A long time ago in a country not far far away there is a movie that caused millions of grown men to scream in excitement. In an attempt to reboot the epic sci-fi franchise that defined a generation, JJ Abrams and Disney have brought back the spirit of Star Wars in Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

The latest installment opened on Dec. 18, 2015 with many long and painful months of waiting preceding the release. When the first trailer aired during a Monday Night Football game in October, millions of people flocked to the internet to purchase tickets. They found all of the sites down to the amount the traffic. A Star Wars trailer broke the internet in a timespan of 30 minutes.

As the release date became closer, millions of toys have been purchased as the excitement have never reached a level of this proportion. Even one week before the movie came out, there were people camping outside the theater all day in order to get the best spot to see the movie. The date finally came. Once the thousands of excited left the theater, they were thrilled to experience what JJ Abrams was able to do. Their faces were filled with joy and questions on what really happened toward the end of the movie.

It became the fastest film to gross $1 billion in only 12 days beating the record previously held by Jurassic World. The records show that the fans absolutely loved almost every single aspect of the film. A general consensus was that it embodied the spirit of the original Star Wars while adding a new twist to the classic story.

But the movie did more than bring back the Star Wars everyone loved, it strengthened old relationships and created new ones. As today’s parents were taken by their parents back in 1977 to see A New Hope, they repeated the favor of showing The Force Awakens to their kids today in 2016.

On opening day, I waited in line to be one of the first to see it and behind me was a woman who told us how she had seen every single Star Wars in theaters with her husband but this was the first year she would be seeing it alone since her husband died a year ago. This story really shows the power of how Star Wars brings people together. Even though she did not really enjoy the movie, she wanted to watch it as a remembrance for her husband.

Almost all Westminster students have seen the movie at least once and they agree that the movie was one of the best they have ever seen.

“I have never seen a Star Wars movie in theaters and the amount of people that showed up completely amazed me,” said Nathan Walsh, sophomore.

Star Wars not only brings people out to see the new masterpiece, but it also build and strengthens relationships between broken and fallen people.

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