10 Major Reveals From The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Novelisation

2. Some Awesome Alternate Scenes

J.J. Abrams has provided an explanation for why R2-D2 wakes up when he does, but the Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelisation arguably goes about addressing this apparent plot hole in a more satisfying way. The director emphasised the need to have the beloved droid wake up at the end of the movie to provide the lead characters with some hope after the death of Han Solo and the fact Finn was left comatose, but the book doesn't waste any time in bring R2 out of the low power mode he's been in since the disappearance of his master so many years before. In fact, the second the astromech hears someone mention that the files from BB-8 are from old Imperial Records, he springs to life to reveal that he unwittingly has the rest of them. As a result, R2-D2's sudden return ends up feeling a lot more believable and is much less confusing. Another interesting moment that didn't make it into the movie is the fact that Rey's old boss Unkar Plutt actually tracks the Millennium Falcon down to Maz Kanata's home of Takodana. Confronting her in the kind of bullying manner you might expect, she tries to use her new blaster on him, only to miserably fail upon realising that the safety is still on (interestingly, a similar moment to that came when she first attempted to fire on the invading First Order Stormtroopers in the movie). As Plutt turns violent, Chewbacca steps in and tears his arm off, throwing it across the room and bringing back memories of a certain scene in A New Hope. Was this one reference too far for Abrams? Possibly, though a moment as violent as this being dropped could have actually come down to the family friendly Disney...