As Darth Vader and the Imperial troops discuss their new, incomplete space station resembling the Death Star and prepare to welcome Vader's master, Emperor Palpatine, the young Jedi Luke Skywalker leads his friends to enter Jabba's palace where their cocky bounty hunter friend, Han Solo, was kept in, though C-3PO and R2-D2 have the worst luck when Jabba forces them to work as his slaves. As night falls, Leia sneaks in and frees Han, but both are captured. Luke Skywalker himself tries to get Jabba to free his friends, but is instead forced to face a Rancor. However, the little Jedi slays this beast, only for him and his friends (sans a captive Leia) to be "rewarded" with a sentence of being dropped into a Sarlacc pit to be digested over one thousand years.
When attempts to peacefully get Jabba to let them go fail, Luke evades his death and summons his new green lightsaber to free himself and his friends. Jabba and his forces scuffle with Luke and company, during which, Han accidentally sends his former captor, bounty hunter Boba Fett, flying uncontrollably while trying to help his old friend, Lando Calrissian. As the bounty hunter crashes and tumbles into the Sarlacc's mouth, Leia uses her chains to choke Jabba to death. Luke aims the guns on Jabba's ship to the ship itself, destroying it before flying off with his friends.
Their rescue mission completed, Han leads his friends back to regroup with the armed forces of the Rebel Alliance, but Luke splits off to return to Dagobah, the planet where he was trained under the old Jedi Master Yoda. Alas, the little green Force-wielding alien's life is now fading fast. Yoda confirms with the young Jedi that Vader is indeed is father, telling him to confront the Sith lord. As he reveals "there is another", he closes his eyes and passes on, his body fading away as the old master becomes one with the Force. The Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi clarifies to Luke that his father was once a Jedi called Anakin Skywalker and he also has a sister, Leia, who was separated from him for protection, advising the lad to fight his father to complete his training.
Reuniting with the Rebels near Sullust, Luke and the Rebels learn of the Empire building a second Death Star under supervision of the Emperor and Vader's master, Darth Sidious who arrived earlier, and plan to destroy it. As part of their plan, Han, Luke and Leia will lead a team to disable the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor, but are found by Imperial troopers who are driven off by a strange furry creature. Han's group encounter more of those creatures called Ewoks who are initially hostile to them, but after Luke's intervention, the Ewoks gain their trust.
Luke, having told Leia everything about their family (being in the same bloodline as their father Vader), turns himself in to Darth Vader to convince him to turn from the Dark Side of the Force, but the Sith sadly believes he is beyond redemption. Meanwhile, Han and his team are cornered by the Imperial forces while trying to attack the shield generator, but the Ewoks ambush the Stormtroopers before joining the Rebels in overpowering them all. However, as the Rebel fleet attempts to approach the ominous superweapon, they find the shield is still functional as the Imperial fleet corners them.
Back on the Death Star, Luke meets Darth Vader's master, Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, who intends to turn Luke to the Dark Side and also reveals he had already prepared for the Rebels' attack and was leading them to their death. With that, the Death Star's dreaded laser fires on the Rebels in space. Luke ignites his lightsaber to attack Palpatine but ends up engaging his father, with Palpatine urging the little boy to release his anger on his enemy. As Vader loses his right arm, Palpatine urges Luke to finish him off, but Luke casts away his weapon and declares himself a Jedi "like [his] father before [him]".
Back on Endor, Han, Leia and Chewbacca destroy the shield generator, leaving the Death Star exposed, while Lando leads the Rebel starfighters to shoot at the enemy ships' vital systems up close while a group of them head over into the Death Star's bowels leading to the main reactor. As the Rebels close in on the superweapon's core, an infuriated Darth Sidious tortures Luke with Force lightning, slowly increasing its intensity to fatal amounts. However, Darth Vader witnesses his son's torture before rising to betray his former Sith master and throw him down a reactor shaft. However, this act of familial love has left Vader mortally wounded. At his father's last request, Luke tearfully removes Vader's mask and watches as his father, now as the redeemed Jedi Anakin Skywalker, peacefully passes away in his arms.
While the Rebels decimate the Imperial armada and one of them takes down Vader's flagship, Lando, piloting the Millennium Falcon, accompanied by fellow Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, manage to shake off some Imperial fighters chasing them into the Death Star's inner bowels and open fire on the station's main reactor. This destruction causes the entire station to collapse and finally explode but not before Lando, Wedge and Luke narrowly escape with Luke carrying his father's body in tow. While witnessing this triumph, Leia reveals to her beloved Han that Luke is her brother.
As night falls on the jungles of Endor, Luke lights his redeemed father's funeral pyre while the night sky is set alight by fireworks as Ewoks and Rebels alike celebrate their latest and greatest victory. This triumphant, joyous sentiment is also shared by humans, aliens and other sentient beings from all across the galaxy, even in Coruscant, Tatooine, Bespin and Naboo, all of whom rejoice over the Empire's downfall. As Luke joins his friends and comrades in the celebrations on Endor, he cheerfully sees the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan and Yoda, soon joined by a third one of his father, Anakin Skywalker, now the Jedi he once was back when the Jedi were the galaxy's greatest peacekeepers; these three shine a light to signal that at long last, with the oppressor gone and the galaxy finally free...
...the Jedi have returned. For now.
