Rey was a Force-sensitive human female scavenger who conducted her trade on the planet of Jakku, located in a remote section of theWestern Reaches,^[4] thirty years after the Battle of Endor. The scavenger was born to unknown parents and at the age of five, was left on Jakku, a junkyard planet littered with leftovers from a battlebetween the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. During her lifetime, Rey learned how to survive, becoming a gifted mechanic, pilot and warrior. She is seemingly destined to live out her days on a forlorn backwater world, while ignorant of the larger galaxy and its perils and possibilities. She inhabits a downed AT-AT and scrapes a living through scavenging parts from ships from the battle, while hoping for the return of her long-lost family, from whom she was separated when young.


Rey's life changed when she encountered BB-8, a Resistanceastromech droid carrying a star-chart offering a clue to the location of the long-lost Jedi master Luke Skywalker. She also meets a former, renegade Stormtrooper Finn and they forged an unlikely friendship. With their escape of Jakku, Finn and Rey find themselves caught in a galactic war, with both of their destinies shaped by the awakened power of the Force. When Kylo Ren's First Order forces come to attack them, Rey, with Finn and BB-8, escape on the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewbacca's ship. Chewbacca and Solo soon join Rey and Finn and they go to Maz Kanata's castle at the planetTakodana. Rey was called by the Force to a lightsaber that had previously belonged to Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker.


Upon contact with the lightsaber, Rey received a series of visions. After the vision, Maz Kanata explained to her the lightsaber's history and that it was now calling to her. Rey, Finn, Chewbacca, and Han Solo go to the Resistance base, where they meet Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2. When Solo is killed by Ren, he chases Rey and Finn. Finn tries to fight him with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, but gets wounded, and Rey takes the lightsaber and defeats Ren, prompting him to flee. After escaping in the Falcon with Finn and Chewbacca, Rey sets out to find Luke Skywalker with Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO, eventually finding him on a oceanic planet following the directions of the encoded star-chart.