A big part of the death of any hero is their final words.
Sometimes, those last words are packed with meaning.
Other times, a hero's last words are cut off by a sudden and unexpected demise.
Either way, here are the last words of every fallen Star Wars hero from the original trilogy.
You may not recognize him by his name, but every Star Wars fan remembers Raymus Antilles.
He's the very first person that Darth Vader kills on-screen in Star Wars: A New Hope.
An Imperial star destroyer captures a Rebel ship, looking for the plans to the Death Star
that the Rebels stole.
Vader boards the ship and finds the first Rebel leader he can, who just happens to be
Antilles.
Vader interrogates him, and things quickly turn violent after Vader lifts Antilles off
the ground by his throat.
Vader is furious and demands to know where the stolen Death Star plans are, but Antilles
plays dumb.
As he gasps for air, Antilles says:
"We intercepted no transmissions.
This is a consular ship.
We're on a diplomatic mission."
He tries to convince Vader that the Sith Lord has it all wrong — that this ship has no
connection to the Rebels and is traveling on ordinary diplomatic business.
But Vader chokes him harder and asks:
"If this is a consular ship, then where is the ambassador?"
Great question, Vader.
Unfortunately, Antilles never has a chance to respond.
He gives his life without telling Vader where the plans were.
At the time, of course, they were in the hands of Princess Leia.
The death of Beru Lars is extremely sad.
She's the first civilian victim seen in Star Wars, and her ruthless murder demonstrates
how evil the Empire truly is.
Beru is the adoptive mother of Luke Skywalker.
After Luke's biological mother, Padme, died giving birth to Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi hid the
child.
Obi-Wan took Luke to Tatooine to be raised by Beru and Owen Lars, who work as moisture
farmers.
Not too far away, Obi-Wan settles into a little home and watches Luke grow up, carefully protecting
him.
The Larses are good folks.
They stay out of trouble and want nothing to do with the Empire or the Rebel Alliance.
But that doesn't stop the Empire from showing up at their home and killing them.
At the beginning of A New Hope, Stormtroopers are looking for the droids C-3PO and R2-D2
and track them to Beru's house.
At the time, Luke isn't home.
The last time we see Beru alive, she's talking to her husband about Luke's chores.
Owen asks her if Luke took the droids with him and she responds:
"I think so."
Luke later returns home to find Owen and Beru's charred bodies.
It's at that moment that Luke resolves to fight the Empire, to become a Jedi, and to
join Obi-Wan on his quest.
It is essentially the turning point that sets off Luke's character arc.
In the same scene where we hear Beru's last words, Owen Lars speaks his final words as
well.
Owen is Anakin Skywalker's step-brother.
One day, Obi-Wan Kenobi showed up at Owen's door and asked him to raise Luke as an adoptive
father.
Honestly, Owen and Beru are heroes in their own right for doing that.
Tragically, the Empire kills both of them.
Owen's last words on-screen are a conversation with his wife Beru about Luke's responsibilities.
Previously, Luke left home with the two droids they just bought.
Referring to Luke, Owen says:
"He’d better have those units in the south range repaired by midday or there'll be hell
to pay."
Owen may have been a loving foster father, but that doesn't mean he wasn't serious about
pushing Luke to do his chores.
It's unfortunate that his final words were somewhat bitter toward Luke.
Shortly after, Owen was killed by Stormtroopers looking for the two droids that Lars recently
purchased.
Owen's death prompts Luke to leave Tatooine, become a Jedi, and fight the Empire.
Of all the quotes on this list, this one might be the most famous.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and his group of friends are trying to escape the Death Star.
During the process, Kenobi crosses paths with Darth Vader, and the two have one last lightsaber
duel.
It's an extremely tense moment, because these two characters have a ton of history together.
Kenobi trained Anakin (a.k.a. Darth Vader) to become a Jedi, but Anakin then betrayed
Kenobi and the Jedi.
It probably didn't help that during a previous lightsaber duel, Kenobi chopped off three
of Vader's limbs and left him in a volcano to catch fire, which is the reason Vader now
wears his black suit.
Anyhow, during the duel, Kenobi warns Vader:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
While fighting Vader, Kenobi locks eyes with Luke Skywalker in the distance.
Right then, Kenobi lowers his guard and allows Darth Vader to kill him.
Strangely enough, Kenobi's body disappears after he dies.
Later on, we learn that Kenobi can visit people from the afterlife as a Force ghost.
Obviously, Kenobi continues talking after this line, but it's still the last thing he
says before he dies and becomes one with the Force.
In A New Hope, the climax of the movie takes place in space outside the Death Star.
The Empire has learned that the secret base for the Rebel Alliance is on Yavin 4, so they
fly the Death Star there to blow up the Rebels once and for all.
When the Rebels learn about this, they send a fleet of fighters to destroy it, having
recently learned about a small but deadly weakness in the Death Star.
It's an epic battle, but as you can imagine, there are many casualties.
The first death for the Rebels is Jek Porkins, a.k.a. Red Six.
We'll just ignore the fact that George Lucas named an overweight character "Porkins."
One of the Rebel leaders orders the destruction of a turret that is giving the Rebels a lot
of problems.
Porkins is on it.
But after taking out the cannon, Porkins' ship hits debris, which damages his X-wing
and forces him to fly through crossfire.
A fellow fighter named Biggs Darklighter insists that Porkins get out of that dangerous area,
but Porkins is stubborn.
Over the radio, he tells Biggs:
"No, I'm alright..."
His words are cut off because in that moment, his ship is shot down by lasers.
We're still at the Battle of Yavin (the one in A New Hope outside the Death Star).
Our next fallen hero is John D. Branon, better known by his call sign, Red Four.
Once the Rebel fighters fly close to the Death Star, the Empire unleashes its firepower,
but quickly realizes that it's impossible to shoot down all the Rebels.
As one Imperial officer points out, the Rebel ships are just too close to their turrets.
So Darth Vader instructs his underlings to man their own short-range attack ships, called
TIE fighters, and take out the Rebel fighters one at a time.
The first wave of TIE fighters finds a victim all too soon — John Branon.
The Rebel fighters can communicate with one another by radio, and one of them notices
that the turrets have mysteriously stopped shooting.
The reason is soon discovered, as the TIE fighters start blasting Branon's ship.
His final words over the radio before blowing up are, quote, "I'm hit!"
Tiree is another Rebel Alliance pilot who dies during the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope.
We rarely remember the names of these fighters because they're only on-screen for a short
time, and they refer to one another by their fighter designations.
In this case, Tiree's designation is Gold Two, and he flies a Y-wing bomber.
While attacking the Death Star, the Rebels are attacked by TIE fighters, but they eliminate
that first wave pretty quickly.
It probably helped that Luke Skywalker was kicking some tail alongside them.
Seemingly, everything is clear for the Rebels to start their attack run, so Gold Squadron
begins their descent, and starts flying through the trench of the Death Star.
Huge laser cannons start shooting at them, but then mysteriously cease fire.
That's when Tiree says:
"The guns... they've stopped."
Well, surprise surprise, there's another batch of TIE fighters, and this time Darth Vader
himself is leading the pack.
Vader blasts the first Rebel craft in his sights, which just happens to be Tiree's.
Not long after Tiree dies, Jon Vander also perishes.
Vander goes by his nickname "Dutch," and during the Battle of Yavin, he is also known as "Gold
Leader."
Tiree and Vander are flying through the Death Star's trench, closing in on the small ventilation
shaft which they must bullseye with proton torpedoes in order to destroy the space station.
Behind them, a trio of TIE fighters appears, once of one which is a unique TIE Advanced
piloted by Darth Vader.
After Vader blasts Tiree, he begins shooting at Vander.
In those few seconds, Vander argues with Davish Krail over the radio.
Davish insists that they continue their attack run, repeating the line, "Stay on target."
But Vander wants to pull up, because they're in danger of dying by enemy fire.
Vander keeps trying to persuade Davish, even to his last words:
"Loosen up!"
It's not clear if Vander is telling his fellow Rebel fighter that they need to abort the
attack or simply relax their position.
But we'll never get an answer, because right after that, Vader shoots Jon Vander into pieces.
It looks like Vander was right — they should've pulled out of the trench, dealt with the TIE
fighters first, and then resumed their attack run.
Soon after Jon Vander dies in battle, Davish "Pops" Krail also falls.
Again, Krail, a.k.a.
Gold Five, is the pilot who keeps saying "Stay on target" while Gold Squadron is trying to
take out the Death Star.
Krail is aware of the TIE fighters that are on his tail, because he just watched his two
friends get destroyed by enemy fire.
Krail is still flying through the trench at this point, but he's alone, and Darth Vader
is following close behind in his TIE fighter.
Krail isn't sure what to do, so he reports to the rest of the Rebels:
"Gold Five to Red Leader.
We lost Tiree.
We lost Dutch."
Then Krail says his very last words over the radio.
Referring to the enemy TIE fighters, he says:
"They came from behind."
Maybe Krail was going to ask the others to take out the enemy fighters before they could
shoot him down.
But unfortunately, Krail dies right then and there.
Vader, who's now three and zero, shoots down yet another Rebel fighter.
We tend to remember Vader killing people with his lightsaber or a force choke, but he also
kills quite a few individuals from the cockpit of his personal TIE fighter.
And one of the victims of Vader's TIE is Theron Nett, who goes by Red Ten.
At this point during the battle of Yavin, the enemy TIE fighters seem to have disappeared.
The Rebel fighters decide that this is their chance to enter the trench and attempt to
destroy the Death Star.
Garven Dreis, Red Leader, is super focused on getting to that target.
His face glued to the monitor, he says:
"Almost there."
Meanwhile, his fellow Rebels are trying to cover him.
Right then, Vader shows up in his TIE fighter.
Nett tries to hold them off, but he only buys his friend a few seconds before Vader shoots
him down.
Nett's last words are:
"I can't hold them!"
Garven Dreis, better known as Red Leader, was almost the hero of A New Hope.
Dreis is the Rebel fighter who fires at the Death Star's small but vulnerable exhaust
port, nearly hitting his mark.
Unfortunately, the torpedoes don't go in and only impact the surface of the Death Star,
which is pretty disappointing for the Rebels.
Dreis pulls up out of the trench, only to learn that his starboard engine is cooked.
He's a little nervous, especially because he doesn't know where those blasted TIE fighters
went, but the mission must go on.
Realizing that his ship is in no condition to take out the Death Star, Dreis tells the
others:
"Get set up for your attack run."
He's essentially passing on the responsibility to the others.
Maybe Dreis was going to try to provide cover fire while his friends descended into the
Death Star trench, but we'll never know.
Right after that, Darth Vader shoots Dreis' X-wing, causing it to crash into the surface
of the Death Star, and that's the end of Red Leader.
With so many casualties and time running out, the Rebel fighters decide it's time for another
run at destroying the Death Star.
A group of Rebel X-wing fighters descends into the trench, with Luke leading the way.
It's a tense moment.
Luke is telling R2-D2 to fix his ship while dodging turret fire.
The Death Star is almost in position to destroy the Rebel base.
And one fighter named Biggs Darklighter is covering for Luke.
Darklighter, or Red Three, is tasked with protecting his childhood friend Luke from
the TIE fighters.
His goal is to give Luke enough time to destroy the Death Star, but the TIE fighters are right
on his tail.
Darklighter begs Luke to hurry up, saying over the radio:
"Hurry up, Luke!
Wait! Wait!"
He probably knows right then that his time is up.
Darth Vader, cool and calm as ever, shoots Darklighter down.
His ship explodes against the side of the Death Star trench.
Dak Ralter is the first hero to die in The Empire Strikes Back.
Dak was a close friend of Luke Skywalker and a fellow fighter for the Rebel Alliance.
Luke had to watch many of his close friends die in the fight against the Empire, and Dak
was yet another one.
At the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader is hunting for the secret location
of the new Rebel base.
After a galaxy-wide search, Vader finds it hidden on the planet Hoth, and begins an assault
on the frozen world.
Dak and Luke, among other fighters, must defend the base to buy time for the others to escape
and relocate to a new planet.
The two operate the same snowspeeder, with Luke as the pilot and Dak seated behind him
as the gunner.
While flying around during the massive battle, Dak tries to fix the damaged snowspeeder,
saying:
"I'll have to cut in the auxiliary."
Moments later, Dak is shot to death.
The worst part is that Luke has to keep flying around with Dak dead behind him.
After crash-landing, Luke barely escapes the snowspeeder as a gigantic AT-AT steps on it,
crushing Dak's body inside.
The ever-wise Yoda lived to the ripe old age of 900.
He trained tons of Jedi Knights, imparted wisdom as a member of the Jedi Council, and
personally mentored Luke Skywalker.
He's a bit kooky and talks funny, but that just makes us love him all the more.
And don't let his age — or size — deceive you.
The dude can Force-lift an X-wing out of a swamp, and go berserk with a lightsaber, as
he proved in Attack of the Clones when he faced Count Dooku.
But even legendary Jedi masters can die of old age.
In Return of the Jedi, Luke visits Yoda seeking counsel.
But Yoda is ready to pass away due to old age, so he lies down on his bed.
In his dying words, Yoda says:
"Luke, there is another Skywalker…"
Yoda is referring to Leia Organa, who Luke does not yet realize is his twin sister.
She may also bring hope to the galaxy if Luke should fail.
Then Yoda dies, disappearing and becoming a Force ghost.
We have arrived at the Battle of Endor, which is the climax of Return of the Jedi, and the
entire original trilogy.
Han Solo is trying to disable a shield generator on the forest moon of Endor.
Meanwhile, in orbit, the Rebel Alliance is assaulting the second Death Star.
In the famous words of Admiral Ackbar:
"It's a trap!"
The Empire anticipated the Rebel attack and prepared an ambush, which ends up killing
a lot of Rebels.
Among them is Grizz Frix.
While the Rebel army waits for the Death Star shield to be disabled, they decide to do something
crazy — attack the massive fleet of star destroyers that's nearby.
Their logic, as explained by Lando Calrissian, is:
"We'll last longer against those star destroyers than we will against that Death Star!
And we might just take a few of them with us!"
Frix shoots up a star destroyer and realizes that it's about to explode.
Moments before being caught in the blast, he warns his fellow fighters:
"She's gonna blow!
It's no surprise that these would be the last words of a fallen Star Wars hero.
After all, Star Wars is about, well, wars in the stars.
Immediately after an explosion kills Grizz Frix, another Rebel pilot named Ekelarc Yong
perishes in the fight.
It's unclear if the same explosion that took out Frix also hit Yong's ship, or if Yong
was simply hit by enemy fire.
We don't see exactly what causes his demise, and that's natural for a massive, chaotic
fight like the Battle of Endor.
The scene cuts to Yong in his cockpit, and he yells:
"I'm hit!"
If you're a Star Wars fan, you may not recognize these final words right away, but you'll remember
them soon enough because of the scene that immediately follows.
During this point in the Battle of Endor, several Rebels fighters are inside the Death
Star, while Admiral Akbar's fleet remains outside, holding off the Empire's star destroyers.
Akbar decides that they need to do something to buy more time for the fighters, so he tells
all his forces to concentrate their fire on the biggest enemy ship, Darth Vader's super
star destroyer Executor.
Soon after, the super star destroyer loses its deflector shield, and that's when Admiral
Piett panics and orders the ship's forward batteries to increase their rate of fire.
Well, something does get through — Arvel Crynyd.
Crynyd's A-wing gets clipped by enemy fire, and he loses control of his ship.
His ship flies right into Piett's face, ending both of their lives.
His last word?
"Aahh!"
Unable to save himself, Crynyd makes the best of the situation and aims his A-wing straight
into the bridge of the super star destroyer, exploding on impact and taking out the massive
battleship along with him.
The Executor then crashes into the Death Star, which is a huge victory for the Rebels.
But alas, they lost Arvel Crynyd in the process.
Don't even tell us you didn't cry when you saw this scene.
This was the moment the entire Star Wars fan base hoped for during the original trilogy
— the death of Darth Vader and the lingering question of whether or not he would convert
back to the light side.
After Darth Vader repents and throws the Emperor down a shaft, he tries to escape with his
son Luke.
But Vader, now redeemed as Anakin Skywalker, has sustained heavy injuries and can't go
on.
It's a deep moment — a father who is proud of his son, and a son who doesn't want to
see his newly-redeemed father die.
Anakin asks Luke to remove his mask, so they can see each other as they really are.
His last words to his son are:
"Tell your sister, you were right."
No one, including Leia, believed that Luke could turn his father back from the dark side.
Even the mighty Darth Vader was wrong about himself — there was good inside of him all
along.
For his last-minute conversion, we list Anakin Skywalker as a hero.
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