The vengeance motivation is strong. It can justify breaking orders as a character moment, but of course the authority giving the orders won't see it that way. This provides a source of potential conflict in a game, that you can use to give your players a moral dilemma.
In fact, any strong motivation can work for this. Look for character flaws or personality quirks that you can take advantage of. If one hero has a weakness for gambling, or drink, or whatever, just put it at odds with their duty and watch the fun. You don't even need to make the temptation overwhelming and force the PC to act uncontrollably. Try making it a mild temptation and leave it to the player to decide what to do.
Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)
"Guard the prisoners". That's not necessarily a bad order. Except that we see all the other guards raising their guns, and about to shoot the prisoners.
"Since when does just following orders feel so bad?" Possibly when you see your fellow guards getting ready to shoot, not just guard.
What was the result from that study where people were giving increasing amounts of "electric shock" to actors/recordings of people in another room that were supposedly not responding to questions? Something like 65% of the participants proceeded to give lethal shocks because that was what they were told to do? Only a third would disobey?
Looks like Finn will be switching sides real soon now. Wonder if he will bring any villagers/prisoners with him, or if he'll just wait for an opportunity to desert.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Since always Annie, at least to me. I've never bothered to try and join a branch of the military as I have a need to know why I should do something if I don't already see why that thing should be done. I get why it's necessary; from what I've gathered, a lot of military training involves learning to following orders without question because in combat, hesitation can get you or your comrades killed. Saying that particular phrase though has some.... history behind it, to say the least. At least Finn doesn't look like they want to shoot the prisoners like the three others behind them do.
I agree with the random officer; a sensible person would have fled into the desert. Unfortunately for them though, PCs are not always known to be the most sensible of people. BB-8's already made his escape I assume, but there's still Exhibit A; Jim's plan to turn his X-wing engines into a makeshift one-shot cannon. Which seems to be taking its time to go off I gotta say; perhaps he screwed up the roll for it to work. A lot of different systems have crafting checks made secretly by the GM if it's something made in a rush.
Perhaps this is a subtle nudge from the GM to Jim and Ben to "Get out of Dodge" and run away to group up with the rest of the party members.
Transcript
GM: The village is subdued. Troopers round up the prisoners.
Finn: Sarge, I tell you there’s a shooter still out there.
Trooper Sergeant: Well he’s not shooting now.
Finn: Let me go after him!
Trooper Sergeant: Any sensible person would have fled into the desert. You’ll never find him.
Finn: He killed Gil! I have to get him!
Trooper Sergeant: No. Stand here and guard the prisoners. That’s an order, trooper.
Finn: Yes, sir...
{Sergeant walks away}
Finn: {to self} Since when does “just following orders” feel so bad?