The final chapter of the wonderful series concludes Rey’s story and brings back a villain from the past. This movie is the last time we see Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, and Mark Hamil as Luke Skywalker. Star Wars IX: The rise of Skywalker even brings back many fan favourite actors and voice actors like Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi. It brings the Skywalker saga to a close, the saga which started with episode 4 in 1977 ends with episode 9 in 2019.

The movie begins with Kylo Ren on the volcanic planet of Mustafar fighting the locals looking for something that drew him to the planet. He uncovers a Sith way finder with coordinates to an uncharted planet Exegol, upon reaching the planet Kylo discovers Emperor Palpatine believed to be dead after the events of Episode 6. The emperor reveals he survived and created Snoke as a puppet to lure Kylo to the Dark side and control the First Order, he orders Kylo to find and kill Rey. Kylo is given stronger subordinate Knights to help with his mission, he again becomes the leader of the Knight of Ren. Rey is continuing her Jedi training under master Leia organa.

Finn and Poe Dameron learn from a spy that Emperor Palpatine is alive and operating from Exegol, Rey knows from Lukes notes that the only way to reach Exegol is by using a Sith way finder. Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB-8 and C3-PO depart on the millennium falcon looking for clues about the way finder, they reach a planet called Pasaana. The clues lead them to Lando Calrissian who helps them locate the ship of Jedi Hunter Ochi, there they find a Sith Dagger and Ochi’s remains. Rey experiences a vision of her past aboard the ship before Kylo initiates their Force bond connection. They are part of a rare Force phenomenon known as a Force dyad where 2 force sensitive subjects are connected to each other.

Kylo arrives on Pasaana with the knight of Ren and engages Rey in a duel. The first order captures the chewie and takes him away along with the dagger using a transport, Rey tries to use the Force to stop the transport from leaving the planet. Rey accidentaly uses Force lightning to destroy the transport when locked in combat with Kylo. Believing Chewie to be dead the group escapes using Ochi’s ship. The group travels to Kijimi to see a droid smith, C3-PO knows almost every language in existence but cannot translate the Sith text on the dagger. C3-Po’s programming prevents him from translating the text, so the group hopes to use a droid smith to override the programming. The droid smith is successful in extracting and translating the Sith text which leads the group to a Sith way finder.

Rey senses Chewie to be alive and the group infiltrate Kylo’s star destroyer to rescue him and get the dagger back. Rey recovers the dagger and has vision of Ochi killing her parents with it, Kylo reveals that Rey is the granddaughter of emperor Palpatine. The rest of the group is sentenced to be executed but is saved by general Hux that reveals himself to be the spy who revealed the plans of the First Order to the resistance. Hux lets the group escape using the Falcon but is discoverd by General Pryde and executed for treason. The group escape to a moon in the endor system to find the way finder, they are greeted by ex-storm troopers led by Jannah. Rey against the wishes of her friends goes to the ruins of the Death star to find the way finder alone, she fights a vision of herself before retrieving the way finder. Kylo Ren reaches the death star and engages Rey in a duel, after a brief battle Kylo stops before he could deliver the killing blow when his dying mother reaches out with the force. Rey uses this opportunity to impale Ren but heals him when she senses Leia’s death.

Rey uses Kylo’s ship to exile herself on Ahch-to fearing her own powers and future. Meanwhile Poe assumes command of the resistance along with Finn after Leias death. On Ahch-to Luke’s Force spirit convinces Rey by giving her Leias’s light saber to face Palpatine and destroy the threat once and for all. Rey having destroyed Kylo’s ship uses Luke’s X-Wing to reach Exegol, she asks R2 to send her coordinates to the resistance and asks them to join her on exegol. Kylo Ren converses with his father Han Solo for the last time before reclaiming his identity as Ben Solo by throwing his red saber away.

On Exegol Rey confronts palpatine while the resistance gets nearly decimated by the troops, Palpatine asks Rey to strike him down to complete the cycle of hatred and so that Palpatine could take over her body. Ben arrives on Exegol and fights against the Knights of Ren before joining Rey against the emperor. The emperor drains the dyad to rejuvenate himself, a rejuvenated emperor attacks the resistance fleet with lightning. All the past Jedi lend their strength to Rey to help her defeat Palpatine, she defeats him at the cost of her own life. Ben uses the Force to revive Rey using his own Life force before becoming one with the force. Lando leads reinforcements from the galaxy to aid the resistance defeat the new order, the resistance defeats Palpatine’s armada and leaves to their base to celebrate.

Rey visits Luke’s abandoned home on Tatooine and buries Luke’s and Leia’s sabers, a passer-by asks Rey who she is. Rey answers that she is Rey Skywalker symbolising her choosing the Light.

This Wraps up the beautiful space saga off star wars. The cinematic universe is now branched off into a few spin-offs that talk about the interim stories. We’ll wrap our star wars explained series over here. may the Force be with you.