Escape from Jakku The Escape from Jakku occurred during the cold war when a scavenger named Rey and a defecting stormtrooper named Finn escaped from the forces of the First Order on the planet Jakku . They carried with them a Resistance droid called BB - 8 , who carried a vital piece of a map that would reveal the whereabouts of the vanished Jedi Master Luke Skywalker . To escape from pursuing TIE fighters , the trio stole the " Millennium Falcon " . Finn advised Rey to fly low to confuse the TIEs ' tracking . Rey flew it through the Graveyard of Giants while Finn fired on and destroyed the pursuing TIE fighters . With the TIE fighters destroyed , they escaped into space . Prelude . Immediately following the attack on Tuanul , FN - 2187 was stricken with grief upon Kylo Ren ' s order to execute every villager . Meanwhile , Poe Dameron was interrogated on the " Finalizer " , continuously being asked for the location of the map that led to Luke Skywalker . Eventually , Poe cracked down , and told Ren that the map to Skywalker was hidden inside a BB Unit that fled the village . At that moment , Finn had decided to leave the First Order . Needing a pilot to escape , FN - 2187 freed the captured Poe Dameron from his cell , and the two stole a Special Forces TIE fighter . FN - 2187 manned the guns , killing several of his former comrades in the hangar , and then disabled the " Finalizer " turbolaser s on the outside of the vessel . The TIE was then damaged by a missile fired from the " Finalizer " , sending it spiralling towards Jakku ' s surface . The escape . Tracking Finn . Shortly after Finn and Poe´s escape , Captain Phasma revealed to General Armitage Hux that this was his first offense of non - conformity . Realizing that Poe and Finn were going back for BB - 8 , Hux sent out a squadron of search teams to the Goazon Badlands . Meanwhile , Finn and Dameron had ejected from the TIE shortly before it crashed , each landing separately some distance from the wreckage . Making his way to the crash , Finn found Poe ' s jacket , but no other sign of the man , and the fighter sunk into the sand . Believing Dameron to be dead , Finn began wandering through the desert , discarding his stormtrooper armor along the way and eventually arriving at the nearest settlement , thirsting for water . Meeting and Ambush . While Finn staggered to a happabore trough to desperately slake his thirst , he noticed thugs attempting to steal a BB unit droid , which Finn recognized as BB - 8 , from a woman , Rey , but she fended them off with her staff . BB - 8 noticed Finn , wearing his master Poe Dameron ' s jacket , prompting Rey to chase after him . Rey attacked Finn , believing him to be a thief . Finn explained that he had met and helped Poe escape the " Finalizer " , but that Dameron had apparently perished during their crash . At that point , the First Order tracked Finn to the settlement , and launched an airstrike in attempt to capture BB - 8 and the map . Boarding the " Falcon " . As Finn , Rey , and BB - 8 were escaping the ambush , the trio came across a Quadrijet transfer spacetug . Finn was however , sceptical , and asked if they could use a different ship . Suddenly , two TIE / sf space superiority fighter s came out of nowhere , and destroyed the Quadjumper , prompting Rey to instead board the Millennium Falcon . The Falcon was able to evade the two TIE Fighters as they escaped the outpost . A short time later , two more TIE fighters ambushed the falcon as Finn and Rey entered the Graveyard of Giants . Rey then flew the Falcon into the engine s of a crashed Super Star Destroyer . When the last TIE Fighter was close to the Falcon , Rey deactivated the engines , giving Finn an advantage to shoot the TIE fighter down . The Falcon then left the planet . Aftermath . Back aboard the " Finalizer " , Lieutenant Dopheld Mitaka informed Kylo Ren that the droid escaped on a stolen freighter and that it was aided by the deserter FN - 2187 . Ren activated his lightsaber and lashed out in a rage - fuelled tantrum , slashing at an instrument panel uncontrollably for several minutes before calming down enough to ask Mitaka if there was anything else in his report . Mitaka then told Ren that they also appear to have been helped by a local scavenger girl . Kylo grew even more livid , using the Force to pull the officer by his throat across the room in order to choke him with his bare hands , and asking him what girl it was . Behind the scenes . The skirmish between the " Millennium Falcon " and TIE fighters was first seen in the first teaser trailer for , which was released on November 28 , 2014 . It was seen again in the second teaser trailer released on April 16 , 2015 .