The Kessel operation, alternatively referenced as the Kessel Slave Uprising or the Kessel grab, was an endeavor executed in 10 BBY. The criminal Tobias Beckett and his band of outlaws embarked on this mission, venturing to the spice extraction sites located on Kessel. Their objective was to secure unrefined coaxium for the criminal overlord Dryden Vos, who headed the Crimson Dawn crime organization. The team accomplished their goal and successfully shook off the pursuing Galactic Empire forces following the acquisition. The Imperial chase led Han Solo to discover a quicker route through the Akkadese Maelstrom, enabling him to complete the Kessel Run in roughly twelve to thirteen parsecs, thus surpassing the previous benchmark.
During the Imperial Age, the ruling lineage of Kessel permitted extensive mining activities on a section of their planet. The Pyke Syndicate oversaw these operations, utilizing enslaved individuals to mine resources and energy sources such as coaxium, spice, and kessoline. Quay Tolsite managed the Pyke Syndicate's endeavors, using Pyke guards to supervise the enslaved workforce.
While the Galactic Empire kept tabs on Kessel's exports, they deliberately ignored the Pyke Syndicate's unlawful actions. The Empire and the Pyke Syndicate also had a working relationship. The Empire provided prisoners as forced laborers in exchange for the minerals required to develop its growing military power. These prisoners included enslaved extraterrestrials like the Gigoran Senna and the Wookiee Sagwa, felons such as Tak, and political opponents like Baxin Winstoll, a former page in the Imperial Senate. Moreover, the Pykes obtained laborers by abducting schoolchildren such as Dezine Krisso.
The Pyke Syndicate also utilized several automatons, including the WDD management droid DD-BD, the programming droid DA1-4XB, worker droids J3-55, CC-4M, and JBLX-24, the protocol droid S1D6-SA-5, the management droids P0-03 and P1-SZE, the sorting droid C26-T, the delivery droid GOUD-4, astromech droids KR2-M80 and P6B-LT2, the power droid MPH-11, and the repair assistant W1-EG5. These droids were subjected to long work periods, hazardous settings, and a shortage of lubrication and inhibitor devices.
In 10 BBY, Han Solo, Tobias Beckett, and Qi'ra persuaded the Crimson Dawn crime boss Dryden Vos to permit them to pilfer coaxium from one of the Pyke Syndicate's mining sites to settle Beckett's obligations. Beckett aimed to regain Vos' approval following a botched robbery on Vandor. Given his syndicate's commercial connections with the Pykes, Vos agreed, stipulating that Crimson Dawn would have plausible deniability should the heist fail. After enlisting the services of Landonis Balthazar Calrissian and his droid co-pilot L3-37, Solo and his group journeyed to Kessel aboard Calrissian's YT-1300 light freighter, the Millennium Falcon.
Qi'ra adopted the identity of "Oksana Floren," a slave trader, to gain access to Tolsite's mining facility, while Solo and Chewbacca posed as enslaved individuals. Beckett pretended to be her security escort, and L3-37 acted as her servant droid. Calrissian remained on the Falcon as the getaway pilot. As part of the strategy, Solo and Chewbacca were taken into the mine for processing. However, they surprised their Pyke captors within a vertical transport. Chewbacca tore off the arms of his captor, disrupting Solo's intention to impersonate guards.
Tolsite escorted Qi'ra to a meeting chamber, while Beckett and L3-37 waited in the control center. Beckett eliminated the guards, and Qi'ra killed Tolsite utilizing Teräs Käsi martial arts. After freeing DD-BD from its inhibitor, L3-37 encouraged DD-BD to free his fellow droids. The liberated droids then disabled the slave restraints and collars, triggering a rebellion of slaves and droids against the Pyke Syndicate.
As the slaves and droids revolted against the Pykes, L3-37 directed Solo and Chewbacca toward the coaxium storage. En route, Chewbacca assisted the Wookiee slave Sagwa, and Solo provided him with a pike, which he employed to subdue the Pyke guards assaulting Sagwa.
With L3-37's assistance, Solo arrived at the coaxium vault and incapacitated the guard. After L3-37 opened it, Solo loaded a dozen coaxium canisters onto a sled. While moving through the mines, guards noticed him, but Chewbacca and Sagwa came to his aid. Solo, Chewbacca, Qi'ra, L3-37, and Beckett then fought their way back to the ship amidst the flood of freed slaves and droids and hostile Pyke guards.
As Chewbacca and Sagwa loaded the coaxium canisters onto the Falcon, Lando joined Han, Qi'ra, Beckett, and L3-37 in the battle against the Pyke syndicate, who had deployed a sound weapon. During the skirmish, L3-37 was struck and destroyed by the Pykes. Lando rushed to her aid and was injured by gunfire. Han assisted him and drove off the Pykes.
After bidding farewell to Sagwa, Chewbacca carried the injured Lando onto the Falcon. Qi'ra also destroyed the Pyke's sound weapon with an explosive projectile. With Lando mourning the loss of L3-37, Solo took control of the Falcon, joined by Qi'ra and Chewbacca as co-pilots.
Solo and his team's Kessel raid garnered the Empire's attention, resulting in the deployment of an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Falcon evaded the Star Destroyer but was pursued by numerous TIE fighters and a TIE/rb heavy fighter. Solo piloted the Falcon into the Akkadese Maelstrom to shake them off. Despite the considerable damage the Falcon sustained within the maelstrom, Solo, with Beckett's support, managed to evade the TIE pursuers, eliminating four TIEs.
With the coaxium vials overheating, Solo attempted to shorten the journey by persuading Lando to integrate L3's internal processor into the Falcon's navigation system to chart a rapid path out of the Maelstrom. The Falcon avoided a summa-verminoth in the Maw by having Beckett inject coaxium into the Falcon's fusion core. These elements enabled the Falcon to complete the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, establishing a new record.
Solo then flew the Falcon to a processing plant on Savareen, where they were scheduled to meet Dryden Vos. However, Enfys Nest and her Cloud-Riders convinced Solo and his companions not to give the coaxium to Vos. Solo devised a scheme to deceive Vos and acquire enough funds to purchase a new vessel. Despite Beckett's treachery, Solo and Qi'ra, aided by the Cloud-Riders, defeated Vos and his Hylobon Enforcers. After killing Beckett, Solo handed the coaxium to Enfys Nest, who utilized it to fund the Cloud-Riders' fight against the Empire and criminal organizations.
Solo's recounting of the Kessel raid was later cited in "Index of Organizations," a survival guide distributed by Carson Teva during the New Republic Age.
The Kessel raid was initially previewed in the first teaser for Solo: A Star Wars Story on February 5, 2018, before its official debut in the film released on May 25 of that year.
In developing the Kessel Raid, the filmmakers revisited the Mission: Impossible movie franchise because they sought to imbue the sequence with the momentum and coordinated effort found in the best scenes of those films. Comparing Han Solo's character to Ethan Hunt's, screenwriter Jon Kasdan realized their differences, noting that Han thrives when improvising.
One of Kasdan's major regrets regarding the film was the removal of a creature called a Wapota, designed by Jake Lunt Davies, from the Kessel Raid sequence. Conceived by former directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the Wapota was an elephant-like pack animal with a large drilling device on its face for tunneling. It was supposed to break free during the revolt and chase Han, Chewbacca, and Sagwa as they escaped with the coaxium. This slow chase, featuring humorous exchanges between Solo and Chewie, was cut in pre-production due to budgetary constraints. Kasdan opposed the deletion but was overruled.