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Attack of the Clones
Movie title: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Movie description: After an attempt on the life of Senator Padmé Amidala, young Anakin Skywalker is assigned to protect the budding politician while his Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is tasked with tracking down the mysterious assassin. Little does Obi-Wan know that he will discover a plot much deeper than the life of a single senator; one which involves the entire galaxy and will lead to galactic civil war.
Date published: May 16, 2002
Duration: 142 mins
Director(s): Director: George Lucas, Writers: George Lucas, Jonathan Hales
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There is unrest in the Galactic
Senate. Several thousand solar
systems have declared their
intentions to leave the Republic.
This separatist movement,
under the leadership of the
mysterious Count Dooku, has
made it difficult for the limited
number of Jedi Knights to
maintain peace and order in
the galaxy.
Senator Amidala, the former
Queen of Naboo, is returning
to the Galactic Senate to vote
on the critical issue of creating
an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
to assist the overwhelmed
Jedi….
PLOT SYNOPSIS
Above the city-world of Coruscant, two yellow N-1 starfighters lead the way towards the planet’s atmosphere as a sleek, J-type Naboo Royal Cruiser follows, clearly on headed on a direct course to the planet’s surface. After successfully landing on platforms prepared for the vessels, Captain Typho emerges from one of the N-1 starfighters, stating his pleasure at their safe arrival as he had been concerned of an attack on the Padmé Amidala´s life – for Padmé had been returning to Coruscant to vote against the Military Creation Act which had been proposed in response to a growing Separatist movement in the Outer Rim.
But the captain’s relief in safe travels to Coruscant couldn’t be more misplaced. Only moments after expressing his optimism for her safety, ‘Padmé’ and her entourage begin walking down the landing ramp of the large royal cruiser when a massive explosion detonates along the ramp and the rest of the ship, blasting the queen several feet away and killing her crew. Panicked, Captain Typho and the other pilot rush to the supposed ‘Padmé’s’ side in hopes of saving her.
Arriving alongside Typho, the other pilot removes her helmet revealing that she is in fact Padmé and that the dying woman dressed as her was her decoy, Cordé. In tears, Padmé exchanges a few words with her beloved friend before Cordé takes her final breath, tragically dying on the platform. At the captain’s urging, Padmé, R2-D2 and Typho rush from the platform to find safety before their unseen attacker can strike again.
Not long after, within Chancellor Palpatine’s chambers, members of the Jedi Council including Yoda, Mace Windu, and Ki-Adi-Mundi discuss the unfortunate assassination attempt on Padmé’s life. Concerned and uncertain regarding the identity or motives of their attacker, Chancellor Palpatine proposes that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, be assigned to protect Senator Amidala, which the Jedi Council agrees with.
Anakin and Obi-Wan soon receive their new assignment and travel to Corscant before making the long rise in an elevator to Padmé’s quarters. During their ascent, the two discuss their assignment and it is clear that Anakin is nervous to meet the beautiful Senator after ten long years without seeing her, though he is pained to admit as much to his master.
Arriving at Padmé’s quarters, an awkward reunion is made between Anakin and Padmé, and it is clear that at least one of them has feelings for the other. Soon though, their focus turns to protecting the senator, and they discuss various details of security to ensure no further assassination attempts can be made.
That night, Anakin and Obi-Wan remain in the living area of Padmé’s quarters while she sleeps in the bedroom. As they discuss their assignment further though, Anakin suddenly senses that Padmé is in danger. Obi-Wan also senses it, and the two rush into her bedroom to find two poisonous centipede-like creatures known as kouhuns crawling toward the senator. Quickly slicing them with his lightsaber, Anakin lands in front of Padmé, quickly realizing there is a droid outside her window.
Obi-Wan jumps through the window, shattering the glass and grabbing hold of a flying green ASN-courier droid, which carries him off through the airlanes of Coruscant. Attempting to follow his master, Anakin finds a yellow XJ-6 airspeeder and heads in pursuit, leaving Padmé’s security forces to come and ensure her safety.
In an insane aerial chase, Anakin manages to catch up to his master, but not before Padmé’s mysterious attacker shoots the droid Kenobi clings to, causing him to fall through the skies of Coruscant. Anakin puts his speeder into a nose-dive, catching up to his master in free-fall and manages to catch Obi-Wan with the speeder. In a sense of good humor after his rescue, Obi-Wan teasingly asks, “What took you so long!?” to his apprentice.
The two then race through the sky lanes of Coruscant, pursuing the green speeder of Padmé’s attacker, passing through power couplings and between a multitude of skyscrapers, flashing lights, and thousands of other speeders. After a nearly-wrong turn, Anakin manages to anticipate the assassin’s next move and leaps from their vehicle, falling several stories before landing on their target’s speeder.
The assassin attempts to shoot at him while he plunges his lightsaber into the speeder, before nearly falling off and losing his weapon. In a brief glimpse, Anakin realizes their attacker is a woman who can change shapes and must be a shape-shifter. Managing to eventually damage the speeder, his target crash-lands the speeder in the streets of Coruscant and leaps out, running down through a crowd of people with Anakin hot in pursuit.
Obi-Wan manages to catch up and land his speeder just as Anakin is about to follow the attacker into a nightclub called the Outlander Club, and returns his apprentice’s lightsaber to him, reminding him to have caution as they prepare to search for their attacker (known as Zam Wesell) inside.
After entering, Obi-Wan decides to get a drink while Anakin determinedly searches amongst the crowds for the shape-shifter that could be anyone. A sense of tension arises as he searches – and somewhere in the club, the attacker’s hand emerges with a blaster poised to kill. Just as the attacker is about to fire, Obi-Wan who is drinking at the bar, whips around in lightning speed, igniting his lightsaber at the same moment and cutting off Zam Wesell’s arm.
Obi-Wan and Anakin then carry Zam outside the club to the street to interrogate her. Just as she is about to admit who hired her to attack the senator though, she is shot in the neck by an armored figure who quickly uses a jetpack to fly off into the air and disappear.
Without many leads, Obi-Wan removes the strange little projectile that was shot into Zam’s neck and travels back to the Jedi Temple to discuss their findings with the Council. The Council then gives Obi-Wan the task of tracking down the bounty hunter that killed Zam and determine who they are working for while Anakin is assigned to take Padmé back to her home planet of Naboo and protect her there.
Hoping to find leads, Obi-Wan visits an old friend – a Besalisk known as Dexter Jettster – at his friend’s diner to ask him if he knows anything about the dart that was used to kill Zam Wesell. Dexter tells him that the weapon is known as a Kamino Saberdart, being able to identify it because of the unique markings on its sides.
Obi-Wan then begins searching for maps to travel to Kamino while Anakin and Padmé travel under the guise of refugees back to Naboo. Despite a thorough search, Kenobi is surprised that he can’t find any listing of Kamino in the maps of the Jedi Archives where the planet is thought to exist, so he finds Yoda to ask him for advice.
Yoda assures him that Kamino is precisely where Obi-Wan would expect to find it, confirming that someone must have erased it from the Jedi Archives. With this assurance, Obi-Wan becomes even more intrigued by his mission, and prepares to travel to Kamino.
On Naboo, Anakin and Padmé briefly visit the queen – Queen Jamillia. Though Anakin is clearly becoming a skilled warrior as a Jedi, it is clear that he has difficulty controlling his emotions, arguing with Padmé in front of the queen regarding her protection, before agreeing that they will go to the Lake Country where Padmé is likely to be safest.
After traveling there, the two spend a several days conversing and getting to know one another better- their friendship growing. Eventually, Anakin admits his feelings for Padmé, though she in return is unwilling to admit her feelings for him because of her duty as a senator and Anakin’s commitment to the Jedi Order. Despite this, later as the two look out over a beautiful lake in the Lake Country, they find themselves entranced and kiss for a moment until Padmé pulls away feeling again conflicted about her feelings.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan has successfully located Kamino and arrived at Tipoca City, where he is greeted by the Kaminoans and is surprised to hear that they were expecting him. He soon learns that they have been undertaking a massive cloning operation for the Galactic Republic which was ordered by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas nearly ten years before Kenobi’s arrival.
Obi-Wan is extremely confused as no such order was officially given and Master Sifo-Dyas was though to have died around ten years prior, but plays along with the part in order to discover what else might be going on. As he is given a tour of the cloning facilities by Prime Minister Lama Su, he learns that the genetic template for the clones was a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Suspecting this to be his target, Obi-Wan requests a chance to meet this bounty hunter to which Lama Su agrees.
Obi-Wan is introduced by Taun We to the bounty hunter known as Jango Fett in his quarters and also meet’s Fett’s ‘son’ – an unaltered clone named Boba. In the corner of a room, Jango’s armor can be seen as the armor matching the bounty hunter from Coruscant. Obi-Wan carefully asks Jango a few questions in hopes of determining if Fett is the bounty hunter he’s searching for, but Jango evades many of his questions.
After departing, Jango tells Boba to pack his things because they are leaving Kamino, since he knows that his cover has been blown and the Jedi are suspicious of his involvement in the assassination attempt.
As Jango and Boba work out in the rain to load their starship known as Slave I, Obi-Wan emerges onto the hangar platform. Jango attempts to blast him, but Obi-Wan deflects the bolts with his lightsaber, until Jango uses a rocket launcher to knock Kenobi off of his feet.
Eventually, Jango manages to bind Obi-Wan’s hands using a whipcord launcher, but the Jedi pulls him with the cable over the edge of their landing plandform, causing both of them to slide down the edge toward the dark ocean below. Jango quickly uses a wrist saw claw into the metal platform and stop his descent while Obi-Wan dangles on the cable connected to him. Jango then disconnects the cable from his wrist, causing him to suppose that Kenobi has plummeted into the sea. Unbeknownst to Jango however, Obi-Wan had managed to lasso the cable around a facility pillar while in free-fall, just in time to stop his fall into the ocean.
On Naboo, Anakin and Padmé’s infatuation with each other continues to grow despite Padmé’s attempts to focus on her duty. Anakin grows more and more conflicted, struggling in his relationship with the senator. Then, in a night of terror, Anakin dreams that his mother, Shmi Skywalker, is in terrible pain – suffering from something.
Padmé confronts her protector, admitting she knows that he has been having nightmares. Anakin admits that he knows his mother is in danger and that he must go to find her to which Padmé agrees she will go with him.
After traveling to Tatooine, Anakin takes them to his old slave owner, Watto, who is surprised to see Anakin so grown up, and as a Jedi. Watto informs him that he sold Shmi several years before to a moisture farmer by the last name of Lars and agrees to help Anakin relocate his mother.
After receiving Watto’s help, Anakin and Padmé travel out onto the Great Chott salt flatt and eventually locate the Lars Homestead where Shmi was last known to be. There, they meet Cliegg Lars who had previously freed Shmi and married her, as well as Cliegg’s son, Owen Lars, and Owen’s girlfriend, Beru Whitesun.
Inquiring further about his mother, Cliegg woefully tells Anakin that Shmi was abducted by a surprise Tusken Raider attack one morning when she had been picking flowers about a month earlier. Cliegg led a search party to find her, but barely survived with his life, having lost his right leg in the attempt to rescue her. That night, Anakin tells Padmé he is going to leave her at the Lars Homestead while he travels by speeder across the desert to find his mother.
While Anakin searches for his mother on Tatooine, Obi-Wan manages to track Jango Fett to Geonosis, having placed a homing beacon on Jango’s ship just after their long duel. Traveling through rings of asteroids encircling the planet, Jango notices on his proximity sensors that he is being followed by the persistent Jedi.
Determined to destroy his pursuer, Jango first launches two seismic charges in the asteroid field before managing to get behind Kenobi’s Delta-7 light interceptor and score a hit on its hull. Fett then fires homing missile to finish off Obi-Wan’s damaged starship. The missile is relentless, following Obi-Wan’s every turn. But before it can make contact and detonate, Obi-Wan commands his astromech R5-P17 to jettison spare parts from his ship into space, which the missile mistakes for its target and hits instead.
Obi-Wan then quickly shuts off his starship, having landed it on the inside of an asteroid, causing his signal to vanish from Fett’s monitors, causing him to believe he has finally ended the pesky Jedi.
On Tatooine, Anakin races across the desert, following the Force and stopping to speak with Jawas and other traders for clues to his mother’s whereabouts and the Tusken Raider camp that abducted her. Eventually, after traveling all day, Anakin finds the camp and cautiously approaches under the cover of night. Stealthily searching about the campground, he finally finds his mother within one of the tents and enters from the back to find her badly bruised and beaten, with her swollen wrists tied to a pole.
Anakin quickly releases his mother from the pole and holds her in his arms, as she looks up into his eyes, a large curved and bleeding cut running along her cheek with another on her forehead. Barely alive, Shmi tells her son how proud she is of him before saying, “Now I am complete.” Anakin urges his mother to stay with him – even as the life drains out of her – her body falling limp into his arms.
Anakin holds his mother, grieving terribly for a few moments at her death. But as he grieves, suddenly his brow furrows – anguish turning to anger and then rage. Exiting the tent, Anakin beheads the guards at the entrance, anger raging through his heart. Soon, Tusken Raider war calls of panic are heard throughout the camp but none can withstand Anakin as he begins killing them. The scene fades into one at Coruscant where Yoda informs Mace Windu that he can sense Anakin’s terrible pain and anger.
On Geonosis, Obi-Wan manages to sneak into a large Geonosian stalagmite where he witnesses the active creation of a massive droid army in an underground factory. He also manages to eavesdrop on an important meeting with several Separatist leaders. Leading the meeting, is none other than former Jedi Count Dooku, who had previously trained Obi-Wan’s master, Qui-Gon Jinn many years earlier.
It is clear from the meeting that Count Dooku and the other Separatist leaders are creating a massive droid army to take over the Republic and have already arranged for the necessary funding to make the droid army operative.
Concerned, Kenobi returns to the canyon where his ship is hidden and prepares to transmit a message to the Jedi Council regarding his important discovery, but realizes that his long-range transmitter has been knocked out. Desperate to send the message, he determines to transmit it to Anakin on Naboo which is much closer so that Anakin can re-transmit the message to Coruscant. In sending the message though, Obi-Wan realizes that Anakin is on Tatooine.
After returning to the Lars Homestead and holding a funeral for Shmi, Anakin and Padmé are back in their ship on Tatooine when they notice Obi-Wan’s incoming transmission and view it, realizing the danger the Republic is in from Kenobi’s message. Before Anakin’s master can complete the message at the end though, he and Padmé see droids emerge in the hologram, attacking Obi-Wan. It is clear that Obi-Wan has been captured.
After notifying the Jedi Council, Padmé and Anakin argue about traveling to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan before finally agreeing to go together in direct disobedience to the commands they’d just been given by Jedi Master Mace Windu.
Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the news of a Separatist droid army puts many of the Republic’s senators into panic. They conclude the Commerce Guilds must have made a treaty with Count Dooku. In an emergency hearing, Jar Jar Binks proposes emergency powers be given to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine which would allow him to approve the creation of an army, allowing them to use the clone army that the Kaminoans had already created. Binks’ proposal is ratified, and emergency powers are indeed given to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
Meanwhile, after arriving on Geonosis, Padmé and Anakin enter a Geonosian facility through a large heat vent and discover a massive underground battle droid factory. Though the two hope to find and rescue Obi-Wan, instead they are nearly killed by the machinery’s automations before being captured by several Geonosian warriors led by bounty hunter Jango Fett.
Now, Obi-Wan, Padmé and Anakin have all been captured by Count Dooku and the Separatists and are to be executed. In a political maneuver to appease the veangeful Viceroy Nute Gunray, Dooku agrees to execute the Naboo Senator and her Jedi friends in a public execution of entertainment.
The three prisoners are taken to a Geonosian arena where they are to be chained and attacked by ferocious creatures while a crowd of spectators, including the Viceroy and Count, view their deaths. Just before Anakin and Padmé are taken into the arena though, Padmé turns to Anakin and admits that she is in love with him. Pleased and surprised, Anakin questions why she is telling him to which she replies that they are about to die. The two kiss just before they are brought into the arena.
After being brought out, the two are shackled to separate pillars, and observe that Obi-Wan is also there, having been chained to a pillar as well. Soon, the entertainment of their execution begins as three creatures are brought out: the rhinocerus-like reek with three horns, a cat-like species known as nexu, and a large crustacean species with pincers known as acklay.
Soon, the three creatures are attacking the three prisoners. Obi-Wan manages to duck and roll just in time to avoid acklay’s pincers, eventually managing to have his chain broken off of the stone pillar he was tied to while Anakin rides on top of reek and raps his chain around its horns to break his chain free. Padmé managed to use a lock pick she’d hidden to remove her chains, but only before receiving a large gash in her back from nexu’s claws.
Using the Force, Anakin manages to ride reek and use it to kill nexu, rescuing Padmé. Obi-Wan manages to evade acklay long enough to escape and also climb on top of reek, the three of them searching to escape, until they are surrounded by droidekas.
Just as they are about to meet their fate though, a figure in tall brown boots is seen steathily walking down a corridor in the arena. In the viewing box, Count Dooku, Poggle the Lesser, the viceroy and Jango look down on the prisoners when suddenly a brilliant purple lightsaber is ignited at Jango’s throat.
Count Dooku turns around to find Jedi Master Mace Windu prepared to kill Jango. “This party’s over.” Windu menacingly says as he glares at Dooku. The count claims Windu is hopelessly outnumbered, to which Mace argues the contrary. At the same time, all across the stadium, lightsabers are ignited by dozens of renowned Jedi including Bultar Swan, Luminara Unduli, Coleman Trebor, Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Aayla Secura, Saesee Tiin, Shaak Ti and many others.
Suddenly though, battle droids begin to fill the stadium on all sides. Jango fires his flamethrower at Windu, causing the Jedi Master to leap into the air and skillfully twist backwards, falling far below in the center of the arena. The other Jedi are also forced back towards the center of the arena as more and more droids pour into the stadium.
As the fighting continues, Jango sees Mace Windu get knocked to the side by the reek and flies down to the arena looking to end the Jedi Master. Before he can do so though, Mace uses the Force to retrieve his lightsaber and Fett finds himself instead pummeled by the creature. After killing the reek and getting back up, Jango fires a series of shots at Mace. Despite Jango’s steady hand, Windu smoothly deflects every shot while at the same time charging the bounty hunter and decapitating him in one final swift stroke. Viewing from above, Dooku is surprised and Boba is stunned.
Meanwhile, the Jedi continue to fight powerfully, but it is clear they are indeed hopelessly outnumbered. Many have been killed and the few remaining are surrounded on every side by battle droids, being pushed back farther and farther into a tight circle.
Defeated, the battle pauses and Dooku, looking down on the battle, offers to spare the remaining Jedi’s lives if they will surrender. Speaking for them, Windu declines his offer, and the droids, retake their aim, preparing to finish the Jedi off.
Just when all hope appears lost, suddenly from the sky appear several Republic gunships carrying a massive force of clone troopers, with Yoda leading them. The droids in the arena are quickly gunned down, and the Jedi load onto the transports and out of the stadium, witnessing an all-out war beginning to take place across the Geonosian landscape, with several Trade Federation battleships, attempting to escape from the surface of the planet.
Soon, the Jedi are leading battalions of clones across the battlefield with AT-TE tanks and SPHA-T walkers following while the droid army presses a counterattack with hailfire droids, dwarf spider droids, and several others attacking the clones.
In a hidden chamber, Poggle the Lesser hands over important technological plans for the creation of a planet-destroying superweapon to Count Dooku. The count then uses a speeder to travel across the battlefield heading for a private hangar where he can travel offworld.
Hot in pursuit, Anakin and Obi-Wan follow him to the hangar and plan to engage him in a two-on-one duel. Angry with the count though, Anakin rushes him without Obi-Wan, and is quickly burned by Force lightning as the count reveals his is trained in the way of the Sith.
Obi-Wan attempts to duel the count, but is quickly defeated, being stabbed in the arm and the thigh. Recovering from the Force lightning, Anakin tries to attack Dooku again, but is defeated in a devastating blow as the count severs off half of his right arm.
As Count Dooku prepares to finish them off, he senses the presence of another Jedi entering the hangar. To his surprise, it is legendary Jedi Master Yoda who had trained Dooku many years before. The Sith Lord taunts his old master, claiming to have become more powerful than Yoda and attempts to shock him with Force lightning.
Yoda counters Dooku’s every move, so the count resorts to using his lightsaber instead. Yoda ignites his own green lightsaber and before Dooku can blink, the small green Jedi Master is swirling around the hangar in a fury of slashes. Dooku can barely manage to defend against Yoda’s attacks and instead uses the Force to send a large column falling toward Obi-Wan and Anakin. The distraction forces Yoda to lift the massive column out of harm’s way, allowing Dooku to board his Punworcca 116-class solar sailer and escape.
As Count Dooku prepares to finish them off, he senses the presence of another Jedi entering the hangar. To his surprise, it is legendary Jedi Master Yoda who had trained Dooku many years before. The Sith Lord taunts his old master, claiming to have become more powerful than Yoda and attempts to shock him with Force lightning.
Yoda counters Dooku’s every move, so the count resorts to using his lightsaber instead. Yoda ignites his own green lightsaber and before Dooku can blink, the small green Jedi Master is swirling around the hangar in a fury of slashes. Dooku can barely manage to defend against Yoda’s attacks and instead uses the Force to send a large column falling toward Obi-Wan and Anakin. The distraction forces Yoda to lift the massive column out of harm’s way, allowing Dooku to board his Punworcca 116-class solar sailer and escape.
The count then travels to a mysterious facility on Coruscant where he is greeted by the same mysterious Sith Lord that had trained Darth Maul previously – Darth Sidious. Being greeted by his master, Count Dooku is pleased to inform him that “the war has begun.” to which Sidious commends him for his achievements.
Meanwhile, having also returned to Coruscant, Obi-Wan discusses the victory on Geonosis with Master Yoda, who in return states that the battle was no victory – for a new war known as the Clone War has just begun. Not long after, Padme and Anakin are married in secret in the Lake Country of Naboo, with the film ending as C-3PO and R2-D2 happily observe their marriage.
Overall, quite good. Some drawbacks on the plot, but good at progressing the story of Anakin, and introducing new villains like Count Dooku.
Plot was a bit weak- and why on earth did the council think it would be good for Anakin to spend more time with Padme when you’d have to be blind not to see that he had feelings for her. Overall though, I love the concept art for the clone troopers
Not bad. Jango was pretty cool. Loved the duel between Yoda and Dooku