Was Jesus' crucifixion all part of God's plan?

Modern neuroscience is actually demonstrating that the notion of free will may actually be somewhat of an illusion.With regards to scripture, what is interesting is that god is actually undermining the whole notion of free will. He indicated he provided a sense of autonomy to his creation but at the same time gave instructions for how they should behave. That in and of itself indicates that free will, as denoted by the Bible is also not truly 'free'.One thing to note is the whole concept of 'god's plan'. If one ascribes to that notion, that brings up your movie analogy. I also like to use the concept of a video game.As a player of the game, it appears as though my character has 'free will'. I have (mostly) freedom of movement and can adjust tactics accordingly to achieve an objective. But ultimately, I am beholden to the script; i.e. the plan. As such, I can never truly experience free will since I am actually a slave to the programming of the game. The same is true in the case of 'god's plan'.

Precisely. You can go one further and listen to individuals who indicate that god 'is watching out for them' or 'will help them in a time of need'. Once again, this demonstrates that god is willing to intervene to achieve his goal. And again, that undermines free will. And that archetype exists in the Bible as well. Evil is 'defeated' in the end. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings saga was heavily influenced by his Christian upbringing and you can see signs of that in his writings. The 'good' characters fighting the uber evil Sauron.P.S. Nice to meet another fellow Canadian by the way. I live in the USA now but I grew up in Southern, Ontario near Lake Erie.

Allegorically, this is also what happens in Genesis. Humans live in paradise before the fall, when evil is introduced to them. Although arguably, evil already existed, but had yet to manifest for mankind. Yah, but Sith Lightning is cool!

What is interesting, from a Star Wars canon standpoint, is that interpretations of the light side and dark side differ. Some consider both to be two separate energy sources, with distinct properties. Others consider there to be one ubiquitous 'Force' and how one manifests their power ultimately denotes whether they are 'touched' by the light or dark side.
It somewhat reminds me of how individuals harness the powers provided by scientific discovery. Electromagnetic forces for example can be used to create motors, power homes over great distances, etc. They can also be used to electrocute someone. It comes down to the old 'power corrupts' archetype.Edited by Diomedes, : Fixed typo

But that is not entirely correct. As per Christian dogma, when you are 'saved' by Jesus, your reward is eternal salvation and immortality alongside god. That is most definitely an increase in 'power'. Once saved, your soul will eternally be in paradise, free from disease, violence, hatred, etc. If that isn't power, I don't know what is.

That is actually correct, at least from the standpoint of where Lucas said he got his inspiration for The Force. Most of it came from some of his research into Buddhism and Taoism.