ST The Length of The Force Awakens (In-Universe)

How many days does The Force Awakens transpire over? All the Star Wars movies seem to take place over a relatively short period of time. Is there any official word on how many days in-universe TFA takes place over?

 

Hmmm, me thinks it goes over a period of two or three days? From the time the movie started, which is a nighttime at the Jakku village... And I also assume that the destruction of the Starkiller Base also took place at night, with Rey and Chewie's flight to Luke's hideout the morning of the second or third day...


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Village invasion and massacre one night.
Poe interrogation early morning next day
Rey first scene same day as above
Poe and Finn escape later in morning of same day
Rey encountering BB8 same day
Rey Finn escape, Han, Rathtars, afternoon same day.
(Poe needs to get back to D'Qar ... here is where it gets murky, since Poe shows up in the Takodana battle)
Takodana: next day. Brings the old travel-time problem back though. Really difficult to imagine the Poe interrogation Poe / Finn escape, Rey first scene and BB8 find, FO attack on Jakku, Rey / Finn escape, Han, Rathners, Takodana, and initial D'Qar all happening on same day. If travel is nearly instantaneous though it would be all one day. If not I can do the mental gymnastics to stretch it to a couple of days.
Travel to D'Qar ... ? Again this is an issue.
Pause ... unshown time on D'Qar. Give it at least one more day.
Set up for SKB mission .. hours to a day
Attack on SKB - one day
Lapse between SKB destruction and Rey leaving. Guess three or four days
Travel time to Ahch-To nearly instantaneous as shown (though the way the scene is presented one could maybe interject some unshown travel time ... though that is a stretch.

Perhaps a week, but even that seems a bit crammed. Then again desperate situations, desperate measures.

 

From the opening shot to Ahch-To, I think seven to ten days seems reasonable.

 

The journey to Takodana isn't real time, either. Using Empire Atrikes Back logic, there could be a few days en route to Takodana

 

Like I say, that is always a big question in Star Wars movies: hyperspace journey time. However, what did I miss that indicates Rey and Finn meet the day after REy meets BB8. It definitely could be, but we see no day change.

 

One problem with SW storylines is that the whole thing takes place not on one planet revolving around a sun, but a WHOLE GALAXY...

This means that while it could be nighttime on one planet, the one at the other side of the Galaxy may be daytime or worse still, a couple of days ahead... So it's really hard to give an exact duration of the events in TFA, which is why I stick to my earlier-mentioned 2-3 day timeframe!


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Ah ... right.

 

You are all assuming a day is 24 hours. But some of these planets might be in other areas where days are longer because of the rotations thus a year would end up being longer.

 

I think it can be assumed the OP meant Earth days, not Takodanna days or Jakku days.

 

Thousands of years.

 

The Takodana trip seems to be only as long as the screen time. Conveniently they cut away from the initiation of the journey to the Snoke-Kylo-Hux scene, but when we come back they are still busy in the cockpit, with the hyperdrive compressor problem. Then the map sequence which is moved to in a continuous flow, then they reach Takodana. Again, Star Wars likes to keep travel time murky but in this case, it seems rather quick. The perception is for me that the Rey-Finn meeting and escape from Jakku, introduction of Han, Rathtars, entire Takodana sequence are all in the same "day".

 

True that. The way it goes is Han jumps the Falcon, Snoke-Kylo-Hux scene, and the compressor blows is the first thing that happens when we come back. and everything from there is "real time", however if one wanted to have some time pass in between them jumping away, the Snoke scene, and going back to the Falcon cockpit just when the compressor goes, it could fit in there. Cuz the compressor doesn't blow when they first jump, they have to use it so it could have some time pass while the compressor was working hunky dory and they were in hyperspace. However, that does have a problem where Finn's first line in that scene is "I need help with this giant hairy thing!" when he's trying to patch up Chewie so it implies Finn has been back there with Chewie the whole time. On the flipside, Finn does say "He almost killed me six times!" so that had to happen at some point off screen. That whole sequence of events is really the only time it seems to imply hyperspace travel was in "real time", although there is that whole "six times" thing which could take up a bit more time than what is shown.

As for the ending, I personally always take the travel to Luke's planet as a time-cut and not instantaneous as some people seem to take it.

 

The time that passes in-universe in TFA, is the shortest among all the SW films.

 

Whats you're favorite sw film?

 

Hey, these guys get jet lag?

 

By Plutor:

The Phantom Menace - The Invasion of Naboo took place completely during the year 32 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin). The only specific date I can find is the Siege, which began on 3:4:14. But definitely less than one year.

Attack of the Clones - The attempted assassination of Senator Amidala happened on 13:5:16. But it says the same date for the beginning of the First Battle of Geonosis. Seems very unlikely, especially given Anakin and Padme's vacation on Naboo and, later, wedding. This blog says 13:5:29. So either less than a day or more likely about 13 days.

Revenge of the Sith - The Battle of Coruscant ends on 16:5:20. Luke and Leia were born on 16:5:24. About 4 days. (As mentioned in the comments, this conflicts with the fact that Padme isn't yet obviously pregnant at the start of the movie, and yet has given birth by the end. That would suggest something closer to 3 or 4 months.)

A New Hope - Owen and Beru Lars were killed on 35:3:5 (the Tantive IV was captured a day or two previous). The Battle of Yavin also occurred sometime in 35:3. I've found a page that claims it happened on 35:3:9. So definitely less than a month, probably about 6 days.

The Empire Strikes Back - The Battle of Hoth occurred on 38:6:6 (Luke fought the Wampa probably a day or two previous). It's not clear when the duel in the Cloud City took place, but it's likely it was also sometime that month. Wookieepedia says this movie and the next are separated by 8 months, which would make it 38:7:3. So about 1 month.

Return of the Jedi - The Mission to Jabba's Palace began on 39:3:3. The Battle of Endor took place in 39:3. That neat blog cites 39:3:6. Which would make it about 3 days.


Using this guy's logic, I would definitely put The Force Awakens in about 1-2 days.

 

True. But is English being Basic canon? And we have par secs.

Just how fast is hyperspace? I think it's much faster than warp speed.

 

I'd say it's actually several weeks. We just don't see all the planning and chit chat and so on. Just think of the various Poe involvements: He's initially in a fight, gets captured, tortured, escapes, crashes, escapes again, shows up to save the day, takes Finn to see Leia and saves the day again at the end of the movie. During all of that he's had various injuries and what not that were healed completely between various scenes (primarily the torture, but possibly also after the crash landing. And yes, I know the Resistance probably has medical droids, but recuperation is still an issue).

There has to be periods of rest, planning, travel and what not that we just don't see.

 

I always figured it was about 5 days over the course of TFA. Like mentioned before, a big part of this is the idea of all that Poe had been thru, and the time involved afterwords to find a way back to D'Qar, which without any resources it would've taken some time. The beginning is obviously over the course of about three days already, from the night of the raid on the village to the afternoon rey escapes from Jakku. (It presumably would be afternoon or even evening there, since she's already done a day's worth of scavenging). Then it seems like the rest happens over two days or so.

Here's how I imagine the other episodes' timeframes:

TPM: About 5 days (judging by the fact that they didn't have a working hyperdrive and the scenes including day vs. night. But then of course the final scene seems like it might be as much as a month later, or more.)
AOTC: About 6 days (It's unclear how much time the two spent on Naboo, but it was at least 2 days, even 3. And Obi Wan could've been held prisoner for days-who knows?)
ROTS: About a month. (Judging by Padme's pregnancy situation, and the fact that it's entirely possible Anakin could've been on Coruscant for weeks between events. Makes more sense when you consider the "search for Grievous," taking weeks to find him rather than conveniently just days.)
ANH: About 4 days. (I don't imagine they spent multiple days on the DS. And with a homing beacon, it wouldn't have taken long for the DS to reach Yavin.)
ESB: About 3 weeks. (Mostly due to the idea that the Falcon's hyperdrive didn't work, and Luke was training with Yoda-which must've been more than just a couple days.)
ROTJ: About 4 days. (This one was probably the one that involved the shortest timeframe. Also it was made quite clear by the difference between day and night.)

I know some of my timeframes might be longer than some would guess, but I like to imagine that certain things went on in between the scenes we see: Like Luke may have stayed with Obi-Wan for a couple days on Tattooine in ANH, rather than leaving from the sandcrawler straight to Mos Eisley. Or that the events of the first half of ROTS took place over weeks, while Anakin was on Coruscant and gradually being tempted by Sidious. (The novelization also makes this possibility seem more likely).

But when you take in accordance different planetary times, stuff inbetween scenes and of course travel time-which that in and of itself can take a full day-it seems like sometimes it's longer than we think.