As fans around the world gear up to watch Twilight Eclipse this summer, the third movie in the Twilight Saga, the internet has become a buzz with all kinds of Twilight trivia, Twilight parodies, and Twilight rumors. It seems like every other day another supermarket tabloid releases a questionable "interview" with one of the stars of Twilight. Is Robert Pattinson dating Kristen Stewart? Is Taylor Lautner really dead? Is Dakota Fanning a vampire in real life? Is Robert Pattinson straight? The list goes on and on..
If you're not a hardcore Twilight fan you probably don't care much about all this fanfare, but if you plan on going to watch Twilight Eclipse with some of your friends in theatres, there are some basic elements of the story that you should familiarize yourself with before heading out to watch the Twilight Eclipse movie so you're not lost when the action begins.
The Twilight Saga, written by author Stephanie Meyer and directed by David Slade, centers around the life of Isabella Swan, a young and socially awkward girl played by Kristen Stewart that moves from Phoenix to live with her father in Washington state. Bella, as she is affectionately known by her friends, is a quiet girl with low self esteem who tends to keep to herself at first. During her first days in her new school she encounters a young boy named Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson, who she finds interesting. At first, Edward shuns and avoids her, making Bella feel even more self conscious about herself, but he eventually warms up to her and they become friends. Edward is adored by all the other girls in school and Bella cannot understand why he bothers to spend so much time around her.
Over the course of the next few days she notices very curious and unexplainable events surrounding her friendship with Edward Cullen. One day he saves her life in the school parking lot by stopping a car that was careening out of control towards her with his bare hands. He is also strangely absent from school on sunny days, and has noticeably pale skin that is cold to the touch. As Bella's suspicions and curiosity reach a boiling point, she begins to investigate these oddities and eventually learns that Edwards strangeness is indeed unique. He is a vampire. Feeling like you want to watch to watch Twilight Eclipse yet?
As the story progresses the two begin to fall in love and spend more and more time with each. Edward tells Bella that she is the only thing in his life that he feels is worth living for. The action in Twilight picks up when other rival vampires come to town and begin attacking humans randomly as the locals attribute the attacks to wild animals. At one point Bella's life is threatened by these other vampires and Edward and the rest of the Cullen family try to protect her from them as they pursue her. Bella ends up being bitten by one of the vampires during a confrontation and is saved only when Edwards is forced to drink her blood in order to remove the poison.
The story continues in Twilight New Moon as Bella and Edward are spending their days together in quiet happiness. During a birthday celebration for Bella at the Cullens residence Bella accidentally cuts her hand and sets off an incident in which Jasper Hale, played by Jackson Rathbone, loses control at the sight of her blood and tries to attack her. The situation is quickly diffused by Edward, but he realizes how selfish he is being by constantly putting Bella's life in danger by allowing her to be with him. He tell her that he loves her but that he has no choice but to leave her and never see her again. Bella is devastated by Edward's absence and falls into a deep depression shortly after him and his family leave town. She stops seeing her friends and speaks to almost nobody other than her own father. In her sadness, she begins to hallucinate and sees ghostly images of Edward wherever she goes.
She eventually finds solace in an old childhood friend, Jacob Black, played by Taylor Lautner. Jacob is a Native American boy who Bella knew in her youth because their fathers are old friends. As she spends more and more time with Jacob she momentarily begins to forget Edward and finds herself having feelings for Jacob, though he is younger than her by a few years. Jacob also has strong feelings towards Bella and eventually lets her know how he feels about her. A short while later Jacob disappears for a period of time, and when he returns to see Bella she finds out that he too has a secret that he has been keeping from her. Jacob Black is a werewolf. Still not sure if you want to watch Twilight Eclipse yet?
Just around this time Ashley Cullen, played by Ashley Greene, arrives in town and tells Bella that her brother Edward has gone to see a group of ruthless vampires known as the Volturi in order to commit suicide because he is under the impression that Bella was dead. Ashley has visions of future and during one of her visions she saw Bella jumping into the water and drowning and Edward found out about it. Of course Bella had not really drowned that day and was actually saved by her friend Jacob.
Bella rushes to stop Edward from committing suicide by revealing himself to humanity as a vampire, for which he will be executed by the vicious Volturi clan. She is successful in stopping Edward and he tells her that he has always loved her and only left to protect her and the thought of her no longer being alive was too much for him to bear and that is why he wanted to kill himself. Though Jacob and Edward are sworn enemies, the two agree to a truce for the sake of protecting Bella, as long as the Cullens never bite a human.
Bella very much wants to become a vampire so that she can be with Edward without growing old and dying. Although very much opposed to the idea of turning Bella into a vampire, Edward tells her that if she will marry him, Edward will change her himself after a short while.
