Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Star Wars movies became stagnant after the release of Return of the Jedi and the prequel trilogy, since the overreaching plot was intended to end with Luke Skywalker saving his father from the Dark Side, which was accomplished towards the end of Episode VI. However, with George Lucas selling the rights to the franchise to Disney in 2012, a new opportunity for progress was created. With it, a new trilogy of mainline films and at least two expository movies were made as the years passed. The first of these, The Force Awakens, became the seventh film in the main continuity of the Star Wars franchise.


 * Ace Pilot: Poe Dameron, one of the squadron leaders from the Resistance earns his keep by shooting down several TIE Fighters and quick succession and destroying Starkiller Base with his X-Wing. And his expertise isn't limited to just one ship. In his own words, "I can fly anything" when asked if he can fly a Special Forces Tie Fighter.
 * Achilles in His Tent: Han Solo gets this treatment on the grounds that he retired from being a war hero and went back to illegal shipping industry. However, the Resistance needed someone to infiltrate Starkiller Base and his son really needs some spiritual guidance.
 * Adult Fear:
 * Not unlike the Empire of the previous movies, the mannerisms of the First Order are similar to some of the worst dictatorships in history -- complete with training Child Soldiers, killing a massive number of civilians on-screen, General Hux giving a fanatical speech in front of his army, and heavily punishing dissenters.
 * Han's and Leia's reaction to their son working for the First Order is akin to learning that your child has willingly joined a cult.
 * Airstrike Impossible: Where the first Death Star involved running a trench filled with AA guns and the second one had the Millennium Falcon and a small number of fighters flying through the space station's maintenance tunnels; Starkiller Base was destroyed by combining the two with the Resistance losing starfighters to the base's ground defense on their final run and Poe Dameron flying into an access tunnel to destroy the machinery that was suppressing the vast amounts of energy within Starkiller base.
 * Alas, Poor Yorick: Kylo Ren has somehow managed to obtain most of Darth Vader's charred helmet and he's mainly talking to it to lament how he's failing to become as strong as him.
 * All There in the Manual: The expanded universe novels and comics explains what fans see as plot holes in the movie, such as the sources of Rey's knowledge and the inner workings of the Millennium Falcon (they were taught to her by the scavengers).
 * Anticlimax Boss: Captain Phasma got a lot of hype during the movie's pre-release days, with Disney clearly trying to hype her up as a really big deal. She gets maybe a minute or so of screentime before being unceremoniously tossed down a garbage chute after dooming Starkiller Base to destruction just to save her own skin.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: The main weakness of Starkiller Base is that there is a need to contain the energy it receives from absorbing a star and the base's thermal oscillator is one of the more important safeguards that's preventing the energy from violently tearing the First Order's stronghold apart. The Resistance is aware of the oscillator's role and with it's destruction, Starkiller Base explodes in a similar manner to the second Death Star.
 * The Cavalry: Finn, Solo, and Chewbacca are on the verge of being overrun by the First Order in the ruins of Maz's cantina. As the Stormtroopers were processing their new prisoners, Poe Dameron leads a squadron of X-Wings to free the heroes from their captors and the battle gains a second wind as Poe decimates the First Order's air support and the occasional Stormtrooper.
 * Derelict Graveyard: Sometime between this film and Return of the Jedi there was a massive battle between the New Republic and the stragglers of the Galactic Empire above Jakku, and the aftermath is the hulls of several Imperial Star Destroyers partially submerged in the planet's sand dunes. And also, Rey is living inside an incapacitated AT-AT.
 * Heel Face Turn: The Stormtroopers of the First Order are supposed to be loyal and apathetic, among other things. FN-2187 quickly grew a conscience after his first mission and started planning to desert the First Order.
 * Interstellar Weapon: Unlike the Death Star, Starkiller base doesn't need to be relatively close to a planet in order to destroy it; it can destroy it's targets several star systems away.
 * Line-of-Sight Name: FN-2187 never knew what his actual name was and his serial number was too cumbersome for Poe to repeat, so Poe just went with "Finn" and the name stuck.
 * Meaningful Name: Starkiller Base: It consumes a star and redirects that energy to destroy several planets that were several light-years away from it.
 * Moment Killer: After the Resistance pilots chased off the First Order over the remains of Maz's cantina, Leia greets the survivors and shares an emotional reunion with Han Solo...Until C-3PO ruins the scene by abruptly stepping in between them.
 * Rebellious Prisoner: When he realizes that he can't leave Jakku to the mercy of Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron gives BB8 the message about Luke's location and tells the droid to run, while he fires on the Stormtroopers to distract them. It goes about as well as you expect, especially since Kylo Ren can stop laser blasts in mid-air, but he snarks how Kylo Ren seems to enjoy being the dark and broody type. Kylo Ren manages to get BB8's location out of him with a mind probe, but Poe fights it with all his willpower.
 * Rey does the same thing when Kylo Ren recognizes her as the scavenger girl that helped the droid, knocks her out, and takes her to his ship for interrogation. She manages to resist the mind probe fully, and then improvises a Jedi Mind trick to convince a Stormtrooper to free her, leave the cell door unattended, and drop his weapon for her.
 * Time Skip: When it comes to the franchise's timeline, the films range from being set several months to a decade from each other. The Force Awakens breaks the trend by taking thirty years after the events of [[Return of the Jedi].]
 * Vestigial Empire: The First Order is essentially the continuation of the Galactic Empire after they've been hiding on the outskirts of the galaxy for around 30 years.
 * Weapon of Mass Destruction: In a nutshell, Starkiller base is the new Death Star. Except that it can destroy several planets at once from a remote location and it gets most of its energy from absorbing stars.
 * We Have Ways of Making You Talk: Poe's fate after being visibly scarred from the First Order's brand of torturing is Kylo Ren probing his mind with the Force to learn where the pilot hid an important set of navigation coordinates.
 * What a Piece of Junk!: Given its derelict state and age, the Millennium Falcon's appearance on Jakku prompts Rey to call it a piece of garbage.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?:
 * Early on in the film, one of Finn's squadmates takes a blaster bolt to the chest and reaches out to Finn as he takes his final breath. It's worth noting that the previous Star Wars film never placed this level of emphasis on a random soldier and shows that the new Stormtroopers aren't the emotionless warriors of the Galactic Empire.
 * Finn, himself, is a Stormtrooper without a notable combat record and is visibly shaken by the death of his aforementioned comrade and the massacre on Jakku. And he wastes no time freeing Poe because, "it's the right thing to do."
 * You Are Number Six: How the First Order names their Stormtroopers. In Finn's case, it's FN-2187, and his squadmates were FN-2199, FN-2000, and FN-1999.