How realistic is ‘Star Wars’ today?

I recently saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi. As with the other movies in the franchise, the film’s plot depends heavily on some remarkable science-fiction technology. How plausible are these special effects in real life?

Don Lincoln is a senior physicist who does research using the Large Hadron Collider. Here are his assessments:

• Droids (short for androids): “Definitely going to happen.” Lincoln points to robots that can do backflips and have made remarkable advances in artificial intelligence.

• Lightsabers: “There are no known energy sources” with the capability to do what these weapons do on movie screens.

• Faster than light travel: “There is absolutely no evidence” of the alternate time and space dimensions used by Star Wars travelers. As a result, such travel is “not very likely, even if you live as long as Yoda.”

• Death Star/Starkiller Base: To destroy the Earth, you’d need to harness the energy output of our sun for an entire week, absorb and store it, then focus it as a weapon. Lincoln’s conclusion: “No way. That’s just crazy talk!”

• The Force: “While scientists do talk about energy fields in the universe, with names like dark energy and the Higgs field, they aren’t anything like the one described in ‘Star Wars.’” As a result, “it is very unlikely that the Force will be with you.”

If the science behind Star Wars is largely impossible, why is the franchise so incredibly popular? The narrative resonates with us because it captures the essence of the human struggle: Good is perennially at war with evil. However, evil often seems more powerful than good. Thus, good people must do all the good they can while utilizing the resources of something or Someone more powerful than themselves.

We are reminded every day that we are broken people living in a broken world. From yesterday’s tragic Amtrak derailing to this morning’s fatal shooting near Times Square, the news perennially shows us the frailty and…