There have been some rumblings (rumblings I kind of agree with) that maybe the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens should have given the general public a bit more information about the plot of the movie. Now, I have a pretty good idea what the plot is, but this is because a) it’s part of my job to know and b) I am a bit obsessed. But I have friends who do not write about culture for a living, who like Star Wars, who have been asking me, “So, what’s this movie about?” Of course there’s built-in excitement regardless, but there’s also a feeling of trepidation that stems from the prequels not going over as well as they could have.
So, I thought it might be interesting to go back and look at the trailers for the past six Star Wars movies to determine how much those gave away about their films’ plots. To at least try to pretend I knew nothing about these movies other than what’s in the trailer. As it turns out, if The Force Awakens is truly trying to emulate the spirit of the original trilogy, well, its vague trailer seems to be in line with the trailers from that era.
(Note: This is just looking at the main theatrical trailers and not the teaser trailers. If there is more than one full trailer, I picked the one with more information. Also, this doesn’t take into account other press in which filmmakers or talent may had revealed the plot of an individual film.)
Star Wars
“Luke Skywalker was just a farm boy,” our narrator informs us. When you start watching the trailer, it seems like we are going to be given a lot of the story when the narrator continues on about Luke receiving a message from a princess that will set him off on some sort of great adventure. But after that, the trailer just lists off the cast and shows us a series of scenes that we now know aren’t really that related to each other.
What do I know about Star Wars from this trailer? This Luke Skywalker fellow has been thrust into some sort of grand adventure; there are spaceships everywhere, and that Star Wars is “the most extraordinary picture of all-time.” (I do wonder if the narrator rolled his eyes at the hyperbole of that statement, not knowing that, arguably, that it was correct.)
Final verdict: I know very little about the plot of Star Wars from this trailer.
The Empire Strikes Back
My favorite thing about this trailer is that the narrator is Harrison Ford and he is so into it. (I would read an oral history about Ford recording this voiceover.) Ford gives us a quick recap of the first movie, then tells us that Luke, Han and Leia have some more adventures. Great! What are they? Well, from the nonsensical scenes we see, we know some of the movie takes place in the snow and that Han Solo takes a couple of shots at Darth Vader. Whereas the Star Wars trailer had a lot of spaceships, the Empire trailer has a lot of explosions. Harrison Ford also introduces us to Lando Calrissian, but tells us nothing about Lando.
What do I know about The Empire Strikes Back from this trailer? Well, it looks a lot different than Star Wars. Also, we know there will be romance – the trailer does a good job of letting us know there will be a love triangle between Leia, Luke and Han. We do get a good idea that Han Solo gets himself captured. Anyway, The Empire Strikes Back trailer does a nice job of letting us know things probably won’t go well for our heroes (as does the title, frankly) without revealing much of the plot.
Final verdict: I know very little about the plot of The Empire Strikes Back from this trailer, but I do know that Luke, Han and Leia are probably in some trouble.
Return of the Jedi
No Harrison Ford this time as the narrator, but he is all over this trailer as Han Solo. I do wonder what our spoiler-phobic culture would think of Han’s rescue being revealed in the trailer. There are certainly more spaceships flying through space than in the Empire trailer, but, again, the actual plot of Return of the Jedi remains a bit of a mystery.
What do I know about Return of the Jedi from this trailer? Well, again, we know Han Solo is rescued from the predicament he was left in after Empire. We also know that Luke Skywalker directly asks someone if Darth Vader is really his father, so we know we will get an answer to that. (Pre-release, Lucasfilm was still closely guarding the design of the Ewoks, so, kind of surprisingly now, there are no Ewoks in this trailer.)
Final verdict: I know very little about the plot of Return of the Jedi from this trailer, but I do know Han Solo is rescued and that Luke will get some answers.
The Phantom Menace
The trailer for The Phantom Menace is, compared to those from the original trilogy, surprisingly specific about its plot. Not only do we know that a young queen doesn’t want to go to war, we know that the invaders are jamming communications and are invading the planet as she speaks. Then we see an invasion! Then a new bad guy tells us he’s going to reveal himself to the Jedi! Then more invaders! Then someone who looks just like the Emperor from Return of the Jedi orders a troop invasion. And after that, two Jedi show up to help against this fight against the “Federation,” which is mentioned by name — the Jedi even suspect someone else is behind all of this chaos. All of this is followed by Yoda telling us there is always a master and an apprentice. Seriously, this is all in the trailer. It’s only after all that we get a fun montage of action scenes.
What do I know about The Phantom Menace from this trailer? I know that a planet is being invaded by something called the Federation and that the Jedi are there to help. I also know the Sith plan on using all this as some kind of trap to kill the Jedi – which is pretty much the plot of The Phantom Menace, only this trailer makes the movie look a lot better than it actually turned out to be.
Final verdict: I know almost the whole plot of The Phantom Menace.
Attack of the Clones
The Attack of the Clones trailer starts out with an odd meeting between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme – to the point that, even in the trailer, the new guy playing Anakin comes off like a creep. Anyway, the trailer takes us pretty much through the whole (what’s supposed to serve as) romance between these two. Oh, then Anakin gets mad at Obi-Wan, yells a bit, then is mad that he’s not “all-powerful.” Yep, that’s pretty much the movie. After, we get the obligatory montage of action – the new blue Boba Fett looks cool.
What do I know about Attack of the Clones from this trailer? I know that Anakin and Padme fall in love, it’s forbidden, Obi-Wan is against the whole thing, and that Anakin becomes angry about all of this.
Final verdict: I know a good deal about the plot of Attack of the Clones, though I’m not sure what Obi-Wan’s role will be or much about the new villain.
Revenge of the Sith
It’s established in the first scene of this trailer that Chancellor Palpatine is a) probably up to no good, b) the Jedi are suspicious of him and c) Anakin is conflicted. The trailer goes as far to show Mace Windu and the Jedi trying to arrest Palpatine, with Palpatine fighting back. Palpatine eventually announces that all Jedi are an enemy of the Republic, and we see Anakin leading a charge of carnage. So, yes, just in the trailer, we get to see all of Anakin’s downfall before it becomes action montage time again – a montage that includes Obi-Wan and Anakin’s duel and Yoda and Palpatine’s duel. We even see Darth Vader in his full original trilogy armor! (Which lasts about as long as we see that in the full film.)
What do I know about Revenge of the Sith from this trailer? I know that Anakin starts out the film still on the side of the Jedi, but ends the film as Darth Vader, and we see him in the full Vader costume. Which, sure, was to be expected anyway, but here it all is just in case there was any doubt.
Final verdict: I know the entire plot of Revenge of the Sith.
FINAL final verdict: Maybe it’s a good thing The Force Awakens trailer was so vague after all.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
