Film / The Empire Strikes Back

aka: Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

Due to the sheer volume of spoilers, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Darth Vader: The Force is with you, young Skywalker...but you are not a Jedi yet.^note Clockwise from center: Darth Vader, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker on a tauntaun, C-3PO, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and Yoda.

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
have 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....

The Empire Strikes Back ^note also known as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back is the sequel to A New Hope and the second film in the Star Wars original trilogy. It is directed by Irvin Kershner, with the screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan and the story by George Lucas. It was released on May 21st, 1980.

In the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction, the Empire has cracked down on the Rebel Alliance, forcing the ragtag resistance to go into hiding on the barren ice planet Hoth. After becoming lost in a blizzard while on patrol and nearly dying, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) sees a vision of his dead mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) instructing him to search for a legendary Jedi master named Yoda (Frank Oz).

Rescued by Han Solo (Harrison Ford), he recovers just in time for the Empire to discover and lay siege to their base. Upon evacuation, Han and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) flee in the damaged and malfunctioning Millennium Falcon, struggling to stay ahead of the Imperial Navy, while Luke goes to train with the mysterious Yoda. Eventually, circumstances reunite the friends for a climactic confrontation with the Empire, including a showdown with Darth Vader (David Prowse, with voice dubbing by James Earl Jones) in which Luke learns a terrible truth...

The film also stars Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, an old friend of Han's, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker as C-3PO and R2-D2, and Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.

The film is followed by Return of the Jedi.

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What are you doing? You're not actually going into a trope field?!

Tropes A to B

• Achilles in His Tent: Prior to the events of this movie, Yoda was so disheartened by his loss to Palpatine and letting the galaxy fall under the control of a Sith empire that he exiled himself to the planet Dagobah in shame. When Luke shows up, Yoda is reluctant to train Luke, because he is afraid of Luke turning out like his father. He is discouraged to such an extent that he doesn't even want to bother with it. While Yoda never returns to the action himself, he does eventually agree to train Luke after Obi-Wan encourages him, making his return downplayed but still important. Obi-Wan himself, despite going into exile during this time as well, avoids the trope because he spent his exile preparing Luke to one day become a Jedi, meaning that unlike Yoda he never really gave up on saving the galaxy.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: One of the most famous scenes of the entire series is when Luke tries and fails to lift his X-wing out of the swamp using the Force, and sits there dejected. Then Yoda lifts it out effortlessly to show him that anything is possible with the Force, if he tries hard enough.
• Actually, I Am Him:
  • That last little conversation Luke and Vader had.
  • Yoda also does this to Luke, pretending to be a random hermit before revealing himself.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Chewie's reaction to Leia's insult.
  Leia: I don't know where you get your delusions, laser-brain.
  [Chewie laughs]
  Han: Laugh it up, fuzzball.
• Adventure Rebuff: Yoda initially states he cannot train Luke because he has no patience and is reckless.
  Yoda: This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... To the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure? Heh! Excitement? Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!
• Advertised Extra:
  • Boba Fett. He was featured pretty heavily in marketing for the film, and his action figure was easily the most popular of the pre-release toys. In the film itself, however, Boba has only four lines, under two minutes of screen time, yet his overall effect on the plot is significant enough.
  • The 1995 VHS and Laserdisc cover spotlights a random Stormtrooper rather than any of the main characters.
• Aerial Canyon Chase: Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon do this during the famous asteroid chase scene. As Solo was noting, "They'd be crazy to follow us." Unfortunately, Darth Vader is quite a motivator for his troops and they dive in after him.
• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel bad when Captain Needa dies, as he decided to take full responsibility for losing the Falcon despite knowing he would probably be killed (likely in order to prevent his whole ship from being destroyed by Vader in a fit of rage or something).
• The Alleged Car: The Millennium Falcon. Oh it's definitely a Cool Ship, but in this movie the hyperdrive fails to work time and time again leading to nothing but headaches for her crew.
• All Gravity Is the Same: Characters are able to walk on an asteroid, where in reality the gravity would barely be above zero. Then later they visit Bespin's Cloud City, despite Bespin being a gas giant whose gravity would realistically have crushed them.
• All There in the Manual: To get around the Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale issue, supplemental materials explain that the Millennium Falcon rode the back of the Avenger through at least one hyperspace jump, and more importantly that most midsize or larger spaceships have an emergency backup hyperdrive which serves basically the same purpose as a spare tire on a car. Compared to a normal hyperdrive, it's not nearly as fast and won't get you very far, but it's enough to at least limp to the nearest inhabited star system for repairs. Which is how the Millennium Falcon was able to travel from Hoth to Bespin in a few days or weeks rather than a few years (as well how Boba Fett and Vader were able to get there ahead of them). All of this was debunked decades later by The Last Jedi and The Mandalorian, which just lean on space not being as big in the Star Wars universe (as in the Raygun Gothic films that influenced the franchise), such that sublight travel between nearby star systems is reasonable, it just takes a much longer time than hyperspace (days or weeks instead of minutes and hours).
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Empire storms the Rebel headquarters, based on the ice planet of Hoth, but fails to capture the main leaders.
• Almost Kiss: Although Han and Leia actually do kiss, they are immediately interrupted by C-3PO before things can go any further.
• And the Adventure Continues: The film abruptly stops just after Lando and Chewie leave to find the now frozen Han, leaving Leia and the droids on the medical frigate with Luke as he's recuperating from his injuries from the duel with Vader. The audience wouldn't get a real resolution to the film until three years later with Return of the Jedi.
• Anti-Villain: When the Falcon slips away from his Destroyer, Captain Needa instructs his men to prepare a shuttle. He knows Vader will kill him; he just wants to make sure the Sith Lord's wrath falls exclusively on him, or at least doesn't want to spend the rest of his life on the run as a deserter. Either way, it's a surprisingly honorable move.
• Appeal to Force: Darth Vader keeps changing the terms with Lando Calrissian, knowing that with the Empire holding all the cards, he doesn't have to keep his word. This backfires, as Lando decides that if Vader won't keep his word to him, then he's got no reason to hold up his end, either, and so helps Leia and Chewbacca escape.
  Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray that I do not alter it any further.
• The Apple Falls Far: Look closely when Luke falls out of the chute on Cloud City and clings to a weather vane; his severed hand can be seen falling into the atmosphere.
• Apocalyptic Log: We hear what C3PO was thinking all the way up to when he was blasted. A rare example of the writer recovering.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: There are two Imperial Star Destroyers which very nearly ram into each other while chasing the Millennium Falcon, which shows both remarkable incompetence and that the ships were far too close to their target to begin with.
• Archnemesis Dad: Vader is revealed to be one to Luke himself.
• An Arm and a Leg: Vader cuts off Luke's right hand in their duel. He gains an Artificial Limb at the end.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • This exchange between Luke and Yoda after Yoda Force-lifts Luke's ship out of the swamp:
    Luke: I don't— I don't believe it.
    Yoda: That is why you fail.
  • Yoda delivers another one later on to Luke as he prepares to leave for Bespin to aid Han and Leia, in response to Luke angrily asking him if completing his training is worth potentially sacrificing the lives of his friends.
    Yoda: If you honor what they fight for? Yes.
• Artistic License – Physics: The gravity on the asteroid they land on should be incredibly low. When they are in the Falcon, it can be explained as Artificial Gravity, but later they go outside to investigate and the gravity is still normal. Averted when the Falcon somersaults into the hole, the hole can be seen moving sideways to meet up with it. When Han takes off after discovering what they're really inside of, he simply turns it around and they are already facing the exit, meaning they were parked (and walking on) the inner wall.
• Aside Glance: When Threepio gets cut off by the door closing and believes Han left him behind deliberately.
  C-3PO: How typical.
• Ascetic Aesthetic: Cloud City has its interior decoration dominated by the use of white, though underneath the shiny veneer of the public spaces most of the place is actually dark and industrial. Further, the clean and neat appearance of the place neatly foreshadows that it is not a safe haven for Han, Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO, but has been secretly seized by Darth Vader and The Empire.
• Asteroid Thicket: A Trope Codifier. While fleeing Imperial pursuit, the Millennium Falcon flies into the Hoth system's asteroid belt, which Han takes as an opportunity to lose his pursuers long enough to hide and make emergency repairs to the hyperdrive. The asteroid field is dense enough that the pursuing TIE fighters are shredded in minutes.
• As You Know: Although it took 25 years before this was confirmed on screen, Yoda's "There is another" pronouncement to Obi-Wan qualifies in retrospect as the next film would reveal the "another" to be Leia, who is revealed to be Luke's twin sister. Revenge of the Sith confirms that this is information Obi-Wan already possesses.
• Attack of the Monster Appendage:
  • In both versions of the film, it's glimpsed first as a suddenly appearing, roaring face with a mouth full of teeth, and then a big ol' arm that attacks Luke and then his Tauntaun. We later do see the full creature very briefly. The Special Edition shows more of the Wampa in its cave, as opposed to one decent glimpse the original version gave.
  • In a deleted subplot that involved a Wampa running loose inside Echo Base before the Rebels managed to trap it in a side room, there's a literal interpretation of the trope name in the form of a Call-Back or Brick Joke (whichever you prefer), when some intruding Snowtroopers get tricked into going and opening the door. The Wampa's arm shoots out, grabs one (who we'll call Private Wilhelm), and drags him in, whereupon Private Wilhelm's companions quickly close the door, looking as confused as Faceless Mooks can look.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Threepio, who misses Artoo's company, wanders off when he sees another droid that reminds him of R2-D2:
  C-3PO: That sounds like an R2 unit in there! I wonder if... Hello? How interesting.
  Stormtrooper: Who are you?
  C-3PO: Oh, my! I... I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up. [the stormtrooper blasts C-3PO to pieces]
• Awesome Personnel Carrier: The most famous example in the franchise is the AT-AT, a large quadrupedal carrier that looks like a mechanical elephant without a trunk. This is subverted occasionally though, in that some vehicles that are called transports in fact aren't.
• Awful Truth: Luke finally learns the truth about what happened to his father — namely that he is Darth Vader, right hand of the Emperor, having fallen from grace as a Jedi Knight and embraced the Dark Side of the Force. This one especially stings because Luke originally became The Hero to emulate his father.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A subtle example: When the Falcon is hiding in the asteroid cave, Han talks to Leia and notices she is trembling with fear. Despite referring to himself as a "scoundrel" during the scene it is pretty obvious he is trying to comfort her.
• Bad Boss: Vader personally Force-chokes two of his officers for their perceived incompetence (one of whom did have lapses of judgement), being the Trope Namer for You Have Failed Me. And he sends several Star Destroyers into the asteroid field to look for the Millennium Falcon, causing at least one to suffer catastrophic damage.
• Badass Normal: Boba Fett is introduced in this episode. He's the one who leads the Empire to the Falcon after the entire Imperial Navy fumbles, and he's the first character who seems resistant to Darth Vader's ambiance of terror.
• Baddie Flattery: Vader towards Luke during their duel on Bespin. Justified for several reasons: biggest one, Luke is Vader's son, next Luke, while inexperienced is able to use the force well enough and with such power that it would take a normal Jedi years of training to do the same, and lastly, Luke managed to hold his own against his father who has on occasion decimated groups of Jedi in less time than their fight.
• Bald of Evil: The scene with Vader in his medical chamber is the first time the audience sees a glimpse of what he looks like underneath his helmet. It's only the pale, extremely scarred back of his head, but that's more than enough.
• Bastard Understudy: Vader tries to convince Luke to join him in this fashion, after the Luke, I Am Your Father reveal:
  Darth Vader: Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: While they use breathing masks at the time, when Han, Leia, and Chewie venture outside the Millennium Falcon while hiding in what turns out to be a giant space slug, they don't seem to have any protection against decompression. One could assume the asteroid was large enough to have enough of some semblance of an atmosphere, or that the worm's innards are responsible.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Vader wants Luke, but after the Hoth evacuation, he has no idea where to start looking for him. Instead, he pursues and captures Han and the others. While capturing them would be of value to the Empire regardless, Vader doesn't even have to bother sending out a villainous threat. He correctly anticipates Luke sensing their suffering through the Force and racing to the rescue.
  • Han's plan to escape the Imperial fleet by attaching the Millennium Falcon to a star destroyer and waiting for the destroyer to release its garbage, which is standard Imperial procedure before going into light speed. The Falcon then floats away with the garbage. Boba Fett, however, foresees this plan and follows them.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Han and Leia spend most of the first two acts trading barbs, and Leia kisses Luke in sickbay just to annoy Han (although Luke doesn't seem to mind). Then they kiss while repairing the Falcon in the asteroid field, followed by an Anguished Declaration of Love from Leia as Han is about to be frozen in carbonite.
• Bewildering Punishment: Han and Chewbacca are being tortured by Vader (Han by electricity and Chewie by sound), and think it's just petty revenge since they weren't asked any questions. Vader is counting on Luke psychically sensing their torture and coming to rescue them.
• Big Bad: Darth Vader; notably, this is the only film in the saga where he fully holds this role^note  in the first he mostly acts as The Dragon to Tarkin yet acts on his own accord when he deems it necessary to the point where one could argue they are a Big Bad Duumvirate, and in the third the Emperor decides to deal with the rebellion personally while Vader fully plays the role of The Dragon , though the Emperor is the one who gives him the mission to find Luke.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Battle of Hoth, where the Empire sends an armada of AT-AT ground walkers to impede the Rebels' escape from the planet. The Rebellion, while defeated, manages to evacuate most of their personnel.
• Big Damn Kiss: In the carbon-freezing chamber. Part of one of the most famous "I love you" declarations in film.
• Big Good: Yoda, a Jedi master who teaches Luke more about the Force.
• Big "NO!":
  • The most famous one in the entire series, even counting the one ininvoked Revenge of the Sith, comes from Luke after he learns the truth about his father.
  • After Han is frozen, we get the Wookie version of the trope.
• Big "SHUT UP!":
  • Leia to C-3PO after he's about to tell the odds for a second time.
  • Chewbacca also has a loud roar that is effectively this to C-3PO when he is berating Han for his plan of hiding from the Star Destroyer by parking ON it.
    C-3PO: No, I will NOT be quiet!
  • Chewbacca does it again while trying to repair the hyper drive. Lando urges him to hurry, leading to an angry roar.
• Bilingual Dialogue: While it's SOP that Luke and R2 converse in Basic and Binary, one of R2's lines while in a swamp is easily recognizable.
  Luke: R2. [points toward the shore] That way.
  R2: [in Binary] Oh. Thank you.
• Blatant Lies: From Han, when Lando notices the box full of what's left of Threepio.
  Lando: Having trouble with your droid?
  Han: No. No problem, why?
• Blunt "Yes"
  Yoda: [to Luke as he is about to leave Dagobah] Stopped, they must be. On this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now; if you take the quick and easy path as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.
  Obi-Wan: [also to Luke] Patience!
  Luke: And sacrifice Han and Leia?!
  Yoda: If you honor what they fight for? Yes.
• Bond One-Liner: Villainous example.
  Darth Vader: Apology accepted, Captain Needa.
• Book Ends: Luke begins and ends the movie hanging upside down, defenseless, and uses the Force to free himself in time for his friends to rescue him.
• Bottomless Pit: Subverted with the asteroid scene, when Han Solo decides to hide the Falcon inside a large dark chasm. Immediately combines with a realistic interpretation of three-dimensional space when the next shot is oriented upright, as if the pit were a horizontal tunnel. Even better, when they enter, the hole is seen moving sideways into position, implying that the astroid rotates. Sure enough, the escape scene shows that Han was parked (and even walked on) the inner wall: gravity was sideways.
• Bounty Hunter: Vader hires some when the Imperial fleet loses track of the Falcon, including Boba Fett.
• Braving the Blizzard: Early on, Luke Skywalker gets lost in a blizzard on an icy planet. Han Solo has to travel through the blizzard in order to find and rescue Luke.
• Breakout Character:
  • Boba Fett, famously, became incredibly popular and marketable after a subtle yet significant role in this film.
  • Admiral Piett proved to be surprisingly popular among fans, to the point that a write-in campaign caused Lucas to bring him back for the next film.
• "Bringer of War" Music: Perhaps the most prominent example is the Imperial March, the main theme of the Empire in general and Darth Vader in particular.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Anakin Skywalker. His son used to think he was a noble Jedi Knight that died years ago at the hands of Darth Vader. Now he knows not only did he not die at Vader's hands, he is Vader.
  • It is implied that Obi-Wan becomes this to Luke once Luke learns the truth about his father^note The third movie reveals that there are no hard feelings, well, not really..
• Brown Note: While in a cell in Cloud City, Chewie is tormented by a siren-like noise.
• The Bus Came Back: When viewed chronologically, this marks Yoda's fourth appearance, making this a return for the character after the ending of Revenge of the Sith wrote him out by exiling him to Dagobah.
• Buzzing the Deck: After finding that the Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive is still inoperable, Han Solo turns around and flies right at the Star Destroyer chasing them, buzzing the ship's bridge, making the captain and first officer duck, and then disappearing (actually clamping onto the back of the ship's command tower).

Tropes C to E

• Call-Back: Yoda gets a retroactive one thanks to The Phantom Menace when he reveals himself to Luke. He states he's trained Jedi for 800 years and will keep his own counsel on who is ready to be trained. Just as with Luke here and now, Yoda did not approve of Anakin being trained as a Jedi and thought it was a very bad idea.
• Came from the Sky: Imperial probe droids do this. One lands on Hoth and was mistaken for a meteorite. Luke had intended to investigate the crash site, but was attacked by a wampa, a yeti-like predator.
• Can't Default to Murder: When Vader is briefing the Bounty Hunters and states he wants them alive, he stresses to Boba Fett, "No disintegrations!" implying that Fett has previously disintegrated a target either Vader or the Empire had wanted brought in alive.
• Can't Use Stairs: Averted in-story, but in full force in Real Life. Anthony Daniels couldn't use the stairs in the C3PO costume, and the filmmakers "cheated" by having the human characters walk down, the camera would lose 3PO for a second, and he'd rejoin them from behind once they passed the stairs.
• Captain Obvious: 3PO says the asteroid the crew is on "might not be entirely stable", right after the ground shakes. Han calls him "the professor" right after that.
• Carcass Sleeping Bag: The one everyone remembers, when Han keeps Luke from freezing to death on Hoth by hiding him in the body of his tauntaun.
• Carnival of Killers: The bounty hunters, including a slimy reptilian (Bossk), a cyclopean droid (IG-88), an insectoid droid (4-LOM), a creepy scuba suit-wearing bug (Zuckuss), an armor-clad and mysterious badass (Boba Fett), and a man in bandages (Dengar). At least one Imperial officer is incensed that he's been forced to allow them aboard his ship.
  Admiral Piett: Bounty hunters! We don't need their scum!
• Catch a Falling Star: Luke Skywalker being caught by the Millennium Falcon at the climax of the movie, though he didn't have more than several feet to fall anyways once the Falcon was hovering beneath him. (The fall he just took getting to that point is another story...)
• Cave Mouth: The crew of the Millennium Falcon confuses a Space Slug's mouth with an asteroid cave.
• Cerebus Retcon: In A New Hope, Luke Skywalker's Aunt Beru notes to his Uncle Owen "Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him.", to which Owen says "That's what I'm afraid of." In this movie, we learn that Luke's father is, in fact, Darth Vader, one of the most evil men in the galaxy.
• Chase-Scene Obstacle Course: The Millennium Falcon is pursued by three Imperial cruisers and four TIE fighters. The Imperials steer the Falcon toward an Asteroid Thicket, aiming to limit their quarry's escape routes. Solo daringly steers into the asteroids, and the fighters give chase. Two fighters are lost to the asteroids, while the other two collide in a right-of-way bottleneck.
• A Chat with Satan:
  • Yoda plays this role for Luke when Luke discovers that Han and Leia will be captured by the Empire. Luke must choose whether or not to "honor what they fight for" by staying to finish his training, knowing that it might mean sacrificing Han and Leia. Luke instead chooses to follow his own reckless impulses and confronts Vader before he is ready. As a result, he loses a hand and has to be rescued by Leia, who has escaped through other means. As they group is escaping, R2-D2, who had come with Luke from Dagobah, manages to finally get the Falcon's hyperdrive working.
  • As far as confronting his inner darkness goes, Luke's experience in the cave counts as well. He attacks the vision of Vader and strikes him down, only to find his own face beneath the helmet; foreshadowing the danger of his reckless choices (like rushing into conflict) and the dilemma he'll face in the next film when he has to confront Vader without giving into the Dark Side (lest he become him).
• Citywide Evacuation: Lando issued an evacuation to the people of Cloud City before the Empire could send in more troops so that he, Leia, Chewie and the droids can easily escape from the city, too. This trope is given more emphasis in the special edition, in which Lando's announcement is intercut with crowd shots that didn't appear in the original version.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: A Jedi's adeptness at manipulating the Force is closely linked to self confidence and belief in their abilities; sheer willpower and determination is not enough, and the Jedi must "unlearn" everything they think they know about how the universe works. In this movie, Yoda blames Luke's failure to levitate his X-wing out of the swamp on his not believing that such a feat is possible.
• Cleanup Crew:
  • Some Imperial Navy troopers drag Needa's body away after Vader finished with him.
  • After C-3PO gets blasted, Chewie finds him in waste disposal on the verge of being destroyed. Some angry growling gets the workers to hand his various parts over.
• Climax Boss: Luke's first bout against Vader can be this for the entire trilogy, as this is culminated by one of the most famous revelations in film history: Vader is Luke's father.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Vader has Luke's friends tortured in Cloud City, and they are mystified why they are not asked any questions. In reality, Vader is just doing it to lure Luke to him.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Marvel Comics adapted the film as part of its ongoing Star Wars comic book, though it was also published separately as a graphic novel.
• Commander Contrarian: Admiral Ozzel questions Vader's command in going to Hoth thinking it may be just a smuggler base. He doesn't live long to make another contradiction when he screws up their sneak attack on the planet.
• Complexity Addiction: Rather than sabotaging the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive and waiting for Luke to be picked up by his friends, then trying to capture the Falcon, Vader could have just sent a shuttle down to the underside of Cloud City to capture Luke directly.
• Connected All Along: It's revealed that Darth Vader is Luke's father.
• Constantly Curious: Luke Skywalker.
  Yoda: There is no "why." Nothing more I will teach you today. Clear your mind of questions.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: The first parts take place on the icy planet of Hoth, as opposed to the desert-covered Tatooine where A New Hope begins.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Han manages to find a wounded and exhausted Luke, on a huge ice planet, near nightfall.
  • When the AT-AT armor proves to be too strong for the snow speeders' laser cannons, we suddenly learn that the speeders happen to be equipped with magnetic harpoons and tow cables, perfect for tripping giant mechanical beasts.
  • Luke escapes Hoth without any issues while the Millennium Falcon had to contend with three Star Destroyers.
• Conveniently Close Planet: The Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive is out of commission, meaning they're limited to sublight speeds. No problem, though! Bespin happens to be nearby, apparently a light day away.^note That would make it roughly 2.590×10^10 km or 1.609×10^10 mi away — they would essentially have to be in the Bespin System's outskirts already to get to Bespin that quickly.
• Cool Starship: The Executor, a Super Star Destroyer that is miles long and Darth Vader's personal flagship. The regular Star Destroyers are absolutely dwarfed by it.
• Covers Always Lie: The 1997 re-release poster of the film gives a heavy amount of focus on the (Ian McDiarmid) Emperor. In the actual film, the Emperor is only in one scene, and the 1997 re-issue still retained the original version of the Emperor that was played by Marjorie Eaton and voiced by Clive Revill. It was not until the 2004 DVD release that the Ian McDiarmid version of the Emperor was added into the film.
• Cow Tools: During the evacuation of Cloud City, an extra can be seen in the background running with a large cylindrical device tucked under his arm, which funnily looks like an unmodified, off-the-shelf ice cream machine.
• Crapola Tech:
  • Han is about to be caught by the Empire, but he grinningly engages his uber-modified hyperdrive — which fails. Han's borderline-insane modifications rendered his ship one of the fastest in the entire galaxy when everything works properly... but also a lot more likely to not work properly. It fails again later, and a third time (see below).
  • Narrowly averted a third time, when the Millenium Falcon just had its hyperdrive repaired, and so Lando engages it — only to find that Darth Vader had it deactivated. (Fortunately, good ol' R2 knows this, and fixes it.)
• Crazy Enough to Work:
  • Han and the Millennium Falcon are having a tough time outrunning the huge Star Destroyers chasing them, so...
    Leia You're not actually going into an asteroid field?!
    Han: They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?
  • And then he pulls another crazy stunt by going into a strafing run against another Star Destroyer. This confuses and distracts everyone long enough for Han to hide the Falcon on the back of the Star Destroyer's hull. When the Imperial fleet prepares to jump to hyperspace, thinking the Falcon had somehow already escaped, it dumps its garbage as per standard procedure and the Falcon with powered-down engines floats away in the middle of the trash field. Too bad Boba Fett sticks around long enough to see them when they power up their engines again.
• Creator Cameo: Artist Ralph McQuarrie, who did the concept paintings for the original trilogy, appears in the background as a Rebel general.
• Creepy Cave: As part of his Jedi training on Dagobah, Luke must enter a small but dark and thickly overgrown cave beneath a giant, gnarled tree, which has the property of manifesting intruders' deepest fears. He encounters a mirage of Darth Vader, whose head he cuts off only to discover his own face inside the helmet.
• Cross-Cast Role: In the original cut of the film, the Emperor was portrayed by Marjorie Eaton, with chimpanzee eyes superimposed over her own and her voice dubbed over by Clive Revill.
• Cruel Twist Ending: Calling it that was an understatement, at least to viewers at the time. In fact, the revelation likely made it the biggest twist in movie history.
• Cryonics Failure: When Han Solo is forced into carbonite freezing so Boba Fett can deliver him to Jabba the Hutt, multiple characters bring up the potential dangers of the process, with Boba in particular complaining that "he's no use to me dead." Darth Vader assures Boba that he'll be compensated if something goes wrong. Fortunately for Han, he survives and eventually gets thawed out in Return of the Jedi.
• Cryptic Conversation: Yoda and Obi-Wan's conversation about Luke's father on Dagobah makes a lot more sense when seen in view of the entire trilogy, as well as the There Is Another scene.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight between Luke and Vader. Inexperienced Force-user vs. a Dark Lord of the Sith with decades of experience. As the fight continues it's clear Luke is hopelessly outmatched, even before Vader cuts his hand off. Worse, Vader is beating up Luke spiritually, taunting Luke to use his anger to defeat him and then, just as Luke is clinging for dear life over an abyss, reveals that he is Luke's father. By the time Luke is rescued by his friends fleeing Cloud City, he's both a physical and mental wreck.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • The Rebels do manage to take out two AT-ATs, and a Star Destroyer is disabled, breaking the blockade around Hoth and allowing the Rebels to escape and regroup. Although Spencer Ackerman of Wired argued, if Vader hadn't been so concerned with personally taking Luke, smarter Imperial tactics could have ended the Rebellion right then and there. This argument however, was based largely on several incorrect assumptions regarding the Rebels' deflector shield.
  • Despite being overwhelmed for the most part, Luke does manage to get in a couple of hits on Vader, although it must be kept in mind that Vader was trying to capture him rather than kill him. Towards the end of the fight, he nearly cuts Vader's right arm off, causing the Sith Lord to howl in agony and flail about for a few seconds, and had he not been so terrified of Vader, Luke could have exploited this opening and gone for a killing strike.
• Damage Control: Han and Chewbacca are shown trying to get a malfunctioning hyperdrive online while being pounded by Imperial Star Destroyers. In fact, they spend the entire film trying to get the thing to work. It takes a stopover at Cloud City to finally get it repaired, and even then it's sabotaged again to prevent their escape. It is only thanks to R2 that the hyperdrive is finally fixed, allowing the heroes to escape in time, much to everyone's complete surprise.
• Darker and Edgier: Empire is noticeably darker in tone than its predecessor, clearly showing that destroying the Empire's most powerful superweapon hasn't taken them out of the fight — in fact, the Rebels spend most of the movie outgunned and on the run. In an interview with critic Leonard Maltin for a VHS reissue of the film, George Lucas explains that the middle act of a trilogy is usually the darker, bleaker chapter, setting up the dilemma that the final act solves.
• David Versus Goliath: Luke vs. Vader. Not only is Vader taller, he's also much more skilled and experienced with the Force. It's almost a Foregone Conclusion that Luke will lose.
• Deadpan Snarker: In a deleted scene, Leia gets back at Vader for the last time they interacted, pointing it out before her verbal snipe.
  Leia: I've enjoyed Lord Vader's "hospitality" before. What's the matter, Lord Vader? Have you gone so far beyond humanity that you no longer need to eat or drink?
• Dead Person Conversation: Obi-Wan, who has become a Force Ghost, tells Luke to visit the Dagobah system to seek out his old master, and later argues with Yoda on Luke's behalf when Yoda doesn't want to train him as Jedi.
• Deal with the Devil: Sure the alternative might have been the Empire arresting and/or executing everyone on Cloud City, but seriously, how could you think that was going to turn out well, Lando?
  Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further.
• Death Glare: Leia gives one to Lando as Vader, Boba Fett and the Stormtroopers ambush her, Han and Chewie. Knowing all along Lando couldn't be trusted, even when he explained the Empire had arrived before the Rebels and that he had no choice.
• Debut Queue: Yoda, Lando, and the Emperor only appear after they've interacted with established characters.
• Defeated and Trophified: Han Solo was given this treatment, being frozen in carbonite and handed over to Jabba the Hutt, who keeps him as a trophy.
• Defiant to the End: Even after Luke's hand has been cut off and he's at the mercy of Vader, he isn't willing to surrender and is edging out to the very edge of the platform he's on to get away from his enemy. And when he understands he can either go with Vader or fall - he chooses to fall.
• Desperation Attack: At the end of the duel between Luke and Vader, after being driven back onto a walkway with no way to escape and being knocked onto his back by Vader, Luke tries his best to counterattack and manages to get back on his feet and land a shallow cut on Vader's shoulder. However, this merely seems to make Vader angry and he swiftly defeats Luke in seconds afterward.
• Destination Defenestration: During their lightsaber duel in Cloud City Darth Vader sends Luke out through a window using heavy pieces of equipment shoved at him with the Force.
• Did Not Die That Way: Luke was told a slightly incorrect version of Anakin's passing by Obi-Wan in Star Wars. In this one, he learns the truth.
• Didn't Think This Through: In retrospect, removing the binders from a VERY angry Wookie, whose closest friend you just handed over to Boba Fett to boot, probably was not wise, Lando.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novelization by Don Glut, Needa is implied to have been executed via firing squad on Vader's order. Here, he's personally Force-choked by Vader himself.
• Disc-One Final Boss: General Veers, who leads the Imperial assault on the Rebel Base. The boss wins.
• Disconnected by Death:
  • During Vader's teleconference with the Star Destroyers' captains, one hologram image flickers and vanishes after the ship is struck by an asteroid.
  • "Imperial troops have entered the base. Imperial troops have entered [static]"
• Disintegrator Ray: Though it never occurs in the trilogy, Darth Vader feels it prudent enough in this movie to warn Boba Fett "No disintegrations" when sending the bounty hunters after the Millennium Falcon. In one of the video game adaptations, there is a disintegrator grenade In Name Only.
• Dismemberment Is Cheap: Luke has his hand cut off in the climax of the movie, but gets a cybernetic replacement shortly after. Other than a couple of wistful glances, it's functionally and visually identical. By the time of the sequel trilogy, the hand has lost its artificial skin layer, but it's still functional.
• The Dog Bites Back: A subtle one. When Lando discovers that Vader was most likely not going to hold his end of the bargain after giving him Han Solo, he subtly contacts Lobot to orchestrate the Imperial boarding party's arrest by the security guards so he can get C-3PO, Leia, R2-D2, and Chewbacca out and hopefully save Han Solo.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Trope Namer. Vader says this to Luke verbatim after he cuts Luke's hand off in their lightsaber duel.
• Don't Think, Feel: A core theme of Yoda's training.
• Downer Beginning: The scrolling text does not mince words. "It is a dark time for the Rebellion" for sure, as they're on the defensive with the Empire in hot pursuit.
• Downer Ending: Luke's hand has been cut off by Vader (who turns out to have been his father all along) and Han has been frozen in Carbonite and taken away by the bounty hunter Boba Fett, with the Empire's plans having restarted and the Rebels in a very hot spot.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Millenium Falcon's legendary hyperdrive engine is on the fritz for the duration of the movie... right up to the end. Because of it, Han and company barely keep out of the Empire's clutches after fleeing from Hoth.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The plot twist of Darth Vader really being Luke Skywalker's father becomes dramatic irony in hindsight, thanks to the Prequel trilogy.
  • Everything Vader does in this movie is to find and trap Luke, including pursuing the Millennium Falcon. However, due to events during the battle, Luke got stranded out in the field, so he ends up leaving Hoth after his friends and Vader do.
• Dragon Ascendant: An out-of-universe example; while Vader is still subordinate to the Emperor, he goes from being a supporting antagonist in A New Hope to the Big Bad of this film.
• Dress-O-Matic: Darth Vader's meditation chamber aboard the Executor includes a mechanism (a little bit like a "claw crane" arcade game) that lowers his helmet onto his head and locks it into place.
• Dying Declaration of Love: As Han's about to be frozen in carbonite in order to test whether or not the process is survivable, Leia tells him that she loves him. The original script apparently had him simply reciprocating her feelings, but the actor insisted on a different line more in keeping with Solo's Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality (while still communicating that he felt the same way):
  Han Solo: I know...
• Early-Bird Cameo: Emperor Palpatine's first appearance is in this film, briefly seen via hologram talking to Vader.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Emperor Palpatine was originally played by Marjorie Eaton wearing a bizarre mask, rather than the more famous Ian McDiarmid who played the Emperor in the Prequel Trilogy and Return of the Jedi. This results in the Emperor having a very different look, often described as having "chimpanzee eyes".
  • While Yoda still spoke in his trademark reversed speech pattern, he spoke in normal sentence structure half as often. As the franchise progressed, he spoke almost entirely in Yoda Speak.
• Electric Torture: In Cloud City, Han is strapped to a gurney and lowered over a device that appears to administer brief, intense electric shocks. Ford really goes all in on the screams. This is why Boba Fett is concerned he'd die; as he worries that the shocks would stop Han's heart before they had a chance to freeze him.
• EMP: The "Ion Cannon" is a cannon that disabled an entire Star Destroyer without destroying it. "Ion" weapons in future installments of the Expanded Universe (particularly video games) specialize in disrupting machinery. But without permanently shredding the electronics as EMPs do. It's implied in one of the stories (IG-88's section in Tales of the Bounty Hunters) that it does permanently destroy circuity and such, but there are usually ways to auto-repair the damaged paths. Hence the temporary shutdown period, between "destroyed" and "repaired enough to function".
• Environmental Symbolism: The Battle of Hoth comes with a heavy dose of Snow Means Death, as the Rebels narrowly effect a Tactical Withdrawal in the face of an Imperial assault on the frozen planet they have hidden out on. Cloud City, as its name implies, hovers over the clouds as a symbolic gesture that they consider themselves above the machinations of the Empire.
• Establishing Character Moment: Emperor Palpatine. For the last movie and a half, Darth Vader has been the most powerful and evil man in the galaxy, commanding his own fleet and executing officers who fail him, answerable to no one. Then, we see him go to his chamber and kneel before the Emperor. This gives us an idea how just how powerful the man that Vader calls "master" must be.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Happens twice in the movie.
  • Princess Leia feels this way after Lando was forced by Darth Vader to conspire with him, so that Cloud City will not be invaded.
  • Luke himself gets this after learning that Darth Vader is his father and had fallen to The Dark Side.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Veers tries to explain Ozzel's reasoning for his actions in the hope it will convince Vader to spare him. It doesn't.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Boba Fett is referred to only as "Bounty Hunter" by everyone in the film. It's only in the next film that he gets explicitly identified.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Luke feels cold when he's near the Dark Side cave on Dagobah.
• Exact Words: A retroactive one thanks to the Prequel Trilogy when Obi-Wan's Ghost tells Luke to go to the Dagobah System and to seek out Yoda. He then explains that Yoda is the Jedi Master who instructed him. This is' technically true...because Attack of the Clones (and a throaway line from Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace) established Yoda oversaw and trained all Temple Younglings before they were old enough to be assigned to available Masters (like Qui-Gon Jinn). Obi-Wan not mentioning Qui-Gon can be Handwaved in-universe as it being irrelevant information to Luke's training (with the real-life explanation of course being Lucas hadn't conceived or developed Qui-Gon's character at this point).
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Empire strikes back in a big freaking way in this film. By the end of the film, the heroes have really got their work cut out for them.
• Excessive Steam Syndrome:
  • Darth Vader walks dramatically through steam exhausts that for some reason are set around the ship's main entrance. It is also justified during the fight between him and Luke takes place in the Carbon Freezing Chamber, since the steam comes from the core to which Vader attempts to drag Luke in order to turn him into carbonite.
  • The Millennium Falcon also vents steam/coolant/whatever after setting down on the Cloud City landing platform on Bespin. Nobody tries to walk through it.
• Explosive Instrumentation: Usually, this occurs inside the cockpit of an X-Wing or Y-Wing fighter, odds are that the pilot inside is about to die. One exception is in The Empire Strikes Back when Luke's T-47 Airspeeder is shot down in the Battle of Hoth. The fighter's instrumentation starts sparking and blowing smoke, and the fighter itself falls to the ground and crashes. However, Luke survives.
• Exposition of Immortality: Yoda already looks like he's seen his fair share of years; walking stick, not much hair, crotchety old man. And clearly, he's been around for a while if he was the Jedi Master who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi, himself no spring chicken by Episode IV. Nevertheless, a sense of his true age is held back until he turns around and says:
  Yoda: What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained.
• Eye Lights Out: C-3PO, except it's when he's merely deactivated. Or when he's yelling at Chewie for fumbling around in his head with repairs after he got blasted apart.

Tropes F to H

• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Needa knows exactly what is going to happen to him when he loses the Millennium Falcon. He displays no fear or dread, and he personally accepts responsibility to spare his men.
  • While he didn't know for sure he was facing death (and wasn't intended to die), Han faces the carbon freezing chamber with remarkable stoicism, and when Chewbacca goes berserk to try and save him Han actually stops him, reminding Chewbacca that he has to protect Leia in his place.
• Facepalm: Leia covers her brow with her hand after the Falcon's hyperdrive fails yet again, for the third time.
• Famed In-Story: Zigzagged with Luke in the interim since the Battle of Yavin. On the one hand, the Imperials obviously know now who blew up the Death Star and want his head (Vader especially, albeit for his own personal reasons). On the other hand, a civillian like Lando doesn't recognize the name or its significance (though in fairness to Lando, he was more than a little preocupied with his Deal with the Devil).
• Field Promotion: One of Darth Vader's trademarks in the film. In one scene, he chokes the idiotic Admiral Ozzel, and immediately addresses Captain Piett as Admiral Piett, putting him in command right then and there. And with the previous Admiral still choking in the background, there's a very tacit reminder of the consequences of messing up. Meanwhile, the trap at Cloud City fails, but Vader's reaction is different — more disappointment and sadness than anger — so Piett goes on to be one of three Imperial characters to appear in more than one movie in the original trilogy. After all, it was not because of Piett's planning, plus he wasn't a jerk about it. Ozzel wasn't so smart when he decided that being arrogant to Vader was a smart idea.
  Darth Vader: You Are in Command Now, Admiral Piett.
• Fighter-Launching Sequence: Seen with the Rebel Snowspeeders taking off in Hoth Base to fly off against the attacking Imperial walkers.
• Filling the Silence: The movie suffered it, but only in the 1997 Special Edition re-release (and only the theatrical version). In every other version, when Luke throws himself off the platform to escape Vader and falls through the bottom of Cloud City, he does so in complete silence. In the 1997 theatrical Special Edition of Empire, as he's falling he screams "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Lando tells Han he's just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of Cloud City forever. Cue Darth Vader.
• Flanderization: While in Episode IV, C-3PO clearly wasn't as brave as R2-D2 and could express fear, in the original film he was still capable of self-sacrifice, even urging Luke to abandon him after 3PO had been badly damaged by the Sand People. Later, when he was cornered onboard the Death Star by some Storm Troopers, he managed to successfully bluff his way past the Troopers ("They're madmen! If you hurry you might catch them."). He also felt grief for Luke and the others when he thought they were dying. In The Empire Strikes Back, he's Flanderized into a total coward, unable to think about anything but himself, and frantically advocating surrender when the Falcon is being chased by Imperial Destroyers.
• Flaunting Your Fleets: Happens just before the attack on Hoth (accompanied, of course, with the first appearance of the Imperial March).
• Follow the White Rabbit: The Imperials follow the Millennium Falcon into the asteroid field, then Boba Fetts' ship, and the Imperials after him, follow the Falcon to Cloud City.
• Forced Perspective: The filmmakers employed children dressed as Rebel soldiers and technicians in the background of shots to make the Echo Base hangar look larger than it was.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the opening sequence, with Luke riding through the snow and Han complaining over the radio, the moment he declares his intention to go back to base, some notes from Leia's theme begin to play. Text says "Han wants to get out of the cold", subtext says "Han wants to be back with Leia".
  • The scene where Luke enters a cave on Dagobah and hallucinates about decapitating Darth Vader, and the helmet splitting open to reveal Luke's own face. In hindsight, it's a clear warning of where Luke might have gone; it's also a subtle hint to Vader being his father (i.e., there's a Skywalker behind the mask). Vader's line, "Only your hatred can destroy me," is a foreshadowing of the final duel in Return of the Jedi.
  • Luke's ability to call to Leia through the Force also foreshadows an important reveal in the next movie.
  • Also, this dialogue between Obi-Wan and Yoda as Luke flies away from Dagobah:
    Yoda: Told you, I did. Reckless is he. Now, matters are worse.
    Obi-Wan: That boy was our last hope.
    Yoda: No. There is another.
  • When Lando asked Han, Leia and Chewie to have dinner with him, he was visibly concerned when he saw C-3PO got blasted. And was the one lingering back as they leave the room.
    Lando: Is there a problem with your droid?
  • Yoda's "Much anger in him. Like his father." line foreshadows Vader's reveal in the climax.
  • In his communication with Vader, the Emperor says there’s "a great disturbance in the Force", foreshadowing The Reveal in the next movie that he is himself a Force sensitive.
• Forgiveness Requires Death: The Millennium Falcon successfully escapes the pursuit of an Imperal Star Destroyer in an asteroid field. Captain Needa, knowing full well what's going to happen, visits Vader personally to take full responsibility for his failure. Vader forgives him... after he executes Needa by way of implied Force choke.
  Vader: Apology accepted, Captain Needa.
• Forgot to Mind Their Head: When Yoda tells Obi-Wan's ghost that the impatient Luke isn't ready to be trained as a Jedi.
  Luke: I am ready! Ben, I can be a Jedi! Ben, tell him I'm ready— [bangs his head on Yoda's low ceiling]
• Four Lines, All Waiting: There are a lot of different plot threads to follow;
  • The Rebel Alliance moving to a dangerous new base after the Battle of Yavin and then fleeing the planet Hoth while suffering a crushing defeat from the Empire.
  • Luke Skywalker seeking out Yoda at the behest of Obi-Wan and training under him.
  • Darth Vader obsessively seeking out Luke to capture him for the Emperor and to further his own ends.
  • Han trying to leave the Rebellion to pay off Jabba's debt before having to evade the Empire, which eventually gets him captured and tortured to lure Luke to Cloud City and frozen in carbonite to be delivered to Jabba by Boba Fett.
  • Lando selling out his friends to protect Cloud City, the consequences of it and his redemption.
• Four-Star Badass: General Veers, one of the few Imperial officers shown to actually be competent in the movies.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Luke arrives on Bespin and tries to get the drop on Boba Fett escorting the frozen Han to Slave-1, you can briefly see Fett briefly turn his head and look down the hall as he walks across the hallway when Luke is spying on him. This explains why he's able to get the drop on Luke and shoot at him when he goes to intercept the procession a few moments later.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: While the group ultimately understands why Lando did what he did and accept that he sacrificed his comfortable position as owner of Bespin in order to help them, there's a lot of tension where they don't trust him and yell at him.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: C3PO seems to do this with his line "R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!"—assuming that R2D2 is the droid's full name, and R2 is his "first" name.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Luke rolling his eyes when Han says to Leia: "I just think you can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."
  • Admiral Ozzel getting strangled as Vader talks to Captain Piett, who is officially promoted to Admiral once Ozzel drops dead. One of the technicians is completely unfazed by this.
  • After Captain Needa is strangled, the crewmen who were watching quickly and hurriedly get back to work as Darth Vader turns around. Also of note, Needa's actor Michael Culver helps the two crewmen carry his "body".
  • Also, after the Falcon manages to jump to hyperspace and escape near the end of the movie, every officer on the star destroyer's bridge immediately stops whatever it is they are doing to prepare for the wrath of Darth Vader. All except one guy standing by the door who is nonchalantly typing into his handheld computer, and who only seems to clue in on what happened when Vader walks past him.
• Futile Hand Reach: Luke pulls one on Hoth after Obi-wan appears to him.
• Garbage Hideout: The Millenium Falcon had been hiding from capture by clinging to the blindside of an Imperial cruiser's bridge section. When the Imperial cruiser dumps its garbage before going to lightspeed, Captain Solo releases the landing claw, and poses as one more hunk of junk. The cruiser departs, none the wiser. Unfortunately a certain bounty hunter was not so easily fooled...
• Genius Bruiser: This film both emphasized not only how big of a badass Darth Vader really is, but how intelligent he is.
• Genre Shift: Lucas told his writers to take inspiration from The Exorcist and as such Empire has a real horror film ambiance, including scary monsters like the Wampa, the Asteroid worm, as well as scary places like Dagobah swamp, and the Cloud City Freezing chamber. The sequence where Vader and Luke fight is full of jump scares, and floating objects.
• George Lucas Altered Version:
  • The big changes in the special editions include seeing more of the Wampa in the cave after Luke cuts himself free, along with some digitally inserted windows behind the characters to show more of Bespin.
  • It's worth noting that this is the least changed out of the original trilogy.
  • Most notable changes include replacing the original Emperor with Ian McDiarmid with new lines, and altering Vader's line "Bring my shuttle" to "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival" and intercutting the Falcon's escape with digital effects of a Lambda-class shuttle approaching the Executor and footage culled from Return of the Jedi to show the hangar landing. The latter is especially strange and serves no apparent purpose beyond extending the run time.^note The scene was apparently inserted because the "Bring my shuttle" line wasn't enough for some viewers to explain how Vader got up to the Executor in time to watch the Falcon escape.
  • Perhaps the most controversial change was Temuera Morrison overdubbing all of Jason Wingreen's lines as Boba Fett. Supporters argue that it makes the film tie in better with the prequel trilogy, while detractors dislike it for exactly that reason in addition to it being disrespectful to Wingreen's performance.
  • A Freeze-Frame Bonus, but a Starspeeder 3000 from Star Tours appears as a cameo in the Special Edition.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: The AT-AT walkers. Luke barely escapes getting stomped by one of them after his snowspeeder is shot down at the Battle of Hoth.
• Gilligan Cut: Upon approaching Dagobah, Luke assures R2 that it is perfectly safe for droids. As soon as they land, R2 falls into the swamp and is then swallowed by an underwater monster, who subsequently spits R2 out.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Emperor is only seen in one scene, and disappears from the film afterwards, but him ordering Vader to locate Luke makes the rest of the movie happen.
• Going Down with the Ship: During the Battle of Hoth, Princess Leia stays inside the command room of Echo Base, while the base is already being invaded by Imperial troops and after plenty of Rebel troops have been evacuated. This causes her to be too late to evacuate on a Rebel transport ship when a corridor collapses and Han Solo takes her onboard the Millennium Falcon instead.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol:
  • The BFG versions mounted on the snowspeeders, proof that a properly utilized grappling hook can be the bane of any Humongous Mecha. It was retroactively justified by saying that the speeders were used to tow cargo containers, thus the name tow cable.
  • Luke fires one on the belly of an AT-AT, showing that the tip is sticking through magnetism and not a grapple. He then uses it to get high enough to reach the underbelly of the machine, open a latch with his lightsaber and toss in a bomb.
• Hammerspace: A yellow ladder that Luke uses to get in and out of his X-Wing appears and disappears as needed.
• Hand Gagging: Early on, Han Solo is trying to find out if Luke has come back to the base from patrol and shuts up C-3PO with a hand over his mouth. 3PO expresses exasperation nicely with body language alone.
• Hanging by the Fingers: Luke is first left hanging on a catwalk during his duel with Darth Vader. After Darth Vader finally defeats him, Luke finds himself hanging on for dear life on one of the many weather vanes extending out from beneath the city.
• Haplessly Hiding: Han Solo is pursued by the Imperial fleet, and flies into an Asteroid Thicket to lose them. He then realizes that the odds in the asteroid field aren't much better than his odds against the Imperials, so he hides in a cave on a larger asteroid — and ends up flying down the mouth of a giant space slug.
• Happy Ending Override: As the opening text says, the Rebel Alliance may have destroyed the Death Star in the first film, but the Empire drove them off of Yavin and are trying harder than ever to find and snuff out the rebellion, forcing the Rebels to hide in a desolate, barely habitable planet like Hoth.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Inverted, despite it being played straight in the previous film. Yoda explicitly warns Luke that he has just begun his training and he shouldn't go to Bespin. Nevertheless, Luke decides to help his friends despite having no more than a few months of training. He gets his butt royally kicked by Vader, who had years of experience even when he was still Luke's age.
• Hate Sink: Admiral Kendal Ozzel is an incompetent Imperial officer who consistently hinders Darth Vader's efforts to find the Rebels through his contrarian personality. His clumsy tactics during the Battle of Hoth proves to be the final straw as Darth Vader unceremoniously chokes him to death to demonstrate the price of failure to the rest of the crew. Ancillary media and EU stories reveal that Ozzel came from a privileged family and only got his position through powerful connections as his superiors saw him to be unfit to be an efficient field commander, thus making his execution well-deserved.
• Hell: Han Solo references Hell in the movie, but for a time it was unclear how it worked with the Force in place of actual deities.
• Helmet-Mounted Sight: Boba Fett's helmet has an "antenna" with a black rectangle at the end that can be rotated 90 degrees to go over the visor. He's seen with it lowered while flying the Slave I, and The Mandalorian also shows that it's part of his jetpack missile's targeting system. In Star Wars: Bounty Hunter it's also used to scan for and mark bounties, complete with a list of crimes and value(s) for bringing in dead or alive.
• Heroic BSoD: After Luke escapes from Vader and is rescued by Lando and the others in the Falcon, Luke has a major one. In the Falcon's cockpit as the heroes try to escape from Bespin, he's clearly filled with despair, whispering, "Ben, why didn't you tell me?" It doesn't help that he's just been through the trauma of losing his hand, and that Vader was using the Force to more or less "torture" Luke with the previous reveal of Vader being Luke's father.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Captain Needa willingly taking the full brunt of Vader's wrath to protect his crew.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: The Millennium Falcon hides on the back of a Star Destroyer's superstructure.
• Hobbling the Giant: The rebels take out the AT AT Walkers by firing harpoons attached to tow cables around their legs, flying in circles until their legs are bound. When the AT AT Walkers try to continue moving forward despite the bindings, they topple over.
• Hold the Line: This is the whole point of the Battle Of Hoth from the Rebel's perspective: they know it is a battle they have no hope of winning, and are just trying to keep the Empire busy long enough to get as many transports away as possible.
• Hollywood Tactics: This article argues that the Empire is guilty of this during the Battle of Hoth. Notably, despite this, they still claim a decisive victory.
• Hologram Projection Imperfection: After his Star Destroyer is hit by an asteroid, a captain's hologram fizzles before cutting out.
• Honor Before Reason: Attempted when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda reluctantly agree to let Luke go to rescue his friends, against their better judgment:
  Yoda: Stopped they must be; on this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now — if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did — you will become an agent of evil.
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: Patience.
  Luke: And sacrifice Han and Leia?
  Yoda: If you honor what they fight for... yes!
• Hope Spot:
  • When Lando tells Leia that there's still a chance to save Han, they go running after Boba Fett but they're too late and arrive just in time to watch Slave I take off.
  • Towards the end of the duel between Luke and Vader, Luke manages to land a glancing blow on Vader's shoulder, giving suggestion that Luke may still be able to turn the tide. Unfortunately, mere seconds later, Vader responds with cutting off Luke's hand.
• Human Popsicle: Han Solo is frozen via carbonite in Cloud City, and Vader is planning to do the same with Luke so he can take him to the Emperor.
• Human Shield: Lieutenant Sheckil uses Princess Leia as a shield during a scene, while she screams "Luke, don't, it's a trap!"
• Hyperspeed Ambush: Inverted. The Imperial Fleet loses the element of surprise when Admiral Ozzel has the fleet jump out of hyperspace too close to the Rebel base on Hoth, causing them to be detected immediately rather than being able to sneak up on the Rebels. Lord Vader is not very happy with Ozzel and Captain Piett finds himself an Admiral before Ozzel's body even hits the floor.
• Hyperspeed Escape: The Falcon's hyperdrive doesn't work throughout the movie, with at least two attempts resulting in a lot of sputtering sounds. R2-D2 then reveals the mechanics on Bespin had fixed the drive but had it turned off just in case. Once all switches are flipped, the ship kicks into hyperspeed just as the Empire is descending on them.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Lando fakes anger at Han during their reunion, one of the things he jokingly calls him is "double-crossing". Lando later double-crosses Han, which in turn backfires against Lando when Vader reneges his earlier agreement and Leia, Chewie and the droids are not to leave Cloud City under the threat of making it a permanent Imperial outpost.

Tropes I to M

• I Am Not Left-Handed: Vader is clearly not even trying against Luke at first, and only begins to actually try when Luke manages to get a hit in with the coolant. The moment Luke lands an actual hit, Vader stops holding back and ends the fight in seconds.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Yoda first appears in this movie. For those who watch the series in order of events (i.e., prequels first), Yoda would seem to mysteriously drop out for the fourth installment!
• Iconic Sequel Song: "The Imperial March" made its debut in this movie. The Empire's theme was a sinister, brassy triad in a minor key in A New Hope.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  Leia: You think that after what you did to Han we're gonna trust you?!
  [Chewie strangles Lando]
  Lando: I had no choice!
  C-3PO: What are you doing? Trust him! Trust him!
  Leia: Oh, we understand, don't we Chewie? He had no choice.
  Lando: I was just trying to help!
• If I Wanted You Dead...: During the torture scene, though not said directly.
  Leia: Vader wants us all dead.
  Lando: He doesn't want you at all! He's after someone called Skywalker!
  Han: Luke?
  Lando: Lord Vader has set a trap for him.
  Leia: And we're the bait!
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Han Solo flies into a huge asteroid to evade the Imperial fleet.
  Princess Leia: [to Solo] I hope you know what you're doing.
  Han Solo: Yeah, me too.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Lando Calrissian's greeting to Princess Leia, establishing just how smooth and charming he can be, especially compared to his old friend Han Solo.
• I Know You Know I Know: Emperor Palpatine's sole appearance in the film is to inform Darth Vader that he's aware that Luke Skywalker is his son without directly saying it (mostly for the sake of hiding the big surprise from the audience, but also doing so since Vader dissociates himself from his past life as Anakin). However, Vader already knows this, as he mentions Luke by his surname before the invasion of Hoth, and Legends and canonical media alike make it clear that Vader had known for a while. The conversation plays out as a way for Palpatine to safeguard himself in order to ensure that Vader doesn't get any big ideas of getting his son to overthrow him, rather than Vader suddenly getting the idea that he could be a new Sith apprentice (which Vader was secretly already thinking about). Later Special Editions of the film expand the scene between Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader by having Vader pretend to be surprised that he has a son, given that last he knew -- at least to Palpatine's knowledge -- Anakin believed that his wife died before giving birth.
• I Lied:
  • Lando Calrissian of Cloud City makes a deal with Darth Vader, and it kept getting worse all the time. It worked out in the end, and the Expanded Universe makes it clear that if he had refused, Cloud City would have been attacked and destroyed. There are two exchanges that reflect this trope, though neither actually say "I lied."
  Lando: That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
  Vader: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
  Lando: ...No.
  Vader: Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
  • ...and
  Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookiee to my ship.
  Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision.
  Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: After R2-D2 attempts to slice what he thinks is a computer terminal and gets a nasty shock:
  C-3PO: Well, don't look at me, I'm just an interpreter. How am I supposed to tell the difference between a power socket and a computer terminal?
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: The movie uses this to handily and humorously condense Yoda's Actually, I Am Him, and his initial reluctance to teach Luke:
  Carl!Yoda: Well, I'm not Yoda. Okay, I'm Yoda.
  Chris!Luke: You're Yoda? You're the one that Obi-Wan sent me here to find! Will you teach me the ways of the Force?
  Carl!Yoda: No, I will not teach you the ways of the Force. Okay, I'll teach you the ways of the Force.
• Immune to Bullets:
  • The AT-ATs. Luke even says, "That armor's too strong for blasters."
  • Darth Vader. When Han Solo shoots him, he stops the blaster bolts with his hand.
• Implied Death Threat: Darth Vader to Lando, when the latter finally has enough and protests Vader's complete abuse of their original agreement. Vader's response has Lando's hand automatically finding his throat worriedly.
  Vader: Perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly?
• In a Single Bound: As Luke's Jedi training progresses, he learns to use new powers like the Force jump, which comes in handy during his fight with Vader.
• Incest Subtext: A pair of deleted scenes for Luke and Leia, who were True Companions but not yet aware of their mutual descent. One UST-laden scene has a near-kiss between Luke and Leia after Luke tries to confess something to her before being interrupted by C-3PO and a second she gives him a short peck on the lips as she tends to him after he lost his hand.
• Incompletely Trained: Luke runs off to save his friends before Yoda has finished training him (which Yoda notes in the next film).
• Indy Escape: During the duel between Vader and Luke, the latter is searching around the facility for Vader and ends up in a very narrow hallway. Vader pops out of a niche (he was holding his breath) and starts swinging at Luke, who can barely defend himself. The angle in which its shot shows just how massive Vader is and his relentless assault mimics the unstoppable boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Yoda tells the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi that he thinks Luke Skywalker is too impatient and isn't ready to be trained as a Jedi. Luke immediately protests that he is ready and can become a Jedi... while trying to get up, forgetting in his excitement about the low ceiling of Yoda's hut, and banging his head as a result.
  Yoda: Ready are you?
• Insert Grenade Here: Luke does this to an AT-AT by grappling up to the underside and cutting a hole in the bottom with a lightsaber.
• Insult Backfire: Leia calling Han a "scoundrel."
  Han: "Scoundrel"? I like the sound of that.
• Interrogated for Nothing: Han Solo is tortured by Darth Vader◊ for no reason — Han explicitly says they didn't ask him any questions — apart from getting Luke to detect his suffering through the Force, and thus lure him into a trap by the Empire.
• Interrupted Intimacy: C-3PO interrupts Han and Leia's First Kiss, a scene that, were the film not rated PG, may have gone further. Han is audibly infuriated when he responds to Threepio, and Leia quietly slips away while his back is turned.
• Ironic Echo:
  • "It's not my fault!" is said by both Han and Lando when the hyperdrive fails to work^note Lando, unlike Han, is justified in his protestation — Han didn't do a good job, but Lando's tech's repairs have been deliberately sabotaged by the Empire.
  • Also, the dialogue between the Emperor and Darth Vader, with Darth Vader and Luke in the later Special Editions.
    The Emperor: I have no doubt, this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.
    Vader: [beat] How is that possible?
    The Emperor: Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You'll know it to be true.
    
    Vader: I am your father!
    Luke: [beat] No... No... That's not true! That's impossible!
    Vader: Search your feelings. You know it to be true!
• Is That What He Told You?: Darth Vader telling Luke he's his father, contradicting what Obi-Wan had told Luke in the original film.
• It's Personal: Cleverly played with Vader's pursuit of Luke. Vader's first scene makes it clear he's learned who Luke is in the interim since the last film. So the subtext of his obsessive pursuit of Luke initially seems to be this is payback for Yavin and Vader's humiliation at the Death Star. This is subsequently supplemented with a secondary motive after his "conference call" with the Emperor: direct orders to corrupt the young Jedi and turn him to the Dark Side. However, once Luke finally confronts Vader at Bespin, it turns out the Sith Lord's real motives for pursuing Luke are personal — just not what he (or the audience at the time of the original release) could ever have expected.
• I Take Offense to That Last One:
  Leia: Why you... stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking... nerf-herder!!
  Han: Who's scruffy-lookin'?
• I Want Them Alive!:
  Darth Vader: No disintegrations!
  Boba Fett: As you wish.
• I Warned You: C-3PO tries to tell them the hyperdrive is broken.
  C-3PO: Sir, uh, sir, might I suggest—
  Han: Shut him up or shut him down!
  
  Han: Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed.
  C-3PO: But sir!
  
  [after failing to go into lightspeed]
  Han: I think we're in trouble.
  C-3PO: If I may say so, sir, I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to lightspeed.
  Han: We're in trouble!
• Join or Die: Vader tells the Emperor that this will be the choice he will give Luke. Vader instead gives Luke a We Can Rule Together. When Luke hesitates, Vader finally implies this to Luke saying that he must come with him as it is the only way.
• Jump Scare:
  • Leia is surprised by the sudden appearance of a Mynock (a flying, barnacle-like pest) attaching itself to the Falcon's cockpit.
  • Overpowered by Darth Vader, Luke flees and seeks shelter in the lower infrastructure of Bespin, eerily silent save for the incessant hum of the generators... shattered by the snarling sudden breath of the Dark Warrior as his blood-red light-saber viciously hisses to life like a snake and comes within inches of shearing off Luke's head, restarting their duel.
  • The Limited Edition DVD release of 2006 (which paired the Special Edition with the original 1980 version) contains two within its DVD menus. The DVD plays different menu scenes at random. One is a view of an Imperial probe droid floating over the planet Hoth; click "Play Movie" and before the film begins a Wampa comes out of nowhere and dives at the viewer. A less startling one, another random menu, is a view of the Dagobah swamp; click "Play Movie" and R2-D2 shoots out of the swamp and towards the viewer.
• Just Toying with Them: Vader's duel with Luke involves the former holding back considerably in order to nonlethally capture Luke or talk him into a peaceful surrender. The very second Luke actually manages to land a glancing blow Vader swiftly disarms and maims Luke in a few precise swings.
• Keep the Reward: Zig-zagged between the previous movie and this one. At the end of A New Hope, Solo sticks to his mercenary motives and leaves with his reward before the climactic space battle; some time after that, he has a change of heart and returns just in time to help Luke destroy the Death Star. After this, however, he keeps the reward so he can pay back his debt to Jabba the Hutt, but delays and delays due to his commitment to the Rebellion, Luke, and Leia. At the beginning of this movie, he finally decides to go to Tatooine to repay Jabba, but the Empire gets in his way.
• Kick the Dog: Darth Vader unsurprisingly has several:
  • He strangles Captain Needa despite him apologizing and taking full responsibility for his mistake, which just goes to show you how devoid of honor or mercy he is.
  • He forces Lando to betray Han Solo by holding Cloud City hostage. Later, he makes this even worse by reneging on his end of the deal.
  • His Cold-Blooded Torture of Han seems particularly cruel considering it wasn't to get information or anything, but solely to lure Luke into a trap.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Or rather, Ozzel lost all power of speech mid-sentence, dying a minute later:
  Admiral Ozzel: Lord Vader, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to— *urk!*
• Knew It All Along:
  C-3PO: Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect. I believe, sir, it says that the power coupling on the negative axis has been polarized. I'm afraid you'll have to replace it.
  Han: Well of course I'll have to replace it. [passing Chewie some cables] Here. And Chewie... [quietly, sheepishly, after C-3PO is out of earshot] ...I think we better replace the negative power coupling.
• Lamprey Mouth: The Mynocks use these to attach to ships.
• Lancer vs. Dragon: A hilariously one-sided version occurs when Han Solo, meeting Darth Vader face-to-face for the first time, immediately draws his blaster and fires on the Sith Lord. The "battle" lasts for around four seconds while Vader casually deflects Han's shots before using the Force to rip the blaster right out of Han's hand.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • Luke qualifies when he ignores the advice of both Yoda and Obi-Wan to fly to Cloud City.
  • Admiral Ozzel as well, by jumping into the system right in the Rebels' faces, giving them time to activate their shield. Vader, naturally, permanently terminates Ozzel from command after that one.
• Leonine Contract: Darth Vader lands troops on Cloud City and forces Lando to betray Han and Leia in exchange for the freedom of his city. However, Vader repeatedly altered the deal, and told Lando to "-pray I do not alter it further." Lando ultimately realizes Vader has no intention of keeping his word and helps Leia and company escape.
• A Lesson in Defeat:
  • Yoda sends Luke into the cave to experience the dark side of the Force. When he thinks he kills Vader, the mask explodes and reveals Luke's own face, showing that he could give into the dark side himself.
  • An alternative interpretation of the scene, supported by the radio adaptation of Empire, is that Yoda is showing Luke what is holding him back, namely himself and his own attitudes. Yoda tells him explicitly that he won't need weapons, and that the only thing in the cave is what he takes with him.
    Luke: My enemy's face... is my own.
• Let's Get Out of Here: Han Solo realizes that the "cave" in the asteroid in which they sought refuge was actually a giant space slug.
• Licensed Pinball Table: Released exclusively in Australia, oddly enough. Click here.
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: Luke gets a new hand at the end. After being pricked with a needle to check pain sensation, he flexes his fingers a bit and clenches a fist while examining his bionic hand.
• Literal Disarming:
  • Luke slices off the right arm of the wampa as it attacks him, though it doesn't have a weapon and is just an animal. Mark Hamill disapproved of the scene for that reason and thought it was out of character for Luke to do so.
  • Luke Skywalker loses his hand during a duel with Darth Vader, which leaves him helpless for the duration of the now-famous "Luke, I Am Your Father" scene.
• Little "No":
  • Luke says this before it turns into a Big "NO!" after Vader reveals that he is Luke's father.
  • Chewie's reaction when they close the shield doors, locking Han outside, is somewhere between this and Big "NO!", in Wookie-speak.
• Lobotomy: George Lucas said that this is what happened to Lobot. He was originally a talkative character but was later altered. His name was ultimately even a play on the word "lobotomy".
• Lost Him in a Card Game: It is revealed that Lando lost the Millennium Falcon to Han in a card game called sabacc. The way they talk about that ship, it could be considered a person. As it turns out, the Falcon's computer contains the uploaded memory core of Lando's droid L3-37 (for whom he may have had feelings) after she was destroyed on Kessel.
• Love Theme: "Han Solo and the Princess", prominently heard during Han and Leia's scene aboard the Falcon.
• Love Triangle: Luke has a smug grin after Leia kisses him in a deliberate rejection of Han's advances. Turns out Han doesn't have to worry, even before a certain revelation in the next movie.
• Ludicrous Precision: C-3PO pulls one at one point:
  C-3PO: Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand seven hundred twenty to one.
  Han Solo: Never Tell Me the Odds!
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Trope Namer, though said trope name is a slight invokedmisquote (as detailed in the "Trivia" tab).
• Lured into a Trap: Twice. The Millennium Falcon crew falls into one arranged by Boba Fett and Vader at Cloud City, and they are tortured in order to lure Luke via the Force. The second trap even features an early appearance of "It's a trap!" when Leia tries to warn Luke while being used as a Human Shield during a gunfight.
  Leia: Luke! Luke, don't, it's a trap! IT'S A TRAP!
• Lying Heroes, Honest Villains: Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke Skywalker's father when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda intentionally misled Luke into believing otherwise.
• Machine Empathy:
  • During the escape from Hoth when the Falcon is powering up. Han goes to the cockpit and the lights (and other power noises) die. A well-placed thump takes care of that.
  • Subverted. The Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive repeatedly fails despite Lando Calrissian's insistence that it's fixed. The subversion is he's right, the hyperdrive itself is fixed — the Imperials just sabotaged it, keeping it from activating until R2 repairs this.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Harshly averted. While other films have depicted some surprisingly underwhelming reactions to lightsaber wounds and dismemberment by Jedi and Sith alike, (Dooku loses both hands in Revenge of the Sith, and barely gasps) Mark Hamill's performance as Luke, bloodcurdling scream and all, drives home just how painful losing your hand to a glorified plasma cutting torch feels.
• The Man Behind the Man: While the word 'Empire' does imply an Emperor, this movie was the one that established that Palpatine was not just a powerless figurehead, but the ultimate villain of the series.
• Meaningful Echo: Lando's Ironic Echo (mentioned above) of Han's line also serves to show Leia, Chewie and the audience that there is more to Lando than the betrayal he was forced to make, that Han was right about him and Lando being so much alike, and that he is now in this together with the rest of the gang.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Imperial forces easily overran Echo Base, but other than the men and materiel lost in the holding action the Rebels escaped completely intact.
• Melee Disarming: Vader rather easily disarms Luke early in their Cloud City duel, the first sign that maybe Luke's in a bit over his head here.
• Men of Sherwood: The Cloud City guards are silent and unnamed characters, are armed less well than the stormtroopers and rebels, and work for a (at that point) morally dubious character. However, they take several Imperials prisoner without much trouble and help the heroes escape.
• Mercy Kill: As revealed in the next film, Vader's Force-chokes are intended to be this. For example, Captain Needa opted to confess his failure in the asteroid field to Vader directly because he knew with Vader, at least the worst he'll do to you is asphyxiate you without having to lay so much as a finger on you, and he'll spare your crew as well, which is more than can be said for the Emperor — and Vader, as he very strongly implies to Moff Jerjerrod the next year, appears to have counted on it.
• Million Mook March: Displayed just before the Empire attacks the base on Hoth.
• Million to One Chance: C-3PO does this thrice, much to Han's increasing annoyance.
  • "Artoo says that the chances of survival are 725 to 1."
  • "Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand, seven hundred twenty to one!" "Never Tell Me the Odds!"
  • "Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer-" "Shut up!"
• Mirror Match: Luke Skywalker has to go into a cave as part of his training and faces off with a vision of Darth Vader. He beheads the apparition, only to discover it has the same face as him under its mask.
• Missed Him by That Much: Played with, twice.
  • Early in the film, after the Imperials have won and are overrunning Echo Base, Darth Vader strides inside with his troops, seeking out his quarry (Luke, though he would likely have been pleased to obtain Leia too, either due to her importance to the Rebellion or to lure Luke as he does in the last third of the film). He arrives in the hangar... just in time to see the Falcon taking off. Except Luke isn't actually onboard (and with the Force, Vader likely realizes this), but he still demands the ship, surely already considering setting the aforementioned trap.
  • Then, near the end of the film, when Luke arrives on Cloud City, he just manages to see Leia and the others being escorted away as Imperial prisoners, and they see him; Leia warns him of the trap, but he isn't able to get to them in time (or realize exactly what she's warning him of—although thanks to Yoda and Obi-Wan, he already is aware of the possibility anyway). Meanwhile Lando also gets a glimpse of him, but still doesn't quite know who he is or why he's so important; he has to wait until the next film to learn this via working with Luke to rescue Han.
• Mission Briefing: Compared to the one that took place in the previous movie, this one has a much less formal briefing, with Leia outlining the plan for their Delaying Action and evacuation of their base on Hoth, and addressing the concerns raised by the pilots (nicely setting up the Ion Cannon that knocks out a Star Destroyer later on). Unusually, this plan goes off more or less exactly as she explained it would.
• Mistaken for Own Murderer: The movie features a justified example of this (considering the Motivational Lie Luke was told about Darth Vader killing his father), resulting in the original Luke, I Am Your Father reveal. Played with in that, to some extent, Vader thinks of Anakin as a different person who died.
• Mob Debt: Han Solo mentioned having one (referring to his debt with Jabba the Hut) in the previous film. By this one, Jabba has lost patience with him and enough bounty hunters are on his trail that it's endangering the Rebellion.
• Moment Killer: Just as Han and Leia were into their first kiss, C-3PO bursts in, chattering about the reverse power flux coupling.
• Moving the Goalposts: Lando tried to make a deal with Darth Vader, agreeing to help capture his old friend Han Solo and his companions in exchange for the Empire not occupying his city. Vader kept altering the deal, because Lando realizes too late that he's completely powerless.
• The Musketeer: It's not as obvious as other examples of this trope but Luke carries his blaster and lightsaber into battle together (mostly evident in the climax where goes from being shot at by Stormtroopers to dueling with Vader). It's the only movie in which he does this as well as the only time in the entire film franchise we see a Jedi or Sith doing it. It should be noted, though, that Luke never actually fires his blaster over the entire course of the film. He draws it when the stormtroopers start shooting at him, but he can never quite get a clear shot to return fire. By the next movie, he only ever uses a lightsaber.
• Must Make Amends: After the deal falls apart, Lando tries his best to save the Rebels.
• My Car Hates Me: The Millennium Falcon flies just fine, but the faster-than-light "hyperdrive" system is unreliable. This first happens because the ship had just completed a series of repairs, apparently with Han and Chewie overlooking something, and the second time happens because there was sabotage at the place where they successfully repaired the hyperdrive. Once R2-D2 manages to find and fix the uncoupled power coupling, it functions perfectly for the duration of the final film.
• My Fist Forgives You: After Captain Needa has failed to apprehend the Millenium Falcon, he reports his failure to Darth Vader, who Force-chokes him to death:
  Darth Vader: Apology accepted, Captain Needa.
• Mystical Cave: Luke's studies on Dagobah culminate in a hallucinatory confrontation in a cave with a strong connection to the dark side of the Force.

Tropes N to R

• Naval Blockade: When the Imperial fleet arrives over Hoth, they form a blockade to prevent Rebel ships from escaping, but they didn't seem to count on them having an ion cannon capable of disabling a Star Destroyer.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Battle of Hoth. The Rebels know full well they have no hope of winning, and the whole battle is basically just to buy time in order to evacuate as many people as possible. Furthermore, it's implied that if Admiral Ozzel hadn't ruined the ambush by coming out of hyperspace too close, and thus gave the rebels time to turn on the Deflector Shields, the Empire would have wiped them out entirely and that would be it.
• Nerves of Steel: General Veers displays this by not showing the slightest hint of panic when Darth Vader turns to face him while raising his voice.
• Never Tell Me the Odds!:
  • Early on Hoth, Han goes out into the cold to save Luke, despite the guards warning him about the likelihood of freezing to death. After Han leaves, R2-D2 gives the low odds of surviving overnight in the cold. But after the blast doors are closed, 3PO applies this trope to himself by noting that R2 has been known to make mistakes... from time to time.
  • The Trope Namer: Han tells C-3PO "Never tell me the odds!" when 3PO gives him the odds of surviving within an asteroid field. Later, Leia tells 3PO to shut up when he tries to give the odds of surviving a direct attack on a Star Destroyer.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Yoda Force-lifts Luke's ship out of the swamp. This then allows Luke to leave Dagobah before his training is complete.
  • An enraged Chewbacca choking Lando for his betrayal after he frees the Wookie and Leia (and with her encouragement). The strangulation prevents Lando from immediately revealing that there's still a chance to save Han before Boba Fett leaves Cloud City. The delay costs them dearly, as Fett is able to complete his final pre-flight checks and take off just as they reach the landing pad. Had our heroes arrived even a minute earlier, they might just have been able to forcibly board Slave I and retrieve Han.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Admiral Ozzel's blunder in bringing in the Imperial Fleet so close to Hoth where the Rebels were located, in his hopes of a rapid strike that would catch them off guard. Instead, the Rebels immediately got the deflector shield up and running, forcing the Empire to come down by force and lose many troops in the process. Vader quickly pays him back for this foolish move.
  • Vader continuing to alter the agreement with Lando, causing him to finally betray him and help the heroes escape.
• No Escape but Down: Near the end, Luke Skywalker is hanging on by one hand over a seemingly bottomless pit. Rather than take the opportunity Darth Vader offers him to rule the galaxy as father and son, Luke lets himself fall.
• No-Harm Requirement: The film has Darth Vader convene a cadre of bounty hunters to capture the Heroes. "There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations."
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Implied with Vader in Cloud City.
  Vader: We would be honoured if you would join us.
• No Sense of Personal Space: When Vader addresses him, General Veers turns out to be 6 inches at most behind the Dark Lord.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Han's off-screen run-in with a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell convinces him to leave the rebels.
  • "That was a long time ago. I'm sure [Lando]'s forgotten all about that." It's helped by the fact that Han is the only one who can understand what Chewbacca is saying.
    Lando: Why you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler! You got a lot of guts coming here after what you pulled.
  • Also see I Want Them Alive! above. The fact that Vader specifically waves his finger in Boba Fett's face when he says, "No disintegrations," implies that Fett must have once shown up with a bag of ash and insisted it was the guy he'd been sent for.
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • Definitely shown during the lightsaber duel on Bespin. Why anyone would work there is anyone's guess. Railings seem to be very expensive to install or maintain.
  • The tubes Luke fall into deserve a mention too, it's apparently where anyone who falls into the chasm ends up, and there are traps randomly opening into the void below.
• No-Sell: When Han is invited to dinner with Vader, Han starts unloading his blaster at him. Vader very calmly absorbs the shots with his hands. Vader waits a few seconds before pulling the gun away, as if he was intentionally letting Han demonstrate how little he had to fear from a blaster.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  Luke: There's something not right, here... I feel cold. Death.
  Yoda: [points to a cave beneath a large tree] That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.
  Luke: What's in there?
  Yoda: Only what you take with you.
• Not Now, Kiddo: When on their way to save Han from the Bounty Hunter, R2-D2 links up with the city's central computer and learns about the purposefully deactivated hyperdrive on the Falcon. But when trying to alert his friends, C-3PO cuts in and changes the subject.
  C-3PO: No, we're not interested in the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. It's fixed!
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Yoda refuses to train Luke because of his anger, the offscreen Obi-Wan replies, "Was I any different when you taught me?"
• Now or Never Kiss: Han and Leia's kiss, right before he was lowered into the carbonite freezing chamber and an uncertain fate.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Yoda is introduced this way, pretending to be an irritating little creature who steals food and squabbles with R2 before finally revealing himself to be the ancient and powerful Jedi master. All to ascertain Luke's mental preparedness for Jedi training.
• Obscured Special Effects: Only brief, partial glimpses of the Wampa are shown, as it let the guy portraying it just wear portions of a suit at a time. But for the Special Edition, Lucas decided to include shots showing the whole creature. Same thing with the aquatic creature that swallows and spits out R2-D2 on Dagobah.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse:
  • Lando Calrissian had to turn Han and his friends in to the Empire, due to the alternative being to have Cloud City be attacked by the Empire and either occupied or worse, destroyed by them.
    Lando: I had no choice. They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry.
    Han: I'm sorry, too.
  • Also, Vader's "invitation" to dinner.
• Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The movie ends with the group broken up, with Han taken prisoner, Lando and Chewie flying off to rescue him, and Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 keeping Luke company while he recovers from his injuries. Despite this being the heroes' Darkest Hour, the audience is reminded that all is not lost when the last shot of the movie is the regrouped Rebel Fleet, one of the bigger collections of starships and fighters seen in the franchise up to this point, cruising off into the distance while The Force's Leitmotif plays.
• Off-the-Shelf FX:
  • Due to the scale necessary for the Star Destroyer's bridge model, ILM used an off-the-shelf Millennium Falcon model kit for the shot where the Falcon is hiding on the back of the bridge.
  • Both a potato and a shoe were used during the asteroid field scene. The shoe has a rumored story too — the rumor in question being that George Lucas asked the FX crew to redo the scene so many times that they got annoyed and one of them threw in their shoe. The potato can be seen in beginning of the scene in the top left corner.
  • During the scene where Cloud City is evacuating and Lando and co. are running past them, you can briefly see a man running by carrying what is clearly an undisguised ice cream maker.
• Off with His Head!: Luke defeats the vision of Darth Vader by severing his head. When the head rolls to the ground, the helmet blasts open, revealing Luke's own face.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The look on Hobbie's face when Leia reveals the escape plan from Hoth.
    Hobbie: Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?!
  • Every time the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon doesn't work.
  • Captain Needa when they lose the Millennium Falcon (hiding on the Destroyer's surface itself), and realizing he has to own up to Vader that he let them get away.
    Needa: Get a shuttle ready. I shall assume full responsibility for losing them, and apologize to Lord Vader.
    [Gilligan Cut (much later) to Cpt. Needa dropping dead; his lifeless body is carried out of the room]
    Vader: Apology accepted, Captain Needa.
  • C-3PO, before he got blasted.
    C-3PO: Oh my. I am terribly sorry I didn't mean to intrude no-no-no please don't get up-- [*BLAST*] NO!
  • As a bonus, he gets to have this one twice, the second time when his memory reboots after he's found and reactivated:
    C-3PO: Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger! I must tell the others! OH NO, I'VE BEEN SHOT!!
  • Han and Leia when they learn they're being used to bait Luke.
    Leia: Vader wants us all dead!
    Lando: He doesn't want you at all, he's after somebody called Skywalker.
    Han: Luke?!
  • Lando, when he finally realizes The Empire is not going to leave his city (or him) alone, even after he cooperated.
  • The look on Piett's face when the Falcon finally gets the hyperdrive fixed just before the Star Destroyer can lock on the tractor beam. He knows the price of failure: Vader Force-chokes you. Luckily for Piett, Vader is more disappointed than angry.
• Old Beggar Test: The first time Luke (and the audience) meets Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda looks like an annoying local inhabitant of Dagobah, telling Luke he knows "how to find [this great Jedi Warrior]." If you watched from Episode 1, you wouldn't be surprised by the reveal. Luke desperately wants to meet Yoda as soon as possible, and while he never does anything cruel to "the beggar," he does quickly become impatient with him.
• Once is Not Enough: Luke retrieves his lightsaber, chops off one of the Wampa beast's arms, and then runs out into a Hoth blizzard. He could have just finished the beast, checked the cave for more, and then stayed there until the storm passed. It may have been an ice cave, but it had to be better than just running out randomly.
• Only in It for the Money: This is the reason bounty hunter Boba Fett (among others) agrees to help Darth Vader capture Han and company, as Jabba made good on his threat to "put a price on Solo's head so high, he wouldn't be able to get near a civilized system."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The fact that Vader doesn't kill any of his subordinates after the Falcon escapes again is a huge surprise to his crew, whose faces shift from terrified to confused as he just walks away sadly.
  • The prim, proper and skittish C-3PO turns snappy and downright abusive towards Chewbacca in the second half of the movie.
• Operation: Jealousy: Leia kisses Luke on the mouth to invoke jealousy on Han's part. Squick ensues with The Reveal in Return of the Jedi.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: The carbon chamber is dimly lit with orange lighting and surrounded by blue-tinged darkness, providing an eerie contrast for the first showdown between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. It also predates the modern "Blue and Orange" phenomenon by about two decades.
• Orbital Bombardment: The original plan to deal with the Rebels is to bombard the base with Star Destroyers. When Ozzel screws up and the Rebels get a bombardment-proof shield up, they resort to going under the barrier with a ground side assault.
• Out of the Frying Pan: A rather protracted example: Han Solo flies into the asteroid field to escape the Imperial fleet. He does escape, but realizes the interior of the asteroid field is just as dangerous, so he lands in a cave on a larger asteroid. The cave turns out to be a space worm's mouth. Fleeing from that, Han winds up right back where he started, with the Imperial fleet pursuing him again.
• Overdrive: As shown in this film, the Millennium Falcon is a noteworthy aversion: The reason her hyperdrive conks out at the worst possible time so often is that it's been hot-rodded six ways from Sunday and is almost permanently in the "overdrive" state, with very little margin of error between "overdrive" and "something important just overloaded and burned out".
• Panacea: Bacta is a liquid medicine used to regenerate people from severe injuries. In this movie, Luke Skywalker is immersed in a bacta tank to recover from hypothermia and being mauled by a wampa during a misadventure at the start of the film. In The Mandalorian, IG-11 uses a bacta spray to heal Din Djarin of a head injury sustained in an explosion. In the Expanded Universe, bacta has also been used to treat diseases, and wars have been fought over its production and distribution.
• Patience Plot:
  • A significant chunk of the B-plot involves Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO hiding from the Empire in an asteroid field; they have little to do but make repairs, wait, and in Han and Leia's case bicker and flirt with each other; their Belligerent Sexual Tension boils over into a Big Damn Kiss. Things get moving again when they realize they've parked their ship inside a giant space worm and they have to flee to Cloud City.
  • Luke spends a lot of the movie training with Yoda on Dagobah, where he has to learn the importance of being patient and not rushing into situations unprepared. It doesn't quite stick because in the third act he goes rushing off to save his friends and fight Darth Vader, which does not end well for him.
• Percussive Maintenance: Han pounding on the Falcon fixes a short in the systems.
• Planetville:
  • Luke is supposed to find Yoda, but he's simply told to find him in the Dagobah system (although in that case he only succeeds because Yoda crashes him near his hut).
  • The Empire finds the Rebel base simply by launching scouting droids at various planets. Sure, it apparently took a few years but that would be an insanely short amount of time for even one planet, to say nothing of an entire galaxy's worth. Keep in mind the scouting droid that eventually finds Echo Base does so after conveniently landing about a mile away. Though extras in the scenes do note that this scout droid strategy is a supreme longshot, and the chances of the droids finding a Rebel base are extremely remote. They only attack the base on Hoth because Vader used the Force to intuit that that droid had actually succeeded instead of finding a random smuggler's outpost. The book Choices of One also has Vader look at Rebel supply manifests and concludes from that their base is somewhere cold and barren, which at least is a place to start.
• Played for Laughs: Han and Chewie's attempts to repair the Falcon. They may be great pilots, but they are mediocre mechanics at best. This includes an onscreen D.I.Y. Disaster where Han tells Chewie to power up a system that Han just repaired, and it proceeds to blow up in Han's face, causing him to frantically shout for Chewie to turn it off.
• Playing the Family Card: Darth Vader tries to get his estranged son Luke to go to the Dark Side by saying that they'd "rule the universe as father and son".
• Please Keep Your Hat On: We see the back of Darth Vader's bald, scarred head. In the next movie we see that from the front. He can only survive without the helmet if he's in that meditation chamber we saw in ESB.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive systems refuse to work for nearly the whole film, which means they can't easily escape the Imperial Fleet like everyone else. This leads to their eventual capture, which requires Luke to divert from his training early to save them, causing his defeat by Vader and Han's capture by Fett. Basically, if it had worked there wouldn't be any danger in the film at all past the quarter point. The initial failure is justified by Han's shoestring-and-glue approach to ship maintenance, plus having to evacuate Hoth in the middle of repairs. After leaving Cloud City, the next failure is due to Imperial sabotage.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Han Solo ends up pulling this, albeit unintentionally so. After an encounter with a bounty hunter on Ord Mantel, he decides to go and pay off his debt to Jabba, which even the Rebellion's top general acknowledges as being a necessity. Leia, however, doesn't see it that way and accuses Han of trying to up and run at a critical moment in their campaign against the Empire.
• Plummet Perspective: It's a long way down from Cloud City. If you know anything about gas giants, it's even worse, as there's really no bottom; you'd just keep falling until the atmospheric pressure crushes you.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Luke Skywalker manages to catch up to an Imperial AT-AT, and attach a magnetic grapple to its underside. Winching himself up next to the machine, Luke lightsabers away an access panel, then throws in an explosive charge. After uncoupling himself and falling to the snow, Luke sees a series of explosions lighting up the walker's interior that culminate in the command head exploding. The AT-AT legs buckle and it topples over.
• Psychological Torment Zone: The cave on Dagobah forces Luke to face Darth Vader and then see his own face within Vader's mask, forcing Luke to question himself.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Vader has one moment when he keeps Boba Fett from simply shooting Chewie when the Wookiee is flailing about trying to prevent Han's doom. He may have been worried about damaging the freezing equipment, or just felt that cleaning Wookiee bits off the walls wouldn't be as satisfying as watching his heart break.
  • Before that, Boba Fett expresses concern that Han might not survive being frozen in carbonite—not because he's worried about Han's wellbeing, but because he needs the smuggler alive to collect the bounty on him. Vader placates Fett by assuring him that he will be compensated if Han dies.
• Precision Crash: Luke goes to Dagobah to search for Yoda, and crash-lands into some random swamp — a short walk from Yoda's home. It's possible that the Force led him to that exact spot, though this is not mentioned in the film. In Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, Luke himself ponders this possibility.
• Precision F-Strike: During a conversation between Han and a Rebel technician.
  Rebel technician: [to Han] Your tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.
  Han: Then I'll see you in hell!
• Prophecies Are Always Right:
  • Yoda foresees Han, Leia, and Chewie getting tortured in Cloud City (true), but also warns that if Luke got involved, "it would destroy all which they have fought and suffered" (not true). However, Yoda also suggests that Luke's action might help them, but in the end, Luke is the one who needs saving since Lando ends up freeing Leia and Chewie while Luke is getting knocked around by Vader.
  • Vader tells Luke that he had foreseen the two of them managing to "end this destructive conflict" and "bring order to the galaxy" as father and son. Vader clearly thinks this means We Can Rule Together, and could even have been lying to sway Luke to his side, but the pair do manage to end the war and bring peace to the Galaxy by killing the Emperor.
• Quick Draw: Han Solo is fast enough that when surprised on Cloud City by Darth Vader and a squad of Stormtroopers, he's able to draw his blaster and get a shot off before the Sith Lord does anything. Unfortunately for him, Vader can easily No-Sell a blaster bolt with the Force before telekinetically disarming him.
• Radar Is Useless: the Millennium Falcon does not detect Boba Fett's Slave One pursuing it to Bespin, despite said ship being in visual range. This is even more questionable considering the Falcon is traveling at sublight speed so the trip may have taken anywhere from days to months.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Han has been captured, Luke has lost his hand and had a pretty nasty revelation, Vader tells Luke he will succumb to the dark side and Luke starts to believe him, the Rebels are on the run, but the heroes escape and are making it clear that they're not giving up, they are going to save Han and they are going to prevail. It might take a while, but they will win.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Han was frozen in Carbonite because Harrison Ford wasn't sure he wanted to appear in the next film, and so the character was Put on a Bus with Lando positioned to potentially take over the equivalent character role if Ford decided to not participate. Needless to say, The Bus Came Back.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yoda gives Luke one for having always looked ahead to the future with little to no regard for his present surroundings.
• Rescue Hug: While the Millenium Falcon is inside the asteroid, there's a sudden tremor. Princess Leia falls backward and Han Solo catches her. He doesn't let go immediately, and continues to hold her even after she gets uncomfortable and asks him to let go. They then have a bit of banter that's intended to foreshadow their growing attraction to each other.
• Rescue Reversal: Luke arrives at Cloud City to save his friends from Vader, only for them to escape without his help. In fact, they end up saving him! Basically, the only reason for Luke to be there was for The Reveal.
• Resistance Is Futile: Vader says a variant of this as he corners Luke near the end of their duel.
  Vader: You are beaten! It is useless to resist! Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did!
• Restrained Revenge: An Imperial Star Destroyer led by Captain Needa and Admiral Piett has been tasked with finding the Millenium Falcon. After the Falcon eludes the Star Destroyers, Captain Needa is force-choked to death, while Admiral Piett is reprimanded by Vader, who insists that Admiral Piett doesn't fail Vader again. Since Captain Needa decided to take the fall for it, Vader only killed him (accepting his apology) while Admiral Piett is spared for now.
• Retcon: The entire "I Am Your Father" reveal was actually this, although only the eagle-eyed at the time of release would have noticed it. In A New Hope, as shot and first released, Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are meant to be entirely separate characters. The franchise still being fairly young at the time gave Lucas & co. the latitude to pull this off, although it still makes a few parts of ANH odd as a result (as detailed on its page).
• The Reveal: One of the most famous in film history: Darth Vader reveals that he's Luke's father, and Obi-Wan lied to Luke.
• Revolting Rescue: Han makes a temporary shelter for Luke by cutting open the belly of a recently-deceased tauntaun, and stuffing Luke into it while a more permanent two-person shelter is being built.
• Riding into the Sunset: By the end of the movie, Luke, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 watch the Millennium Falcon fly, not into a sunset (they're in space), but in the direction of a bright protostar, on their way to rescue Han Solo, who had been captured and handed over to Jabba The Hutt.
• Right Behind Me:
  Luke: [talking to R2] There's something familiar about this place. I don't know. I feel like—
  Yoda: Feel like what?
  Luke: [points his blaster] Like we're being watched.
• Right in Front of Me: Luke's patience is tested to the breaking point by a little troll who turns out to be Jedi Grand Master Yoda. Luke is nothing but respectful towards Master Yoda while talking about him (although the latter is a bit upset about the "great warrior" description), but his lack of patience with the apparent simpleton does nothing to impress.
• Rite of Passage: As part of his Jedi training with Yoda, Luke makes a journey into a cave and strikes down Darth Vader, but is surprised to find that the face beneath the Dark Lord's mask is his own. The Expanded Universe explores this in detail.
• Road Trip Romance: In A New Hope, Han Solo is just Luke's ride, and only agrees to help save Leia because of how he could be rewarded; he then leaves after he gets paid, but joins in on the fray to save Luke in the end. Han and Leia are at odds at first but slowly fall in love over the course of this film.
• Robotic Torture Device: The torture device Darth Vader uses on Han Solo in Cloud City. He performs the torture in order to lure Luke, the one whom Vader truly wants.
• Rule of Three:
  • C-3PO describing the ridiculous odds against whatever Han Solo's trying to do.
  • The Millennium Falcon failing to jump into hyperspace when needed.
  • Vader killing two subordinates for failing and sparing the third.
• Running Gag: Again, the hyperdrive on the Falcon failing. By the third time, Leia and Chewie just kinda look at each other, neither one of them surprised at all. Eventually, Chewie goes into a rage, and Leia just does a Facepalm.
• Running the Blockade: Following the Battle of Hoth, Han Solo and Princess Leia have to get through an Imperial blockade aboard the Millennium Falcon, which is complicated by the fact that their hyperdrive is out of order.

Tropes S

• Sadistic Choice: See Deal with the Devil and An Offer You Can't Refuse.
• Sapient Ship: When attempting to repair the Falcon, Han tells C-3PO to "talk to the ship" to find out what's wrong. Turns out he's being literal, as Threepio later comments that the ship's computer was rude to him. Depending on the continuity, this is either because the ship uses a cluster of droid brains to enhance its systems or due to L3-37's integration into the ship during the Kessel Run.
• Sarcasm Mode: "Apology accepted, Captain Needa." Said by Darth Vader immediately after Force choking Needa to death for losing the Falcon.
• Sarcasm Failure: Han Solo has a Swagger Failure when the hyperdrive fails. That's when you know they're in real danger.
  Han: Oh, yeah? Watch this!
  [nothing happens]
  Leia: Watch what?
  Han: I think we're in trouble.
• Scream Discretion Shot: The infamous torture scene. All we see are the sparks and Han convulsing, but the worst of it is heard while Lando and Boba Fett are looking at each other, Lando being the most disgusted.
• Screen Shake: After Han outmaneuvers the Avenger while escaping Hoth, Captain Needa and the bridge crew throw themselves against the wall as they collide with another Star Destroyer. However, one crewman walking off-screen seems completely unaffected by it.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Vader consistently changes the deal the Empire had with Lando for his own ends. This does have the consequence of Lando realising the Empire has no intention of leaving Bespin unharmed and goads him to arrange an escape for the captive heroes.
  Vader: Calrissian, take the princess and the Wookie to my ship.
  Lando: You said they'd be left in the city under my supervision!
  Vader: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he realises the Empire has no intention of leaving Bespin untouched, Lando flees. He also broadcasts a warning to Cloud City of the Empire's intention to occupy the city, and most of its population opt to do likewise.
  Lando: Attention, this is Lando Calrissian. Attention. The Empire has taken control of the city; I advise everyone to leave before more Imperial troops arrive.
• Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: Cloud City administrator Lando Calrissian plays along with The Empire, allowing them to set a trap for young Skywalker. Lando has qualms about torturing Han Solo and then handing him over to a bounty hunter, but he's cowed by Darth Vader. However, after being ordered to take Princess Leia and Chewbacca to Vader's shuttle, Lando protested, and was met with Vader's "I am altering the deal; pray I don't alter it any further." No surprise that Calrissian gets on the PA system, alerts the city that The Empire has seized control, and actively joins the rebellion.
• Second Chapter Cliffhanger: It ends with Han Solo being frozen in carbonite and captured by a new enemy and crime boss Jabba the Hutt (who is not strictly in league with The Empire) leaving us with just Luke and Leia's promise to rescue him. And perhaps the Trope Codifier for ending the second installment of a Two-Part Movie Trilogy on a Cliffhanger.
• Second Episode Introduction:
  • Neither Yoda nor the Emperor appear in A New Hope (although the latter is mentioned in the opening briefing regarding the Death Star), making their first appearances in this movie.
  • The Power Trio of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia was established in A New Hope. Then this movie introduced Lando Calrissian as something of a fourth member of the trio, who continues to be an important supporting role in Return of the Jedi.
• Secretly Earmarked for Greatness: Yoda reveals that he had been keeping an eye on Luke for some time before he came to Dagobah to begin training as a Jedi.
  Yoda: This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was.
• Secret Test of Character: After being told by Obi-Wan Kenobi to go to Dagobah to find Yoda, a great Jedi Master, Luke heads there after helping the Rebellion evacuate from Hoth. However, the only sentient life he finds is a really small creature who has a habit of searching through his things, and speaking in riddles. Luke gets flustered when the creature seems to continue wasting his time in search of Yoda, who then reveals himself to be the Jedi Master he was searching for in the first place.
• See You in Hell: Used completely out of the blue as Han is leaving Echo Base to search for Luke in a blizzard:
  Rebel technician: Sir, your tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.
  Han: Then I'll see you in hell!
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The Imperial probe droid that discovers the Rebel base in the Hoth system has one, presumably to prevent anyone from capturing and identifying/analyzing it.
• Sequel Escalation:
  • The movie has more locales, more action, and features the first Luke/Vader lightsaber duel. While the Force in the first movie was vaguely defined telepathic and telekinetic powers, Empire shows the Force can also give you superhuman physical abilities and low-grade clairvoyance.
  • Also inverted. With the absence of the planet-destroying Death Star, the stakes are much lower than in the previous movie. After the Battle of Hoth, it's only the main characters who are in danger for the rest of the movie. This makes the film's conflict more personal.
• Sequel Hook: Luke is left with the bombshell that Darth Vader is his father, Lando and Chewbacca set off to rescue Han, the identity of the other who could defeat Vader in Luke's stead hasn't been revealed, and Leia is showing signs of Force-Sensitivity.
• Shame If Something Happened:
  • When Lando angrily complains that Vader is altering the terms of their arrangement, Vader retorts with the implication the Empire will occupy Bespin if Lando doesn't back down, and throw in killing Lando if he gets too irritating.
    Lando: That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
    Vader: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly...?
    [beat]
    Lando: No.
    Vader: Good! It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
  • There's also:
    Vader: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
• Ship Sinking: Despite the kiss Leia gives Luke, the Luke-Leia ship that was established in A New Hope and later explored in the first sequel novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye as well as the Marvel comic book series, is sunk when it's established that Han and Leia are now a couple. And in all fairness, she kissed Luke mainly to annoy Han. (Three years later, Return of the Jedi would blow the Luke-Leia ship out of the water completely by establishing the two of them to be siblings.)
• Shipped in Shackles: Han Solo is frozen in carbonite for his trip to Jabba the Hutt. Vader plans to use the same procedure on Luke so he can be taken to the Emperor without escaping or fighting back.
• Shocking Defeat Legacy: After Yavin, there's the Mid-Rim Offensive, the first full-scale offensive of the Rebel Alliance, turning in the Mid-Rim Retreat when the Empire rallies and uses its enormous numerical superiority. After this defeat, the Rebellion refrains from large-scale offensives for over three years until Endor, knowing that facing the Empire in one would inevitably result in the numerically superior enemy concentrating enough forces to wipe out whatever troops and ships the Rebellion had sent in.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • R2 is left behind with Yoda when Luke travels alone into the Dark Side Cave on Dagobah, and is also separated from Luke on Cloud City before he confronts Vader.
  • Han being frozen and sent away to Jabba the Hutt.
• Shoot the Messenger: Captain Needa was willing to be executed by Darth Vader for losing sight of the Millennium Falcon, rather than have anyone else take the blame.
• Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Averted. The heroes catch up with Boba Fett as he is lifting off with Slave I. As the only weapons they have are small handheld blasters, however, the Slave I gets away.
• Shout-Out:
  • Cloud City's design is ripped directly from one of the old Flash Gordon serials.
  • To The Aeneid. Chewbacca carrying C-3PO on his back during their escape from cloud city is a clear reference to Aeneas carrying his father out of Troy.
  • The Walkers' attack on Hoth is handled like the Romans' battles with Carthaginian war elephants during the First Punic War.
  • The Official Encyclopedia states that the shot of Chewbacca holding C-3PO's head is a Shout-Out to the Alas, Poor Yorick moment of Hamlet. Intentional on director Irvin Kershner's part.
  • Han & Leia's pose in the movie's first release poster (as seen in this page's image) is a reference to Rhett & Scarlett's pose from the Gone with the Wind re-release poster.
• Showdown at High Noon: The duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Luke accuses Vader of killing his father, Vader replies "No. I am your father."
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Han gives one to Leia:
  Han: You like me because I'm a scoundrel.
  Leia: I happen to like nice men.
  Han: I'm nice men.
  Leia: No you're not, you're—
• Single-Biome Planet: Hoth (ice/snow) and Dagobah (swamp). Justified for Bespin, which, as a gas giant, can really only have one terrain type (you know, gas).
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Prior to release, there was absolutely no mention of the character of Yoda in the promotional materials. George Lucas and company considered the character a massive risk in terms of creative execution, and felt that it was better to let the movie speak for itself rather than to hint at the character.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Despite the saga's idealistic tone, Empire is definitely one of the darkest Star Wars movies.
• Slow-Motion Fall: The Darth Vader apparition in the treecave being beheaded by Luke.
• Smug Snake: Admiral Ozzel is only in two scenes, but is clearly established as this. He blows off Captain Piett's correct assessment that the Rebels might be on Hoth, backtalking Vader in the process, and ignores his direct orders to launch a stealth attack. It goes over about as well as you'd expect with Vader in command.
• Snow Means Death: There are several notable deaths in the snow, all of which occur on the ice planet Hoth:
  • Luke's tauntaun dies when attacked by a Wampa, a yeti-like predator which hunts under the cover of snow.
  • Luke narrowly escapes this fate after escaping the Wampa when Han Solo leaves Echo Base to rescue him. Han Solo's tauntaun, however, succumbs to the cold, allowing Han to use it's dead but insulating carcass to keep the two alive during the night.
  • The Battle of Hoth shows us rebel soldiers dying in the snow as they are shot down by blaster fire by imperial forces.
• Snowy Screen of Death:
  • An auditory example: "Imperial troops have entered the base, Imperial troops have entered—" *kshhzzt*
  • The bridge of one of the Star Destroyers is taken out by an asteroid strike while Darth Vader (aboard the flagship) is hosting a video conference. The miniature hologram of the stricken ship's captain flickers and fades out.
• So Proud of You: A villainous example with Vader towards Luke. Several times during their duel, Luke has surprised Vader with his resourcefulness, ability, and power in the Force. Since Vader was once a Jedi when the Order still had a large presence and is a trained Force user with years of combat experience, Vader is most likely beaming with pride on the inside that his son could become so powerful in only a few months (over a year at best) when it would take other normal Jedi years to gain the same results.
  Vader: The Force is with you, young Skywalker.
  Vader: Impressive. Most impressive.
  Vader: Obi-Wan has taught you well.
  Vader: You do not yet realize your importance.
• Soul Brotha: Lando Calrissian, who gives Solo a run for his money in the charm and cool department (and puts the moves on Leia, who's uninterested).
• Space Mask: Han, Leia, and Chewie don face masks to check out the asteroid they're hiding in.
• Space Suits Are Scuba Gear: In this case, they're face masks attached to an oxygen tank.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: As Vader corners Luke in the climax:
  Vader: You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.
• Spin Attack: Luke spins on his heel while fighting Vader, but he does it as part of a recovery move.
• Spiteful Suicide: The film has Luke Skywalker at a Walk the Plank moment after fighting Darth Vader and losing his right hand. Vader offers Luke a chance to join him and accede to the Dark Side of the Force. Rather than submit, Luke chooses to perish and allows himself to plummet into the near-bottomless shaft. Only the peculiarity of Cloud City's conduit system and a returning Millenium Falcon saves Luke from falling to his doom.
• Spoiler Cover: Back in 1980, it was a major spoiler for the film's poster to show Han and Leia in a romantic pose. Up until the film's release, every aspect of the franchise — the first film, the first official sequel novel, the comics, etc. — had promoted Luke and Leia as the franchise's designated romantic pairing. Literally no one expected Han and Leia to become an Official Couple, so the poster stole a major surprise away. (It would not be until Return of the Jedi three years later that Lucas would reveal exactly why he sank the Luke and Leia ship.)
• Standard Sci-Fi Army: The Battle of Hoth is the first pitched battle to be featured in the franchise. The Imperial Army utilizes AT-AT walkers as heavy armor, AT-ST walkers as support, and elite infantry, while the Rebels utilize light infantry, speeders for air cover, and light anti-vehicle turrets in defensive trenches. Though the Rebels do succeed in inflicting casualties, including taking down two walkers, the battle is hopelessly one-sided in favor of General Veers and Blizzard Force.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: While A New Hope made it clear how powerful Imperial Star Destroyers are, this is the first time we see a proper fleet in action. Death Squadron consists of five Star Destroyers which are commanded by Darth Vader's flagship Executor, a Super Star Destroyer that dwarfs the rest of the fleet. TIE Fighters and Bombers perform a combat air patrol as the fleet assembles, along with performing interception and area bombing missions.
• The Starscream: In the climactic confrontation, Vader tempts Luke with the offer to join him and overthrow the Emperor together.
  Vader: Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny! Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son!
• Stealth in Space: Han's successful attempts at hiding from Star Destroyers (but not from cunning bounty hunters).
• Stealth Pun: C-3PO isolated the reverse power flux coupling in the Millenium Falcon before he interrupts Han and Leia's moment.
• Stern Chase: After the Rebels base on Hoth is discovered by Imperial forces, Han, Leia, Chewie and C-3PO spend half of the movie eluding Imperial Star Destroyers on board the Millennium Falcon while dealing with a malfunctioning hyperdrive, eventually reaching Cloud City on Bespin... only for Han to be frozen in carbonite and handed over to bounty hunter Boba Fett, which prompts Leia, Chewie, Lando and Threepio to rescue Luke and seek Han's whereabouts.
• Stock Sound Effect: One of Chewie's vocalizations from The Star Wars Holiday Special is reused when Han is frozen in carbonite.
• Stock Ness Monster: The Dagobah sea creature that swallows R2.
• Storming the Castle: Inversion. The Imperials storm Echo Base. Later, Luke has to storm Cloud City after the Imperials have taken over and taken his friends prisoner.
• The Stool Pigeon: Lando Calrissian was forced by the Empire to sell out Han Solo and his friends to the Empire because they threatened total occupation/total annihilation of Cloud City if he didn't. In other words, he's closer to the Lacerated Larry type.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: A prime example, Yoda is.
• Stumbling Upon the Lost Wizard: Luke crashes into Dagobah and just so happens to land right next to the grand Jedi master, Yoda. Luke doesn't even think that the little frog man he meets could be Yoda because he hadn't even begun to look for the guy yet!
• Sublight Subterfuge: The Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive is disabled in a battle, so they have to travel from Hoth to Bespin in normal space.
• Suggestive Collision:
  Leia: [after accidentally falling on Han's lap] Let go, please.
  Han: Don't get excited!
  Leia: Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited.
  Han: Sorry, sweetheart. I haven't got time for anything else.
• Swallowed Whole: When escaping Imperial pursuit, the Millennium Falcon goes to ground amidst a cluster of asteroids and lands within a cave. When a stray shot makes the cavern shudder, Han realizes that the "cave" is in fact the gullet of a gigantic space worm, and the Falcon makes its escape just as the beast's jaws snap shut.
• Swamps Are Evil: Played with: Yoda lives in a swamp, but there's also a cave that is strong in the dark side.

Tropes T to Y

• Tableau: The movie ends with the main characters gathered around a large window, looking out into space.
• Tactical Withdrawal: The Rebels are aware how hopelessly outmatched they are against a large and well-equipped Imperial walker detachment. The Battle of Hoth is a delaying action for the Rebel infantry to buy time for the rest of the base to escape. Once General Veers orders his infantry to debark, the Rebels retreat.
• Take It to the Bridge: That structure Luke fled onto before having his hand cut off and getting hit with a paternal revelation isn't a bridge, but it certainly looks like one. Notably, the part he's trapped on is a dead end.
• Taking the Bullet: Captain Needa sacrifices himself to a Force-choke to save his crew from Vader's wrath.
• Taking You with Me: In the junior novelization when Vader orders Han to be placed in the carbonite pit, Chewbacca starts throwing stormtroopers off the platform and is contemplating just falling over the side and trying to drag as many stormtroopers with him as he can before Han talks him down.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Vader tries psychological warfare on Luke, which Luke resists at first. But then Luke gets disarmed of both his hand and weapon, so Vader has all the time in the world to do the famed I Am Your Father speech that leads Luke into a Heroic BSoD.
• Talk to the Fist: Han gives Lando one for turning his friends to the Empire.
  Han: You set us up real good, didn't ya? My [PUNCH] friend!
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Darth Vader tortures Han Solo as part of a Batman Gambit to lure Luke to Cloud City for his famous We Can Rule Together plot.
• Tarot Motifs: Luke is often upside-down like The Hanged Man at key moments in his arc. Hanging from the ceiling in the Wampa cave, doing handstands on Dagobah when he sees a vision of Han and Leia, and dangling beneath Cloud City after learning the truth about Darth Vader and losing his hand. The card represents sacrifice, commitment to a purpose and a change in perspective, all of which tie into Luke's journey.
• Technology Porn: The movie shows the Super Star Destroyer utterly dwarfing the monster ships from the first movie.
• Telepathy: Luke Skywalker is able to communicate with Princess Leia and ask for help. Later, Darth Vader communicates with Luke and tries to tempt him to join him and the Dark Side.
• Tell Me About My Father: A variation. Luke mentions his father, and Yoda, still hiding his true identity, starts to talk about Anakin. Luke misses the hint, and just gets annoyed.
  Luke: How could you know my father? You don't even know who I am.
• Tested on Humans: Darth Vader wants to check that the carbon-freezing equipment is safe to use on Luke, so he orders it tested on Han Solo.
• That's No Moon: The space worm masquerading as a harmless cave.
• There Is No Try: Yoda's line to Luke Skywalker is the Trope Namer. His Force training of Luke actually subverts the very trope it names, as Luke fails to rise to the occasion of using the Force to move his sunken X-wing out of a lake. He gives up until Yoda demonstrates how badass he is by raising the X-wing out of the water.
  Luke: ...I don't believe it!
  Yoda: That is why you fail.
• This Cannot Be!: A rare heroic version comes from Luke during his fight against Darth Vader:
  Vader: No, I am your father!
  Luke: No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!
  Vader: Search your feelings, you know it to be true!
  Luke: NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Nooooooo!
• This Is Gonna Suck: The movie has Han Solo expressing concern when he's trying to outrace the Empire, only to be told by C-3PO why they can't:
  Han: I think we're in trouble.
  C-3PO: If I may say so, sir, I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to lightspeed!
  Han: We're in trouble!
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Unlike many examples of this trope, Obi-Wan actually literally can't interfere, rather than deciding to hold back for the sake of letting the hero learn a lesson or win on his own — as a Force spirit, he can't do anything to affect a lightsaber battle.
  Obi-Wan: If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone. I cannot interfere.
  Luke: [solemnly] I understand.
• Threshold Guardians: The cave on Dagobah, where Luke battles an illusory image of Darth Vader. Notably, Luke fails the test by not understanding the lesson, foreshadowing tragedy when they fight for real later in the movie.
• Time Skip: Mirroring the gap between release dates, the film takes place three years after the events of A New Hope.
• Too Smart for Strangers:
  C-3PO: [conversing with R2-D2] Why didn't we just go into lightspeed? [...] We can't? How would you know the hyperdrive has been deactivated?! [...] The city's central computer told you? R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: On Dagobah, R2 is eaten by a dragonsnake, only for it to spit him out because droids aren't comestible.
• Torture First, Ask Questions Later: Darth Vader tortures Han Solo to within an inch of his life. When Han is taken back to his cell, he weakly remarks that they didn't ask any questions. Subverted because Vader doesn't really want any information from Solo (or Chewbacca, who is tortured with high-frequency sound). He just wants Luke to sense the suffering of his friends and come to Bespin to rescue them; also, to test whether Han Solo can endure the painful process of being encased in carbonite.
• Torture for Fun and Information: Implied. After Darth Vader captures Han and the gang, he tortures Han by strapping him to a machine. Later Leia asks Han what Vader wants, but Han tells her, "They never even asked me any questions." This is because Vader isn't interested in interrogating the heroes, he just wants Luke to sense his friends' suffering so he'll come straight to him.
• Training from Hell: Luke's training with Yoda is noticeably more difficult than his training under Obi-Wan, due to the time constraints and pressure enforced by the looming threat of Darth Vader. Heck, Yoda even lampshades it, when Luke says he's not afraid.
  Yoda: You will be. You will be.
• Transparent Tech: The Hoth command center features large, floor-to-ceiling transparent displays.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Enforced. Luke and the crew of the Millennium Falcon leave Hoth at about the same time. Luke does a hyperspace jump to Dagobah to go meet Yoda. The Falcon, whose hyperdrive malfunctions, tries to evade Imperial forces in a nearby asteroid field. Word of God states that the Falcon's trip from Hoth to Bespin took several months because of the aforementioned issues, giving Luke enough time to get a crash course in Jedi training and arrive on Bespin at roughly the same time as them.invoked
• Try and Follow: Han rushing into the asteroid field at full speed.
• Turns Red: Vader against Luke in the finale of their duel on Bespin, hacking and swinging much more aggressively than the beginning of the duel. His aggressiveness actually leaves himself open enough for Luke to score a hit on him, which he promptly pays for. Not that Vader was in any danger of being defeated, but he simply decided to finish Luke by overwhelming him with sheer force.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: For most of its plot, the film follows two separate storylines, one devoted to Luke learning the ways of the Jedi from Yoda and the other devoted to Han and Leia's attempts to evade the Empire. Attack of the Clones, the second installment of the prequel trilogy, also followed this structure, focusing on Obi Wan in his search for the bounty hunter that hired an assassin to kill Amidala, as well as Anakin's mission to keep Amidala safe. Finally, The Last Jedi followed Rey being trained in the ways of the Force by Luke Skywalker, while Poe, Finn, and newcomer Rose decide to go against the orders of the Resistance's seemingly Obstructive Bureaucrat by trying to defeat the First Order's fleet from the inside.
• Unbuilt Trope: While it is famous for being the darkest Star Wars film, it's important to note that Empire Strikes Back is the only Star Wars film without any major character deaths in both the OT, the PT, and the ST. What makes it dark is the introduction of horror film concepts, and the more psychological focus on the characters and situations. Fundamentally the film is still optimistic (Vader fails in capturing Luke and turning him to the dark side) and by the finale, even the film's main villain, Vader, thanks to the plot twist, becomes an empathetic figure.
• Undressing the Unconscious: After Luke loses consciousness on the icy plains of Hoth, Han finds him, and keeps Luke warm until an Alliance patrol can ferry them back to base. Luke awakens in a medical tank having been undressed and put on some type of modesty diaper.
• Unholy Ground: The cave where Luke is told by Yoda to enter during his Jedi training. "That place is strong with the Dark Side of the Force."
• Unnecessarily Large Interior: The cavernous core of Cloud City. Note that if you wanted to have an actual "Cloud City" in a gas giant's (or rather Venus-like) atmosphere, this would be the way to go — basically, you would have the whole city as one huge airship floating far above the surface with little work needed to maintain it (and without explosive decompression/implosive? compression if you get a rupture in the hull, plus not having to use such strong materials in the first place). Obviously though, Cloud City from SW wasn't built like this (open views and active propulsion to maintain altitude) ...
• Un-Paused: C-3PO is damaged by Imperial stormtrooper fire. When he's repaired and reactivated, he replays what he was saying and thinking when he was attacked.
  C-3PO: I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up. (Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others. Oh, no! I've been shot!)
• Unpleasant Parent Reveal: Luke Skywalker learns that his father Anakin, whom he sought to emulate as a Jedi, has become the infamous Darth Vader, having fallen to the Dark Side of the Force and become an evil killing machine who strikes terror into the heart of nearly the entire galaxy.
• Unrobotic Reveal: Though it's mentioned in A New Hope that Darth Vader Was Once a Man, he still comes across as a Killer Robot until the back of his head is seen, unhelmeted in his life-support chamber, in this movie, a moment that serves to humanize him, paving the way for the franchise's famous reveal.
• Unseen No More: The Emperor is referenced multiple times in A New Hope, but is not seen in the film. He appears via hologram in this movie, looking very different than he would later on and mostly hidden in shadows.^note The 2004 re-release replaced this Emperor with the Ian McDiarmid version we're all familiar with. The Emperor appears in person for the first time in Return of the Jedi.
• Villain Ball: Vader picks it up big-time on Bespin. Both Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett complain about Darth Vader's plan to freeze Han in carbonite, Lando because Han is his friend, Fett because he wants to collect Jabba's bounty on Han. Vader reassures Fett that the Empire will compensate Fett if Han dies, but coldly tells Lando that he is altering the deal. Now, consider the fact that Boba Fett is just one guy; Vader could kill him and have his body tossed off the side of Cloud City, and no-one would care. For that matter, Vader could have tested the carbon-freezing process on Fett, and no-one would have minded. Lando, by contrast, is the administrator of Cloud City and has a loyal security force at his command that he subsequently uses to rescue Leia, Chewie, and Threepio, which of course leads to the ruination of Vader's plans. If Vader had been thinking rationally, he would have realized very quickly that Lando was the one he needed to assuage, but Boba Fett he could ignore or even dispose of. So why did Vader do the opposite? Well, Fett was evil and Lando wasn't, so of course Vader would favor Fett, even though it was against his interest.
• Villain of Another Story: All the other bounty hunters Vader tasked with capturing the Millennium Falcon.
• Vine Swing: Swinging from a vine is one of the physical tasks Luke performs during his Jedi training on Dagobah.
• Violation of Common Sense: When the Millennium Falcon is being chased through an Asteroid Thicket, Han suggests going closer to one of the really big ones. Leia is incredulous but it actually works because the TIE fighters are too scared to go close and the heroes are able to hide in a cave on the asteroid. Of course this comes with its own problems.
• Volatile Second Tier Position: As Ozzel and Needa discover, Darth Vader expects a lot out of officers under his command.
• Watching the Sunset: The final shot of the movie mirrors the previous film's shot: Luke, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 all gather by a viewport on the Medical Frigate to watch the Millennium Falcon fly off in the direction of a protostar on a mission to rescue Han. This time, the music is a new arrangement of "The Force Theme" called "The Rebel Fleet".
• Watch Out for That Tree!: The movie has the asteroid field version when the Millennium Falcon desperately tries to escape Imperial TIE fighters.
• We Can Rule Together: Vader offers this to Luke, up to the point he begs Luke to do so, arguing that a father and his son should rule the galaxy together, not fight each other to the death over it.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Admiral Ozzel barely lasts long into the movie before being strangled by Vader for his clumsy actions on Hoth.
• We Have Reserves: Vader is so fixated on capturing the Millennium Falcon that when it flees into an asteroid field, Vader orders his fleet of huge and expensive star destroyers to follow it in. This results in massive losses. One captain is even killed when an asteroid strikes his bridge while he is on a holoconference with Vader. Needless to say, Vader doesn't care in the slightest.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: General Veers seemingly just disappears after the Battle Of Hoth. This is because there was a planned scene where a rebel kamakazies his At-At. You can see a very early/unfinished version of the scene here.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lando betraying his friend Han. Later he tries to save him and Leia from Vader by having Vader turn them over to him^note or so Lando thinks.
  Lando: I've done all I can do. I'm sorry I couldn't do better, but I have my own problems.
  Han: Yeah, you're a real hero.
• When Elders Attack: Yoda beats R2 with his cane when the droid attempts to grab the flashlight he has taken from Luke's storage crate.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted Trope — Han tries immediately; Vader simply blocks the shots with his hand, then Force-pulls the blaster away from Han.
• Winter Warfare:
  • The Rebels have relocated their main headquarters to Hoth, an icy, snow-covered planet. When the Imperials come knocking, it brings us the Battle of Hoth, one of the most iconic battles in the series as the Rebel Snowspeeders face the overwhelming might of the All Terrain Armored Transports, the AT-ATs.
  • And as if freezing temperatures, blizzards, and an Imperial attack force weren't bad enough, there are also the Wampas. Luke found out the hard way just how mean these things are.
• Wrecked Weapon: Luke loses his father's lightsaber (as well as his hand) while fighting Darth Vader. Luckily, by Return of the Jedi he's built another one, and has gotten an artificial hand to match. This isn't a completely straight example, as the lightsaber simply falls down a chasm rather than being destroyed, and it's revealed to be intact by The Force Awakens.
• Wronski Feint: This is the entire point of Han Solo flying the Millennium Falcon into an Asteroid Thicket. All four TIE fighters pursuing him get smashed by asteroids.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Vader has been searching for Luke behind Palpatine's back in the hopes that he can secretly get himself an apprentice before making his bid to usurp the Emperor. However, the Emperor finds out about Luke and orders Vader to destroy him. So Vader plays his last card to spare Luke's life from his master's wrath, suggesting to the Emperor that the boy could be converted to their side. It works, but now Vader is running against the clock as his master would be thinking of replacing him with his son.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The look of sheer despair on Leia's face after seeing Boba Fett take off with Han.
• You Are in Command Now: A Trope Namer from the same conversation that named the below. Vader promotes Captain Piett to the rank of admiral just as Admiral Ozzel's body hits the ground. Vader says the words in the Trope Namer when he promotes Piett.
• You Are Not Ready: Yoda informs Luke of this when he goes to face Vader on Cloud City. Vader himself emphasizes the point that Luke is "not a Jedi yet" right before their fight, and then proves it.
• You Are What You Hate: Implied with the cave of evil scene. Luke asks Yoda what he will face inside and Yoda replies "Only what you bring with you". In the cave Luke encounters what appears to be Darth Vader and manages to cut his head off, only for his mask to explode and reveal Luke's own face underneath.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Rebels get chased off Hoth, Han and Leia spend the entire film on the run (before they get captured anyway and Han gets carbon-frozen), and Luke screws up his Jedi training, loses his hand, and gets severely emotionally traumatized. George Lucas has stated that this was to give the trilogy the plot of a three-act play, in which the worst part always comes in Act II.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Without Tarkin "holding his leash" as in the previous film, Vader force-chokes a couple of his subordinates to death, most notably Admiral Ozzel near the beginning of the movie:
    Vader: You have failed me for the last time, Admiral.
  • Captain Needa also receives this treatment after losing the Millennium Falcon. Rather than throw someone else under the bus, he decides to apologize to Vader personally, likely fully aware that it is a one-way trip. Vader, for his part, seems to actually respect this bravery by Needa even though Needa still gets executed for his failure.
  • Subverted with Piett. When the Millennium Falcon escapes the Imperials by jumping into lightspeed (despite his having just then assured Vader the hyperdrive had been deactivated by Imperial agents on Cloud City), the utter terror on his face is palpable. Vader merely steams in quiet fury for a moment, and slowly strides away leaving a dumbstruck bridge crew in his wake.
• You Killed My Father: Famous subversion. From a certain point of view.
• You Know Too Much: C-3PO barges into the wrong room on Cloud City and gets blasted by an unseen assailant. It's only when he's put back together that we discover he was shot by Imperial stormtroopers hiding there, but by then it's too late.
• You Need to Get Laid: Han drops a slightly more family-friendly version of this trope on Princess Leia at the beginning, rather angrily telling her "You could use a good kiss!"
• You Owe Me: Said by Han Solo to Luke after Han saves Luke from becoming a Human Popsicle on Hoth: "That's two you owe me, Junior."

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"Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter."

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