Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker Film Synopsis
A scavenger-turned-Jedi follows a trail from desert festivals to a hidden Sith world, confronting a resurrected tyrant, the truth of her bloodline, and a fallen prince’s redemption. With allies gathered from every corner of the galaxy, a final battle decides the fate of the Force and the future of hope.
The Return of a Hidden Power
One year after the struggle on Crait, a mysterious broadcast echoes across the galaxy in the voice of Emperor Palpatine, long believed dead. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren treats the message as a challenge to his authority and hunts its source. On a scarred Mustafar, he cuts through Alazmec cultists and soldiers to seize a Sith wayfinder once owned by Darth Vader. Fitting the triangular device into his TIE whisper, he follows its guidance through a crimson nebula to Exegol, a secret world of the Sith.
Ren descends by platform into an immense subterranean chamber lined with ancient statues and humming machinery tended by robed acolytes. Vats reveal deformed Snoke bodies, and a life-sustaining rig keeps an emaciated Palpatine alive. The Emperor admits he “made” Snoke, claims the dark side grants unnatural abilities, and offers Ren everything: a vast fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers—the Final Order—rising from the ice. In exchange, Palpatine commands Ren to kill Rey. He warns that Rey is not who Ren believes, planting a question Ren intends to answer.
A Falcon Run and Dire News
Elsewhere, Finn and Poe Dameron spar with Chewbacca over dejarik aboard the Millennium Falcon when an alarm sends them to a rendezvous at the Sinta Glacier Colony. The Ovissian informant Boolio hands them data from a First Order spy and urges them to win the war. First Order TIEs descend, forcing Poe to flee through tight spaces and then “lightspeed skip” across hazardous locales. They survive but return to base with a battered ship and BB-8 scuffed from Rey’s earlier training accident.
On Ajan Kloss, Rey meditates among floating stones, pleading to commune with past Jedi and failing. Leia Organa, guiding Rey’s training, reassures her. Rey resumes an obstacle course, dueling a training remote while sensing a connection to Kylo Ren as he broods over Vader’s mask. When the Falcon returns, arguments flare over the ship’s damage and the urgency of the war, but the focus shifts to a briefing. Poe announces the worst: somehow, Palpatine has returned, a Sith cult on Exegol is preparing a fleet, and in sixteen hours they will launch. Exegol is absent from star maps; only lore names it.
Rey confides to Leia that Luke had been searching for a path to Exegol via a Sith wayfinder. Vowing to finish his work, she plans to depart for Pasaana, where Luke’s last known trail leads. Though resolved to go alone, she is joined by Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, and C-3PO. Leia advises Rey not to fear who she is and hands her the Skywalker lightsaber.
Supreme Leader and Council
Aboard the Steadfast, Kylo Ren has his helmet reforged by the alchemist Albrekh and convenes the Supreme Council. He slams Boolio’s severed head on the table, declaring a spy is among them. General Pryde, an old Imperial, supports integrating the Sith fleet. When General Quinn questions the gift, Ren kills him with a casual Force choke. Ren orders the First Order to prepare to crush defiant worlds and sets his Knights of Ren on the hunt for Rey.
Festival in the Desert
The Falcon arrives on Pasaana during the Aki-Aki Festival of the Ancestors, which occurs once every forty-two years. Disguised among the revelers, the group gathers information. A child offers Rey a beaded necklace and asks for her family name; Rey says she has none. Through their Force bond, Ren speaks to Rey, revealing that Palpatine wants her dead. He pulls the necklace from her neck across the bond and identifies its origin, directing Pryde to the Forbidden Valley.
Stormtroopers close in, but a masked ally spirits the heroes to safety. He reveals himself as Lando Calrissian. Lando explains that he and Luke once tracked the assassin Ochi of Bestoon, who vanished, his ship abandoned in the desert. Only two Sith wayfinders ever existed. Lando, now retired, points them toward Ochi’s ship but declines to rejoin the fight.
Treadspeeder Pursuit and the Sinking Fields
The heroes steal skiff speeders and race across the dunes, pursued by treadspeeders carrying jet troopers. BB-8 deploys smoke to blind a pursuer; Rey blasts another. After collisions and blaster fire, the last trooper disables both skiffs, flinging the heroes into the Sinking Fields. As they sink, Finn attempts to confess something to Rey but is swallowed by the sand along with the others.
They drop into subterranean tunnels. By the glow of Poe’s light and Rey’s saber, they find Ochi’s remains and a dagger etched in ancient Sith runes. C-3PO recognizes the language but cannot translate it due to programming restrictions. A wounded, serpentine vexis corners them. Rey notices its injury, uses the Force to heal it, and the creature withdraws, revealing a path to the surface. Above, the Knights of Ren arrive and begin their hunt.
A Duel of Wills and an Apparent Loss
The team rushes to Ochi’s ship. Rey senses Kylo’s approach and sends the others ahead. Chewbacca circles back for her but is captured by Knights and troopers, who seize the dagger. Kylo dives his TIE whisper toward Rey; she sprints and bisects a wing, wrecking the fighter. Finn shouts that Chewie has been taken. Rey and Kylo engage in a tug-of-war over a troop transport with the Force. Lightning erupts from Rey’s hand, annihilating the ship—apparently killing Chewbacca. Shocked, Rey flees with the others in Ochi’s vessel while the First Order impounds the Falcon.
Aboard the Steadfast, Pryde orders Chewbacca taken to interrogation; he survived on a second transport. On Ochi’s ship, Poe argues for retreat, but C-3PO reveals he retains the dagger’s inscription in memory. Extracting it requires a memory wipe. Poe proposes Kijimi, where a droidsmith can help. BB-8 revives a skittish wheel-droid, D-O, who bonds with Rey and hints that Ochi mistreated him.
Kijimi, Babu Frik, and a Price
On snowy Kijimi, Zorii Bliss and her crew corner Poe, exposing his past as a spice runner. After a brief scuffle, Zorii—impressed by Rey—leads them to Babu Frik. Frik can unlock the Sith message but warns it will erase C-3PO’s memory. With Chewbacca presumed dead and time running out, C-3PO chooses to sacrifice his memories, taking “one last look” at his friends. The inscription reveals that Palpatine’s wayfinder lies among the Death Star ruins in the Endor system.
As the Steadfast enters orbit, Poe and Zorii speak on a rooftop. She gives him a First Order captain’s medallion, a clearance chip that can pass any blockade, insisting that people are not alone and that more allies exist than fear suggests. In Frik’s shop, C-3PO reboots without memories.
Infiltration and Revelations
Rey senses Chewbacca alive aboard the Steadfast. Using Zorii’s medallion, the heroes land inside the Star Destroyer. Rey splits off, drawn by the dagger to Kylo’s quarters, where she finds Vader’s destroyed helmet and experiences a vision of her parents confronting Ochi. Through their bond, she and Kylo ignite sabers and duel across locations—Rey in the Steadfast, Kylo on Kijimi’s streets. He reveals the rest of her story: her parents chose obscurity to hide her from Palpatine, who ordered them killed when they refused to surrender her.
Meanwhile, Poe and Finn locate Chewie and blast him free, only to be captured. General Hux, harboring hatred for Kylo, exposes himself as the spy and executes the firing squad, then allows the heroes to escape, asking only that they shoot him in the arm to mask his treachery. Pryde sees through Hux’s story afterward and executes him for treason.
Kylo arrives in the hangar and confronts Rey. He discloses the truth Palpatine withheld: she is the Emperor’s granddaughter. As Leia’s heir through Vader, Kylo declares them a dyad in the Force—two that are one. He offers alliance to kill Palpatine and take the throne. Rey refuses, and the Falcon blasts stormtroopers with its thrusters as Finn hauls her aboard. In hyperspace, Rey vows to find Exegol and destroy Sidious, while the Emperor orders Ren to kill her and warns that his fleet can turn against a disobedient Supreme Leader.
The Ocean Moon of Kef Bir
Guided by the dagger’s inscription, they reach Kef Bir, an Endor system moon wracked by turbulent seas. Jannah and a group of former stormtroopers—conscientious deserters like Finn—discover the Falcon’s rough landing and offer help. From a cliff, Rey aligns a fold-out edge on the dagger to the Death Star wreckage on the horizon; the edges match a jagged silhouette. Though Jannah advises waiting for safer tides, Rey pilots a skimmer alone through crashing waves.
Inside the ruins, she reaches the shattered throne room and enters an adjacent vault. Touching the wayfinder triggers a vision: a dark-robed version of herself with a hinged, double-bladed saber. Rey fights the apparition, stumbles back into the corridor, and drops the wayfinder—directly into Kylo Ren’s hand. He destroys it, insisting she can only reach Exegol with him. They duel through flooding halls and across wreckage plates as Finn and Jannah arrive. Finn tries to intervene; Rey Force-shoves him away to save him.
On Ajan Kloss, Leia senses the conflict. With the last of her strength, she reaches out through the Force, calling her son’s birth name—Ben. He hesitates, and Rey drives his own crossguard saber through his torso. At the same instant, Leia dies, and R2-D2 keens beside her covered form. Realizing what she has done and sensing Leia’s passing, Rey heals Ben’s wound with the Force, confesses she would have taken his hand—as Ben Solo—and flies away in his TIE whisper, shaken by her lineage and her power.
Ben Solo’s Choice and Kijimi’s Fate
On the ruins, Ben faces a memory of his father, Han Solo. In a mirror of their last meeting, Han calls him “Ben,” insists Kylo Ren is dead, and allows his son to release the past. Ben hurls his lightsaber into the sea, reclaiming his identity.
On the Steadfast, Pryde speaks to Palpatine, who orders a demonstration. A single Xyston Star Destroyer annihilates Kijimi with its axial superlaser. On Ajan Kloss, Poe mourns Leia and doubts his fitness to lead. Lando arrives, reminding him that the Rebellion succeeded because they had each other. Poe names Finn his co-general. D-O’s stored knowledge confirms that Ochi intended to take Rey to Exegol, giving the Resistance insight for the coming battle.
The Last Lesson on Ahch-To
Rey flies Ben’s TIE to Ahch-To and attempts self-exile, burning the fighter and throwing away Luke’s saber. Luke’s Force spirit catches the weapon, chiding that a Jedi’s blade deserves more respect. He admits fear kept him on the island and tells Rey that he and Leia knew her lineage but trained her for who she is, not for her blood. He gives her Leia’s lightsaber, recounting how Leia foreseeing her son’s death set her weapon aside for someone who would finish her journey. Luke insists that confronting fear is a Jedi’s destiny. Rey remembers there were two wayfinders and recovers Vader’s from the wrecked TIE. Luke lifts his submerged X-wing, Red Five, for her. She departs for Exegol, broadcasting coordinates for the Resistance to follow.
Mustering the Galaxy
On Ajan Kloss, R2-D2 restores C-3PO’s memories. Poe and Finn plan their assault: starfighter squadrons will target the navigation beacon guiding the Final Order fleet off Exegol, while a ground team strikes once the fleet is immobilized. Lando and Chewbacca depart to rally allies. Poe warns against hoping for a second “Holdo maneuver” and urges the pilots to believe that good people will fight if the Resistance leads.
The Battle of Exegol
Rey navigates Red Five through gravitational anomalies to Exegol and enters the Sith Citadel. Above, the Resistance fleet emerges into a storm of ion fire from the Star Destroyers and swarms of Sith TIEs. Poe leads a landing team toward the surface navigation tower, but Pryde switches the guidance signal to the Steadfast, forcing a change of plan. Finn senses the new source through the Force and reroutes the ground assault onto the command ship itself. Riding hardy orbaks across the Steadfast’s hull, Finn, Jannah, and troopers fight crimson Sith soldiers and jet troopers while BB-8 opens access hatches.
In the auditorium, Rey finds Palpatine enthroned before a vast congregation of Sith loyalists. He reveals his true aim: if she kills him in hatred, all the Sith spirits will inhabit her and the Sith will be reborn. He taunts her about her parents’ strength and claims only he is her family. Overhead, the battle goes badly; Poe grieves lost pilots and calls for any reinforcements to make their stand.
Ben arrives on Exegol in an old TIE, fights through Sovereign Protectors, and is ambushed by the Knights of Ren. Through their bond, Rey passes Luke’s lightsaber into his hand. He defeats the Knights; she wields Leia’s saber, and together they face the Emperor. Palpatine pulls them to their knees and, realizing they are a dyad, drains their life force to rejuvenate. Revived, he hurls Ben into a chasm and unleashes a colossal storm of Force lightning that arcs into the sky, crippling ships across the allied armada.
Rey lies still and whispers, “Be with me,” and at last hears the chorus of Jedi past—Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda, Qui-Gon, Ahsoka, Kanan, Mace Windu, and others—urging her to rise. She stands. Palpatine focuses his lightning upon her. She blocks with Leia’s blade, then draws Luke’s to form a crossed defense. The Emperor proclaims himself all the Sith; Rey answers that she is all the Jedi, and steps forward, turning his lightning back upon him. Palpatine disintegrates; the temple collapses, crushing the chanting throng.
Victory and Cost
On the Steadfast, Finn and Jannah connect cables to a captured surface cannon and blow the bridge; Pryde dies with his ship. The rest of the Sith fleet erupts as the citizens’ armada—led by Lando and Chewbacca in the Falcon and joined by countless volunteers, including Zorii Bliss and Wedge Antilles—overwhelms the remaining Star Destroyers. Across the galaxy, First Order warships fall over Bespin, Endor, and Jakku as uprisings ignite.
Exhausted, Rey dies on the shattered floor of the Citadel. Finn senses her passing. Ben climbs from the chasm, crawls to her, and gives his life energy to revive her. Rey awakens; they share a grateful, gentle kiss. Ben smiles, then fades into the Force as his mother’s body vanishes on Ajan Kloss.
Celebrations and Farewells
The Resistance returns to Ajan Kloss. Pilots and fighters embrace, mourning the lost and honoring the saved. Maz Kanata hands Chewbacca a Medal of Bravery. Poe exchanges a wordless, playful look with Zorii; Finn and Poe hug. Lando comforts Jannah and offers to help her discover her origins. Rey returns in Red Five and shares a three-way embrace with Poe and Finn.
Later, Rey pilots the Falcon to Tatooine. At the abandoned Lars homestead, she buries Luke’s and Leia’s sabers beneath the sands and ignites a new, yellow-bladed lightsaber she has built. An old woman asks her name. Looking toward the twin suns as the shimmering forms of Luke and Leia watch, she answers, “Rey Skywalker.” With BB-8, she faces the sunrise.
