I’m going to keep this vague. I have no interest in spoiling Star Wars Episode VII, although I’m sure some people will find any information about the film’s plot to be spoilery. If you’re a spoilerphobe or want to go into Star Wars Episode VII totally, completely clean, stop reading now. If you want to know what, on a very basic and general level, is the premise of Star Wars Episode VII, read on.

Ready?

Imagine the standard Star Wars crawl, and when it ends the camera pans up to the stars. But instead of a spaceship zooming into frame we see… a hand! A severed hand, tumbling through space. A severed hand gripping a light saber.

That hand falls onto a desert planet, where it is discovered by characters who will be our heroes. One is Daisy Ridley. The other is John Boyega, who is playing someone trying to change his path in life (again, I’m keeping it vague here). They recognize the light saber as a Jedi relic and decide to return it to the proper people.

Their quest takes them off world, and they meet up with Han Solo and Chewbacca, who aren’t flying around in the Millenium Falcon anymore but are piloting… well, that could be a spoiler. I’ll leave it. Anyway, Han and Chewie recognize the light saber as Luke’s, and they say they haven’t seen their friend in thirty years, since the events of Return of the Jedi.

So begins a quest to find the missing Jedi Master. Meanwhile, on an ice planet, nefarious forces are building a super weapon, one capable of destroying not planets but entire solar systems…

In many ways this plot of Episode VII is an echo of A New Hope. Instead of R2 coming to Tatooine it’s a hand falling from the sky, but the basic sweep of the story is similar, and intentionally so. But things that seem familiar may not be as familiar as you think – don’t assume that every ice or desert planet in the galaxy has already been visited, if you know what I’m saying.

There’s more, of course – this is just the broadest of outlines, a basic synopsis. On the one hand I sort of roll my eyes at the story echoing A New Hope, but on the other I like the propulsive quest concept. I’m hearing extremely positive things about the action, and very, very good things about the characters themselves and the way the actors are bringing them to life. Again and again I’m hearing that John Boyega owns this movie.

What do you think? How does the basic plot of Star Wars: The Hand Of Skywalker (not the real title!) sound to you?