey is given a series of menacing visions - the exact details of which may have passed you by. The screenplay gives some clarity to proceedings.

The vision does indeed begin with a shot from "deep within Cloud City", to a shot of Luke and R2-D2 during an attack on his new Jedi training academy, shown in the background as "a BURNING TEMPLE AT NIGHT".

And you can drop any fan theories you might be brewing as to who we see stabbed by Ren during this sequence, as he's listed as nothing more than "A WARRIOR" who is stabbed by "A FIERY LIGHTSABER!"

The screenplay also confirms that the motley crew surrounding Kylo Ren are indeed the Knights of Ren. Quite when we'll get to see more of them is beyond us.

Kylo Ren's 'realisation'

One last warning - if you've not seen the film, turn away now.

In the moments immediately after Kylo Ren/Ben Solo kills Han Solo, the script notes the following:

"Kylo Ren is somehow WEAKENED by this wicked act... horrified". His "SHOCK is broken" only when Chewbacca cries out.

So whilst Kylo Ren might have thought that taking down his father would make him stronger, it might in fact have triggered his slow descent into regret and madness.

Luke knows who Rey is

During that final, tantalising meeting between Rey and Luke, the screenplay describes the aged Skywalker giving the young traveller a look with "kindness in his eyes, but there’s something tortured, too."

Luke "doesn’t need to ask her who she is, or what she is doing here... his look says it all."

Rey stretches out the lightsaber to him, apparently as "an offer. A plea. The galaxy’s only hope."

The script concludes: "HOLD ON LUKE SKYWALKER’S INCREDIBLE FACE, amazed and conflicted at what he sees, as our MUSIC BUILDS, the promise of an adventure, just beginning…"

The conflict and torture all link to the briefly mentioned back story that Luke has struggled to deal with the emergence of Ben Solo as the evil Kylo Ren under his own training - what's of greater interest is the notion that Luke somehow knows Rey.

The result of a Jedi sense, or a deeper hint at Rey's family link to Luke? We'll have to wait until 2017 for answers.

Rey's encounter with the dark side

During the final battle between Rey and Kylo Ren, there's a moment in which Rey appears to reject the opportunity to strike a killing blow. 

The screenplay makes this moment far more explicit, saying "she could kill him - right now, with ONE VICIOUS STRIKE! But she stops. Realizing she stands on a greater edge than even the cliff - the edge of the dark side. The earth SHAKES. The earth splits. A gully forms."

This brush with the dark side becomes all the more apparent in the official novel of the film, which states that Rey hears in her own mind say "kill him", which she ignores.

Again, this could hint at Rey sharing the same conflicted path as Ben/Kylo Ren - taking the light path rather than the dark.