16Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Opening Crawl: DARTH MAUL has rallied the Separatist forces after their defeat at the battle of Geonosis, and war has raged for several years. The Jedi have been unable to track Maul to anywhere more precise than 'a secret location in or around the Galactic Center,' as Maul directs the war effort from afar, through orders relayed by his apparent lieutenant, JANGO FETT.
Film opens, as in the original Episode III, with a space battle over Coruscant due to the Separatist kidnapping of PALPATINE.
A/N: Palpatine is not targeted because he is Chancellor of the Senate, but rather because he is in charge of the war effort. This means he was authorized by the Senate to hand out orders and assign commands to the Jedi Knights who lead Clone troopers into battle. This is the military background that presages his later rise as Emperor.
Unlike the original movie, it is not the late Count Dooku but GENERAL GRIEVOUS who led the attack, though on the orders of Darth Maul as relayed by Jango Fett.
OBI-WAN KENOBI (now a Jedi Master) and ANAKIN SKYWALKER (now a Knight) are in charge of leading the counter attack. They succeed in rescuing Palpatine and defeating Grievous before crash-landing the Separatist capital ship on a Coruscant air field.
However, Jango Fett does escape, and they are not able to track him through the streets of Coruscant.
Obi-Wan and Anakin return with Palpatine to the Jedi Temple, where PADMÉ SKYWALKER (née AMIDALA) greets them warmly. Though they are married, neither Anakin nor Padmé can express their true feelings as their marriage is a secret from all save Palpatine. On the other hand, Obi-Wan seems to have resumed his flirtatious banter with Padmé, who clearly enjoys the return of their old style of friendship, despite her misgivings about now being married.
Anakin and Palpatine move away, and Anakin lashes out in confusion and jealousy at Obi-Wan's conduct towards Padmé, which changed markedly ever since the Clone War began.
A/N: Palpatine had encouraged Anakin to form a romantic attachment to Padmé, and now subtly reinforces his jealousy of her potential attachment to others.
MACE WINDU also greets them, and summons Obi-Wan away to report to the Council. Obi-Wan was never as friendly to Palpatine as Anakin, and has lately begun to actively distrust Palpatine. Obi-Wan mentions several oddities about Palpatine's behavior, specifically in his treatment of Anakin (urging him to kill Grievous, for instance). Mace and the others promise to look into it.
Privately, Mace asks about Obi-Wan's earlier behavior with Padmé. Obi-Wan confesses that, having dealt with the residual guilt from Qui-Gon's death at the hands of Darth Maul, he has felt much freer to express his emotions honestly, particularly around Padmé who he had distanced himself from in the aftermath. Mace reassures him that, under the Old Code, Jedi were permitted to form romantic attachments and even marry, but that the Old Code would require almost complete self-mastery.
Later that evening, Anakin and Padmé fight about her behavior toward Obi-Wan. It comes out that she had been influenced by Obi-Wan's distrust of Palpatine, which seems to corroborate Anakin's distrust of their relationship. Anakin returns to the Temple in a huff. He calms down enough by the next morning to convey his concerns to YODA, who takes the matter to Mace Windu.
Mace defends Obi-Wan, and the two Jedi Masters debate the merits of the Old Code (favored by Mace) vs. the New Code (favored and partly written by Yoda, which does not give any allowance for emotions at all). Yoda cautions Mace, but as the Old Code is still accepted (if under-utilized), there's nothing to be done. When Yoda tells Anakin that nothing can be done, the younger Knight's ties to the Jedi Order are weakened even further.
Some time later Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched to the front lines: Separatist forces have gathered for one last offensive on the Inner Core, targeting Kashyyyk, home planet of the Wookies. Anakin's distrust of Obi-Wan results in miscommunication and military blunders, which cost the Wookies heavily. However, that doesn't affect the ultimate outcome of the battle. The Clone Armies have a clear advantage, when Obi-Wan is alerted that Jango Fett's ship was seen leaving the scene. He and Anakin move quickly to pursue, chasing Fett's ship into space. They almost catch him, but Fett escapes into hyperspace.
Obi-Wan concludes that Fett is returning to Darth Maul's location somewhere on Coruscant, and decided to follow. It's a long shot, so he waves Anakin off the pursuit. Anakin also returns to Coruscant, but headed for his apartment with Padmé. He regretted the mistakes made during the battle caused by his distrust, and he and Padmé are seen to reconcile.
Obi-Wan comes out of hyperspace, and manages to spot Jango Fett's ship before it disappears into the morass of traffic. He tails it from a distance, hoping to follow Fett all the way back to wherever Darth maul is hiding. Obi-Wan notices that Fett travels through several quadrants around the Capital District, meeting with a number of individuals and groups.
A/N: Jango Fett has recruited a guerrilla army out of Coruscant. If the Separatist Army were comparable to the North Vietnamese, these would be the Viet Cong. They gather intel and provide the muscle for Darth Sidious' coup later on.
Finally Obi-Wan tracks Jango to the Underworld Portal. Too late, Fett realizes that he is being tailed, but cannot return out of the Portal, so must continue down. He warns Darth Maul, who briefly contemplates throttling the bounty hunter for leading the Jedi to his location, but decides to keep Fett alive in order to help fight the Jedi. He does warn DARTH SIDIOUS, who sets his final plans into action.
Obi-Wan stops before he descends out of range in order to comm. link others. Anakin is preoccupied with Padmé and can't be reached, so Obi-Wan then calls the Temple. Most of the Jedi are scurrying around on various assignments for Palpatine, but Palpatine has no authority over the head of the Jedi Council, so Mace Windu is the only one to depart to join Obi-Wan down the Underworld Portal.
Maul confirms to Darth Sidious that Obi-Wan has descended out of his ship's comm. link range. Palpatine summons Anakin and Padmé to come to his office.
Mace Windu and Obi-Wan first encounter Jango Fett, who uses his jetpack to try to lead them away from the warehouse. The Jedi confer and Mace agrees to follow after Jango, leaving Obi-Wan to seek out Maul on his own. After some tense moments (parallels to Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader seeks out Luke in the darkness), Maul leaps out to ambush Obi-Wan and the battle is joined.
Back at the Temple: Anakin and Padmé arrive in Palpatine's office. Palpatine begins by grilling Anakin, asking him about whether he was involved in Jedi treachery. Anakin denies it, but demands to know what's going on. Palpatine responds, "I'm glad to hear it, I had to be sure. I have recently received convincing evidence that the Jedi Council has been engaged in high treason."
Back in the Underworld: Jango ditches Mace upon hearing the sounds of battle and races to double-team Obi-Wan, who is barely able to defend against the onslaught. In the nick of time, Mace shows up as well, helping turn the tide of the duel. Jango, being more mobile, concentrates his fire on drawing the more experienced Mace Windu away from the battle. He succeeds, but he doesn't count on Obi-Wan successfully defeating Darth Maul on his own.
Jango flees back to his ship, making for the Portal and alerting Darth Sidious of Maul's death via comm. link, but Jango's ship is boxed in by the Jedi in their ships. Jango refuses to surrender, and is shot down.
Moment of the big reveal: as Jango Fett's ship crashes in flames, we realize that the man holding the comm. link is in fact Palpatine!
Palpatine re-enters the office. Anakin is convinced by the false documentation he's been shown, but Padmé isn't so sure. Palpatine reveals his plans to instruct all Clone troops to fire on their Jedi commanders, and then make a public announcement of the Jedi's treason. At this point, Padmé realizes that something is terribly wrong. She goes to leave, but Palpatine summons the comm. link out of her hands, revealing the fact that he is a Sith, though he excuses it by saying that the Jedi are too hypocritical and corrupt for him to trust or excuse.
Padmé runs out to find another way to reach Obi-Wan. Palpatine doesn't try to hurt her, but instructs Anakin to take a contingent of Clone troops to 'secure' the Jedi Council chambers and Archives. "Kill anyone who resists." Palpatine himself goes to the training rooms to deal with Yoda. Yoda is no fighter, but is sufficiently powerful in the Force to escape despite Palpatine's immense skill.
Padmé succeeds in reaching Obi-Wan and Mace as they emerge from the Portal. Their feelings of triumph at the defeat of the last Sith Lord and leader of the Separatist movement are soon extinguished on hearing Padmé's news that Palpatine himself was the Sith Lord. They return to the Temple, but are stopped in their tracks by Yoda, who only just escaped the Temple's utter destruction.
The next instant all three Jedi are overwhelmed by a disturbance in the Force: the death of every other Jedi at the hands of Clone Army, acting on Order #66. At length Mace and Obi-Wan are able to recover, but Yoda is still in shell-shock, unprepared to deal with such volume of grief and emotion. As he is no fighter, he decides to withdraw into exile in the Dagobah system.
Being for all practical purposes the sole survivors of the Jedi Order, Mace and Obi-Wan decide to make a stand.
Meanwhile, the Temple destroyed and the Jedi Order decimated, Palpatine summons Anakin back to his chambers. Palpatine had kept Padmé under observation when she left, and now has video to show Anakin: on reaching Obi-Wan, she seemed to eagerly embrace him (in reality, holding onto him for comfort due to the horrible news). Proof of her 'betrayal' sends Anakin over the edge, and his vows his allegiance to Palpatine and the Way of the Sith. "Henceforth you shall be known as Darth… Vader." "Thank you, my Master." "Lord Vader… rise."
Palpatine sends Anakin to 'meet' with the few remaining leaders of the Separatist systems, who have congregated on Palpatine's orders in the Mustafar system. Obi-Wan follows Anakin there, and Padmé follows along: they are unsure of Anakin's loyalties, and hope that her presence might sway him.
As for Mace Windu, he discovered that Palpatine had arranged to make a broadcast from the Senate, informing the whole galaxy of the Jedi's treason. He evades Palpatine's guards (comprised of those contacted earlier by Jango Fett), and intercepts him in the corridors below the Senate chamber, shortly before Palpatine was to give his speech.
Palpatine is forced to give way before Mace Windu's aggressive lightsaber form, and the duel e eventually moves upward into the Senate chamber. But the Senate is not empty, as Palpatine's speech was schedule to begin soon thereafter. Palpatine plays to the crowd, by shouting that the Jedi were trying to assassinate him, as he had discovered the Jedi were traitors. Mace tries to counter that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, but few of the assembled Senators know what 'Sith' means besides the fact that they were ancient enemies of the Jedi, and the Jedi were no longer so popular that their enemies were considered evil by default.
Mace again tries to convince the Senate that Palpatine and the other Sith were behind the Clone War, having orchestrated the Separatist movement from its inception. The Senators don't take this seriously, especially when Palpatine states that it was the Jedi who had conspired with the Separatists, as he had learned from the Jedi files where the Separatist leaders were hiding. In fact, Palpatine had already sent his agents to take care of the rebels and bring them back, dead or alive.
Smash-cut to Mustafar, where Anakin has just finished slaughtering the Separatist leaders (exulting in the knowledge that this massacre meant the end of the war) when he sees Obi-Wan's ship land nearby. When Anakin realizes that Padmé had arrived together with Obi-Wan, he goes beserk, attacking her verbally at first then physically. Obi-Wan intervenes to protect her, covers her escape back to the ship, and the battle is joined.
This battle plays out with many of the same beats as in the original movie, though the battle is not over once Obi-Wan takes the high ground. Rather, Obi-Wan is simply the superior dueler, and has wounded Anakin in several places; Anakin is determined to fight on, but Obi-Wan knows he would rather cripple Anakin than risk killing him. Anakin tries to jump over, and Obi-Wan slices off his legs.
Smash cut back to Coruscant, where Palpatine has been reinforced by his guards, and Mace has been forced back to the defensive. Palpatine's demagoguery was effective – at one point, he attacked Mace with Sith Lightning, and when Mace reflected it with his lightsaber, Palpatine acted as though it were Mace attacking him. (This works for all but a few Senators who already knew about Sith Lightning, and thus realized that Palpatine was lying through his teeth the whole time). At last Mace's defenses ar ebroken, and he is disarmed and immobilized. Palpatine plays the Senate like it was a Roman Colosseum, and by the end they are howling for Mace Windu's blood – which he gives them. Mace Windu is beheaded on live broadcast.
Once the broadcast is finished, Palpatine senses the disturbance in the Force from his newest apprentice, and immediately readies his ship to jump to Mustafar.
As for the now-legless Anakin, he does not fall into burning lava, though his lightsaber does fall away for Obi-Wan to retrieve. Anakin rages against the Jedi's treason and proudly identifies himself as the Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Obi-Wan mourns his brother's fall from grace, but soon realizes he cannot strike the killing blow to his best friend, and so returns to ship in a stupor.
Padmé takes off, sets the autopilot, and returns help Obi-Wan clean off the viscera from their duel. She reveals that she and Anakin had married shortly after the first battle of the war, and that she thinks she might be bearing his child. The two make their way to Alderaan, where Padmé knows the royal family. There they learn of Palpatine's broadcast and the end of the Jedi Order, and soon learn of the black cyborg monstrosity only known by the name Darth Vader.
The family doctor confirms Padmé's pregnancy, and Obi-Wan suggests that once the twins are born, that he and Padmé should make a home together. Padmé declines, still reeling from her husband's descent into evil and horrified by a false sense of her own culpability for putting him there. When the time comes, Padmé dies after giving birth to the twins.
Obi-Wan leaves the girl in the hands of the Alderaan family, and she bears too much resemblance to her mother for him to bear. He takes the boy with him to Tatooine, where he has located relatives of Anakin Skywalker from his old days as a slave. He leaves the boy Luke with them, along with a story of how Luke's father was a Jedi who died in the last days of the Clone War. He then sets out across the desert, to make a home for himself beneath the twin suns of Tatooine.
Roll credits.
Fin
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