Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Trivia: Acting is a collaboration, which made the Dagobah scenes difficult for Mark Hamill. For the most part he was alone, R2-D2 was remote-controlled, and Frank Oz was beneath the sets. Furthermore, he could not hear most of Yoda's lines.

Trivia: Sir Alec Guinness agreed to appear in this movie late in filming, and performed his scenes in a single day.

Trivia: When Billy Dee Williams (Lando) picked up his daughter from elementary school after the film's release, kids would run up to Williams and say "You betrayed Han Solo!"

Trivia: This was the only movie in the Star Wars series until Episode VII in 2015 without a scene on the planet Tattooine.

Xofer

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)

Trivia: Although credited to Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, most of the script was actually written by George Lucas himself. He felt Brackett's draft got the tone and feel of the movie all wrong, and he rewrote the second draft from scratch. Kasdan's main contribution was to redo all the dialogue (admittedly a crucial element especially since Lucas is famously bad with dialogue), but otherwise nearly the entire screenplay was Lucas' work.

TonyPH

Trivia: The sound of an AT-AT Walker's footstep is a shearing machine used to cut sheet metal.

Trivia: Mark Hamill did all his own stunts in this film, except in the scene in Cloud City where he is sucked out of a window.

Trivia: The role of Lando Calrissian was originally offered to Yaphet Kotto, but he turned it down because he feared the character would be killed off and he would be typecast as a result.

Trivia: Frank Oz's performance as Yoda impressed George Lucas so much, Lucas spent thousands of dollars on a campaign to nominate Oz for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. However, the Academy shot this down, feeling that puppeteers are not "actors."

Cubs Fan

Trivia: The scene in which Luke uses the Force to get his lightsaber back in the Wampa cave was filmed by having Mark Hamill throw the saber prop into the snow, and then running the film backwards.

Trivia: There was a false page in the original script in order to fool all of the people working on the film. This was to keep it secret that Darth Vader was Luke's father. Only George Lucas, the producers and James Earl Jones knew the truth. Mark Hamill was told just moments before filming this scene so his reaction would be right, while David Prowse read the lines from the original script "Obi-Wan killed your father."

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Suggested correction: Mark Hamill stated multiple times that he knew for over a year about the twist. It was a secret for the remaining cast though.

oldbaldyone

Trivia: When Lando orders the evacuation of Cloud City, a bunch of civilians run past the camera as our heroes go down the corridor. The very last guy in this group can be clearly seen carrying an ice cream maker.

Trivia: 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.

Trivia: C-3PO's interruption of the kiss between Han and Leia was an ad-lib during filming.

Trivia: In the first take of Darth Vader and his troops entering the Rebel base, the lead troopers tripped, a stuntman stepped on the cape of David Prowse (Darth Vader), the cape tore free and Prowse fell on the troopers.

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Suggested correction: How is something from the blooper reel considered trivia?

ctown28

Well I for one didn't know about it, so it's interesting to know it happened. Behind the scenes stuff is generally valid trivia.

Jon Sandys

Trivia: During the chase in the asteroid field, a TIE fighter is hit by a little one. If you watch in slow-motion, you can see the pilot ejected from the explosion.

Dr Wilson

Trivia: The scenes where R2-D2 is submerged in the mud pool were shot in George Lucas's unfinished swimming pool. Most of the crew were hidden under the water and the entire sequence was shot by Lucas himself.

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?"

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

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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