History Film / ANewHope

* 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.

'''''[[TropeCodifier The]]''''' SpaceOpera movie.

* TakeThat: When ''Series/Space1999'' started airing, Lucas realized that Han Solo's ship would need to be redesigned because its original design looked too similar to the Eagle Transports. He called the redesigned ship the ''Millennium Falcon'' because it's better and faster than a "1999 Eagle".

* AsceticAesthetic: Averted with the ''Millennium Falcon''; played straight with the Star Destroyers.

** Later when Han and Chewie were being chased by Stormtroopers, one of them called on the comlink to close the blastdoors to cut off their escape. When Han and Chewie manage to get through before it shuts, the Stormtroopers are unable to pursue, with the one who ordered the doors shut shouting "Open the blastdoors! Open the blastdoors!"

* Mark Hamill revealed that Luke's pants are actually just a pair of Levi's 501 button-fly jeans "bleached to within an inch of their life", with the belt loops and back pockets removed.

** The Lightsabers are built out of the flash from old cameras.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The Special Editions subtly edit every moment someone gets shot with a blaster on-screen to make the effect less gruesome, and also edit the Greedo scene so that Han unambiguously shoots Greedo in self defense as opposed to killing him before he can even get off a shot.

* ForceChoke: This is the first bad-guy Force power introduced in the series, and establishes in a big way that Darth Vader is much more than a brutal Imperial enforcer.

* {{Underlighting}}: This is used to provide the glow of lightsabers and blaster shots; for the lightsabers, the underlit portions were rotoscoped over prop swords. This is repeated for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' (including with Palpatine's force lightning), but it's dropped in all subsequent films (prequels and sequels) in favor of better technological tools to pull off the effect.

* MassOhCrap: A planetwide version happens offscreen, but sensed by Obi Wan Kenobi:
-->"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror

* MissileLockOn: Targeting computers come up for both lasers and proton torpedoes, especially during the Death Star run. Even though they lock on they can't hit the target, until Luke shuts off his compiuter and uses the Force to hit the target.

* ObviouslyEvil: The Empire. Right from the opening shot you can tell they're the bad guys, what with their cold, angular looking starships, the Stormtroopers with their perpetually frowning helmets, their ruthless leader who dresses entirely in black, and so on.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Han Solo makes it clear to Luke: "Look, I [[NotInThisForYourRevolution ain't in this for your revolution]], and I'm not in it for you, princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money." [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Or so he says.]] It's also justified, as he really needed the money to survive against Jabba the Hutt (he needs a lot of money to redeem himself for not delivering spice to Jabba).

* RescueReversal: Immediately after Luke and Han Solo free Leia, she has to help them find a way out. ZigZagged since Luke (with help from [=C3P0=] and [=R2D2=]) then has to rescue them from her rescue.

* RoadTripRomance: Han Solo is just Luke's ride. He agrees to help save Leia because of how he could rewarded, and leaves after he gets paid, but joins in on the fray to save Luke in the end. Han and Leia are at odds at first but slowly fall in love over the course of "[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Empire]]".
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: The Cantina Scene features one. Later in the film, Luke describes "womp rats" as being "not much bigger than two meters."

* SensoryTentacles: The dianoga from the garbage-compacter scene peeked out of the water using a single eyeball on the end of one of these.
* SerendipitousSurvival: When R2-D2 runs off, Luke has to chase after him and hopefully get him back before anybody notices so he won't get in trouble. This, and the subsequent meeting with Obi-Wan Kenobi, delay Luke enough that he doesn't get home until long after the Stormtroopers looking for R2 and C-3PO have already raided it and murdered Owen and Beru.
* SeriesContinuityError: Although ''A New Hope'' was the first film released, it is the fifth film in terms of chronological order[[note]]the three prequels, and then ''Film/RogueOne''. In fact, it's ''sixth'' if you count ''Film/{{Solo}}''[[/note]]. As a result, the fact Luke and Ben retain their birth surnames goes against ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' which ended with the two going into hiding and taking on new identities -- difficult to do when you retain your original surname.

* SerendipitousSurvival: When R2-D2 runs off, Luke Skywalker has to chase after him and hopefully get him back before anybody notices so he won't get in trouble. This, and the subsequent meeting with Obi-Wan Kenobi, delay Luke enough that he doesn't get home until long after Stormtroopers looking for R2 and [=C-3PO=] have already raided it, burning the farm and killing his aunt and uncle.

* ShockingDefeatLegacy: The beginning of the end for the Galactic Empire was when the Death Star was destroyed at the Battle of Yavin, which was a huge military and propaganda victory for the Rebel Alliance. The battle not only deprived the Empire of their superweapon, it also showed the greater galaxy that the Empire wasn't the invincible power they appeared to be. Quite ironically, the Empire's commander at Yavin, Wilhuff Tarkin, had started his career by ''delivering'' one to the pirates that infested his native Seswenna sector and [[MakeAnExampleOfThem executing the survivors in a horrific manner for everyone to see]], resulting in piracy all but disappearing from the sector out of the sheer terror of facing ''him''.

-->'''Han:''' You know, it's not going to take them long to figure out what happened to us.
-->'''Leia:''' It could be worse.
-->(''something moans inside the masher'')
-->'''Han:''' It's worse.

* {{Underlighting}}: This is used to provide the glow of lightsabers, blaster shots, and Palpatine's force lightning; for the lightsabers, the underlit portions were rotoscoped over prop swords. This is repeated for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', but it's dropped in all subsequent films (prequels and sequels) in favor of better technological tools to pull off the effect.

* 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.

* VariantChess: The scene where R2-D2 and Chewie are playing some ([[strike:holographic?]]{{claymation}}) version of chess, and Han advising R2-D2 to lose...
* VillainExitStageLeft: Darth Vader escapes after the Death Star is destroyed. Not that he had much choice, since his TIE Advanced was damaged and he had to land on a nearby planet for repairs.

* YouCantThwartStageOne: The Death Star is in firing range of the rebel base before it is destroyed.

* ChekhovsGun: Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber is an aversion for this film's plot, but is played straight in the trilogy as a whole. Obi-Wan gives it to Luke, and provides him some training in its use, but Luke never actually uses it until [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the next film]]. Not to mention the role it plays in the Sequel Trilogy.

* EasyEvangelism: Luke pretty much accepts ''everything'' that Obi-Wan tells him about his father, the Jedi and the Force without question, even though he's hearing about these details just now. This does help speed the story along of course. Luke's belief only starts stretching during Yoda's lessons in the next movie. Also downplayed in that Obi-Wan only starts training Luke on how to use the Force in any real detail after Luke has already seen a JediMindTrick.\\\
Luke also chews out Han for not believing in the Force, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything similar to how a religious person would chew out an atheist in real life for not having a faith in God]], even though on Han's defense, there's no way an outlaw and smuggler like him who had more life experience without any direct involvement of the Force would've had a reason to believe it. Not to mention Han's not Force-sensitive himself.

* GuileHero: If you think about it, pretty much every major character save for Chewbacca uses guile to screw somebody else over.

* TheHerosJourney: Hits pretty much every note, and Joseph Campbell was one of Lucas's many inspirations in developing the story.

* MagicCountdown: Zigzagged. The Battle of Yavin takes place over just under 15 minutes, just about the same amount of time in the standby alert given as the battle begins. However after that point it jumps all over the place, particularly when 1 minute is remaining at about just under 5 minutes of time in the score plays.

* NonIndicativeName: A mild case. When the film was released, it was simply called ''Star Wars''. The film is not about multiple wars, but instead has one central conflict. This cannot be explained as being part of a franchise, since at the time it was intended to be a standalone work.

* NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay: The spirit of Obi-Wan reminding Luke to "Use the Force!" (Not to mention, right after his death, getting Luke to run from the stormtroopers instead of battling them.)

* {{Retcon}}: When the film became a huge success, Lucas reimagined it as a series and a lot of things introduced here later underwent significant changes. In fact, the series became one of the more infamous examples of retconning, and even became the TropeNamer for FromACertainPointOfView due to changes made over the course of the franchise's decades of development.

** The Empire is an ObviouslyEvil organization of [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying Villains]]. While it's obvious that the Empire represents evil, it can be less obvious what the ''Star Wars'' universe specifically considers evil. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment The audience receives its first clue regarding the Empire's brand of evil in the film's establishing shot.]] As the shot pans down over Tatooine, we see a Rebel cruiser fly overhead, immediately followed by an Imperial star destroyer. The differences between the ships are immense, and this shot tells us everything we need to know about the Empire. The Imperial ship is much larger than the cruiser, so it takes longer to pass by, its presence dominating the screen as it does so. The audience feels the power and the size of the Empire wrapped up in the imagery of the ship. As the story progresses, we see how that power and size becomes a source of fear throughout the galaxy. The Empire uses both to make people obey and, like the cruiser, it destroys those who resist. Also, considering the Empire's an oppressive regime supported by a military complex that uses power and fear to force people to follow them and kill any who resist, they're pretty much space Nazis or fascists. There's even imagery to support the claim: The stormtroopers' marching is similar to that out of the Nazi propaganda film ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill''; the design of the Imperial officer's uniforms was based on Prussian and German military uniforms from the Nazi era; Darth Vader serves as a type of Imperial Gestapo, or Nazi secret police; and they even have their own FinalSolution via Alderaan's destruction.

** According to Obi-Wan, a lightsaber is "the weapon of a Jedi knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire". Obi-Wan yearns for the good old days when things were simpler and world made sense to him. And it's not just Obi-Wan; ''Star Wars'' has waves of nostalgia running throughout it. The present is considered the dark time and the past is looked up as a better time to be alive. As such, the Jedi and lightsabers take the place of knights and swords and represent the good old days. Audiences look back on the age of errant knights and think of it as a time of chivalry, courage, and decorum (although that couldn't be further from the truth). By co-opting the imagery of knights, ''Star Wars'' creates a symbol that draws us into the nostalgia trip. The Jedi and lightsaber — not to mention Obi-Wans poetic waxing for the snows of yesteryear — don't bring reality to ''Star Wars''. They infuse the film with the luster of myths and legends.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Leia and Luke collectively go through way more in this movie than they're given credit for. Leia loses her ''entire planet'', including her family and the only home she's ever known. Luke, too, loses his family, his mentor, and his best friend from childhood in the space of about ''two days''. Arguably {{Defied}}, since neither seem worse for wear by the film's end, or in the resultant sequels, but still.
* TitleDropChapter: While it was retroactively titled ''Film/ANewHope'' in order to distinguish it from the name of the franchise itself, it was originally released and marketed as, and is still often colloquially referred to as, simply ''Star Wars''.

* WellExcuseMePrincess: Pretty much every interaction between Han and Leia is them snarking at each other.

* AbandonShip: One of Grand Moff Tarkin's lieutenants reports that they've determined the Rebel plan has a significant chance of suceeding, and advises that Tarkin and his staff should do this, just to be safe. Tarkin scoffs at the idea.
-->'''Tarkin''': Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.

* AlienSky: Luke is framed against a simple but gorgeous [[BinarySuns twin sunset]] in the first movie. It's the first shot in the film to really drive home the point that this isn't Earth, and succeeds spectacularly, despite being one of the film's simplest effects: it's just a double exposure of a real sunset. It also features the rebel base on an Earth-like moon orbiting a red gas giant.

--->'''Obi-Wan Kenobi''': I felt a great disturbance in the Force...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror...and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

* AsceticAesthetic: Averted with the ''Millennium Falcon'', played straight with the Star Destroyers.

* BinarySuns: The iconic double-sunset Luke Skywalker contemplates on Tatooine. Also indirectly the TropeNamer; the soundtrack name is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxDm-4Jrg9w Binary Sunset.]]

* CheckpointBluff: Obi-Wan Kenobi uses a JediMindTrick to convince the stormtroopers that "These are not the droids you are looking for" (referencing R2-D2 and [=C3PO=]).

* DamnedByFaintPraise: Biggs praises Luke as "one of the best bush pilots on the Outer Rim". While his confusion with the rampant signals in the Falcon when they first encounter the Death Star makes it clear Luke ''is'' inexperienced with starfighters and starships more generally, the fact is he's genuinely an AcePilot and one of the only survivors of Vader's ambush. To call him a "bush pilot" is either to dramatically underestimate the bush or to really oversell it. Ditto for the Outer Rim.

* DownerBeginning: Despite the name of the movie, little actual hope exists, with the Empire's new super-weapon almost complete, the Tantive IV being overrun by the Empire, Darth Vader making a personal appearance, and Princess Leia, the leader of the Rebellion, being captured.

* EverybodysDeadDave: The Battle of Yavin ended with all the on-screen rebel pilots except Han, Luke, Wedge, and a Y-wing pilot dead, with all of the dead pilots having only been introduced so they could fight in the battle.

* FallingIntoTheCockpit: Downplayed with Luke, who had only piloted civilian craft before (with no indication he'd flown in space, only in atmosphere) ending up flying a starfighter at a decisive battle--though he was studying to enter the Space Academy, he had not yet attended it.

* FollowTheWhiteRabbit: It is Luke going off on a tear to find a runaway droid, who happens to be white and little, that brings him face-to-face with Obi-Wan Kenobi and it saves his life, as he is then not at home for the arrival of the Imperial Stormtroopers that kill his Aunt and Uncle, his adoptive parents--the death of which means he has nothing to stay around for, so can commit and go on the adventure, leaving his home planet. Later, the Millennium Falcon follows a lone TIE fighter to the Death Star, and the Death Star follows the Millennium Falcon to the Rebel Base at Yavin.

* GambitRoulette: Darth Vader's ultimate plan to get the Rebel base's location, which Tarkin agreed to on the grounds that it demonstrated that Leia was of more use than he had anticipated, hinged on Luke and Han rescuing Leia and the tractor beam being disabled by the time they got back to the ''Millennium Falcon''. He sent a pair of Stormtroopers into the Falcon to search for occupants, and the whole thing--Luke and Han attacking the Stormtroopers and DressingAsTheEnemy, Chewie being the TrojanPrisoner, Obi-wan evading the Stormtroopers until the tractor beam was disabled, etc.--was improvised from there. Subverted in that from the perspective of a Force sensitive, there is no such thing as luck.

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: In addition to making [[AdaptationalSelfDefense Han return fire]] on Greedo instead of shooting first, they added in a deleted scene of Han conversing with Jabba by the Falcon (who was originally portrayed as humanoid, making some awkward CG putting in the now famous giant slug, and Han calling Jabba a "wonderful human being") [[note]]apparently, Lucas meant to overlay a stop-motion bear creature over the footage, with the natural Irish brogue of the actor intact [[/note]]. There is also a grand establishing shot of Mos Eisley as they drive in, a scene of Luke meeting his old friend Biggs Darklighter (though the early scene in which Biggs is introduced remains on the cutting room floor), an EpicTrackingShot for the X-Wings as they prepare to engage the Death Star, and the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shistavanen Shistavanen]] [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lak_Sivrak/Canon Lak Sivrak]] as well as the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Defel Defel]] [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Arleil_Schous Arleil Schous]] were both replaced by [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ketwol Ketwol]] and [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Melas Melas]], a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pacithhip Pacithhip]] and a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sarkan Sarkan]] respectively, for the Cantina scene.

* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Luke Skywalker never had more than a few days worth of actual Jedi training. He got a few hours of school aboard the Millennium Falcon with Obi-Wan and learned enough for the Force to guide him as he blew up the Death Star.

** The ''Millennium Falcon'' gets pursued by four TIE fighters as it flees from the ''Death Star''. Han and Luke get on the freighter's gun turrets, but the fighters are too fast and the two pilots initially kept missing their shot. Eventually, both of them start to adjust their aim and LeadTheTarget, blowing the [=TIEs=] up.

* KeepTheReward: Zig-zagged with Han Solo. At the end of ''Film/ANewHope'', 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.

* KillSat: The Death Star is not ''technically'' a satellite, since it's a mobile space station with millions of staff, [[TheBattlestar a full complement of fighters and support ships, thousands of secondary weapons]], and a [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-shattering]] superlaser - however, it is seen orbiting the planet Yavin in the movie so that it can turn its superlaser on the moon where the main rebel base is located.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Around the 1:30 hour mark, the heroes, [[FalseEnding after rescuing Princess Leia and securing the Death Star plans, head off to the Rebel base to deliver them]]; It's then when Leia says "It's not over yet". She's right, the movie still has 30 minutes left to depict the battle of Yavin.

* LetTheBullyWin: {{Trope Namer|s}}[[invoked]]. 3PO telling R2 to "let the Wookiee win".

* LifesavingMisfortune: After Han Solo disrupts Darth Vader's attempt to shoot Luke's X-Wing by blasting one of his Tie-Fighter wingmen, the other loses control of his ship and sends Vader's Tie-Fighter spiraling into space. As a result of this, however, Vader ends up being the only one to survive the destruction of the Death Star, allowing him to pull a VillainExitStageLeft and return to plague the heroes for the remainder of the trilogy.

* MetaphoricallyTrue

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: '''Darth Vader''', a name not very different from '''Dark Invader'''. It's a miracle nobody questioned him not being seduced by the dark side of the force. This was later retconned in the next movie and following material, where it's revealed that's not his birth name, but rather a Sith title.
** Their starships also invoke fear and force just by their names. The '''Star Destroyers''', and their superweapon, the '''Death Star'''.

%%** In a RealLife situation, while filming the Tatooine scenes near the Libya-Tunisia border, Libya got concerned about a large military vehicle and began to mobilize their military. The Tunisian government then asked Lucas to move the Jawa sandcrawler further in the country.%%This is more like Trivia.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Averted in the Death Star: The Stormtroopers guarding the Falcon are intrigued by the lightsaber duel going down on the other side of the hangar and vacate their posts to watch it play out.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: When imprisoned on the Death Star, Vader turns up to interrogate Leia with a droid equipped with a huge syringe. As the door closes on them, it's clear that she's about to be tortured for information. And yet the next time we see her, she looks perfectly fine, without so much as a puncture wound or a hair out of place. WordOfGod is that all the interrogator droid did was inject her with a powerful hallucinogen which left her susceptible to suggestion and Vader simply made her ''think'' she was in pain.[[invoked]]

* GarbageHideout: When Imperial troops cut off their escape route, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca are stuck shooting it out in the Death Star's cell bay. Leia takes a blaster from Luke, and obliterates a waste grate. "Into the garbage chute, flyboy." This move gets the party out of harm's way for a while. Then the Imperials start the trash compactor. Uh-oh.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Essentially the Rebel plan during the Battle of Yavin. The X-Wings would distract the turrets while the slower Y-Wings, unnoticed in the confusion of the X-Wing attack, made their way to the Trench to attack the exhaust port. Unfortunately, Darth Vader is wise to that maneuver, ordering all TIE Fighters to take out the X-Wings, while his own squadron goes after the Y-Wings.
* HollywoodTactics: The entire purpose of wingmen is to ''attack'' any enemies that try to engage your lead fighter. The enemy can't line up a shot to take out your leader if they're too busy dodging your own shots. Instead of sitting there as useless meat shields, Wedge and Biggs and the rest should have immediately dropped back to engage Vader's fighters. Notably, when Han shows up and does exactly this, it immediately breaks up Vader's formation and leaves Luke free to take his shot, precisely what wingman tactics are supposed to do.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/star_wars_style_b.png]]

* OdangoHair: Leia's hairstyles are a cultural touchstone that intentionally refer to this trope. Unlike this trope, they're all ''completely'' impossible. Hair narrows toward the tip due to wear and tear as it ages, so it starts out physically impossible because of how thick her cinnamon buns and braids remain along their length. Then there's the fact that '''you just. can't. do. cinnamon buns.'''. Nevertheless. Everyone knows Leia's updo.