It is a period of civil war.Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DeathStar, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...

The movie opens with a space battle between two starships in orbit around the desert planet of Tatooine. A small Rebel blockade runner is being pursued by a mammoth Imperial star destroyer. Two droids -- C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) -- aboard the blockade runner are tossed about as their ship endures a barrage of laser bolts. The Rebel ship is so heavily damaged that its main power reactor must be shut down. It is caught in the Imperial destroyer's tractor beam, pulled into the hold of the larger ship, and boarded by Imperial troops.

A huge firefight ensues in the corridors of the Rebel ship, with many Rebel soldiers being lost in the battle. Darth Vader (David Prowse; voice: James Earl Jones), a man dressed in a cape, black armor, and a helmet which disguises all of his features, is the leader of the Imperial troops. He boards the Rebel ship and interrogates a captive officer, who claims that the ship is on a diplomatic mission to the planet Alderaan. Vader perceives that he is lying, noting that a consular ship would have an ambassador on board, which they don't, and strangles the officer. He then tells the troops to search the entire ship and look for "the plans" and to bring all the passengers to him -- alive.

C-3PO and R2-D2 manage to escape damage from the firefight. R2-D2 meets up with Princess Leia, who records a holographic message for the small droid to take to the planet's surface. R2-D2 and C-3PO get away from the ship aboard an escape pod to go to the planet below; Imperial troops choose not to destroy the pod, as their scans detect no living organism on board, and presume it ejected due to a malfunction. Moments later the princess is shot by a stun gun and taken captive. C-3PO and R2-D2 land on the desert planet; R2-D2 mentions a mission to deliver some plans, but C-3PO is more concerned with staying in one piece long enough to find civilization. The two split up, and both are eventually captured by a group of diminutive scavengers called Jawas. The Jawas are junk traders, and R2-D2 and C-3PO are their newest assets.

Back on the blockade runner, Darth Vader interrogates the princess his troops have captured. He tells her that the Rebels have stolen some secret Imperial plans and transmitted them to her ship, and that he wants them back. She informs Vader that she is simply a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to the planet Alderaan, but Vader doesn't believe her. Vader's assi