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The Empire Strikes Back
Movie title: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Movie description: It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Since their victory at the Battle of Yavin, the Empire has been on the offensive, hunting the Rebels all across the galaxy. And after the demonstration of Luke's gifted abilities, Darth Vader will stop at nothing to hunt down the young would-be Jedi. After sending 100,000 Imperial Viper probes into deep space, the Empire locates the Rebel fleet on an icy world in the Hoth system. Despite their impressive shield generator, the Rebels are ill-prepared to confront the full military force of the Empire and must flee for their lives. But Luke Skywalker is not alone - the Force will guide him to find the great Jedi Master Yoda. Will he follow the strict training and code of the Jedi, or fall for the dangerous trap that Lord Vader has waiting for him?
Date published: May 21, 1980
Duration: 124 mins
Director(s): Director: Irvin Kershner, Writers: George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan
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It is a dark time for the
Rebellion. Although the Death
Star has been destroyed,
Imperial troops have driven the
Rebel forces from their hidden
base and pursued them across
the galaxy.
Evading the dreaded Imperial
Starfleet, a group of freedom
fighters led by Luke Skywalker
has established a new secret
base on the remote ice world
of Hoth.
The evil lord Darth Vader,
obsessed with finding young
Skywalker, has dispatched
thousands of remote probes into
the far reaches of space….
PLOT SYNOPSIS
It has been about three years since the Rebellion’s glorious victory at the Battle of Yavin. But despite delivering a crippling blow to the Empire by destroying the Death Star, the Rebels’ force is small- and they are on the run from the Empire who has sent probes out into deep space to search for them. Finally, after searching for a place to hide in the remote reaches of space, the Hoth system appears promising.
The Rebels learn to acclimatize to their new icy home and establish Echo Base on the barren, frozen landscape of the sixth planet of the Hoth system. Seeking to establish a secure perimeter, Luke – now a commander in the Rebellion – scouts out the terrain riding on a tauntaun when he notices a small meteor strike the surface of the planet. He decides to investigate it further, but before he can do so, he is attacked by a large snow creature known as a wampa, getting hit in the face and knocked unconscious before being dragged back to its cave.
Back at Echo Base, Han announces to General Carlist Rieekan that he must leave the Rebellion to pay a debt to Jabba, his fears having recently heightened after running into a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. Leia listens in on the conversation intently but tries to feign disinterest.
As Han leaves, Leia follows him and he accuses her of having feelings for him to which Leia bluffs that she does not. Impatient and cranky, Han insists that she does have romantic feelings before storming off to help Chewie prepare the Millennium Falcon for their departure.
As the evening sets in, C-3PO approaches Captain Solo and informs him that Luke still has not returned from his scouting mission. Han then confirms with Lieutenant Tigran Jamiro that Luke did not check in at the south entrance. Still in a ‘no-nonsense’ mood and determined to find Luke, Han grabs a tauntaun to search for Skywalker out in the cold. Lieutenant Jamiro tries to dissuade him, which only makes Han angrier.
Meanwhile, Luke hangs upside down in the wampa’s cave, his feet having been fastened into the ice by the creature. Luke slowly comes to consciousness and realizes that the wampa has nearly finished eating his tauntaun – and will likely eat him next!
He looks around and tries to pull his legs out of the ice but cannot. Frantically, he sees his lightsaber hilt sticking out of the snow below him, having fallen off of his utility belt. The wampa stirs, hearing Luke awaken. Luke stretches out his hand, but can’t reach his lightsaber.
Closing his eyes and trying to focus, Luke sense the Force within him. Feeling it flow, he reaches out again for his lightsaber just as the wampa stands up and begins approaching him from across the cave.
Suddenly, Luke’s lightsaber flies through the air and into his hand. He quickly ignites it and melts the ice, freeing his legs from the cave ceiling and dropping and twisting to land on the ground in front of the advancing wampa. Just as it is about to attack, he cuts off its right arm. The wampa screams out in pain and Luke runs for the cave entrance, emerging out into the snow.
Skywalker runs away from the cave, trying to head home, but the snow is deep and the air is cold. He continues to run, but eventually collapses on the snow in the cold freezing wind. As Luke lies on the frozen ground delirious, he sees the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi who instructs him to go to the Dagobah System and seek out legendary Jedi Master Yoda.
Becoming hypothermic, Luke slowly fades into a mixture of obtundation and delirium just as Han discovers him in the snow. The temperature continues to drop as a blizzard storm sets in and Han’s tauntaun falls over, dying of the cold. Desperate, Solo grabs Luke’s lightsaber and cuts open the tauntaun’s belly before inserting his mumbling friend within its abdomen to keep him warm. Alongside his friend, Han hunkers down and works to set up shelter to weather out the blizzard through the night.
The following morning, several T-47 airspeeders have been finally adapted to the cold by modifying their heat radiator fins. A few pilots, including Zev Senesca under the callsign Rogue Two, spread out in a wide sweep to search for Captain Solo and Commander Skywalker. Zev calls out over their comm channels and eventually makes contact with Han Solo and is able to rescue the pair.
Back at Echo Base, Luke is placed in a bacta tank to heal from his injuries and hypothermia. After exiting the tank, Han and Chewbacca determine they will stay with the Rebel Fleet, much to Leia’s content, though she feigns indifference. Han continues to insist there is something between them causing Leia to angrily call him a “scruffy-looking nerf-herder.” To further spite Han for his continued taunts, Leia grabs the recovering Luke and kisses him on the lips, claiming that Solo doesn’t know everything about women.
Shortly after, General Rieekan informs Leia and Han that they have detected a signal coming from just outside the base’s Zone 12. With the help of C-3PO, they determine the signal could be Imperial, so Han and Chewbacca go to investigate its source.
Out in the snow, they discover a black floating droid that quickly attacks them. Chewbacca distracts it while Han blasts it to pieces but realizes it must have self-destructed since he didn’t hit it very hard, which causes Leia to determine it was an Imperial probe droid. Alarmed, General Rieekan determines the must immediately begin evacuating the base.
Though Han was able to destroy the probe droid, a partial report was still sent via its communications relay, causing Captain Piett to alert Admiral Ozzel aboard Darth Vader’s flagship, the Executor. Though Ozzel is unimpressed, Darth Vader approaches and quickly overrides the Admiral’s judgement, determining that the report is indeed of the hidden Rebel Base. Ozzel incompetently disagrees with Vader, but the Dark Lord is undeterred, commanding General Veers to prepare his men for an attack.
Preparing for imminent attack, the Alliance to Restore the Republic prepares its large transport vessels for evacuation while several pilots prepare to man the newly-modified airspeeders to lead a defense countermeasure should the Empire attempt a ground attack. In the hangar, Han and Chewbacca hurriedly work to repair the Falcon which had accrued several damages prior.
Darth Vader is soon notified by General Veers that the Rebels have activated a powerful shield generator that will prevent any orbital bombardment. Vader quickly determines that the Rebels were alerted to their presence as Admiral Ozzel directed the fleet to exit lightspeed too close to the system, likely because he did not truly believe the Rebels were hiding there. Angrily, Vader directs General Veers to prepare for a ground assault instead.
Darth Vader then turns to view a screen in his meditation chamber and contacts Admiral Ozzel who appears on the screen. In a calm rage, Vader informs the Admiral that he has failed for the last time, Force-choking him to death, and appointing Captain Firmus Piett as the new admiral on the spot.
On the surface of Hoth, General Leia Organa informs the Rebel pilots that two fighters will be paired up with each transport to evacuate the planet, with the shield being dropped only for a few moments. In order to allow them a true chance at escape, they will also fire a large ion cannon to disable any ships in their direct line of flight.
Soon, the first GR-75 Rebel transport has escaped the planet, with the ion cannon disabling the Imperial star destroyer known as Tyrant that sought to capture it. On the ground, General Veers has started his attack with Blizzard Force – including several Imperial AT-AT walkers.
Luke pilots a T-47 speeder with his gunner, Dak Ralter, sitting back-to-back with him in the speeder. Several other speeders fly with them and attempt to shoot down the AT-AT walkers before realizing that their armor is too strong for blasters. As commander, Luke suggests a new strategy that includes the use of tow cables to entangle the legs of the walkers.
Before Luke can get in position however, Dak is shot and killed – having taken a direct hit through the cockpit while sitting behind Luke. Wedge Antilles and his gunner, Wes Janson, under the callsign Rogue Three instead advance and manage to wrap their tow cable around Blizzard 2, downing the AT-AT and quickly destroying it.
In the trenches surrounding Echo Base, more and more Rebel soldiers are killed as the remaining AT-AT walkers continue to advance. In Blizzard 1, General Veers continues his relentless march and arrives at the Rebel’s power generator, quickly destroying it and allowing Darth Vader and his 501st Legion to land and invade the base.
Meanwhile, Luke targets additional AT-AT walkers alongside Rogue Two flown by Zev Senesca, when Zev is shot and killed, and Luke’s snowspeeder is also hit and crash-lands in front of the Imperial walker known as Blizzard 4. Skywalker manages to retrieve a grenade and a few other pieces of equipment before the walker smashes his speeder with its feet. Using a grappling harpoon under Blizzard 4, Luke is reeled up under the walker’s body, and slices an opening within its belly before planting a grenade that explodes and destroys the AT-AT walker.
The Rebel ground troops are in full retreat as Darth Vader and his troops infiltrate the base. Quickly advancing through the snow-cut corridors. Han, Chewbacca and Leia along with C-3PO attempt to escape in the Millennium Falcon but not before Vader and his weather assault stormtroopers (frequently called ‘snowtroopers’) arrive in the hangar and begin shooting on the Falcon.
Han and Chewbacca pilot the ship out of the hangar, escaping into outer space. Several star destroyers are pursuing them when they attempt to make the jump to lightspeed only to find out that the Falcon’s hyperdrive is still non-functional. Attempting to outrun the star destroyers, Han flies their ship into a nearby asteroid field, forcing the Imperial cruisers to sustain heavy damage in order to follow them.
Several pursuing TIE fighters eventually crash while chasing them, but Han realizes the Empire will stop at nothing to capture them. Continuing to dodge asteroids, Han and Chewie find a cave in one of the asteroids and enter it, managing to hide from the Empire while buying themselves time to repair the Falcon‘s hyperdrive.
Meanwhile, flying in his X-wing with R2-D2, Luke finishes escorting the last GR-75 medium transport known as Dutyfree off of the planet, but decides not to follow it to the rendezvous point, instead taking charting a course to the Dagobah system.
Luke and R2 arrive at Dagobah and enter the atmosphere. As they lower towards the surface of the planet, they are surprised to find it covered in a jungled swamp, and are unable to see well, plowing through vines and branches before crashing into a shallow lagoon. Opening the cockpit, Luke and R2-D2 stand on the top of their X-wing looking out across the foggy bog, unable to determine where they are.
A large creature swimming in the bog suddenly rocks the ship, causing R2 to fall into the swampy water below. Luke scans the waters searching for him, before the little astromech droid is spat out by a dragonsnake and flies out of the water and through the air, crashing onto the swampy ground next to the bog.
Luke retrieves supplies from his X-wing and begins setting up camp near the shores of the bog. He continues to have strange feelings about the planet when he catches a small green creature with large ears watching them.
He points his blaster at the creature, but quickly finds that it does not seem to be dangerous. The creature has a curious speech pattern – speaking in reverse subject predicate but seems friendly and harmless – though a little annoying as it tries to eat Luke’s food and rummages through the camp’s things.
Irritated, Luke eventually admits to the creature that he is looking for a Jedi Master to which the green creature immediately realizes that Luke must be looking for Yoda and offers to take Luke to him. Intrigued, Luke follows the creature to its home – a hut formed out of dried mud.
Meanwhile, Han and Leia are standing within the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon when something rocks the ship, causing Han to catch Leia in his arms. Han teases Leia about getting excited to be held by him which Leia shrugs off as not much excitement at all.
In the back of the Falcon, C-3PO manages to communicate with the ship and informs Han that the power coupling on the negative axis is likely the problem to the hyperdrive as the coupling became polarized. Han behaves as if C-3PO’s assessment was obvious, before quietly admitting to Chewbacca that they should probably replace the power coupling.
In another room of the ship, Leia works on repairs for the ship, when Han comes in and notices her struggling to turn a piece of the equipment, her hand throbbing from jamming it. He stands behind her as if to help rotate the gear, but Leia shoves him backwards – tired of his advances.
Han claims he was only trying to help and while the two are talking, Han draws closer and closer to her, holding her hand to massage it where she had hurt it. Being more direct, Han claims that Leia likes him because he’s a scoundrel before kissing her. The two stand there kissing for a moment before C-3PO walks in and naïvely interrupts the moment proclaiming he’s isolated the reverse power coupling.
The Empire continues to search for Captain Solo and his crew in the Hoth asteroid field with several star destroyers when Admiral Piett informs Darth Vader that the Emperor wants to speak with him. Vader has his star destroyer, Executor, moved out of the field, before bowing before a transmission of the Emperor.
Cloaked with a hood and wrinkled, gnarled skin, the Emperor tells Vader he has felt a great disturbance in the Force. He attributes the disturbance to the young Rebel, Luke, who he determines must be the son of Anakin Skywalker. Vader is puzzled as to how Anakin might have had offspring but agrees to hunt down Luke – hoping to turn him to the Dark Side, otherwise destroy him.
Back on Dagobah, Luke eats with his new friend, but grows impatient wanting to know when they will go to visit Yoda. Eventually, his feelings lead to an outburst of annoyance, prompting the short green being to admit that he himself is Yoda. Speaking out towards Obi-Wan’s spirit, Yoda sadly states he cannot train Luke because he is too impatient.
Obi-Wan’s spirit counters that Luke will learn patience, but Yoda claims also to sense anger in Luke, just like his father. The young Skywalker counters that he won’t fail Yoda and that he is ready – that he is not afraid. Yoda looks at him knowingly and assures him that the path Luke seeks will indeed make him afraid.
Back in the Hoth asteroid field, Leia realizes something is on the outer hull of the ship. Wearing oxygen masks, she, Han and Chewbacca exit their ship to inspect it. As they walk around in the asteroid cave, Han spots a creature attached to the hull and shoots it, dropping it to the ground. He identifies the winged large bat-like creature as a mynock and determines that they are chewing on the power cables.
As they fire their blasters on more of the creatures, Han notices that the cave seems to move when they shoot into the walls and floors, causing him to realize that the ‘cave’ they are in is not actually what they thought. With the ground still rocking, they run aboard the Millennium Falcon and take off, heading for the exit of the tunnel when they spot teeth closing at its entrance.
They burst through the tunnel back into space to see that they had been inside a massive space slug known as an exogorth, which stretches its body out of the cave in an attempt to re-swallow them.
On Dagobah, Yoda begins training Luke in the ways of the Force. Yoda holds onto Luke’s back while the would-be Jedi climbs mossy vines in the swampy bogs of Dagobah. As Luke runs through the jungled ground, Yoda speaks to him, explaining the philosophies of the Jedi – how their strength comes from the Force, but anger and fear can lead to the Dark Side. Instead, a Jedi uses the Force for “knowledge and defense”.
As Yoda’s lessons conclude for the day, Luke senses something is not right in the swamps where his run has taken them, feeling cold and sensing the Dark Side of the Force. Yoda tells him he must go in and face what is there. Hesitantly, Luke decides to inspect what he senses, walking forward into a darker spot of the bog.
As the air grows colder, Luke descends downward between trees and vines, the jungle around him becoming darker. As he proceeds, he comes to a mossy stone entryway and pauses to look into its dark opening. Standing at its entrance, a light appears from within and Darth Vader walks threateningly towards him. They both ignite their lightsabers and duel for a brief moment before Luke cuts off Vader’s head. But when he peers at Vader’s head on the ground, its mask pulls apart to reveal Luke’s own face, ominously warning of Luke’s potential to turn to the Dark Side.
Near the Hoth asteroid field, Darth Vader stands on his flagship’s command center, with a row of bounty hunters before him, including Bossk, Dengar, 4-LOM, Zuckuss, IG-88B, and the infamous Boba Fett. Having struggled to capture Captain Solo, Vader hires the bounty hunters to find the smuggler and his friends, determined to capture them as part of his plan to find the young Luke Skywalker.
During the debriefing, Imperial officers spot the Millennium Falcon and chase the ship. Han prepares the hyperdrive, planning to jump to lightspeed, but after initiating them controls to make the jump, the hyperdrive only makes a whining sound before shutting off.
Panicked, Han brings his ship into a dive and spin to confront the star destroyer Avenger flying directly at the ship and crossing over its viewing deck before attaching the Falcon to the back of the command bridge and shutting the ship off. Imperial officer Captain Lorth Needa is shocked when he immediately receives a report that the ship no longer appears on their scopes, despite being too small to carry its own cloaking device.
Taking responsibility for losing the ship, Captain Needa travels to Vader’s flagship and personally apologizes. Unfortunately for him, Darth Vader only accepts his apology after choking the unlucky captain to death.
Soon after, the Imperial fleet prepares to leave the Hoth system, accepting that they’ve lost Captain Solo and his crew and will have to search elsewhere. As the ships prepare to depart, Han anticipates that they will dump their waste as part of standard procedure and detaches the Falcon as the waste begins floating in space, blending the ship in with it, and then taking off as soon as the star destroyers are gone.
Unknown to them however, another ship was hiding in the waste: Slave I. Boba Fett carefully maneuvers his craft to avoid detection as he tracks Han Solo and his crew…
Continuing his training with Yoda, Luke meditates on the edge of the swamp in a handstand position, carefully concentrating to levitate rocks and stack them on one another using the Force. As he does so though, his concentration is thrown off when he hears his X-wing suddenly start to sink deeper into the lagoon.
Luke pessimistically views the situation, believing he will now never be able to get his ship out of the swamp. Yoda tells him it is still possible through the power of the Force, to which Luke remains doubtful but is willing to try. Yoda then chastises him saying, “No!…Do, or do not. There is no try.”
Luke stretches out his hand, using the Force to slowly start lifting his X-wing. At first, the ship begins to rise, but quickly halts, sinking back into the murky water. Luke excuses himself saying it’s too big, but Yoda insists that size doesn’t matter. As Luke begins to walk away in frustration, Yoda extends his hand and lifts the ship out of the lagoon and sets it on the shore to Luke’s utter astonishment.
Later, Luke again is meditating when he sees through the Force a vision of a city in the clouds, and Han and Leia in severe pain. He asks Yoda about the vision, but Yoda’s replies are vague as the future is in constant motion. Luke feels he must go to rescue his friends, and Yoda cautions him to think about the potential consequences of going.
Luke begins preparing his X-wing and equipment to travel, insistent on going to protect Han and Leia as Yoda and Obi-Wan (as a Force spirit) try to convince him to stay and complete his training. After being warned, Luke acknowledges the risks of going, but feels that he still must go before departing to head for the city in the clouds from his vision.
Searching for a nearby planetary system where they can fix the hyperdrive, Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and C-3PO arrive at the Bespin system. Han remembers an old friend he has in the area, and travels to the gas giant Bespin where a small tibanna gas mining colony known as Cloud City hovers high in the atmosphere over the planet, surrounded by ethereal clouds.
Landing the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo is met on the landing bay catwalk by Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian, his cyborg assistant, Lobot, and other members of his personnel. Han approaches his old acquaintance trying to be friendly, and Lando returns the greeting, after first playing a joke by pretending to be angry with Han, calling him a ‘swindler’.
Han and Co. receive a tour of the mining facility, but C-3PO is lost during the tour and disappears. When finally alone, Leia admits to Han that something feels off and she doesn’t trust Lando. They later go with Lando to dine, and upon arriving at the dining room, the door opens to reveal Darth Vader on the other end of the table, waiting for them!
Han rapidly draws his blaster and fires on Vader, but the Dark Lord merely holds out his hand, deflecting the blasterfire in a shower of sparks before using the Force to pull Han’s blaster out of his hand and into his own. Boba Fett steps out from behind Vader, and Han, Leia, and Chewbacca are quickly surrounded by stormtroopers. Lando admits he turned them in, apologizing that he had no choice before the three of them are taken.
Darth Vader then has Han strapped to an Imperial scan grid and lowered into an array of torture devices, causing him to agonizingly scream out in pain as Leia listens panicked from outside the door – luring Luke by causing him to sense the very suffering he had foreseen in his prior vision.
Feeling awful for his friend and frustrated that Vader keeps altering their agreement, Lando approaches Han, Leia, and Chewbacca in their cell after Han’s torture is over to tell them the real reason for what is going on: Vader is using Han and Co. as bait to lure Luke to him before turning Solo over to Boba Fett to be taken to Jabba. He apologizes for not being able to do better before leaving.
Not long after, Han is taken to a carbonite freezing chamber. Normally used to flash freeze and preserve tibanna gas for transport, Darth Vader concocts a plan to instead use the carbonite to freeze Luke to take to the emperor but seeks to first confirm the method is still viable by testing it on Han Solo.
Ugnaughts quickly work to prepare the chamber as Han is brought forward and placed in the center of the device’s floor. A terrible sense of dread fills the room as Han gives his farewells to his friends. Before the device is activated, Leia quietly but abruptly speaks out, telling Han that she loves him, to which Han solemnly replies, “I know.”
As Han is lowered into the chamber, gas bursts all around him and the flash freezing process flares. A large overhead claw reaches down into the chamber and stamps the carbon before pulling up a silver-gray block with Han’s body outlined in the block’s surface – his features showing painful submission.
Calrissian approaches the carbonite block and interrogates the device monitors, confirming that Han is indeed still alive. Darth Vader turns Han over to Boba Fett before commanding that the chamber be reset in anticipation of Luke’s arrival.
Right after, Luke arrives on Cloud City to search for his friends. Walking through the hallways, he can sense danger all around him, evening spotting the bounty hunter Boba Fett walking through a corridor with a carbonite block (which is actually Han Solo) in tow.
In another hallway, he spots several stormtroopers escorting Leia and Chewbacca. The stormtroopers fire at him, and Leia resists them as she tries to yell out to Luke and warn him that the whole thing is a trap. The Imperial troopers rush her off though before she can explain anything further.
As he attempts to follow her, a shaft activates, raising him into the carbonite freezing room. Uncertain where he is, he looks around to take in his surroundings before spotting Darth Vader, standing at the top of the stairs waiting for him.
With gas rising ominously around them, Luke and Vader ignite their blades and begin dueling. Using his recent training from Yoda, Luke is able to anticipate some of Vader’s moves, managing to barely dodge or block each hit from Dark Lord.
As they duel though, Young Skywalker doesn’t realize that Vader is slowly backing him toward the carbonite freezing chamber. Vader continues his advance towards the chamber in the ground. Luke takes a final step backwards before suddenly falling into the chamber with a gasp.
Feeling triumphant, Darth Vader uses the Force to activate the controls to the chamber, assuming he has captured Luke. Just before the chamber can activate however, Luke uses the Force to jump straight up to the ceiling of the room, his training with Yoda on Dagobah vines paying off. Darth Vader is even more impressed, realizing that Luke has already begun formal training with the Force.
Meanwhile, as Leia and Chewbacca (with C-3PO’s torso and head on his back) are led by stormtroopers towards Darth Vader’s ship, Lando has his own Cloud City security personnel intercept them, detaining the stormtroopers and freeing Leia and Chewie.
Upon being released, Chewbacca grabs at Lando’s throat as soon as his claws are able, until Lando – through gasping breaths – manages to tell them that there’s still a chance to rescue Han at the East Platform where Boba Fett’s starship, Slave I, is docked. They rush there but arrive seconds too late as Boba Fett raises his ship from the platform and takes off.
Hurrying to give chase, Lando leads them through corridors of Cloud City, but finds that his control as baron administrator has been hijacked as the security codes to the facility have been changed. Realizing the Empire is taking over, Lando activates a city-wide intercom and broadcasts a message to the city’s inhabitants, alerting them to Imperial occupation of the city, causing mass chaos as citizens rush to evacuate.
Lando then leads Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 to the Millennium Falcon‘s platform and R2 is able to override the gate controls, allowing them to rush onto the platform and board Han’s ship as they prepare to depart. Luckily, Calrissian had ordered his men to fix the hyperdive not long after Han and Co. had arrived on Cloud City.
Back within Cloud City’s operational facilities, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker continue dueling. Their fight takes them below the carbon freezing facilities and near the central shaft of the city. There, Luke attempts to fight Vader in a corridor that overlooks the central shaft, but is barely able to stand as Darth Vader uses the Force to telekinetically hurtle boxes and equipment at him; it is clear that Luke is outmatched and can’t escape.
When a viewport window overlooking the shaft is shattered by one of the thrown objects, Luke is suctioned out into the shaft, barely managing to not plummet to its bottom by grabbing the railing of a catwalk within the shaft chasm and pulling himself back onto it.
Vader continues to pursue him, his blade swinging powerfully and quicker as he grows more impatient with Luke’s defiance. Soon, Luke is forced backwards along another catwalk, heading further and further out towards the center of the shaft’s chasm. Growing desperate, Luke swings wildly, managing to score a hit on Vader’s right shoulder.
But Luke’s small victory is short lived as he moves to retreat and finds himself at the end of the catwalk – suspended in the middle of the massive chasm with nowhere to go. Luke attempts to parry Vader’s lightsaber, but in doing so overextends his arm, inadvertently allowing Darth Vader to twist Luke’s blade with his own before slicing off Luke’s right hand and lightsaber, which fall down the shaft.
Luke screams out in pain, grasping at where his hand once was. He falls before Vader who gloats in his victory. The Dark Lord then invites Luke to join him, but Luke resists. As Luke continues to painfully back away from him and out onto an antenna array, Vader tells Luke that Obi-Wan never really told him what happened to his father.
In bitter anger and fear, Luke tries to end the conversation, telling Vader he knows enough – that Vader killed his father. But then, in a most shocking reveal, Darth Vader corrects Luke and tells him, “I am your father.”
In utter disbelief and terror, Luke yells out, refusing to believe that Darth Vader is his father. Looming over him, Vader tells Luke to search his feelings and he will know it is true, causing Luke to scream out in denial.
The ebony-clad Sith Lord then offers Luke a chance to join him to overthrow the emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son to which Luke silently rejects his offer, instead leaping off of the antenna array and falling down the shaft’s center before being suctioned through a side vent and dropped through a hole off of the city.
Before he can fall to his doom through the gases of Bespin though, he grabs hold of a reverse hanging antenna, weak and emotionally broken at learning that his father is Darth Vader. Unable to hold on for long with only one hand, he reaches out through the Force, pleading for Leia to hear him.
As Leia rides in the Millennium Falcon with Lando and Chewbacca, she soon senses Luke’s voice calling out to her for help and direct Lando to turn the ship around, guiding him to Luke’s location. Hovering the Falcon directly under Luke, they are able to catch and rescue him before taking off to head for outer space.
With TIE fighters pursuing them, they attempt to make the jump to lightspeed as Lando assures Leia that his men fixed it. As they activate the hyperdrive however, is stalls and sputters before again shutting down. In frustration, Lando runs to try to figure out how to fix it.
Waiting within his star destroyer to capture them, it is clear that Vader anticipated this moment as he confirms with Admiral Piett that the hyperdrive was deactivated. On board the Millennium Falcon however, R2-D2 reveals that he learned the hyperdrive was indeed fixed and only deactivated as he learned this information from Cloud City’s central computer.
Just as the tractor beams on Executor are being activated, R2-D2 plugs into the Falcon’s hyperdrive which immediately activates, throwing him backwards as they make the jump to lightspeed. Through the main viewport of his command center, Darth Vader frustratedly observes them disappear.
Later, out in space at the Rebel Alliance’s rendezvous point, Luke’s missing hand is attended to by the medical droid, 2-1B while riding on an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate. After receiving a new functioning prosthetic, Luke gets up and joins Leia along with C-3PO and R2-D2 to stare out the viewport at the galaxy in front of them, with hope that they will still be able to recover Han and defeat the Empire.
Incredibly thoughtful, deep, intriguing. “I am your father” will forever go down in history as one of the most quoted, well-known lines of film.
Harrison Ford is the reason this film is so good. Love this movie
“Luke, I’m your father!”