Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Revealing mistake: If you look closely when Vader cuts off Luke's hand, you can see that Vader's lightsaber never actually cuts through Luke's wrist, but passes in front of his hand. (01:45:55)

Kylantha

Revealing mistake: During the escape from Cloud City, watch as C-3PO's head strikes a lamp on the hull of the Millennium Falcon. It bends out of shape.

Revealing mistake: When Luke quits Hoth, the planet is actually painted on a glass sheet but the problem is that you can see a line joining two sheets. (00:36:15)

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: When Yoda is training Luke by having him do a handstand and stack some rocks, watch closely during the close-up of one of the rocks. You can see a string holding it in the air. (01:08:30)

Revealing mistake: When the Millennium Falcon is being pursued by the Star Destroyers after leaving Hoth, for a few seconds you can see the light of the ship through one of the Star Destroyers as the Falcon flies in front of it in the second shot. (00:35:25)

Revealing mistake: When Luke runs into Vader again after being sucked out the window, as they are fighting in the control room, watch closely: Vader's lightsaber hits the wall a couple of times, but the explosions are not where the saber touches the wall. (01:45:20)

Revealing mistake: Look carefully at the end of the cavern where the Millenium Falcon enters the giant asteroid. It's a dark blue circle, because the light is dim. But there is a little white circle on the right and the two circles are much brighter on the left side. It's because it's an image of a planet with a moon.

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: 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.

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Suggested correction: The Star Destroyer that blocks the other ones from view is transparent. It got fixed for the DVD.

Revealing mistake: When the Millenium Falcon fakes hitting the Star Destroyer, half of the sky is gray and the other half is black.

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: Before Lando warns the people of Cloud City that the Empire has taken control of the city, Leia shoots a stormtrooper. The burn mark can be seen on the troopers armour before the laser beam hits him. (01:42:40)

Revealing mistake: After Princess Leia switches C-3PO off and the camera angle switches to a close up of Han and Leia discussing where to go next, you can see C-3PO moving in the background as the actor inside the suit is breathing. (01:16:10)

Revealing mistake: After Luke escapes from the snow monster, he collapses, and there's a shot of Han riding. When the camera pans down, there are no tracks in the snow where the tauntaun just ran. (00:11:00)

Revealing mistake: When the stormtroopers are firing at Chewie and the droids and C3PO is yelling at R2D2 about the Millennium Falcon's hyper-drive, there is a shot of Chewie being shot at and the beam putting a hole in the wall. In one shot, it doesn't look much bigger than a pinpoint, but in the next shot, the team at Industrial Lights and Magic were kind enough to add a CGI burn mark, which contracts, almost disappears, and then warps as smoke passes in front of it, wrecking the illusion. (01:48:10)

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: A boom microphone is reflected in Luke's goggles when he says "Hey, what's the matter? You smell something?"

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Trivia: The Special Edition covers of Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back are wrong. The picture of the Emperor on ESB cover is from 'ROTJ', and the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader on the cover of ROTJ is taken from 'ESB' (notice Luke is in his fighter pilot suit, and Vader is fighting him one-handed)

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Chosen answer: He "searched his feelings" as Vader instructed; he reached out with the Force and felt the truth of the statement.

Phixius

Answer: The vision Luke sees in the cave on Dagobah is a clue to this. Luke is realizing he has a lot more in common with Darth Vader than the idealized father he'd always imagined. When Vader tells him he's his father, Luke doesn't want to believe it, but he simply can't deny that it feels much more true that his father would be someone passionate and reckless like himself rather than someone who exemplifies a noble Jedi, which feels like an obvious myth in hindsight.

TonyPH

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