[upbeat music playing] If you’re a Star Wars fan then stick around
because you’re about to discover 15 amazing facts about Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
[film clapper sound, music continues]
Some snow scenes were filmed at a hotel.
The scenes of Hoth were filmed in Norway, but the crew was there during one of the country’s
worst snow storms it has ever had.
However to not waste the day, the director Irvin Kershner set up the cameras in the hotel
lobby and had Mark Hamill get in costume and run around the outside of the hotel to get
the footage of him running away from the Wampa.
Mark Hamill’s force pull was made by having him throw the lightsaber into the snow, and
then they reversed the footage in post-production.
A similar trick was used when Vader snatches Han Solo’s blaster.
The director threw the blaster from off screen to Harrison Ford and they reversed that footage
in post-production too.
Carrie Fisher was too short to fit in the frame with Harrison Ford.
Fisher was only 5’1” and Harrison Ford is 6’1” so in order to make the two look
closer in height, Carrie Fisher often had to stand on a box while sharing the screen
with Harrison Ford.
Mark Hamill almost died while filming when large pieces of glass from above the set fell
into the water tank just after he had gotten out of it.
Some of the asteroids were made out of food.
ILM had a lot of difficult visual effects shots to create, and amongst them was how
they were going to make asteroids.
George Lucas wasn’t satisfied with several of their attempts so out of frustration they
started using shoes and potatoes as asteroids.
The Emperor used to be a woman and a monkey.
The original Emperor hologram was a 78-year old woman named Marjorie Eaton who was wearing
heavy make up and had chimpanzee eyes superimposed over her face with Clive Revill providing the voice.
However, in Return of the Jedi the Emperor was played by Ian McDiarmid, and once the
prequels were made all releases of Empire Strikes Back used him for the hologram instead.
The Dagobah scenes where R2-D2 is submerged in the mud pool were shot in George Lucas’
unfinished swimming pool.
Some of the crew were hidden under the water and the sequence was shot by George Lucas himself.
It took 10 hours to create the shot of the X-Wing being levitated out of the water because
parts of it kept falling off while filming.
Obi Wan was supposed to train Luke, but since the decision to kill off Old Ben was made
late into the production of “A New Hope”, this meant George Lucas had to create a new
Jedi which turned out to be Yoda.
Lucas decided to make him a small alien so Yoda would be more interesting for the audience
to watch, and he hired Muppet star Frank Oz to play the unassuming Jedi Master.
However George Lucas almost replaced Frank Oz because he was afraid the puppeteer would
sound too much like Miss Piggy or Grover.
But in the end he stayed with the famous puppeteer because he could embody Yoda’s voice the
best since he was the one there on set.
Mark Hamill got bit by a snake.
When Luke is cleaning out the X-Wing to prepare to leave Dagobah he pulls out a snake from
the spacecraft.
Mark Hamill was told it was harmless, but ironically he got bit on the take right after
he was told that.
The monster on the asteroid that almost swallowed the Millennium Falcon was actually a hand
puppet with the footage played back in fast motion.
The carbonite set was extremely hot, especially for the actors inside full-body suits, and
Carrie Fisher said the Chewbacca costume smelled the worst while filming.
Han was originally supposed to say “I love you too” before being frozen in carbonite,
but Irvin Kershner felt the line didn’t fit his character.
When Harrison Ford improvised by saying “I Know”, the director knew that was the right line to use,
but George Lucas was very upset about it.
But Lucas respected Kershner enough
to leave the line in.
The plot twist was under extreme secrecy before the movie was released in theaters.
Only George Lucas and Irvin Kershner knew the secret, and then Kershner told Mark Hamill
moments before filming the scene.
To keep the secret hidden from everyone else on set, they had David Prowse, who was inside
the Vader suit, say that Obi Wan killed Luke’s father.
When James Earl Jones read the line in a recording session he was so surprised that he denied
it was real and just suspected Vader was lying to get inside Luke’s head.
What’s your favorite Star Wars plot twist?
Let me know down in the comments.
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