The film begins with Poe Dameron and his trusty droid BB-8 in a village on the planet of Jakku, searching a piece of the map to the lost Jedi Luke Skywalker. He finds the map in the hands of an older man, but almost immediately after he gets the map, the villainous First Order and its leader, Kylo Ren, lands on the planet and begins slaughtering the villagers, hoping to find the map for themselves. Hoping the plans would stay out of First Order hands, Poe puts the map piece in BB-8 and instructs him to get far away from the violent scene. In the meantime, he jumps into his X-wing but is unable to escape the First Order and is captured and later, interrogated by the First Order and Kylo Ren himself.
In the meantime, the audience is introduced to Rey and her daily life. Rey is a scavenger, and we see hear going through a downed First Order battleship, scavenging for any parts that she can sell for food. After Rey exits the ship with a part, she goes to a market and sells the part to a merchant, who exchanges the part for what he calls a "portion" of food. Rey goes home, prepares the food, and pretends to be a pilot in the Resistance. When she hears droid-like sounds, she rushes over a ridge to see what is happening. She finds BB-8 entangled by a man trying to still it. She stops the man and BB-8 begins to follow her.
While Rey hangs out with BB-8, Finn, a stormtrooper who attacked the village on Jakku, deserts the First Order and helps the imprisoned Poe to escape. The two flee in a TIE fighter, but are ultimately shot down by the First Order and land on Jakku. Fearing Poe was lost when the fighter sunk into the ground, Finn begins a desperate search for water. He ultimately finds one in the same market Rey frequents to sell her scavenged parts. Then, after Rey goes back to the merchant, who offers her an extraordinary number of portions to sell the droid and she declines, the two cross paths. Then, the First Order attacks and they are forced to flee the planet in the Millennium Falcon, hoping to soon get to a rebel base and deliver BB-8 to them.
While traveling to the Rebel base BB-8 provides the location to, the Falcon is captured by a larger ship piloted by Han Solo and Chewbacca. They talk, but are interrupted by gangs who board Han and Chewie's ship, hoping to get money they are owed. Craziness ensues and Finn, Rey, Solo, and Chewie are forced to flee the larger ship on the Falcon.
Following their escape, the gangs that raided Han and Chewie's ship inform the First Order of their whereabouts. First Order leader Supreme Leader Snoke talks to Ren about how his emotions regarding his father are clouding his judgement and Ren reassures Snoke he doesn't care for his father. Snoke then order the all-powerful Starkiller base to be used on an important planet.
Chewie, Solo, Rey, and Finn travel to Maz Kanata's planet, where they determine BB-8's map is incomplete, but when Rey finds Luke's old lighr saber and the First Order attacks, their lives are threatened. With that help of the resistance and their X-wings, the crew squashes the First Order's attack and goes back to the Resistance base, where they find R2-D2 and C3PO, as well as Princess (now General) Leia. After introductions and re-introductions are made, we learn that the First Order intends to attack the Resistance base with their new, all-powerful weapon. A plan is swiftly devised to take care of it, and Han, Chewie, Finn, and Rey go to the planet that houses the weapon to disable its shields and allow the pilots, lead by Poe, to destroy the weapon.
At the Starkiller base, Han is brutally murdered by his own son. Nevertheless, their plan is successful, the Starkiller base is destroyed, and Chewie, enraged that Han was killed by Ren, injures Kylo with his blaster. Kylo, retreating to the surface, confronts Rey and Finn in the forrest, where Finn and Kylo fight, leaving Finn badly hurt. Everyone, including Finn and Kylo, escape the forrest and, save for Kylo, escape to the Resistance base, where everyone celebrates a victory but mourns the loss of Han.
After R2-D2 awakens and shows the rest of the map that leads to Luke, Rey, Chewie, and R2-D2 head off to the planet to confront him. After they arrive, Rey confronts Luke and hands him his old light saber as credits roll.
