Looking back on Star Wars, part 3: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Widely considered the greatest movie in the Star Wars saga, The Empire Strikes Back was wrought with its own unique challenges.

"LUKE SKYWALKER: “Okay, I’ll give it a try.YODA: “No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”"

Although Star Wars (1977) takes inspiration from myths and legends, you wouldn’t call it a “modern myth” just from watching the first film alone. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) changed that. It’s similar to most movie sequels: a larger budget, a slightly longer running time, new characters, new locations, and more special effects. What it doesn’t do is recycle the first movie’s story. And while George Lucas set out to make Star Wars into a Flash Gordon homage, The Empire Strikes Back is where he truly started building what would become a “saga.”

What you may not know is that The Empire Strikes Back (later retitled Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back) isn’t the first official Star Wars sequel. While Lucas was in the midst of creating Star Wars, he commissioned Alan Dean Foster to ghostwrite the novelization of the first movie. But he also was tasked in writing a follow-up novel entitled Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1978). As Lucas feared Star Wars would bomb at the box office, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye would act as his back-up plan to continue “The Adventures of Luke Skywalker” without the expense of making another movie.

Of course, as discussed in part one of this series, Star Wars became a colossal hit, so much so that Lucas decided to finance the sequel himself, with 20th Century Fox only responsible for its distribution. He also, according to the Empire of Dreams documentary, took out a huge bank loan in addition to using the film and merchandise proceeds. This decision would almost ruin him financially. Empire Strikes Back ended up being more expensive to make than the first movie, going well over its original $25 million budget.

…the official version behind the making of the original Star Wars trilogy is that Lucas, after realizing the first movie would be too long, simply divided his script into three parts. It’s more accurate to say that his over 200-page first draft for Star Wars contained enough material for three different movies.

As he was also overseeing Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic, along with working on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1980), Lucas felt he’d be too busy to write and direct “Star Wars II” himself. Thus he hired pulp science fiction writer Leigh Bracket, whose credits also include co-writing the screenplays for The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959), and The Long Goodbye (1973). For the director, Lucas brought in one of his USC film school professors, Irvin Kershner, who initially refused the job.

Now the official version behind the making of the original Star Wars trilogy is that Lucas, after realizing the first movie would be too long, simply divided his script into three parts. It’s more accurate to say that his over 200-page first draft for Star Wars contained enough material for three different movies. Thus, when going over the story for Empire Strikes Back with Bracket, Lucas had her work in elements from his first Star Wars drafts he didn’t get a chance to use. They also added in elements from Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, including a swamp planet (which would become Dagobah) and a climatic lightsaber duel between Luke and Darth Vader.

Yet when Lucas received Bracket’s first draft, he didn’t much care for it. Unfortunately, before Lucas could go over the script with her, the 62-year old Bracket died from cancer. As a result, Lucas ended up having to rewrite the second and third drafts himself, then brought in Lawrence Kasdan to polish it up.

The basic plot, however, remained the same. Imperial forces would attack the Rebels on the ice planet of Hoth. A romance between Han Solo and Princess Leia blossoms as they, along with Chewbacca and C-3PO, are pursued by Vader, while Luke trains to become a Jedi. Finally, the climax takes place on Cloud City, where Lando Calrissian betrays Han to the Empire and the bounty hunter, Boba Fett, and Vader defeats Luke.

One reason for why Han ends up frozen in carbonite is that, unlike Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford didn’t originally sign up for three movies.

One reason why Han ends up frozen in carbonite is that, unlike Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford didn’t originally sign up for three movies. It’s also, in part, why the character of former smuggler-turned-administrator, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), is introduced. After all, it’s more than a little coincidental that Lando is Han’s “old buddy” and the Millennium Falcon’s previous owner. Even at the end of Empire Strikes Back, Lando wears an outfit almost identical to the one Han wore in Star Wars. Ironic considering how Williams originally auditioned for Han Solo in the first movie.

Yet Williams’ performance as Lando proves fantastic, and his smooth, yet dubious charisma makes a great contrast to Han’s cocky, fly-by-the-seat-of-one’s-pants charm. And overall, the returning cast does an even better job than they did in A New Hope. It’s especially true for Mark Hamill. Not only does he do nearly all of his own stunts but, for large portions of the movie, the only things he interacts with at all are R2-D2, various reptiles, and a muppet.

And speaking of said muppet, the two-foot, green-skinned Jedi Master Yoda (performed and voiced by Frank Oz) still stands as a masterwork of puppetry. More than once while watching Empire Strikes Back, you actually forget that Yoda isn’t even real. Even Lucas made an unsuccessful bid for Frank Oz to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor.

Almost as amazing is that the planet Dagobah isn’t real, either. It’s built entirely on a five-foot-high soundstage, leaving just enough room for Oz to move around underneath. Naturally, this made shooting these scenes difficult in two ways. First, because the top was cluttered with rocks, trees, bogs and the like, the crew had to preplan all of Yoda’s routes beforehand. Second, neither Hamill, Kershner, or the crew could hear Oz from under the stage. Hamill had to wear a hidden earpiece just so he could respond to Oz’s line delivery. Adding to the difficulty, they had to share studio space with Stanley Kubrick after one of his sets burned down while filming The Shining (1980).

Along with Dagobah, over sixty different sets were created, including a full-sized Millenium Falcon. The only on-location shooting took place at the Hardangerjøkulen glacier in Norway, which stood in for the scenes on Hoth. And just like what happened during the filming of A New Hope, the production crew was also hit by a sudden storm, the worst in that region in over fifty years. Not that this deterred Kershner, though. Those scenes where Luke is stumbling around in the snow after escaping the Wampa? That’s an actual blizzard Hamill is in. Kershner and crew, meanwhile, filmed him at a distance from the comfort of their hotel.

Aside from Lucas, only Kershner, Kasdan, and few others knew about [the Darth Vader reveal]. Nearly all the cast and crew, including David Prowse, were given a fake script page with Vader saying Obi-Wan Kenobi killed Luke’s father.

The movie also became a challenge for ILM, too. An entire stop-motion animation department had to be created just for the Imperial Walkers. Instead of being filmed against a blue-screen, the attack on Hoth was shot one frame at a time against a painted backdrop for 15-hours every day. This was also the case with the chase through the asteroid field, in which some of those deadly space boulders are actually potatoes. Nevertheless, the effects still hold up, so much so that they’re practically unaltered for the “Special Edition” re-release.

On top of all this, most accounts about the making of Empire Strikes Back say that Kershner deliberately took his time filming certain scenes. That or he would improvise on the fly. The famous scene in which Han responds to Leia’s “I love you” with “I know”? Ad libbed by Ford with Kershner’s blessing after the actor complained about having to say, “I love you, too” after many frustrating takes.

Of course, there’s one other famous dialogue exchange that isn’t made off the cuff. It’s when Darth Vader tells a shocked, disbelieving Luke, “I am your father.”

Lucas came up with the revelation that the Dark Lord of the Sith was also Anakin Skywalker during his rewrite of Bracket’s original draft. And according to Michael Kaminski’s The Secret History of Star Wars, that one change to Bracket’s script is what helped Lucas draft the entire Star Wars saga. Hence why the episode title in the opening crawl for Empire Strikes Back –the first Star Wars movie which had episode titles during its original theatrical release–says “Episode V” instead of “Episode II.” Moreover, it helped solidified Vader as one of the greatest villains in cinematic history.