Like most big action blockbusters, every Star Wars movie culminates in a final battle that pays off all the conflicts from the story and sees the heroes triumphing over the villains once and for all (or, in the case of the saga’s benchmark, The Empire Strikes Back, the villains triumphing over the heroes).
From the destruction of the Death Star in the 1977 original to the nightmarish hellscape of flashing images at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, these battle sequences have varied in terms of excitement, suspense, and how well they paid off the setups that preceded them.
The Battle Of Exegol (The Rise Of Skywalker)
Somehow, Palpatine returned, and somehow, he raised a planet of Sith cultists, and somehow, he kept a giant fleet of Star Destroyers in mint condition underground. In the final battle of The Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance does battle with this fleet in the dreary, lightning-filled skies of Exegol. This sequence has such relentless flashing imagery that viewers with photosensitive epilepsy were warned it might give them seizures.
Ben Solo’s redemption is completely unearned because he doesn’t actually do anything besides decide to return to the light. The “I am all the Jedi” moment is cribbed from Endgame, as is the civilian fleet standing in for the heroes emerging from portals.
The Battle Of Starkiller Base (The Force Awakens)
The climactic battle in The Force Awakens sees a small rebel militia blowing up an evil empire’s superweapon capable of destroying entire planets, so it’s pretty derivative of the 1977 original movie. But it still has spectacular visual effects, and the lightsaber duel on Starkiller Base adds an interesting twist.
This duel sets up both Rey and Finn to train as Jedi Knights in the following movie; unfortunately, only the former got to actually become a Jedi while the latter was increasingly sidelined as the trilogy progressed.
Han & Beckett’s Duel (Solo)
On the whole, Solo: A Star Wars Story doesn’t live up to its promise as a space western. It has a train robbery sequence, but after the original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired, Ron Howard completed the movie as the bland, passable blockbuster that Lucasfilm apparently wanted.
But the movie’s climactic gunfight is ripped straight from a western. Han engages in a quick-draw duel with Tobias Beckett, the mentor who betrayed him. The greatest thing about this scene is that Han shoots first.
The Battle Of Naboo (The Phantom Menace)
During the Battle of Naboo, the final skirmish in The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi engage Darth Maul in one of the most intense, spectacular, and significant lightsaber duels in the entire saga. The first showdown between the Jedi and the Sith in 1,000 years, this frenzied fight ultimately determines Anakin’s dark fate, set to the sounds of John Williams’ incredible “Duel of the Fates.”
The only problem is, that’s a relatively small part of the overall battle and the scene cross-cuts with three other parallel storylines that are nowhere near as exciting: Jar Jar clumsily stumbles his way through battle droids on the frontlines, Padmé and her guards use silly Get Smart-esque gadgets to reclaim the palace, and nine-year-old Anakin accidentally blows up a Trade Federation command ship, ending the conflict. Now this is podracing!
The Battle Of Crait (The Last Jedi)
One of The Last Jedi’s biggest problems is its bloated runtime. Its final battle feels tagged on because the throne room set piece already felt like the final battle, so this movie basically has two final battles. Luke’s characterization in The Last Jedi was a bitter disappointment for many fans, but his final sacrifice is more in line with the familiar selfless, optimistic hero from the original trilogy.
The Battle of Crait at large is pretty inconsequential because Kylo Ren wastes all his firepower on one guy who isn’t even really there and Finn’s triumphant sacrifice is cut short by Rose for reasons that don’t make sense. If Finn had made that sacrifice, it would’ve saved the Resistance and concluded his arc of learning to care about the cause. Rose’s “saving what we love” line is a nice sentiment, but it’s nonsense.
The Battle Of Geonosis (Attack Of The Clones)
The final battle of Attack of the Clones set the stage beautifully for The Clone Wars animated series. The first Battle of Geonosis marked the beginning of the conflict. After the Separatists have captured Anakin, Padmé, and Obi-Wan and chained them up in a gladiatorial arena to be publicly executed, Mace Windu arrives with a dozens-strong Jedi strike force to liberate them.
The Separatists’ droid armies outnumber them, but the battle has one more twist up its sleeve when Yoda shows up with the cavalry. Just when the Jedis’ hope is fading, a bunch of gunships arrive, carrying the freshly cloned Grand Army of the Republic.
The Battle Of Scarif (Rogue One)
The final battle in Rogue One, which sees the Rebellion seizing the Death Star plans once and for all, has some dazzling space battle visuals and, for the most part, high-stakes action.
The sequence is let down by the fact that Jyn passes on the information in a wholly unexciting file transfer as opposed to taking a physical hard drive across the battlefield as was the original plan, but (SPOILER ALERT!) killing off every single main character in the same movie they were introduced was a very bold, unexpected move.
Escape From Cloud City (The Empire Strikes Back)
The MVP of The Empire Strikes Back’s final battle — in which the Rebels flee from Cloud City, having lost one of their group to carbonite freezing — is Luke and Vader’s climactic duel. Yoda warned Luke that he wasn’t ready to confront Vader, but he couldn’t allow Han and Leia to face danger alone. As expected, he’s hopelessly outmatched against the infamous Sith Lord, who he then learns is his biological father.
After Vader alters the deal one too many times, Lando switches sides again and turns on the Empire. While Leia and Chewie are understandably skeptical to trust him, he helps them escape from Bespin and leaves with them on the Falcon to join the Rebellion and save Han.
Battle Of The Heroes (Revenge of The Sith)
After the Great Jedi Purge, Revenge of the Sith culminates in two lightsaber duels that will decide the fate of the galaxy: Yoda takes on Darth Sidious, who has just wiped out most of the Jedi Order, and Obi-Wan takes on Anakin, who turned to the dark side and helped Sidious do it. Obi-Wan and Anakin’s explosive duel on Mustafar is suitably emotional — and surprisingly dark.
Yoda’s duel with Sidious is kind of goofy, but using their immense Force powers to toss the senators’ pods around the senate floor makes for an interesting visual metaphor for the endgame of Palpatine’s years-in-the-making masterplan and the birth of the Empire.
The Battle Of Endor (Return Of The Jedi)
George Lucas set the template for Star Wars’ elaborate cross-cutting finales with Return of the Jedi, and it’s one of the few in which all facets of the battle are interesting — there isn’t a more exciting part that viewers are waiting for the movie to cut back to because they’re all exciting.
Han, Leia, Chewie, and the Ewoks are deactivating the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor; Luke is in the Emperor’s throne room, trying to bring his father back to the light; and Lando and the Rebel fleet are infiltrating the Death Star’s core to blow it up. The second Death Star is somewhat derivative, but Jedi does enough to shake up the formula with its three-pronged approach.
The Battle Of Yavin (A New Hope)
Disney will surely keep making Star Wars movies for years to cash in on its $4 billion investment in a galaxy far, far away, but none of them will ever have a final battle that tops the Death Star trench run. From Han and Chewie’s triumphant return in the Falcon to the appearance of Obi-Wan’s disembodied Force ghost, this sequence is filled with classic moments.
Even after watching this movie a million times, Luke switching off his targeting computer remains as tense as ever and the explosion of the Empire’s battle station is as exhilarating as ever.