The dramatic reel goes in chronological order and includes scenes from the desert planet Jakku, the TIE fighter Star Destroyer escape and the light saber battle on the Starkiller Base. Shots often start with just an actor in a studio, and are fleshed in by dropping in layer after layer. Oftentimes, ILM marries practical shots (real desert and forest backgrounds) with digital models. In other cases, however, it's all created inside a computer.

The Starkiller trench attack scene, for instance, starts with crude 3D model. Thousands of intricately detailed layers literally fly into the scene (complete with whooshing sounds effects), and are lit and shaded. To complete the realism, ILM artists composite in smoke, lights and weapon fire. In the end the impressive final result, which took God knows how many man-hours, passes across the screen in just seconds.