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Cheeky cameos, familiar-sounding Wampas, and everything else you probably missed in Episode V.
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00:00The legendary Empire Strikes Back almost instantly became the blueprint for how to
00:04successfully build on the magic of a prior cinematic smash hit 43 years ago,
00:10taking things into far darker and often uncomfortable territory as our plucky rebel
00:15heroes continue to push back against an increasingly powerful empire. And while
00:19Episode 5 has since gone on to become possibly the most beloved Star Wars entry of all time,
00:24that still doesn't necessarily mean that each and every secret easter egg and glorious moviemaking
00:30trick present in the 1980 masterpiece has been successfully frozen in carbonite for all to see.
00:36Gareth here from WhatCultureStarWars and here are 20 things you somehow missed in Star Wars Episode 5
00:42The Empire Strikes Back. 20. Luke Never Fires His Blaster
00:46When you can rely on something as unquestionably cool and effective as a damn laser sword,
00:52opting for a generic blaster can best be described as a somewhat uncivilized alternative.
00:57And that's an opinion Luke Skywalker seemingly shared with his one-time master Obi-Wan Kenobi,
01:02with the son of Anakin never actually firing off a blaster shot at any stage in The Empire Strikes Back.
01:07That's right, despite wandering the halls of Cloud City with his weapon ready to fire,
01:12and regularly being spotted with it on his person, not once does the Jedi in training
01:16choose to pull the trigger in the sequel.
01:1819. An Elephant and Seal Were Used For Those Whomper Whales
01:22Throwing poor old Luke into a pretty rough spot out of the gate,
01:26Episode 5 sees the rebel hero being imprisoned by a fierce, abominable snowman-like being known as a Whomper,
01:32viciously taking down Skywalker's tauntaun before dragging his knocked-out figure back to his icy lair.
01:38The unsettling shrieks this mountain of white terror unleashed weren't actually as alien as the monster itself.
01:43According to masterful sound designer Ben Burtt, a combination of a lion eating a cow's head,
01:49elephants erupting, and a squawking sea lion all help bring to life the startling wails of the fearsome beast at various points in its showing.
01:5718. A Lightsaber Reversal
01:59Staying within the Whomper's freezing home,
02:02one of Luke's first real examples of him successfully using the Force comes during the moment the unlucky Jedi finds himself hanging upside down in the cave.
02:09And more on that later. Skywalker is able to successfully force-pull his lightsaber and slash his way out of the ice,
02:16before chopping down his captor and making a break for it.
02:19And while you would have been forgiven for just assuming this brilliant practical effect was achieved via some expert wire work,
02:25you'd actually only be half right.
02:26Because while wires were very much used to assist Mark Hamill's epic force yanking out of the snow,
02:32they were actually used to pull the lightsaber from his hand rather than to it.
02:36This moment was then reversed later on, meaning that you're really watching a backwards version of a lightsaber falling to the ground here.
02:43Mind blown.
02:4417. The Force is Strong with Upside Down Skywalker
02:47And while on the topic of an upside-down Luke,
02:50the galaxy's most reliable hero doesn't half have a habit of ending up in that rather specific position over the course of the Empire Strikes Back.
02:57Far from being a bizarre coincidence, though, the Force-sensitive protagonist's regular hanging and standing upside down
03:03can actually be linked to the way his world is somewhat flipped on its head during these particular moments.
03:09The aforementioned Hoth's suspending comes during a moment when Luke is likely realising he's not as bulletproof as he felt he was post-Death Star destruction.
03:17His Dagobah headstand comes in the thick of discovering the true ways of the Force,
03:21and his Cloud City dangling swiftly follows Vader's iconic father revelation.
03:26How's that for some Force-sensitive symbolism, eh?
03:2816. A Burning Imperial Pilot in Space
03:32In a far more brutal instance of a Star Wars character having their world turned upside down,
03:37the 1980 classic's epic asteroid field chase comes equipped with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reminder
03:42of just how deadly and morbidly hilarious space can actually be.
03:46With the Millennium Falcon being hunted down by a set of Imperial TIE fighters during the sequence,
03:51one of the Empire's pilots suddenly gets a little too close to an asteroid.
03:54As the ship is well and truly destroyed, however, slowing down the footage reveals a tiny little pilot being fired from the wreckage whilst being very much on fire himself.
04:03Talk about going out in a blaze of shockingly comical glory.
04:0615. A Matte Painting Bespin Background
04:09Long before George Lucas got his hands on a green screen,
04:12the go-to solution for creating a larger-than-life-or-out-of-this-world background
04:16involves some incredibly gifted artists producing frequently outstanding matte paintings,
04:21and arguably some of the most impressive pop-up during the Empire Strikes Back spell on Cloud City.
04:26Along with the unquestionably gorgeous Bespin Metropolis seen behind the Millennium Falcon as it lands in the unmistakable locale,
04:32the eerie chasm within the city which plays host to Vader and Skywalker's game-changing duel
04:36was also largely brought to life through astounding paintings.
04:40Even with that knowledge in mind, though,
04:41it's still fairly hard not to get lost in a beautifully realised setting
04:45that feels about as real as the world outside your window.
04:4814. A Doctor Who Bounty Hunter Cameo
04:51You'd be surprised just how many props and costumes have found themselves being recycled on the big and small screen over the years,
04:58and likely even more shocked to discover that a piece of Doctor Who history
05:02actually managed to wiggle its way into the galaxy far, far away all those years ago.
05:07Those loyal Whovians all over the galaxy probably found themselves suffering from a bit of deja vu
05:12when slimy Bounty Hunter Bosk first wandered onto the Episode 5 scene.
05:16That's because the eye-catching spacesuit the Trandoshan is seen sporting
05:19actually first popped up in 1966's The Tenth Planet episode from the Doctor Who series.
05:25In that episode, a similar-looking Windak flight suit is worn by a human figure,
05:30though it isn't 100% known whether this was the exact same costume
05:33that would be later used 14 years on in The Empire Strikes Back.
05:37But at the very least, both Bosk and this Who figure
05:39shared a fondness for this type of distinct yellow jumpsuit.
05:4313. It's the only time Tatooine doesn't show up in the first six Skywalker Saga films
05:48Easily ranking as the most well-known and important planet taking up a spot in the galaxy far, far away.
05:54The home of Luke and Anakin Skywalker regularly acts as the backdrop to some of the series' most iconic moments.
06:00But what tends to be lost in all of the frosty Hoth skirmishes and hand-chopping that goes down in Episode 5
06:06is the fact that this movie actually sits as the only one within the prequel and original trilogies
06:11not to showcase a scene happening on Tatooine.
06:14And as another interesting piece of often-overlooked trivia,
06:17Tatooine's appearances in Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9
06:21mean that it ranks as the planet with the most appearances in the Skywalker Saga 2.
06:2612. Vader and C-3PO's only original trilogy seen together happened here
06:31Speaking of Tatooine's importance within the Star Wars franchise,
06:34this was also the planet that Anakin Skywalker was ultimately revealed to have built everyone's favourite neurotic droid C-3PO on.
06:41Throughout much of the original trilogy, however, Darth Vader and his creation don't actually share all that many scenes together,
06:47with the one and only instance of the pair reuniting actually coming as Han Solo is about to be frozen in carbonite.
06:54And in the case of some fans perhaps adding their own little pieces of canon into the mix for some additional fun,
06:59the sight of Vader keeping Boba Fett from firing on a frustrated Chewbacca with 3PO on his back
07:04has been interpreted as the Dark Lord not wanting to harm his one-time robotic pal all these years later.
07:10Because Lucas definitely had this all mapped out from the beginning, right?
07:1311. Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were drunk on Cloud City
07:17As the late, great Carrie Fisher would eventually reveal many years down the road,
07:21both herself and Harrison Ford don't do an awful lot of smiling,
07:24as their Leia Organa and Han Solo respectively struggle to evade the Empire in Episode 5.
07:29But on one specific occasion, the two could very much be spotted smirking like naughty school kids
07:34when walking around on Cloud City.
07:36And this was mostly down to the fact the pair of party animals were still a bit drunk from the wild evening before.
07:42Said night of partying involved everything from the Rolling Stones to Monty Python's Eric Idle
07:47to what was described as a Tunisian death drink,
07:50with the end results forcing the leading stars who hadn't slept a wink
07:53to crack a set of still somewhat intoxicated grins when encountering Lando Calrissian for the first time in the series.
07:5910. Boba Fett's face is briefly glimpsed
08:02While he may have grown into one of the most adored figures in the galaxy
08:05on the back of his rather mysterious live-action debut in The Empire Strikes Back,
08:10in reality, the reveal of precisely who was hiding underneath that iconic Mandalorian helmet
08:14actually went down under fans' very noses in Episode 5.
08:18Brought to life by Jeremy Bullock during his original trilogy days,
08:21the actor behind Boba Fett actually rocked up without a mask on Cloud City,
08:25playing Galactic Empire Lieutenant Shekel,
08:28as Leia tries to warn Luke that he'd wandered into a trap.
08:32This wasn't always the plan, though.
08:33Bullock simply stepped in late on in the wake of the original Shekel actor
08:37suddenly not being available to shoot on the day.
08:409. No special effects were needed for Hoth's Blizzard
08:43Episode 5 may not boast the sort of relentless CGI and special effects
08:47pumped into the galaxy throughout the prequel trilogy, thank heavens,
08:50but the brilliant minds behind the various alien planets, technology and characters
08:54found in The Empire Strikes Back still threw their fair share of mind-blowing technical feats
08:59into the sequel.
09:00However, when it came time to shoot the relentlessly snowy sequences on Hoth
09:04involving the rebels trying to fight off both the incoming Empire
09:07and some seriously treacherous weather,
09:09that latter element didn't really require any digital or practical wizardry at all.
09:14So the next time you take in the moment involving Luke Skywalker
09:17trying his best to keep from freezing to death post-whomper escape,
09:20do so with the knowledge of Mark Hamill being genuinely and rather cruelly
09:23dumped in the middle of a legit snowstorm,
09:26while the rest of the cast and crew watched on from the comfort of a nice warm hotel
09:30close by with a cup of joe.
09:328. Alcatraz helped bring a Vader moment to life
09:35It turns out that none other than the most famous prison facility on the planet
09:39helped create one of the most intimidating big bads in the galaxy's many unsettling moments.
09:44When listening to the sound of the doors on Vader's star cruiser slam shut during episode 5,
09:49what you're actually hearing is the noise of an entire block of Alcatraz cell doors
09:53slamming with the flicking of one big ol' switch.
09:56This was reportedly captured by Lucas himself during a visit to the notorious prison,
10:01and it definitely helped add some extra real-world terror to the already formidable spacecraft.
10:067. Ralph McQuarrie's Hoth Walk-On
10:08Concept designer and all-round legendary illustrator Ralph McQuarrie's fingerprints
10:12are all over the Star Wars universe.
10:15And not just that, but McQuarrie himself also managed to land a cheeky cameo showing during episode 5, too.
10:21Walking in front of one of the map painting backgrounds that he helped bring into being,
10:25the brilliant artist takes on the small cameo role of General Farl McQuarrie on Hoth.
10:30See what they did there?
10:31Also, this brief Rebel-based shot came equipped with sneaky appearances from fellow concept artist
10:36Joe Johnston, Harrison Ellenshaw, and Michael Pangrazio.
10:396. A Potato Asteroid Field
10:42Jumping back into the perilous moment involving Han Solo and the gang trying to keep from getting
10:46blown to pieces by some incoming TIE fighters amidst a field of asteroids,
10:50said floating rocks in space actually weren't all that they initially seemed in some cases.
10:55As noted by some of the brilliant minds behind everything from the Millennium Falcon
10:59to the humongous space rocks in question, when trying to land on a design for these
11:03asteroids, the team finally decided on a look that someone quickly pointed out looked similar
11:08to a potato.
11:09Without missing a beat, it was soon decided that throwing a bunch of actual spuds into
11:13the distant background of the asteroid belt wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.
11:17So if you look closely enough, you'll definitely catch a few floating taters threatening to collide
11:22with the Falcon.
11:235. Boba Fett Is Never Mentioned By Name
11:26From the very second he showed up in the middle of a collection of unsettling bounty hunters
11:30on Darth Vader's Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back, most instantly found themselves
11:35gripped by the Beskar sporting badass that is Boba Fett.
11:38That being said, those who hadn't sat through the debacle that was the Star Wars Holiday
11:42Special, gone mad over the newest must-have Star Wars action figure beforehand, or chosen
11:47to stick around for Episode 5's end credits, would have been forgiven for having next to
11:51no clue who this non-exactly talkative masked figure actually was.
11:55Why?
11:55Well, because Fett's name isn't actually said at any point in The Empire Strikes Back,
12:00with his first big screen mention by name surprisingly coming in E.T.
12:03The Extra-Terrestrial two years later.
12:064. Captain Wedge Antilles Tied Luke As The Deadliest Figure On Show
12:10Though it was admittedly nowhere near as deadly as the episode that came before it, you know,
12:14the one that saw a planet get destroyed, The Empire Strikes Back did still involve a grand
12:19total of 46,987 beings being taken out at various stages in the tale.
12:25What likely will come as a rather significant shock to those who have regularly consumed
12:29the grittier follow-up to A New Hope, however, is precisely which on-screen figure is responsible
12:33for the tied-most kills in Episode 5.
12:36According to List of Death's wiki, alongside the supposed hero of the day, Luke Skywalker,
12:41none other than Captain Wedge Antilles can claim to being the deadliest presence in the
12:451980 hit.
12:46Both Rebel men killed 43 individuals each, sitting a significant way above Chewbacca's third
12:52place total of seven.
12:53So much for being the good guys, eh?
12:553. Kids Actually Played Rebel Extras
12:57Potatoes weren't the only unexpected elements sneakily chucked into Episode 5's action.
13:02During the moments that play out within the Rebel's base on the snowy world of Hoth,
13:06many a child was actually dressed up as a Rebel soldier and worker scurrying around in
13:10the background.
13:11This was done in order to help enhance the feeling of the hangar being far bigger than
13:15it actually was when shooting.
13:17And it worked a treat, to be honest, with it being rather difficult to spot that those
13:20troopers and freedom fighters in the distance were actually little more than kids playing
13:24dress-up.
13:25And who wouldn't love the chance to run around on a Star Wars set all day, right?
13:282. Rebels Use Bubble Wrap For... Reasons
13:31As seen during the shots of Luke and Wedge trying to disable the formidable 8080s on Hoth,
13:37or at-at if you're that kind of person, both Rebel murderers can actually be found sporting
13:41random sheets of bubble wrap on their seatbelts.
13:44Was this actually some sort of alien material capable of ensuring the pilots would be safe
13:48from harm should they crash land into the tundra below?
13:51Eh, possibly.
13:52But it's more likely this was little more than a cheap way to add some detail to an
13:56otherwise bland-looking prop on the day.
13:58Bubble wrap was also found on the seatbelts of the Millennium Falcon, too, with Star Wars
14:02lover and director, Rian Johnson, opting to leave it there when guiding Episode 8 onto
14:07the big screen.
14:071. Yoda's Hut Was Made From His Escape Pod
14:10After first encountering the quirky alien lifeform on the swampy planet of Dagobah in
14:15Episode 5, Luke is invited into Yoda's hut for a bite to eat, before finding out that
14:20he's actually conversing with the powerful Jedi Master he's been searching for.
14:24What many likely didn't realise during this and the numerous other moments spent inside
14:28of Yoda's home, though, is that said hut is actually partially made up of parts from
14:32the escape pod that brought him to the planet all those years ago.
14:35As revealed in a Revenge of the Sith deleted scene, Yoda landed on the planet strong with
14:40the Force in an E3 standard starship lifeboat.
14:43He would then go on to live in the ship for a time before it began to degrade, and was ultimately
14:47consumed by the swamp a year into his exile.
14:50So Yoda decided to forge a new home, one that came equipped with some of the materials he
14:54could salvage from the broken down pod slash home.
14:57He even powered his new gaff using the lifeboat's backup power supply.
15:00But as impressive as the Jedi Master's ability to improvise and evolve to his surroundings
15:04may be, it's definitely difficult to look at his home the same way after realising it
15:09likely serves as a painful constant reminder of the world he left behind post Order 66.
15:14And that's our list!
15:15Know of any other things people somehow missed in Star Wars Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back?
15:20Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below, and do not forget
15:23to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
15:26Also, if this kind of stuff strikes a chord with you, then please head on over to whatculture.com
15:30and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching right
15:34this second is based on.
15:35I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars, may the force be with you as always, thanks
15:39so much for watching this lovely video today, and hopefully I'll see your pretty pretty faces
15:43very very soon.
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