History Awesome / ANewHope

* Han Solo's big EstablishingCharacterMoment. A BountyHunter working for [[TheDon Jabba the Hutt]] has come to claim Han's debt at the cantina, with a blaster right at his face... but just before he can fire, Han pulls a gun under the table and kills him before he even knows what's coming. "Sorry about the mess."

* In both the canon and ''Legends'' continuities, the destruction of the Death Star is a HUGE deal with far-reaching repercussions. The fact that almost two decades of resources and effort was destroyed in an instant is already impressive, but in both universes, the majority of the Empire's best and brightest among the upper ranks of the military were on board the massive station at Tarkin's insistence. Luke doesn't just destroy a powerful weapon, he also inflicts a ''huge'' decapitation strike upon the Empire's military, leaving their forces less effective than they would otherwise be.

* The film's opening: after [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]]'s legendary logo fanfare and an opening text crawl with Music/JohnWilliams's own no less legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) fly past and over a planet, firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) [[StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot flies over the camera]] and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.

!!Film

* The film's opening: after [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]]'s legendary logo fanfare and an opening text crawl with Music/JohnWilliams's own no less legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) fly past and over a planet, firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) [[StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot flies over the the camera]] and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.

** What's more, every member of the core cast contributes to the fight; Luke and Han man the guns, Leia calls shots from the cockpit while Chewie pilots, and R2-D2 runs repairs like the pit crew at a NASCAR race. Only one who didn't help was [=C-3PO=].

* In both the canon and ''Legends'' continuities, the destruction of the Death Star is a HUGE deal with far-reaching repercussions. The fact that almost two decades of resources and effort was destroyed in an instant is already impressive, but in both universes, the majority of Empire's best and brightest among the upper ranks of the military were on board the massive station at Tarkin's insistence. Luke doesn't just destroy a powerful weapon, he also inflicts a ''huge'' decapitation strike upon the Empire's military, leaving their forces less effective than they would otherwise be.

* The film's opening: after [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]]'s legendary logo fanfare and an opening text crawl with Music/JohnWilliams's own no less legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) [[StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot fly past and over a planet]], firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) flies over the the camera and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.

* The film's opening: after [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]]'s legendary logo fanfare and an opening text crawl with Music/JohnWilliams's own no less legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) fly past and over a planet, firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) flies over the the camera and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.

* In both the canon and ''Legends'' continuities, the destruction of the Death Star is a HUGE deal with far-reaching repercussions. The fact that almost two decades of resources and effort was destroyed in an instant is already impressive, but in both universes, the majority of Empire's best and brightest among the upper ranks of the military were on board the massive station at Tarkin's insistence. Luke doesn't just destroy a powerful weapon, he also partially decapitates the Empire's military, leaving their forces less effective than they would otherwise be.

* The film's opening shot: after [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]]'s legendary logo fanfare and an opening text crawl with Music/JohnWilliams's own no less legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) fly past and over a planet, firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) flies over the the camera and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.

* The film's opening shot: after an opening text crawl and Music/JohnWilliams' legendary fanfare, we see a [[CoolStarship spaceship]] (the Tantive IV) fly past and over a planet, firing at something chasing it... and then a ''[[MileLongShip much bigger]]'' pursuing ship (a Star Destroyer) flies over the the camera and fires at it, and keeps getting closer and closer. 1977 moviegoers had never seen anything like this before (not even in ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}''), and were witnessing the birth of a whole new kind of filmmaking right away.