Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) one of the most gifted scientists in the Republic. Terrified by the implications of his work, Galen takes his family into hiding. When they’re found by murderous Imperial bureaucrat Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), Jyn’s mother Lyra is killed, her dad is captured and she goes on the run.

Fifteen years later, Jyn is rescued from Imperial captivity by Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his reprogrammed Imperial droid, K2-S0 (Alan Tudyk). Word has come in from a defecting Imperial pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), of something terrible. Something that Galen has built and now must be destroyed before it threatens the entire galaxy.

That’s a lot of names and a dead wife to remember and we haven’t even got to Forrest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera the reluctant mentor to Jyn or Donnie Yen and Jian Wen as Chirrut and Baze, two former Guardians of the Whills at Jedha City where the Empire is mining Kyber Crystals for the Death Star and Saw is waging a one faction war against them. It’s dizzying stuff, but the movie trusts you and guides you through it all with almost offhand ease. You know all these people very quickly, you like most of them just as fast. That means what happens next hurts even more.

Rogue One is a strong contender for the best Star Wars movie ever made. It’s careful, considered, inconceivably bleak and manages the utterly impossible task of telling a complete story that sets up one of the most popular modern myths in recent history. It also manages to do this again as a third act of Andor, the spin-off TV show prequel that is somehow much better than all those words suggest.

Gary Whitta, John Knoll, Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz’s script is key to all this, and timelier than ever now. It’s full of people tired of seeing injustice go unpunished and struggling with the cost of action. Every character feels poised to act, whether it’s Jyn or a single scene character we never see again.  Everyone feels like the hero of their own story and we’re just seeing one, often final, part of it. Even poor doomed Lyra Erso (Valene Kane), with three lines, has fascinating backstory coded in. She’s wearing the same robes as Chirrut, suggesting that she, Galen and Jyn spent a lot more time on Jedha than we see, and that gets discussed here. It’s subtle worldbuilding made subtler by how little time we have with anyone. The Death Star is waiting for all of them, a punctuation mark on the galaxy and on every life that it threatens to eclipse. Everyone united under the shared terror of imminent destruction and everyone doing their best.

Comic writer Kieron Gillen famously talked about the incredible final scene here, with the Death Star plans perpetually a half second from re-capture as a string of anonymous Rebel soldiers die to give the next person the half second they need. The movie is full of moments like that, of identity defined in your closing seconds. K2’s anguished ‘GOODBYE’ as he’s finally gunned down. Chirrut and Baze’s shared deaths. Bodhi’s hesitant, defiant ‘…Rogue… Rogue One’ christening of their final mission and the countless Rebels that would unite under their banner. This is a film about people winning by increments, by snatching seconds from their oppressors and it’s as inspiring as it is heartbreaking as well as depressingly timely.

The cast all excel, but Mendelsohn’s oily middle manager, Luna’s haunted murderous spy and Jones’ determined, furious orphan all stand out. Gareth Edwards’ direction too feels expansive in the way Star Wars should be but dangerous and viscerally personal as he does so well. The closing multi-stage battle on and above Scarif especially is stunning, both as a set piece and as the opening shots of the war.

Verdict: Nothing fails in Rogue One. It’s a movie defined by that need to Do Something and it’s set the tone so well almost every Star Wars movie that followed it has been judged and found wanting, in at least two cases unfairly. Here’s hoping that The Mandalorian and Grogu will be more fortunate. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

 

Rogue One is streaming and on Blu-ray now

Both seasons of Andor are streaming and on Blu-ray now.