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Trivia / The Empire Strikes Back

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The film

  • Acting in the Dark: As George Lucas didn't want the twist getting out, outside of James Earl Jones and Mark Hamill, no one knew the twist that Vader was really Anakin himself. David Prowse was instead led to believe that Obi-Wan really killed Anakin and, as noted below, he was pissed upon finding out the truth, stating he'd have acted differently if he'd known.
  • Acting for Two:
    • The Aryan-esque Imperial officer who uses Leia as a body shield during the Bespin firefight with Luke is actor Jeremy Bulloch, who spends the rest of his scenes in the movie playing Boba Fett in face-concealing armor. The choice to use him as the officer was less about letting him show his face on-screen than that he fit the blond, blue-eyed Nazi type they thought was appropriate and was already on set.
    • In the Special Edition, the voice-over line "The first transport is away" during the Rebel evacuation was rerecorded by Mark Hamill.
  • Approval of God: Irvin Kershner had no problem at all with Lucas's Special Edition, feeling the changes were so minor that they didn't really affect the experience of watching at all. He also consulted Lucas and was insistent that the Cloud City exteriors show up in the windows during the corridor chase between Luke and Boba Fett, and was happy that it showed up in the final film.
  • Backed by the Pentagon: A number of rebel soldiers were actually played by Norwegian reservists.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Vader says "No, I am your father", not "Luke, I am your father." He also doesn't say "Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a Jedi yet!" These are two separate lines. In 2020, the director of Tommy Boy accepted the likely blame for the former, due to it being misquoted that way in the film.
  • Blooper:
    • Darth Vader's signature breathing noise is entirely missing from the film's Hungarian Special Edition dub due to an infamous audio-mixing oversight. It still wasn't included in the retouched Blu-Ray edition, only in the newly filmed (and thus newly dubbed) alternate scene where Vader talks with the Emperor. The previous two dubs weren't goof-free either, the first one had Luke mispronouncing the word droid as "dorid".
    • For the Star Destroyer bridge set, only the left crewpit was constructed, with the ceiling and viewports being filled in by a matte painting. This meant that scenes on the right side had to be flipped, leading to Admiral Piett's rank insignia being reversed (which was corrected in a later DVD release). At the end of the film, there is a shot of the crewpit on Executor that reuses a shot from Avenger.note  In addition, the rear section is noticeably curved, both to hide the incomplete bridge and to allow the set to be built around Darth Vader's chambers as a space-saving measure.
  • …But I Play One on TV: When his daughter was in elementary school, Billy Dee Williams would have children run up to him and angrily say "You betrayed Han Solo!", and he'd attempt to explain why Lando did what he did.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Mark Hamill didn't like the scene where Luke cut off the Wampa's arm. He was under the impression during filming that Luke would only scare the Wampa away and felt Luke maiming a predator only trying to eat was Out of Character and too cruel.
    • George Lucas called this "the worst Star Wars film". Though, then again, problems with filming and its original reception need to be remembered, since at the time of its release the film was considered worse than the original by critics and many moviegoers.
    • David Prowse, while pleased with the film overall (as noted below), was furious at Lucas and Kershner for keeping him in the dark about the big reveal because he would have acted out the scene completely different had he known the real twist. He was also upset because he now knew that he was being overdubbed by James Earl Jones, and recited many of his lines as stilted as possible. At one point, he said the word "hemorrhoids" instead of "asteroids," forcing a retake because Kenneth Colley (Admiral Piett) burst into laughter while filming the scene.
  • Creator's Favorite Episode: Darth Vader's Breakout Villain status is reflected with his actor's (David Prowse) noting the movie to be his personal favorite.
    David Prowse: "This for me was my favorite of the Star Wars movies. We had a wonderful director, Irvin Kershner, who I rank as one of the best directors I have ever worked with. It was, of course, a big reunion for us all, and by now we all knew that we were involved in a cinematic phenomena. [...] The old team were back together, plus new cast members like Caroline Blakiston who played Mon Mothma, and my old friend Bruce Boa who played General Reikeen. Bruce and I remained good friends right up until his death. [...] and I thought the carbon freezer scenes were sensational [...]" [1]
  • Creator's Pest: Lawrence Kasdan admitted in interviews that he hated writing for C-3PO because there was nothing for him to do in the story.
  • The Danza: The minor character General McQuarrie, played by artist Ralph McQuarrie. Additionally, his first name is "Pharl", which is "Ralph" scrambled.
  • Deleted Scene: See here.
  • Died During Production:
    • George Lucas hated the process of scripting the first film, so he hired noted pulp sci-fi novel author and Golden Age Hollywood screenwriter Leigh Brackett to write the script for Empire. She wrote one draft, but died of cancer soon afterwards. As a result, Lucas wrote the next few drafts himself, before asking Lawrence Kasdan to do revisions. Incidentally, the famous Luke, I Am Your Father reveal wasn't in Brackett's draft; Lucas only added it when he started rewriting the script himself. Although most of her version was rewritten, two contributions by Brackett did end up making it into to the final film: the planet names 'Hoth' and 'Bespin'. Brackett also has an official screenwriting credit along with Kasdan; Lucas left his name off the script because only two writers could be credited and he wanted to honor Brackett's memory and the work she did while sick with cancer.
    • John Barry, who had been production designer on the first film, was earmarked as a possible future director for the series by Lucas, and given the second unit director's job on this film to give him some experience (he had previously signed on to direct Saturn 3, but it fell through when it turned out Barry had no real idea how a film shoot actually works). Sadly, he suddenly fell ill with meningitis halfway through production and died just a few hours later, forcing the team to find a new second unit director and robbing Lucas of the obvious choice to direct the next film.
  • Enforced Method Acting:
    • When shooting the big scene between Luke and Vader, David Prowse said "No, Obi-Wan killed your father", and that's what the entire crew of the film thought would be said when James Earl Jones dubbed in his lines. Only five people (Lucas, Jones, Mark Hamill so he would react correctly, writer Lawrence Kasdan, and director Irvin Kershner) knew the actual line.
    • And Hamill didn't know until they were on set and ready to film. Kershner took him aside and told him moments before. They were very determined to keep the big reveal a secret.
    • According to a 2016 interview with Mark Hamill, the extreme precautions turned out to be totally justified; not long after the scene was filmed, newspapers were reporting the "big twist" of Obi-Wan killing Luke's father — meaning someone on the set that day went and blabbed.
    • David Prowse was furious about learning that he'd been kept in the dark, saying that his body language would have been completely different had he known what the real line was supposed to be.
  • Foiler Footage: Before the movie's premiere, the number of people who knew about The Reveal could be counted on one hand: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Gary Kurtz, James Earl Jones, Mark Hamill and whatever editors Lucas trusted to see the scene. Even David Prowse, who had to say something during filming, was given the fake line "Obi-Wan killed your father." Urban Legends now abound of Harrison Ford turning to Hamill in the middle of the premiere and giving a Big "WHAT?!", as well as David Prowse leaning forward and telling George Lucas "Why didn't you tell me? I would have said it." Mark Hamill himself recalled that, when the moment came on screen, Harrison Ford turned to him and said "Hey kid, you didn't fucking tell me that."
  • Follow the Leader: Building on the legacy of The Godfather Part II, the film codified the concept of the sequel being deeper, darker and better that has become the de facto expectation for any sequel, especially in action genres such as superhero films. It also popularized the idea of splitting the major characters apart to facilitate more subplots as a convenient way to make the story bigger.
  • Irony as She Is Cast: Admiral Piett's actor Kenneth Colley is a stutterer who only gets to speak perfectly while acting. In this film, he plays a character whose most memorable scenes have him (rightfully) terrified and shaking.
  • Looping Lines: In the film's original release, Marjorie Eaton portrayed the Emperor on-set, then Clive Revill re-recorded the character's dialogue in post-production.
  • Lying Creator:
    • To make absolutely sure the big twist wouldn't leak, only Lucas, Irvin Kershner, James Earl Jones, and Mark Hamill knew about the real line, with the script featuring Vader saying "Obi-Wan killed your father." The rest of the cast and crew only learned the truth at the movie's premiere (when the true line was spoken, it allegedly prompted a Big "WHAT?!" from Harrison Ford), and David Prowse was quite upset with Lucas afterwards, saying his physical acting would have been completely different if he'd known the real line.
    • James Earl Jones would also state in a later interview that this was his reaction when he saw Vader's lines in the script; he was sure Vader had to be lying about it, and only with some difficulty were Lucas and Kershner able to persuade him otherwise.
  • Missing Trailer Scene:
    • A theatrical trailer narrated by Harrison Ford features C-3PO ripping a decal off a door. This is from a Deleted Scene where 3PO tricks some Stormtroopers into walking into a Wampa containment room.
    • There was also a shot where Vader leans forward for some reason (supposedly after his fight with Luke, as if to throw him off himself). Some speculate that this is from him trying to use the Force to pull Luke back up to him, a scene described in the children's picture book of the movie.
    • There's a completely different shot of Luke and Leia making out. Notably, they appear to be alone in this scene, as opposed to the one in the film proper which was in front of the regular gang. Maybe the filmmakers were just shipteasing, or (less likely, considering how we know the writing process went) they were trying to throw off the scent of the twist in the next film.
  • Never Work with Children or Animals: The snake Luke removes from the engine of his X-Wing while on Dagobah bit Mark Hamill on the finger during one take. When behind the scenes footage of the incident was posted to Twitter, Hamill pointed out that the snake was blind and just defending itself.
  • No Stunt Double: With the exception of being sucked out of a Cloud City window and the use of some puppets, Mark Hamill did all of his own stunts.
  • Orphaned Reference: While discussing the Imperial probe droid, Leia asks whether the object detected on radar could be "one of those creatures", which is the only remaining reference to a deleted subplot in which Echo Base was dealing with attempted break-ins by Wampas. Even without that scene, though, Luke must have told everyone about the Wampa who caught him.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • The voice actor who dubbed Darth Vader for the French version of A New Hope, François Chaumette, did not come back for The Empire Strikes Back. He was replaced by Georges Aminel, whose voice sounded much deeper than Chaumette's and much closer to that of James Earl Jones. Aminel would voice Vader again for Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, and passed away in 2007.
    • Still in the French dub, Palpatine's most prominent voice actor since The Phantom Menace, Georges Claisse, replaced Jean Claudio for the scene where Palpatine talks to Vader.
    • A similar but more convoluted case befell the Hungarian dub. This was the first film of the series to be dubbed in that language, but Vader's voice actor Attila Nagy would not return for the other two. Then the whole trilogy was given a more consistent re-dub after Nagy's passing, with Frigyes Hollósi dubbing Vader in all three films. For the Special Edition re-re-dub, Hollósi only returned for A New Hope and Lajos Kránitz, Vader's voice from the original Return of the Jedi dub, stepped in to replace him. Then for the Blu-Ray version's alternate scene of Vader talking to the Emperor, Hollósi returned to dub Vader again because Kránitz had also died in the meantime, essentially meaning Vader not only ended up with three voices in various separate dubs, but he has two voices in the most recent dub.
    • In the original release of The Empire Strikes Back, Palpatine was portrayed physically by Marjorie Eaton (her appearance had a chimpanzee's eyes put overtop of her own), and voiced by Clive Revill. Ian McDiarmid replaced them both beginning in Return of the Jedi and was edited into the Empire scene beginning with the first DVD release of the trilogy.
    • Likewise, Boba Fett's voice was changed from Jason Wingreen's voice to Temuera Morrison's voice in the Original Trilogy's first DVD release to reflect Boba's status as a clone of his father, Jango Fett.
  • Playing with Character Type: Prior to this film, Frank Oz was best known for playing goofy and lighthearted characters in The Muppets and Sesame Street such as Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Grover, and the Cookie Monster. When Yoda first appears onscreen, he is depicted as a goofy, eccentric hermit who seems to have wandered off from The Muppet Show set. But once he reveals himself to be the Jedi Master Luke was searching for, Yoda drops his goofy demeanor and showcases a serious, no-nonsense but wise personality that is almost Playing Against Type.
  • Prop Recycling:
  • Scully Box: Carrie Fisher stood on a box for many of her scenes with Harrison Ford in order to make up for the height difference and have her appear in the frame with him. She was a foot shorter than him.
  • Spared by the Cut:
  • Throw It In!:
    • When they just couldn't get Han's response to Leia in their last scene right (the original line was "I love you, too"), Irvin finally just told Harrison to get in character and they would just run the scene without him being given a line to see how he would react, and he just blurted out "I know." Ford argued that this improved the original, as Han Solo would never say such a thing directly, much less repeat someone. Lucas and Kershner agreed, though Carrie Fisher was pissed at Harrison for changing the line without running it by her first.
    • In the original script, when Lando is about to lead Han, Leia, and Chewie into the trap set by Darth Vader, Lando offers his arm to Leia, as a gesture to lead her down the hallway and she accepts it. Ford ad-libbed Han coming up behind Leia and offering his arm to her at the exact same moment, to imply that Han was jealous.
    • Apparently, Temuera Morrison redubbing Boba's lines in the re-release was a last-minute decision by George Lucas, who called up Morrison in the middle of the night as they were putting in the finishing touches. Morrison, just wanting to go back to sleep, did the lines over the phone.
  • Troubled Production: While not quite as brutal as the production of the previous film, Empire nonetheless had a fair share of behind-the-scenes turmoil.
    • Production went over budget (triple that of the original in fact) and behind schedule, and the Hoth location shoot in Norway was plagued by a strong snowstorm (How bad? The scene where Luke escapes from the Wampa lair was achieved by opening the door to their hotel and filming Mark Hamill running outside.). The film also suffered overcharges on location shooting by locals eager to cash in, given the success of the predecessor; Lucas would shoot Return of the Jedi under a fake name to prevent this price gouging again.
    • New director Irvin Kershner spent a lot more time setting up takes than Lucas did, causing a bit of friction between the two. Kershner and the actors also changed bits of dialogue from the shooting script, not all of which were approved by Lucas.
    • Lucas wanted to keep the film out of any studios hands and financed it himself, but he was forced to take out a loan with 20th Century Fox as his security, on the condition that Fox would receive a greater percentage of the film's profit.
    • The Yoda puppet was made of a less-than-optimal material, resulting in it being quite a bit heavier than what Frank Oz was used to from his time with the Muppets. (Contrary to popular belief, Jim Henson and his Creature Shop had nothing to do with the design or manufacture of Yoda, with Oz being chosen for his acting/performing ability only.) The strain put on his arms meant the scenes had to be shot on a quite erratic schedule.
  • Uncredited Role:
  • What Could Have Been:
    • George Lucas initially did not want to make a sequel, as the production of the previous had been a "four-year horrific seat-of-the-pants experience" that he refused to repeat. Moreover, the unexpected success of Star Wars was starting to burn Lucas out, and sequels weren't generally well regarded at the time anyways, so Lucas had enough reasons to write it off. However, he eventually accepted because the story of the first film would be left unfinished without any sequels. Lucas still refused to direct it, though, because he would be too busy handling the financing and rebuilding his company Industrial Light & Magic after most of its original crew had left to work in Battlestar Galactica.
    • Back at the time of the first film, Alan Dean Foster, the ghostwriter of novelization, had been commissioned to write a sequel that could be adapted as a low-budget film if Star Wars was a box-office failure. The result was Splinter of the Mind's Eye, considered the first piece of the SW Expanded Universe. The plans to adapt it, however, were ignored with the huge success of the first film.
    • Yaphet Kotto was offered the role of Lando Calrissian, but turned it down because he believed he would be killed off and it would be difficult for him to find work after that.
    • Sci-fi author Leigh Brackett was brought in as a writer, as Lucas now lacked time and will to write the entire film himself like he did with A New Hope. Brackett and Lucas came up together with several ideas for the plot, including elements that were left in the final product: Luke's new master being a crazy old alien, Obi-Wan returning as a ghost, the Emperor being the true villain, and a battle taking place in an arctic world. Unfortunately, Brackett died of cancer shortly after, so Lucas found himself doing heavy writing again. By director Kirchner's input, he eventually brought in Lawrence Kasdan, who helped to make the film Darker and Edgier.
    • In Brackett's first full draft of the story, Vader was explicitly not Luke's father, and Anakin appeared to Luke on Dagobah as a Force ghost, alongside Obi-Wan. Lucas disliked this aspect, as he had already thought a long time ago that Vader and Anakin were one and the same (a shocking family revelation similar to that of Jessica's father in Dune), but Brackett died before Lucas could discuss it with her. Therefore, he then wrote his idea into the story and created all of his background with Kenobi, the Emperor and Mustafar to explain it. It was also around this time that he decided Empire Strikes Back would be the Episode V of two trilogies, the second being a prequel saga meant to show their backstory.
    • Brackett also introduced the idea of Luke had a twin sister, only that in her version she was not Leia, but an unseen character named Nellith who was intended as a Sequel Hook for later episodes. This was what Lucas had in mind when he inserted the "there is another" line, as he had conceived multiple sequels and would have a lot of room to exploit those ideas. However, after Brackett died and filming on Empire became a chaotic struggle, he decided to wrap up the saga with only one more film. This led him to make the "other" into somebody we already knew.
    • Early story meetings had the wampa as a fish-like monster that could "swim" through snow, in contrast to the Yeti-like creature seen in the finished film. Also, earliest drafts had the wampas arranging a coordinated attack on Echo Base before the Empire even arrived, and a scene of a wampa bursting through one of the base's walls was filmed before being scrapped. There was also an additional sequence where Threepio would have torn a warning sign off of the room where the captured wampas were being held, leading to an unfortunate snowtrooper getting grabbed and mauled during the Imperial invasion.
    • Vader would be shown to live on a planet covered with erupting volcanoes, which later inspired Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith, and ultimately be fully entered into canon in Rogue One.
    • Initially, Yoda was going to be named Minch Yoda and have a duel with Obi-Wan's ghost. He also received several character designs before the production team settled for his final form, with body sizes that went from diminutive to enormous. Even after his design was established, the original color they chose for his skin was blue, not green, which was retained in the novelization. The name Minch was later used for a member of Yoda's species in the Expanded Universe.
    • Lucas originally wanted Jim Henson to give Yoda life (the film was being made at the Elstree Studios complex in England, as was The Muppet Show). Henson suggested his long time partner Frank Oz, as he was busy with The Great Muppet Caper at the time and couldn't commit to a major role in another film. Ironically, Lucas initially felt his puppets weren't realistic enough, so they considered having a trained monkey play Yoda; this was only abandoned because the chosen monkey resisted to wear his mask.
    • One of the first ideas for Lando was Lando Kadar, a legendary veteran of the Clone Wars turned into smuggler whom even Vader of all people feared. The character then became a clone who survived the Clone Wars and ruled legions of clones on a planet they settled on, and from there he became simply a descendant of survivors of the Clone Wars, born into a family named Ashandi who reproduced solely by cloning. It was later that he was given the surname Calrissian and his final role.
    • One early draft had Luke take the "Jedi Oath" before leaving Dagobah. Said oath was a lot closer to a knightly vow than the more mystical Jedi Code that would later appear:
      "I, Luke Skywalker, do swear on my honor, and on the faith of the brotherhood of knights, to use the Force only for good, denying, turning always from the Dark Side; to dedicate my life to the cause of freedom, and justice. If I should fail of this vow, my life shall be forfeit, here and hereafter."
    • According to Rinzler's book on the making of Empire, one sequence that was written had a scene in the finale where Luke encounters stormtroopers and massacres them all with his lightsaber. The scene was intended to build tension with the audience about Luke potentially going to the Dark Side, while also suggesting that he could potentially beat Vader in a duel, making his defeat that much more shocking. It was removed because Lucas felt that the violence would be out-of-character for Luke, especially the cold-blooded and methodical manner the scene was done. He would repurpose the concept for Attack of the Clones when Anakin massacres the Tusken Raiders.
    • An earlier draft had Luke's reason for not leaving with Lando and Chewie at the end being that his Jedi training was more important. Believing that this would make Luke seem less sympathetic, Irvin Kershner had it changed to where Luke was still recovering from his injuries and that rescuing Han would be his first priority once he was fully recovered.
    • Boba Fett's armor was originally white and made for an army of super troopers, but producer Gary Kurtz realized they couldn't afford to make that many costumes. George Lucas decided to use the armor for a bounty hunter, and it was changed to the current muted color scheme to contrast with the white Stormtroopers and black Darth Vader.
  • You Sound Familiar: In the original version of the film, Emperor Palpatine is voiced by Clive Revill. Three decades later, Revill provided the voice of Darth Gravus in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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