Finn

"I was raised to do one thing... but I've got nothing to fight for."

- Finn Finn, also known as FN-2187, is the deuteragonist of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He is a First Order Stormtrooper, but after learning about the evils that the Order has committed, he deserts it and hijacks a TIE Fighter in order to escape. He crashlands on the planet Jakku, where he meets the scavenger Rey. However, he becomes wanted by the First Order for defecting, and unknowingly leads them to Jakku. Finn also acquires from Maz Kanata the late Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, which was thought to be lost, when Luke's severed hand, still holding the weapon, fell to the depths of Cloud City on Bespin. While it is unknown if he is able to use the Force, he is seen wielding the lightsaber against Kylo Ren.

Personality
Raised to be a soldier, Finn is inexperienced to the world outside of the First Order, and knew nothing else but to be dutiful to his officers and trust in the First Order's goals. Compared to most Stormtroopers, he is still protective, intelligent, and strong enough that at one point he was considered to be one of the best Stormtroopers. Despite his strict training, he is friendly and cared about his comrades to risking himself for their safety. But Finn's loyalties changed when he witnessed his first field operation on Jakku watching the destruction and massacre of many innocent villagers by the First Order, including the death of a fellow Stormtrooper he had known personally. Seeing the true nature of his superiors caused Finn to start questioning who he was and wanted to abandon it all from the disillusion.

Finn's greatest shortcomings are the fear and stress that he had sustained from the First Order; these traits can lead him to sudden panic, deserting others out of cowardice, or refusal to keep fighting a conflict where he knows how dangerous the First Order can be.

However, Finn is good-natured and has a sense of justice, honor and empathy. Though he can be influenced by his past fear, Finn goes out of his way to rescue others who are less fortunate, including Poe Dameron and Rey when the two were captured by the First Order. When learning of the bravery of the Resistance in the face of the First Order's brutality along with the influence of his friends' altruism, Finn becomes more confident in himself and officially joins the Resistance to protect the Galaxy from the First Order.

Abilities

 * Expert Marksman: As a former stormtrooper and a member of the Resistance, Finn is extremely skilled in utilizing blaster rifles.
 * Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: As a former stormtrooper and a member of the Resistance, Finn is extremely skilled in unarmed combat.
 * Lightsaber Skills: Despite his lack of training and Force-sensitivity, Finn has some skills in lightsaber combat and is a highly gifted duelist. Finn was able to was able to hold his own against a stormtrooper with a riot baton, despite being defeated, and was even able to hold his own against Kylo Ren, despite the latter being far more skilled and experience in lightsaber combat then he is; Finn was able to hold his own reasonably well for a relatively short period of time and even managed to lightly wound Kylo's right shoulder. Ultimately, however, Finn was defeated by Kylo, who dealt him a severe wound to his spine.

Blaster

 * Blaster rifle: Finn utilizes a Blaster rifle as his weapon of choice.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Among his Strormtrooper comrades, Finn is deployed into a battle on Jakku as his first field mission to find information on the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. In the dawn of the battle, one of the Stormtroopers is shot down, Finn seeing this holds up the dying Stormtrooper in his arms before the soldier passes away. Panicking, Finn becomes overcome with stress over the heat of battle and finds himself unable to fire at the captured villagers. Back on the Finalizer, Finn suffers from the trauma but is ordered by Captain Phasma to return to his duties. Knowing that he be sent to re-evaluation and his loyalty in the First Order broken, Finn chooses to rescue the hostage pilot Poe Dameron to desert the Order. The two manage to steal a TIE Fighter, during which Poe gives the trooper the new name Finn, but the TIE Fighter is shot and spirals down to Jakku's surface.

Surviving the crash thanks to the TIE's ejection seats, Finn witnesses the TIE imploding with no trace of Poe to be found. Believing Poe to have died from the explosion, Finn discards his armor and treads through the desert, eventually finding his way to a settlement. There, he finds the BB-8 unit that belonged to Poe along with Rey, a desert scavenger. Immediately, the First Order appears and target them, forcing the trio to escape the planet aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Once in space, Finn convinces BB-8 to tell him where the Resistance was to continue his facade. After the Falcon breaks down, they are abducted in a larger ship by the Falcon's previous owners, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Rey accidentally releases some rathtars which prove useful in their escape, as Han's dealings with a couple of gangs did not go so well, though she did rescue Finn at one point from one of the monsters. Han explains to them that Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi Order, but went into exile after one of his students turned to the dark side and destroyed all that Luke built up.

Han and Chewbacca take the trio to Takodana to meet with Maz Kanata. When Finn refuses to help the Resistance, Finn reveals his true identity as a Stormtrooper to Rey and asks her to leave with him so they could escape the conflict. When Rey declines, Finn wishes her luck and prepares to leave with a pirate away from Takodana. However, the First Order locate and attack the group on Takodada, with Kylo Ren capturing Rey as well. Maz gives Finn the lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker, and instructs him to give it to Rey. Finn, Han, and Chewbacca then travel to the Resistance base on D'Qar, where he discovers Poe alive and well, having survived the crash on Jakku. Due to his knowledge of Starkiller Base's superweapon, Finn gives vital information on planning the attack. To rescue Rey and destroy the shield generator, Finn infiltrates the base with Solo and Chewbacca and capture Phasma, forcing her to deactivate the shields.

When the trio reunite with Rey, she and Finn plant thermal detonators inside the base while witnessing Han confront Kylo, who is revealed to be Hans' son Ben. After seeing Kylo murder his father, Finn and Rey fire at Ren in rage and try to escape, but are confronted by Kylo in the woods. After Kylo uses the Force to knock Rey unconscious, Finn uses Anakin's lightsaber and engages in a fight against Kylo. engages in battle with Finn, who is using Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber against him, much to Kylo's anger. Finn holds his own for the fight, but due to his lack of Force-sensitivity, Kylo defeats and grievously injures him. Rey continues the fight for the unconscious Finn with the lightsaber and defeats Kylo as the planet falls apart, but they are rescued by Chewbacca and escape to D'Qar.

Due to his severe injuries, Finn is put onto intensive care at the Resistance base while under a coma. Before leaving on her journey to find Luke Skywalker, Rey wishes him a heartfelt goodbye and kisses the comatose Finn, thanking him for everything.

Disney INFINITY
Finn appears in the third Disney INFINITY game, as one of the playable characters in The Force Awakens Play Set.

Trivia

 * Prior to John Boyega's casting in the film, Finn was portrayed as Caucasian in many pieces of pre-production concept art.
 * Actors Ray Fisher and Jack O'Connell were on a shortlist for the role of Finn prior to John Boyega's casting
 * During the global casting call for Episode VII, Finn was referred to as "Thomas" in the audition scripts.