Ordo said:
I try not to be an elitist Star Wars nerd....but seriously people....pay ATTENTION.
I was actually talking about the opening crawl that states that the acquisition of the plans are the first victory for the Rebellion. Things have not gone well for them prior to that. It's a pretty good bet that a good number of our heroes in the movie won't survive, not only due to the battle mentioned, but because it ends up in Princess Leia's hands as she is captured delivering them to Yavin. So it's a pretty good bet that none of them make it back to Yavin by the end of the film. That could just be because they go their separate ways once the hand off is made, but it could also be because none of them make it beyond that point.
Still,
someone handed them off, so at least one of them manages to survive long enough to manage that.
Part of the appeal of this movie is the idea that no one is safe going in outside of classic characters who will likely be no more than cameos outside of maybe Vader, and even he might end up relegated to that kind of part. They could all be dead by the end of the movie as there's no guarantee that they'll survive once the plans are delivered and could end up giving their lives to buy time for whoever it is that gets the plans to the Princess makes it to that point.
I also like that this could add some gravity to A New Hope's plot. If done right it could add new weight to that particular plot thread in the movie as we know exactly what was sacrificed to steal the plans and get them to where they are at the opening to Episode IV.