Space Wars: Chapter IV – Revenge of the Smith

""Once more, the Smith will rule the galaxy! And we shall have... peace.""

- Dark Hideous

Space Wars: Chapter IV – Revenge of the Smith is a 2048 American animated epic science-fiction film written and directed by Brandon Greene. It stars Brad Pitt, Mae Whitman, Dante Basco, Mark Hamill, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Lloyd, Sonny Strait, Harvey Fierstein, Gedde Watanabe, Jerry Tondo, David Tennant, Dee Bradley Baker, George Takei and Zachary Quinto. The sequel to The Martian Menace (2039), Attack of the Troops (2042) and The Civil Wars (2045), It is the eighth film in the Space Wars film series, the final installment in the Space Wars prequel quadrilogy, and fourth chronological chapter of the "Starrider Saga".

The film's setting and characters is primarily a parody of .

Set two years after The Civil Wars, The Astro-Knights of the 0R-01 Enterprise are spread across the galaxy, leading a large-scale war against the Galactic Organization. Following the death of Organization leader Count Doofus, the Astro-Knight Council dispatches General Oberon Canary on a mission to eliminate General Genghis, the head of the Organization army, to put an end to the war. Meanwhile, after having visions of his wife Stella Amadeus dying in childbirth, Captain Adrian Starrider is tasked by the Council to spy on Alpine, the Supreme President of the Spacefleet Republic and, secretly, a Smith Lord. Alpine manipulates Adrian into turning to the dark side of the Source and becoming his apprentice, Dark Slader, with wide-ranging consequences for the entire galaxy.

Revenge of the Smith was released on Amazon Prime Video on May 19, 2048 and received positive reviews and has been deemed the best out of the prequel films by many, with praise for its animation, action sequences, mature themes, score, visual effects, darker tone, and the voice performances; criticism largely focused on the film's dialogue and humor.

Plot
Above Cusueturn, General Oberon Canary and Captain Adrian Starrider lead the 0R-01 Enterprise on a mission to rescue the kidnapped Supreme President Alpine from the cyborg Organization commander General Genghis. After infiltrating Genghis' flagship, Oberon and Adrian battle the Smith Lord Count Doofus, whom Adrian overpowers and decapitates at Alpine's urging. Genghis escapes the battle-torn ship, which the Jedi crash-land on Planet Kansas. The Enterprise crew rest and celebrate their brief victory until one Organization warrior catches one of the crew members, Bardrick off-guard and decides to give him the "gift" of seeing the future as his way to avenge his people, before being killed by Adrian as Bardrick subsequently passes out. The crew return to Cusueturn so Bardrick can heal. There, Adrian reunites with his wife, Stella Amadeus, who reveals that she is pregnant. While initially excited, Adrian soon begins to have visions of Stella dying in childbirth.

When Genghis and two Organization alien soldiers Zadoc and Domick steal a Cusueturn artifact from a London museum, Adrian and Bora Tribe leader K'Rabi urges him to bring the two aliens back alive. Oberon, Adrian, Yoel, Lane, Cheepo, and Zuva travel to Busan, South Korea, where Zadoc and Domick plan to sell the artifact to Genghis. A firefight erupts, and Domick attempts to flee but is caught by Adrian, who reluctantly releases him to Senator Ross Organitza's custody. Zadoc tells Ross that Cusueturn's international image is a front for a technologically advanced civilization. Genghis attacks and extracts Domick and Zadoc as Ross is gravely injured. As Genghis, Zadoc, and Domick escape, Oberon and Adrian take Ross to Cusueturn, where their technology can save him.

While Celfhea heals Ross, Alpine appoints Adrian to the Astro-Knight Council as his personal representative. The Council, suspicious of Alpine, approves the appointment but declines to grant Adrian the rank of Astro-Knight Master and instead instructs him to spy on Alpine, diminishing Adrian's faith in the Astro-Knight. Meanwhile, on Itapúa, Genghis relocates the Organization leaders to the volcanic planet Rugaro. Oberon and half of the crew (Bardrick's team) travel to Itapúa to confront Genghis and Oberon him, while Yoga travels to the Sehlat homeworld of Trilan to defend it from a Separatist invasion.

Bardrick starts to have visions of Dark Slader and the Infinity Empire, as well as Cusueturn and the 0R-01 Enterprise ship's destructions at the hands of Alpine. Bardrick dismisses the visions and goes to join the Astro-Knights. Alpine tempts Adrian with his knowledge of the dark side of the Source, and offers to teach him the power to prevent death in order to save Stella's life. Adrian deduces that Alpine is the Smith Lord behind the war and reports his treachery to Mane Windup, who confronts and subdues him. Desperate to save Stella's life, Adrian severs Windup's hand before he can kill Alpine, who sends Windup falling to his death. Adrian pledges himself to the Smith, and Alpine knights him Dark Slader. Slader ingests the heart-shaped herb and orders the rest incinerated. Slader, supported by Alpine, K'Rabi and his army, prepares to distribute shipments of Cusueturn weapons to operatives around the galaxy.

Alpine issues Order 88, which commands the space troopers and space bots to kill their commanding Astro-Knight generals across the galaxy, while Slader and a battalion of space troopers kill the remaining Astro-Knight in the Astro-Knight Temple, thus inciting a riot on Earth. Slader then travels to Rugaro to assassinate the Organization leaders, while Alpine declares himself Emperor before the Galactic Senate, transforming the Republic into the Galactic Infinity Empire, and denounces the Astro-Knights as traitors.

Learning that Bardrick's team survived Order 88, Alpine sends Domick and Slader's new robot soldiers to go after them on Planet Beef. Having survived the chaos, Oberon and Yoga return to Cusueturn, where Oberon learns of Adrian's turn to the dark side. Oberon Bardrick, Yoel, Lane, and Cheepo go to join their team on Planet Beef, only to discover most of them dead, and Bardrick's best friend Toron mortally wounded. Before he succumbs to his injuries, Toron reveals that Bardrick's squad was betrayed and killed by Domick and Slader's elite robot soldiers, and that Alpine ordered the attack on the crew and that he turned Slader to the dark side due to him becoming paranoid about the prophecy possibly coming true. Horrified and enraged by his fallen friend's last words, the crew battle Slader's robot soldiers and defeats them all, only for Bardrick to be easily overwhelmed by an explosion from the space troopers. The remaining crew head to the ship and return to Cusueturn. Bardrick is left severely injured, but manages to return to Cusueturn.

Yoga instructs Oberon to confront Slader while he faces Alpine. Oberon seeks out Stella to find out Slader's whereabouts and reveals his treachery. Now realizing that Alpine intends to destroy the entire Astro-Knights, Bardrick attempts to convince the other crew of the 0R-01 Enterprise ship of Slader's betrayal and the danger that they are all in; but his claims are laughed off and ignored. Bardrick thus begins a final one-man assault against Alpine and his men. The Enterprise crew and Yoga head to Planet Rubogawa to fight the space troopers and the new Imperial robots, who were created by Slader. K'Rabi and his army fight Yoel, Lane, Cheepo, and the Zephilim, while Ross remotely pilots a jet and shoots down planes carrying the vibranium weapons. M'Beki and the Inus arrive to reinforce the Astro-Knights and Zephilim. Confronted by Zuva, K'Rabi and his army stand down. Meanwhile, Stella travels to Rugaro – with Oberon stowing away on her ship – and pleads with Slader to abandon the dark side and leave with her, but he refuses. Seeing Oberon aboard the ship, and thinking that they are conspiring to kill him, Slader uses the Source to strangle Stella to unconsciousness in a blind rage. Oberon then engages Slader in a lightsaber duel that ends with Oberon severing Vader's legs and left arm, leaving him at the bank of a lava flow where Slader is horribly burned. Oberon picks up Slader's lightsaber and leaves him for dead.

Back on Rubogawa, Yoga battles Alpine until their duel reaches a stalemate. Alpine then teleports him and Yoga to his ship and see Bardrick coming. After fighting his way through the space troopers, Bardrick sends a large flaming energy blast at the tyrant himself. However, Alpine counters this with his deadly Gigantic Death Ball, killing Bardrick, many of his own soldiers, and destroys both the 0R-01 Enterprise ship and Cusueturn. As he perishes, Bardrick has one final vision of the future: Slader's son facing off against Slader. Assured that there's still good in Slader and that he will be able to fufill the prophecy, Bardrick smiles as he along with the Enterprise ship and Cusueturn are engulfed by the energy bomb. Realizing he cannot defeat Hideous, Yoga flees with Ross and regroups with Oberon and Stella on the planetoid Polis Massa. There, Stella gives birth to twins, whom she names Gary and Gwen, and passes out soon after, still believing there is good in Slader. Alpine retrieves a barely-alive Slader and takes him to Coruscant, where his mutilated body is treated and covered in a black and red armored suit. When Slader asks if Stella is safe, Alpine says that he killed her out of anger, devastating Slader.

Stella wakes up and Oberon and Yoga plan to conceal the twins from the Smith and go into exile until the time is right to challenge the Empire and Oberon disbands the crew and they all go their seperate ways. On planet Xemoitera, with the Empire in control of the galaxy, X'ahmers sent the rest of the Ikvean away to find a new home planet to live as he seals the hall of technology forever. Later, the sky turns grey, the sun fades away, and the Eternal Flame dies out. Elsewhere, on the grey alien homeworld of Zeta Reticuli, Spark, a young grey alien informed his people of his Cusueturn 's destruction along with the 0R-01 Enterprise ship, and that Oberon claims that the planet and ship were destroyed by a meteor. The council's pride keeps them from expressing their shock, and Spark remains outward. Soon afterwards, before Stella leaves into exile space, she gives Gwen to Ross and he takes her to his homeworld of Alara, where he and his wife adopt her, while Oberon delivers Gary to his uncle and aunt, Kelly and Bella, on Earth before going into exile to watch over the boy.

Yoel, Lane, and Cheepo founded a new ship called the Galaxy One Enterprise and are promoted as generals and given command. The Enterprise goes to warp as an elder Oberon speaks (offscreen) the "where no man has gone before" monologue. In a mid-credits scene, Alpine and Slader supervise the construction of the Death Ball. During the ending credits, the battle between the Galaxy One Enterprise and the Infinity Empire are shown, culminating with an image of Gary about to battle Slader, with the spirits of Oberon, Yoga, and the rest of the Astro-Knights watching.