History Film / ANewHope

* ChangedMyMindKid: Just when Vader is about to blast Luke down onto the Death Star surface, the ''Millennium Falcon'' makes a surprise intervention and blasts one of Vader's wingmen. Han returns after saying through the movie that he only cares about the prize at the end!

** The Death Star, a battle station the size of a small moon, can be completely destroyed by a small fighter firing a couple of torpedoes down a thermal exhaust shaft that leads directly to the main reactor. Imperial designers apparently recognized the problem to the extent of ray shielding the shaft to protect it from blaster fire, but for some reason cannot stop projectiles. (Of course, the Empire can be forgiven for this, since you would have to be [[RightManInTheWrongPlace some kind of space wizard who is also a fighter pilot]] to actually hit a target that small.) The film ''Film/RogueOne'' addresses the weakness as being purposefully put in by the Death Star's unwilling designer in order to specifically give it a glaring weakness for the Rebels to use, although given that almost the entire Rebel attack force perish in the assault and the Death Star is ultimately only destroyed right at the last second, how "glaring" it ended up being is debatable.

* FrustratingLie: The Rebel Alliance has just stolen the complete plans for the Death Star, and Darth Vader tracks those stolen plans to the blockade runner ''Tantive IV''. Princess Leia entrusts the plans to the droid R2-D2 and tells him to flee the ship--then when she's captured by Darth Vader minutes later, she denies all knowledge of the Rebels and the plans, and tries to invoke diplomatic immunity. Vader gets so frustrated with this lie that he loses composure and cuts the interrogation short. The prequel ''Film/RogueOne'' retroactively [[{{Retcon}} gives more context to Vader's annoyance and makes Leia's lies even more blatant]]: at the Battle of Scarif, Darth Vader himself came within a hair's breadth of recapturing the stolen plans, and he saw the soldier with the plans board the ''Tantive IV'' just before it fled the battle.

* InformedAbility: This is the film where Obi-Wan Kenobi infamously states, when pointing out blaster marks "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise." These would be the same Stormtroopers [[ImperialStormTrooperMarksmanshipAcademy that can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn]] any time they're shown shooting at the heroes. People do seem to forget however that in this film at least the Stormtroopers were deliberately missing.

* UnfriendlyFire: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, a Stormtrooper is done in in this fashion just before the Millennium Falcon takes off from Docking Bay 94.

* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Although generally considered a family movie, with a large fanbase of kids, the film includes several unexpectedly gory moments that remain unique in the original trilogy: the smoldering skeletons of Owen and Beru that Luke sees when he returns home; and the close-up of a bloody dismembered arm of the thug who finds himself on the wrong end of Obi-Wan's lightsaber (owing to the editing of the scene, coupled with the appearance -- possibly due to SpecialEffectsFailure -- of the arm being hollow, and the fact we hear no more about the man Obi-Wan attacks, the impression is given that the man is actually vaporized by the lightsaber). The novelization also features a few unusual for the series graphic descriptions of gore and violence during some of the battles.

* KeepTheReward: Zig-zagged with Han Solo. Before the climax, Solo sticks to his mercenary motives and leaves with his reward before the climactic space battle; [[spoiler: some time after that, he has a [[ChangedMyMindKid change of heart]] and returns [[BigDamnHeroes just in time to help Luke destroy the Death Star.]]]] After this, however, he keeps the reward so he can pay back his debt to Jabba the Hutt, but delays and delays due to his commitment to the Rebellion, Luke, and Leia. At the beginning of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' he finally decides to go to Tatooine to repay Jabba, but the Empire gets in his way.

* TheUnfought: Luke Skywalker never directly fights this film's BigBad, Grand Moff Tarkin (Darth Vader is TheHeavy in this film); [[spoiler:though Luke does fire the shot that indirectly kills him. If Tarkin had decided to evacuate the Death Star he probably would have survived, but he assumed that no one could actually pull off the kill shot]]. He never quite fights Darth Vader in this movie, either, despite Vader being the major villain of the series. He and Vader see each other briefly on the Death Star, but Luke is too busy escaping and Vader is too far away to do much. They do confront each other in star fighters, but Luke is focused on making his trench run and doesn't actively fight back. Han Solo is the one who defeats Vader, and he does it indirectly -- by scaring one of Vader's wingmen into colliding with him.

* RefugeInAudacity: As it turns out, Leia's statements about a "diplomatic mission" becomes this in light of ''Film/RogueOne''. Given that Vader had literally witnessed the ''Tantive IV'' flee Scariff a few hours before, it took serious balls to lie to his face. She was clearly relying on the fact that CR90 corvettes like her ship are common consular vessels; still, it doesn't work. It's no wonder Vader uncharacteristically outwardly pissed rather than his usual TranquilFury.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Vader shows great anger and urgency on board the ''Tantive IV'', lashing out and physically choking Captain Antilles. This is in contrast to his calm demeanor and TranquilFury seen in the rest of the series. ''Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' explains the circumstances.

* RefugeInAudacity: As it turns out, Leia's statements about a "diplomatic mission" becomes this in light of ''Film/RogueOne''. Given that Vader had literally witnessed the ''Tantive IV'' flee Scariff a few hours before, it took serious balls to lie to his face. She was clearly relying on the fact that CR90 corvettes like her ship are common consular vessels; still, it doesn't work.

! This page contains unmarked spoilers. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!

-->'''Obi-Wan''': "''[[BadassBoast If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine]].''"

* ObligatoryEarpieceTouch: You can just barely catch it during the Death Star attack. When Luke turns off his targeting computer, there's a quick cut to three older men listening as the base commander asks him about it; when he says he's all right, cut back to the group again and one of them is listening intently and touching his earpiece.

* OffstageVillainy: The Empire as a whole. They do some remarkable nefarious acts with the Death Star, but we never hear much of how they affect the rest of the Galaxy. A deleted scene between Luke and Biggs explores this somewhat. The most that they do is burning Luke's farm, and killing his uncle and aunt.

** This is how the famous "who shot first" is resolved. Han shoots and kills Greedo with a single shot before Greedo can react.

* RefugeInAudacity: As it turns out, Leia's statements about a "diplomatic mission" becomes this in light of ''Film/RogueOne''. Given that Vader had literally witnessed the ''Tantive IV'' flee Scariff a few hours before, it took serious balls to lie to his face. It doesn't work.

** When Vader talks about Obi-Wan to Tarkin, the latter says he must not be allowed to escape. Vader replies that escape is not his plan. [[ObiWanMoment He's right -- Obi-Wan intended to die on the Death Star, and even signaled why he intended to die during their final duel.]]