No, the opening of the movie is at a “market” (I didn’t catch the full name but just watched it two hours ago). It has nothing to do with Jedha.
Can this pedantic (and occurring about once a year) discussion of what is or is not science fiction have a thread that isn’t the Star Wars thread?
A strong argument can be made that “fantasy” and “science fiction” are subgenres. The real genre is “fantastical fiction,” as invented in the late 19th century. Lovecraftian horror and a variety of modern horror really fits in this genre as well. Nerds (and I’m a Dungeons and Dragons player so don’t get me wrong) having an extreme nerdfight about what is “real” science fiction is kind of laughable. Like there is a 20 year window where Asimov and Clarke and Heinlein defined what was “real” science fiction until the end of time and now we’re stuck with it. It is mostly about marketing and what shelf to put things on, which is why, strangely, you’ll find almost ALL bookstores shelve all of this stuff in the same spot.
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Well, in this movie it is because the director, for about 20 years, has wanted to tell the story of that band of rebels that got the Death Star plans that were mentioned in a throw away line in the first movie…
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As my flatmate pointed out to me when I said something similar:
The throw-away line about a band of rebels that got Death Star plans was actually in Return of the Jedi, not A New Hope. It was about the plans for the second Death Star (we’re told that “many Bothans died” to acquire them). So far as I can see, nothing was said in A New Hope about who acquired the plans which Princess Leia is transporting; they’re only referred to as “the plans provided by Princess Leia”.
Ah yes, you’re right.
Ahem.
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…"
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Ah! So much planet hopping.
Thank you for clarifying.
Well, we’re told that they died to provide the intelligence that “the Emperor himself will be personally overseeing” the final phase of construction of Death Star II, which makes it an even more irresistible target.
Good catch! Though that pretty clearly isn’t the “throw-away line” that was being remembered by both enso and myself. 
Then what was the line? Far as I can tell, the key inspiration for the whole movie is found in the crawl text, as well as with such tidbits as “There’ll be no escape for the Princess this time” and Vader’s “There will be no one to stop us this time.”
It was the iconic “Many Bothans died to bring us this information” line from RotJ, commonly mis-remembered as having been in A New Hope in reference to the acquisition of the original Death Star plans.
It appears to have been a common mistaken memory, perhaps like the Berenstain Bears.
On the basis of that mis-recollection, I watched Rogue One entirely certain right from the start that everybody who was on the mission to retrieve intel was going to die. After all, I clearly remembered the haunted delivery of that line, and so I knew that there could have been no survivors.
With that incorrect memory, I watched Rogue One as an ancient Greek tragedy; the chorus had already told us exactly how the story was going to end – all these people were going to die in a heroic attempt to get the plans out to the rest of the rebel forces – so you’re really just watching to see it happen. It wasn’t until much later in the day that my flatmate corrected my memory of the line, and I realised that I was supposed to have been surprised and/or dismayed by the ending of the movie, whereas I’d just seen it as obvious pre-ordained big-f Fate. The Will of the Gods.
I wonder if I would have liked the movie more or less, if I hadn’t viewed it with the understanding that I already knew how the film was destined to end for those characters.
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Wheras I had a friend, two days ago, tell me, “Of course, you know everyone dies!” I think he was remembering the RotJ line as well. So, I would have been surprised when I saw it today but…spoiler!
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I knew the line about the Bothans was from Return of the Jedi, but . . . I was pretty sure everyone in this movie was going to die anyway. They were up against so much firepower, it would have been nuts if anyone survived. Definitely a suicide mission.
Not gonna say I didn’t cry anyway, though.
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Then that was the line we were both thinking of. But that line about Bothans isn’t in reference to plans, but rather in reference to the Emperor’s presence on the Death Star II.
Anyway, though I wasn’t expecting dying Bothans in Rogue One, I did expect most or all of the team to die, partly because we never saw any of them again in Episodes 4-6, but mostly because, as @piratejenny points out, this gig was rightly framed as a suicide mission. I’m quite glad Edwards was allowed to keep those stakes high.
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Gah, apologies! Yes. I was replying to an earlier one of your posts, but didn’t quote it; didn’t realise you’d posted again afterward, and we were entirely on the same page. My fault!
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Even then, they already managed one ridiculous last-second escape from a Death Star explosion on Jedha. So it wouldn’t have seemed totally preposterous to me that they, maybe, stole a shuttle and blasted off through falling planet chunks at the last second.
It’s good they didn’t repeat that specific sequence, though.
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It’s all genre fiction, anyway. Not literature.
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George Lucas might have planned that one better.
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I will cut you with my creative writing degree…
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I’m not expecting it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Jyn and Cassian end up having been rescued in some later film or other media (comics and novels especially.) Their fate is just ambiguous enough that a last minute rescue is vaguely plausible. I’m not saying it’ll happen any time soon, just that I wouldn’t put it past them.
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