Senator Padmé, dead?

The film begins as Naboo's Royal Starship enters Coruscant, accompanied by Naboo fighters. At the landing ramp, as Senator Padmé and her protectors exit the Royal Starship.....there is a large explosion! The ship is destroyed, and several lie dead.... But Padmé wasn't the one who exited the ship; It was her handmaiden, Cordé. Padmé, who was flying alongside the Royal Starship in a Naboo starfighter, runs to the dying handmaiden... Cordé dies in Padmé's arms.

Padmé was on her way to vote on Chancellor Palpatine's proposal for the commission of an official Republican army to assist the Jedi Knights in maintaining order in the galaxy, but now she wonders whether she should go on; Cordé's death shakes her. At the urging of Captain Typho and R2-D2 (who were not caught in the explosion), Padmé goes on to the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Galactic Senate meeting on whether or not to commission the unified army is in session. This is a delicate topic because the Galactic Republic has no standing unified miltary force other than the Jedi Knights. Chancellor Palpatine recieves word from Uv Gizen, one of his aides, that Senator Padmé Amidala has been killed, so he announces the "tragic and disturbing news" that Senator Amidala of the Naboo system has been assassinated... Palpatine says that the vote on the Clone army proposal is even more urgent now, because had Senator Padmé the protection she needed, she would not have met a violent end...so too could the Republic meet such an end without proper protection, Palpatine says... Bail Organa is among the Senators at the session.

Suddenly, Padmé arrives at the Senate- very much alive. She tells of the explosion, and her concern for the safety of the Republic.

Jar Jar Binks, who is now a "Representative of the Gungan people", stands alongside Senator Amidala in the Senate, and he also has some brief scenes at this point.

The Senate meeting ends on this note, and the issue of Palpatine's proposal for a Republican military force isn't resolved.

Later on, a meeting is held in Palpatine's office; Mace Windu, Yoda, a few Council members, Jar Jar, Bail Organa, some Senators, and Padmé are there (the "Loyalist Committee"). They discuss the assassination attempt on Padmé; she believes that Count Dooku's "Confederacy of Independent Systems" is behind the attack. Everyone there disagrees with her, saying that Dooku has no desire to start a war. Ki-Adi-Mundi says "He is a political idealist, not a murderer." Regardless, Padmé feels that Dooku is behind it.

Chancellor Palpatine tells Padmé that she needs protection, despite her refusals.

Senator Padmé returns to her apartment, still shaken by the attempt on her life. She meets with Anakin for the first time in nearly ten years, but their reunion is quick and Padmé doesn't seem to happy to see Anakin again.

Coruscant Chase

Anakin leaves Padmé and runs down to the parking lot of her apartment building. He jumps into the first random vehicle he sees (a yellow "hot-rod"), and takes off after the flying droid and Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan, still dangling from the Assassin Droid, manages to get on top of it and begins to fiddle with it's wires. He disconnects one wire which causes the droid to plummet towards the ground. Obi-Wan is able to make it functional again just in time, but it starts heading towards it's owner, Zam Wesell. Zam opens fire on Obi-Wan and the droid, but Obi-Wan manages to deflect each shot with his lightsaber. Just as Zam hits a self-destruct, Obi-Wan jumps off of the droid and Anakin manages to catch him in the yellow speeder.

Zam takes off on a speeder of her own (which apparently resembles a helicopter cockpit and a bat). Anakin floors it in hot pursuit.

Anakin maneuvers through the dense and chaotic traffic of Coruscant, careful not to lose sight of Zam. This promises be a really awesome sequence; think the Endor chase on steroids.

Eventually, Anakin pulls up close to Zam's speeder, handing the controls to Obi-Wan. He jumps onto the speeder and fights with Zam, but Zam's speeder crashes into a building just as she and Anakin leap off onto a Coruscant street below (Anakin loses his lightsaber in the process).

Anakin then chases Zam through the busy street on foot and watches her run into a Nightclub. Just then, Obi-Wan shows up with Anakin's lightsaber.

The Nightclub

Inside the very flashy and colorful nightclub, scantily-clad women and seedy-looking characters abound. Anakin and Obi-Wan decide to split up to search for Zam, who must must be hiding somewhere in the nightclub.

One person in the bar, named Elian Sleazebaggano, attempts to sell Obi-Wan some kind of drug called "Death Sticks". Obi-Wan uses a Jedi mind-trick on him.

Jedi Council Meeting

After an emergency meeting of the Jedi Council, Anakin Skywalker is commanded to accompany Senator Padmé to her home planet of Naboo, where they believe she will be safe.

Meanwhile, the Jedi Council confers with Obi-Wan about Zam Wesell and the mysterious armored rocketman... Obi-Wan tells them that he feels the lethal dart which killed Zam may be the key to unraveling this mystery; he suspects that there's something larger and more sinister going on behind all this.

The Jedi Council dispatches Obi-Wan to find out where the dart was made and to uncover who is behind the assassination attempts on Padmé.

Anakin and Padmé's Departure

At a Coruscant Air Bus, Anakin and Padmé bid farewell to Obi-Wan, who is reluctant to see his pupil be off on his own. Jar Jar also bids farewell to the two. In order to avoid more assassination attempts, Anakin and Padmé decide to travel to Naboo icognito on a Freighter; a ship with small sleeping compartments, a cafeteria, and full of other people and aliens. R2-D2 comes along with them.

Dex's Diner

Obi-Wan goes to the Jedi Archives and gives the dart to the Analysis Droid, PK-4, but the droid can offer no assistance.

Obi-Wan decides to hook up with one of his old contacts, a reptilian restaurant owner named Dexter Jettster. Obi travels to Dex's Diner in the lower levels of Coruscant and gives Dex the dart. Dex tells him it's a Kaminoan Kybert Dart made on the secluded and high tech planet of Kamino. He says "They're cloners. Damn good ones, too." Kamino is slightly outside of the Republic boundaries, but Dexter gives him some rough coordinates.

Jedi Library

Obi-Wan then goes to the Jedi Library to consult with the wise Jedi Librarian, Madame Jocasta Nu. There are no records of Kamino in the library...but as Jocasta and Obi-Wan come to a bust of Count Dooku, they discuss the fact the he was one of only twenty Jedi ever to leave the Order in history (the "Lost Twenty"). Jocasta says "The Lost Twenty... And Dooku was the most recent and the most painful. No one likes to talk about it. His leaving was a great loss to the order."

Obi-Wan eventually comes across Yoda who is training a group of young Jedi hopefuls on a Temple balcony. They enter a holomap room, but when they look at the map, they see a blank spot where Kamino is supposed to be. One of the young Jedi hopefuls discovers that the blank spot has gravity...... So Kamino must be there.

Obi-Wan gets ready to to climb into a Jedi Starfighter equipped with the droid R4-P17; he and Mace Windu discuss the situation before he leaves. Obi-Wan is very disturbed to have Anakin off by himself with Padmé. He doesn't think that Anakin is ready to be on his own, and he's also afraid that he and Padmé may get romantically involved (something which goes against the Jedi Code). Mace tells Obi-Wan to have faith that Anakin will make the right choices. We find out that Yoda is in seclusion "probing the Dark Side" in an effort to see the future, to discover whether or not some kind of major war will soon take place. Obi-Wan takes off for Kamino.

The Freighter

Meanwhile, Anakin and Padmé are on the Freighter (is it a Spice Freighter?), which apparently makes scheduled stops at several planets on the way to Naboo. During the trip, the two start to get very close and this is where the romance between them first starts.

The Naberrie Lake Retreat

Anakin and Padmé arrive at the house of Padmé's own family, the Naberries. Anakin meets her father, mother, and three sisters. This is almost like a vacation for Anakin and Padmé, and their relationship continues to evolve, despite Padmé's efforts to stop it.

They share a conversation about Padmé's first crush, and at one point Anakin even playfully wrestles a native Naboo creature much to Padmé's delight (perhaps the Naberrie family pet?).

The Cloning Facilities

Obi-Wan arrives on Kamino, a planet which is one huge ocean dotted with dazzling cities held above the water on polls (kind of like oil-rigs). When he lands, he is greeted by Taun We, who tells Obi-Wan that they've been expecting him! Taun We says "After all these years, we were beginning to think you weren't coming." Taun We explains that the Kaminoans have been mass-producing a huge army of thousands of clones using the genetic blueprint of a man named Jango Fett, who lives in an apartment on Kamino with his adopted "son", Boba (the first clone made from his DNA). They've done all this on the orders of a "Master Sido-Dyas", whom they believed was the Head of the Jedi Council.

The Prime Minister of Kamino, Lama Su, shows Obi-Wan the cloning facilities; the lab, a clone classroom, etc.

Jango and Boba Fett

Taun We and Obi-Wan meet up with the 13-year-old Boba Fett who leads them to Jango's apartment. There Obi-Wan and Jango exchange some dialogue as the two men size each other up. Jango says "I’m just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe, Master Jedi."

Battle in the Rain

Obi-Wan contacts Mace Windu and Yoda, telling them about the clone army and his meeting with Jango. Mace and Yoda tell Obi-Wan to find out who Jango is working for...they wonder who the imposter "Sido-Dyas" could be...

Meanwhile, on orders from Count Dooku, Jango attempts to kill Obi-Wan while in one of the clone hatcheries (Obi-Wan knows too much). Obi-Wan dodges the shots from Jango's blaster, and chases Jango and Boba to a landing platform where Boba gets Jango's ship, Slave I, ready to go. As rain pours down, Jango and Obi-Wan fight viciously; Obi-Wan loses his saber and gets dragged by Jango's wrist-wire.... Eventually, Jango manages to escape on Slave I, but not before Obi-Wan is able to tag the vessel with a tracing device.

Anakin's Vision

Meanwhile, at the Naberrie Lake Retreat on Naboo, Anakin tosses and turns in his bed...he has visions of his mother dying, he being powerless to stop it. He gets up and meditates on a balcony. Padmé walks in behind him, but when she realizes he's meditating, she turns to go; Anakin tells her to stay, he says "Your presence is soothing."

He tells her of his dreams about his mother; he believes he is seeing the future, and that his mother may soon die. He wants to return to Tatooine in order to prevent her death. Padmé agrees to go with him to Tatooine. They see Queen Jamillia (the current ruler of Naboo), who gives them a Naboo Royal Cruiser. Along with R2, Anakin and Padmé head for Tatooine. On the way there, Anakin and Padmé start to fall in love; this is when they share their first kiss.

Watto's Junkyard

Anakin, Padmé, and R2 walk the streets of Mos Espa and find a rickshaw droid which carries them to Watto's shop. There they meet Watto; now a shell of his former self. His gambling debts have run him into bankruptcy, making him penniless. Intimidated by his former slave, Watto tells Anakin that he was forced to free Shmi due to his debts. She married a man named Cliegg Lars and lives with his son on a moisture farm on the Dune Sea.

Anakin and Padmé return to their Naboo ship and head toward the Dune Sea.

The Lars Homestead

Anakin and Padmé arrive at the Lars Homestead and find Cliegg Lars there with his son Owen (about Anakin's age), and Owen's girlfriend Beru. Anakin tells them that he's Shmi's son (pretending to be a Freighter pilot). Cliegg tells Anakin that Shmi dissapeared months ago while she was out picking mushrooms off of the moisture vaporators. Cliegg assembled a search party to go out and look for her, but they were confronted by a group of Tusken Raiders; Cliegg was badly injured and most of the search party was killed (Cliegg rides around in a futuristic wheelchair). At hearing this, Anakin immediately runs out and jumps on Owen's swoop bike. He speeds towards the forboding Jundland Wastes in search of Shmi...

Asteroid Chase

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan continues to follow Jango through space...
Jango eventually realizes that Obi-Wan is on his tail, so he flies into an asteroid field in an attempt to lose him. Obi-Wan manages to manuever through the asteroids, escaping death by a hair. Jango, believing Obi-Wan to have died in the asteroid field, continues towards a large red planet: Geonosis.

Orbiting the planet are two large Federation Droid Control Ships; Jango realizes that Obi-Wan is still behind him, so he flies towards the ships; Droid fighters fly out, but they blindly attack both Jango and Obi-Wan!

Geonosis

Eventually, Obi-Wan lands on Geonosis, a rocky martian-like land full of canyons and giant towers carved into natural stalagmites which come up from the ground. Obi-Wan manages to climb into one of these towers and does some investigating...

Reunion

Anakin speeds through the Jundland Wastes on Owen's swoop bike, searching for Shmi. He eventually comes across a Jawa, who points him in the direction of a Tusken Camp. As he travels on, he comes upon the gruesome remains of the search party Cliegg assembled.

It is night when Anakin comes to the Tusken encampment. Anakin is on a bluff watching the encampment below; there are dozens of tents scattered around a waterhole and the camp is filled with Sandpeople.

Anakin sneaks into the camp and finds Shmi tied to a wooden pole in one of the tents; she is severely beaten and barely alive. Anakin unties her and the two exchange some final, tearful words (Shmi says "I always knew you'd come back...") and Shmi dies in Anakin's arms. Anakin sits there, with Shmi still in his arms, and he meditates all night long.

Taste of the Dark Side

In the morning, as the twin suns of Tatooine rise, Anakin leaves the tent and kills the guards. As a Tusken child comes towards the tent, Anakin ignites his lightsaber, his face a grim mask. Anakin then proceeds to mercilessly kill every single Tusken Raider in the camp, sparing no child or woman. The Tuskens try to fight back, but they are no match for him. Anakin wipes the entire village out.

Meanwhile, at the Lars Homestead, Padmé finds C-3PO among the junk, still unfinished and in the same state she first saw him in ten years ago. With Owen's help, she adds metal coverings to his body finally completing him.

Obi-Wan's Message

Depressed, and full of sadness and anger, Anakin returns to the Lars moisture farm... He tells Padmé, Owen, and Cliegg about the death of Shmi. I believe that at some point, he also tells Padmé about what he did at the Tusken settlement.

Meanwhile, on Geonosis, Obi-Wan finds out that the planet is used to mass-produce endless amounts of droid armies and attack droids of all kinds. The Geonosians are ruled by Poggle the Lesser, the Archduke of Geonosis, and they are a member of Count Dooku's rebel Confederacy. They're planning on supplying the Confederates with an endless amount of droid troops in order to launch a surprise attack against the Galactic Republic.

R2-D2 recieves a holographic message from Obi-Wan on Geonosis; the message is distorted and full of static...Anakin and Padmé can barely make out what Obi-Wan is saying...something about the droid armies on Geonosis and the Republic being in danger... He tells Anakin and Padmé to warn the Jedi Council and the Republic of the Confederate conspiracy...It appears Obi-Wan is attacked by Geonosians and the message abruptly cuts off!

Anakin and Padmé send word to the Jedi Council about the droid armies on Geonosis. Mace tells them to stay put on Tatooine as he assembles a Jedi army and heads for Geonosis.

Because Anakin is emotionally unsound, he agrees with Mace and wants to stay with Owen on the farm for now. But Padmé argues that they must go to Geonosis; that their duty demands it. Anakin eventually agress to go.

Together with R2 and 3PO, they leave the Lars moisture farm and return to the Naboo Starship, taking off for Geonosis.

Chaos in the Arena

During the fighting, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé manage to get free, and at one point they even ride a Reek!

The battle is grim for the Jedi; they are still falling left and right, and no matter how many droids are destroyed, more take their place. Padmé manages to grab a blaster from one of the fallen droids and joins the fighting, but to no avail....

Just as it seems that the Jedi will be annhilated, Republic Assault Gunships come down from the sky and lay waste to the Confederate forces. When they land, thousands of Kaminoan Clonetroopers pour out, fighting off the rebels and turning the tide of the battle. Somehow, Anakin and Obi-Wan seperate from Padmé while she takes command of a unit of Clonetroopers fighting through the Confederate forces.

Meanwhile, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Plo Koon lead a group of Jedi Knights into a Droid Control Ship orbiting Geonosis. The plan is that if they turn off the switches that are controlling the droids below, the droid armies will all stop dead in their tracks. Ki-Adi reaches the main switch, but when he presses it....nothing happens! Another trap! The Jedi are attacked by Destroyer Droids, and Plo Koon is severely injured. He and Ki-Adi barely escape the Droid Control Ship with their lives intact.

Clash of Lightsabers

Obi-Wan and Anakin (whose original lightsabers were taken) pick up two lightsabers each from fallen Jedi. They slice and hack their way through the droids and Geonosians until they come to a great hangar where Count Dooku is getting ready to leave on his Interstellar Sail Ship.

Anakin, headstrong and arrogant, rushes towards Count Dooku; Dooku lifts his hand and uses the Force to hurl Anakin against a wall. Dooku is clearly superior to Anakin, but the young Jedi tries to fight him anyway. The lightsaber duel is less of a contest and more akin to a small child trying to get into a fist-fight with an older man; Anakin doesn't stand a chance. Dooku can kill him any time he wants to, but he chooses to abuse Anakin verbally and physically...probing his mind and taunting him for his own sadistic pleasure.

When Dooku has finally had his fill of Anakin, he knocks the young Padawan off of a ledge...... Then Obi-Wan runs over to combat Dooku. Although Obi-Wan is wiser and more disciplined than Anakin, he is still no match for Count Dooku. Each time Obi-Wan lunges at Dooku, the rogue Jedi easily parries and blocks every single attack that he makes. Dooku taunts Obi-Wan as well; he tells him that the Republic is doomed, that fighting is pointless, he even mentions Qui-Gon Jinn (Obi-Wan tells him that he doesn't deserve to even speak his name). At one point, Dooku says "I have spent the last ten years learning to use the power of the dark side. It gives me infinitely more power!" He sarcastically addresses Obi-Wan as "Master Kenobi" throughout the fight, and he taunts him saying "Come, come, Master Kenobi. Put me out of my misery."

Eventually, Anakin joins Obi-Wan and the fight becomes two-on-one; still, Dooku easily holds his own against the two powerful Jedi. He uses the Force to hurl objects at them and continues to whoop the tar out of them. Finally, Dooku decides to end the duel; he stabs Obi-Wan in the leg and slices Anakin's arm off right below the elbow! He then Force-throws an object at Anakin, knocking him unconcious. Dooku then slices a crane (like a mechanical claw) from the ceiling right above Anakin and Obi-Wan; just as the crane is about to crush our heroes....Yoda shows up!!

Yoda uses the Force to stop the crane in mid-air just above Anakin and Obi-Wan's heads. He calmly says "No interest in contests, do I have." He takes out a lightsaber which was embedded in his cane and begins to duel with Dooku! Yoda is indeed absolutely incredible; he beats the crap out of Dooku and the duel ends when Yoda Force-pushes him off of a ledge.

Yoda, still holding the crane in mid-air with the Force, pushes it away from Anakin and Obi-Wan, where it drops to the ground. Just then, Dooku makes it to his Sail Ship and he manages to take off into the Geonosis sky. Padmé and about ten Clonetroopers run into the hangar, and she runs to Anakin when he sees him in his beaten state (and with one arm missing); they embrace...

Master and Apprentice

Dooku's Sail Ship glides through a deserted, burned-out area of Coruscant, where it eventually lands on one of the empty buildings. Count Dooku emerges from the ship and walks over to none other than........Darth Sidious!! He bows to the evil Sith Lord and the dialogue is as follows:

Casualties of War

Meanwhile, at the Jedi Temple, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and Yoda assess the casualties. They, Ki-Adi-Mudi, and Plo Koon (who is wounded) are the only surviving members of the Jedi Council. Not only that, but hundreds of Jedi Knights have been killed; the Jedi Order has been dealt an incredible loss.
The last lines of the movie are as follows:

The Wedding of Anakin and Padmé

Anakin, who has recovered from his injuries (and gotten a new bionic arm), returns to Naboo with Padmé. (At some point earlier in the film, they both realize that they've always been in love. Anakin tells Padmé that he wants to marry her; that they should be together always. She reminds him that he took an oath; the Jedi Code forbids marriage. Anakin doesn't care. He convinces Padmé, and she agrees.)

The two get married by a Naboo holy man in a secret ceremony by the Naberrie Lake Retreat; R2 and 3PO are the only ones in attendence (I believe 3PO has his familiar golden appearence in this scene).

The Clonetroopers

On Coruscant, the Senate has granted Chancellor Palpatine permission to start mass-producing clones all over the galaxy. Clone armies are being made and shipped off to fight the Confederacy.

Chancellor Palpatine, Jar Jar, Bail Organa, and other senators stand on a balcony looking down at a square below. They watch somberly as tens of thousands of Clonetroopers march into Republic Assault Ships which then take off.
The galaxy is now in a state of civil war.

To be continued in Episode III.....