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Princess Leia: I love you.

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When we see the Star Destroyer for the first time, there are three of them on screen. The one on the top left, can still be seen even after another Star Destroyer came into frame and blocks the view. See more...

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Originally, Boba Fett was supposed to be sort of an Imperial Super-Stormtrooper (in their trademark white armor). This idea was - in a way - reused in 'Attack of the Clones', with his father Jango Fett being the genetic father of the Stormtrooper clones. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 22 questions

Directed by Irvin Kershner, starring Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, Frank Oz, Harrison Ford, James Earl Jones, Kenny Baker, Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Thriller

The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!

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Entry Was there any reason why Vader had Han "tortured" with a machine? Han later tells Leia and Chewbacca that he wasn't even asked any questions. I know that Vader is scary, but would he want to waste time by just toying with Han and not even questioning him? [Vader is not interested in extracting information from Han Solo, nor is he wasting time; he is using Han as bait to lure Luke Skywalker into his trap. Vader knows that Luke will sense Han's agony through the Force and will try to rescue Han and the others.]
Answered by raywest
Entry Why was Darth Vader so intent on finding the Millennium Falcon if Luke wasn't even on it? Not only that, how could he even sense it at all, if it was only Luke's presence he could feel through the Force? Was he actually sensing Leia but mistaking her for Luke? [There are two options with regard to the Falcon; either Luke's on-board, in which case Vader needs to track it down to capture him, or he isn't, in which case the people who are on-board will be excellent bait to draw Luke into his trap. Either way, he needs to find the ship. Jedi can sense the presence of living beings, not just other Force sensitives, so there's no particular reason why he shouldn't be able to sense the Falcon's crew. There's no particular indication that he's mistaking Leia's force sense for Luke's - if he was, then he'd immediately realise his mistake and, in all likelihood, that she's his daughter when he met up with her later in the film. Which he doesn't.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Why does Boba Fett have a braid of blonde hair on one of his shoulders? [Those are Wookiee scalps he has collected in his years as a bounty hunter. He wears them as a "badge of honor", to prove that he is capable of taking down even very dangerous opponents in single combat.]
Answered by Twotall
Entry Approximately how long does Luke train with Yoda on Dagobah? [It's never made clear. The only rough indication of time is that, when discussing which system to hide out in, Han comments that Bespin is a long way but that he thinks they can make it, which suggests a flight of considerable duration. Given that we're talking about two different star systems (Anoat and Bespin), even if those stars are unusually close together, without the hyperdrive operational, the flight must be reckoned of the order of some months. This would also tie in with Yoda apparently having taught Luke a considerable amount despite considering him too old and too set in his ways to learn properly.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Does anyone know a website that details all the changes made in the special editions? [There's a fairly complete list located at Wikipedia. Here's the link.]
Answered by Cubs Fan
Entry Is there supposed to be some kind of trivia when C3P0 says the odds of surviving are 725 to 1, 3720 to 1? [No, they're just numbers.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry How come it takes such a long time for the Super Star destroyer to be able to catch the Millennium Falcon in the tractor beam? In episode 4 when Millennium Falcon is captured by the Death Star, it is caught in the tractor beam immediately, and from a much greater distance. I understand the plot requires the Millennium Falcon to escape, but this seems a bit illogical. [The sheer size of the Death Star and its colossal power generators would allow it to have a much more powerful tractor beam than any capital ship would be capable of supporting, giving it much greater range. The Millenium Falcon was caught quickly because they were unaware of what they were approaching - by the time they realised, they were already captured. With the Star Destroyer, they're aware of its presence and can take steps to avoid a tractor beam lock-on.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Why does Yoda seem so "childish" when Luke first meets him in the swamp? I mean in comparison to Episode III when he seemed much wiser. Is there any reason for this? [Yoda was testing Luke. Luke was looking for a great Jedi warrior and expected to find this great man or creature, not a short, little, funny, "weak", creature. Yoda knew Luke must get past preconcieved ideas and conceptions of what it takes to be and become a Jedi. Luke failed this initial test.]
Entry In this movie we see a shot of a mechanical arm placing Darth Vader's helmet onto his head. But in ROTJ, removing Vader's helmet & mask made him die according to Luke. Is this because in ROTJ it was his helmet *and* his mask being removed, while in ESB it was just his helmet? [Removing the mask alone would not make Darth Vader die. He stil had breathing help built into his suit. Vader was already dying when Luke took his mask and helment off in ROTJ, due to injuries sustained by Luke and the Emperor's force lightning. Anakin (Vader) just wanted to see his son Luke with his own eyes, before he died.]
Entry In the battle of Hoth, when Han and Leia are at the command center, we hear a voice saying "Imperial troops have entered the base" but this happens before General Veers has destroyed the power generator. How is it possible for them to enter when the shield is still up? [The shield prevents ship from landing close to the base and stops any orbital bombardment; it's not designed to prevent actual entry to the base. As such, the Imperial Walkers were landed a long way out, then they simply walked in under the shield, much as the probe droid did earlier. The ground troops simply came in with the walkers, disembarked and entered the base - the shield wasn't in their way.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Why didn't Luke just stay in the cave and wait until the next morning to contact the Rebel base? Isn't the cave just as adequate a shelter as what Han dug for him? [There's still a very large and annoyed Wampa in there, and there could easily be others in the depths of the cave. Running out into the cold may not be the most sensible move in the world, but it's reasonably understandable.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry If George Lucas had a false page in the script to fool everyone into thinking that Obi-Wan killed Luke's father, then how did he get round the scene between Luke and Vader later (where Luke actually calls Vader 'Father')? [Everything after the false ending page was hidden from Mark Hamill and the rest of the cast. The scene where Luke calls Vader "father" was filmed after Hamill had already found out the real truth that Vader is Luke's father.]
Entry When Luke is about to take off in his X-Wing while training on Dagobah to save Leia and Han, Obi-Wan says "That boy was our only hope," but Yoda says "No. There is another." Who is this "other" Yoda is talking about? [As we find out in Return of the Jedi, Luke's twin sister, Leia.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Since its mentioned in most of the other Star Wars films, where is the number 1138 mentioned in this one? [When the snowspeeders are searching for Han and Luke, the leader says for Rogues 10 and 11 to search sector 38. A bit of a stretch, but there it is.]
Answered by Xofer
Entry Yoda always makes a huge deal about Anakin's age in Episode 2, being too old to start training as a Jedi. Yet in Episode 5, he barely hesitates before training Luke, a full grown man. We are made to think that even a young boy is a lost cause, so wouldn't a man be impossible to train? Unlike Anakin, Luke had never displayed any Force characteristics (except for piloting in the Battle of Yavin). [In Episode 1, he's clearly reluctant to train Anakin at all, obviously sensing something that troubles him. The age issue may have been something of a smokescreen, but it is clear that Jedi training starts at a very early age - Anakin is well past that age already. With training Luke in Episode 5, what other choice does Yoda have? If the Emperor and Vader are to be brought down, it's pretty much Luke, Leia (who obviously has the same age issues) or nobody.]
Answered by Tailkinker
Entry Was it always Lucas' original plan to have Darth Vader be Luke's father? [Yes, however, he didn't want anyone to KNOW about it. In fact, the original script said "'Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.' 'He told me enough... he told me YOU killed him!' 'No, Obi-Wan killed your father'" Even Hamill was only told the real line just before shooting, so his reaction is somewhat natural.]
Answered by SexyIrishLeprechaun
Entry In the 2004 DVD of Empire Strikes Back, they re-dubbed Boba Fett's voice. Does anyone know why and who they replaced his old voice with? [Jeremy Bulloch's voice was dubbed over by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett (Boba's father) in Attack of the Clones. This was probably done because, as revealed in Episode II, Boba is actually a clone of Jango, rather than a biological son.]
Entry Han wants to leave the Rebel base on Hoth so he can pay Jabba and not have to worry anymore about all the bounty hunters that are after him. Seems like a reasonable thing to want to do. But why does everyone act like he's quitting the rebellion all together? What's to keep him from coming back after he gives Jabba the money? Even if they have to leave Hoth before he could make it back they could have told him where he could find them. [Well the rebelion was in a pretty shaky situation at the time. They needed Han to be there full time, which is why he stayed with them so long even with bounty hunters coming after him. When he decides to leave, it's assumed they all feel they may never see him again, because the rebelion may be wiped out, or Han could be meet some terrible fate at the hands of Jabba the Hutt, or even the empire without the rebelion to look after him.]
Entry When Luke ventures into the cave on Dagobah the camera, for whatever reason, holds on a lizard of some kind hissing at him. Anyone know what species it is? [Kimodo Dragon (Varanus komodensis) The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard species. It is found mainly on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rintja, Padar, and Flores. There are only an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 of these monitor lizards living today. Reaching lengths of up to 3 m or more, and weighing up to 126 kg, these reptiles are swift runners and climbers with great appetites for deer and wild boar. The best website to find about this is at www.isidore-of-seville.com/komodo/.]
Entry Darth Vader doesn't know he has a daughter (until the end of ROTJ). How did he know that he had a son? One may think that when Obi Wan hid Luke with his uncle, they'd have changed his last name from "Skywalker" to something else so that Anakin couldn't find him. Or did Vader just realize it when he was chasing him in SW (when he says "the force is strong with this one..."). This has always confused me. [Without knowing the precise details of the events of the forthcoming Episode III, we don't know why this is. The most likely explanation is probably that Anakin will be aware that Padme is expecting a child, but doesn't know that it's going to be twins. It does seem quite possible that Anakin will believe his child to be dead at the end of EpIII, which is a reasonable explanation why he doesn't go looking for the infant Luke. As to when Anakin/Vader realises that his son is still around, it does seem likely that the unexpected appearance of a strong Force user at the battle of Yavin would have got his attention, then he could have confirmed the identity of the pilot through other means later on. As to why Luke's name wasn't changed, which would seem sensible whether Anakin/Vader believes him to be dead or not, there seem to be two plausible (and not mutually exclusive) explanations. The first is that Obi-wan wanted Luke to feel some sense of pride in the Skywalker name, which could strengthen his resolve to restore it by fighting the Empire when he reached adulthood. The second is that Obi-wan knew that Vader would eventually encounter his son and left the name in place to ensure that Vader knew who he was up against - maybe hoping that some residual goodness within the Sith Lord would make him less effective in fighting his own son.]
Answered by Tailkinker

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You may also like: Star Wars | Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

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