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More Star Wars moments that demanded greater inspection.
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00:00From visually stunning action beats to strange easter eggs, blink and you'll miss it oddities,
00:06and slivers of incredible comedy, these Star Wars moments all begged fans to hit pause and
00:12just soak them in for a minute or two. So after already bringing you one list full of must-pause
00:17Star Wars scenes, I'm Gareth, this is WhatCultureStarWars and here are 10 more of the most
00:23poor Star Wars moments. 10. The Holdo Maneuver
00:29Whether you love or hate The Last Jedi, it does lay claim to one of the single coolest
00:34images in Star Wars history, when Vice Admiral Holdo pulls off the near-mythic Holdo Maneuver.
00:40In a desperate attempt to fend off the First Order fleet and buy the Resistance precious time to escape
00:46to Krait, Holdo sacrifices herself by suicidally ramming her ship, the Raddus, into Snoke's
00:52flagship The Supremacy at near light speed. The result is pure destruction, the Raddus slices
00:58through The Supremacy and obliterates the surrounding fleet, all of this depicted in
01:03eye-wateringly beautiful slow motion and near complete silence. Every shot in this sequence
01:09as an explosive white streak tears through the First Order Armada is 100% wallpaper worthy,
01:15but they each pass quickly enough that you'll definitely want to smash the pause button a few
01:19times and soak in each individual frame. This might well be the single most paused moment in the
01:25entire sequel trilogy honestly, and it's not hard to see why.
01:299. Vader's Scalp Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back
01:34Here's a moment that left a ton of Star Wars fans wearing out their VHS copy of The Empire Strikes
01:39Back
01:40back in the day, the ultra brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of Darth Vader's exposed burned scalp.
01:46Shortly after Luke crash lands on Dagobah, a brief scene plays out where Admiral Piette visits Vader in
01:52his meditation chamber to update him on their efforts to catch the Millennium Falcon. At the start of the
01:58scene though, we can see Vader's helmet being lowered down over his head, leaving his discolored,
02:03deeply scarred scalp visible on screen for about two seconds. It passes quickly enough that it
02:09practically begs fans to go back and pause to take another look, and this was surely especially true
02:14when Empire first hit VHS back in 1984. It's a tiny moment that nevertheless provided an extremely
02:21tantalizing tease of the full Sans helmet Anakin reveal we'd eventually get to see in Return of the Jedi.
02:288. CGI Leia Rogue One A Star Wars Story
02:32Boldly and somewhat controversially, Rogue One included not one, but two digital recreations of Star Wars
02:38alums Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin and Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia. Though it was publicized
02:44pre-release that a digital double of the late Cushing would be featured in Rogue One, the late film
02:49appearance of a young Leia, achieved by superimposing a CGI likeness of a young Fisher over standing
02:55Yngville Daila, was kept a secret for maximum impact. Critical and fan opinion was ultimately divided on the
03:01necessity of using not-quite-convincing digital trickery to recreate these characters. But at least in
03:08her screen time amounts to a single 7 second shot, and so the close-up of Leia's face practically
03:14invited fans to hit pause and scrutinize every last detail, looking for imperfections which gave the
03:20game away. The irony of course is that it looks close to perfect in a freeze frame, and the uncanny
03:25valley effect really only becomes apparent in a moving image, where the subtle movements of Leia's
03:31face just seem ever so slightly off. Still, it's certainly an impressive effort. But I want to know what
03:36do you think is the most impressive CGI moment in all of Star Wars? You let me know in the
03:41comments
03:42section down below!
03:43Number 7, Jango Fett Flying Head Star Wars Episode 2 Attack of the Clones
03:48For all of its violence, Star Wars is technically a family-friendly franchise. All the Fs. And so,
03:55the movies often have to sneak in their gnarliest moments in fleeting fashion. Case in point,
04:00in Attack of the Clones, we witness Jango Fett get decapitated by Mace Windu, with a swift swish of his
04:05lightsaber during the Battle of Geonosis. We very clearly see Jango's head parted from his body,
04:11though George Lucas still manages to keep the MPAA happy by showing not a drop of blood,
04:17courtesy of those wound-cauterizing lightsabers. We do, however, briefly see Jango's helmet flying
04:22through the air. And if you pause this shot, you'll see a somehow even grimmer implication. During this
04:28shot, there are actually two shadows on the ground. One of his helmet, the other of his decapitated head,
04:34which has seemingly slid out of the helmet and soared through the air on its own power.
04:39On one hand, it's good to know that young Boba doesn't end up cradling his own father's head
04:43when he picks up the helmet. But on the other, the idea of Jango's head flying off into the
04:47battlefield isn't a whole lot better. 6. Darth Luke Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back
04:54Of the many, many unforgettable moments in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the few that immediately
04:59burned itself into fans' brains was Luke's iconic trip to Dagobah's dark side cave,
05:05which, in Yoda's words, is a domain of evil. As part of Luke's training, he must battle the
05:10dark manifestation of the force that resides within the cave, embodied as Darth Vader himself.
05:16The brief fight, of course, concludes with Luke decapitating Vader with his lightsaber,
05:21at which point Vader's helmet falls to the floor and the faceplate explodes open,
05:25revealing Luke's own severed head underneath. It's a totally haunting image which represents
05:30Luke's fear of himself succumbing to the dark side, and can also be said to visually
05:35foreshadow Empire's final familial twist. It's one of the most horrific shots in the entire Star
05:41Wars saga, but also one that'll have you examining the frame to try and figure out exactly how they
05:46pulled it off. The answer is actually rather simple though. Mark Hamill hated the prop head they
05:51were originally going to use for the scene, and so simply poked his real head up from underneath the
05:55set. That was it. Thanks for pausing your day to watch this great little Star Wars video today.
06:01Now go and tap on that subscribe button for more WhatCulture Star Wars fun in your life.
06:06Number 5. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's Charred Corpses
06:09Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope
06:11Because severed heads apparently aren't bad enough, here's a Star Wars moment so unremittingly bleak,
06:17there's a good chance you've spent decades denying that you've ever actually seen it.
06:21In A New Hope, Luke returns home and discovers that his uncle Owen and Aunt Beru have been killed
06:26by stormtroopers. And for a few brief moments we can also see Owen and Beru's charred corpses,
06:32melted all the way down to the skeleton after their home was set on fire.
06:36As fans, we're left to ponder precisely how Owen and Beru ended their lives,
06:40but this haunting final glimpse of the pair certainly makes it clear it was not a good death.
06:45While it's an utterly traumatic image to include in a film watched by millions of children,
06:50it's one just about every card-carrying Star Wars fan has paused at some point now.
06:54It can't just be me, right? The morbid curiosity is overpowering,
06:58but even a prolonged stare at the burned bodies doesn't clarify whether they were shot and killed
07:03before being set afire, or were actually just burned alive. Fans are still fiercely debating it to
07:08this day, and we can only hope for the former, eh?
07:17We've previously discussed the must-pause shot from Return of the Jedi, where Anakin's strangely
07:22deformed skull is visible when he's electrocuted by the Emperor. But Revenge of the Sith offers up
07:28something of a sequel, or rather prequel to it. Mace Windu's battle with Palpatine comes to a brutal
07:34close when Anakin slices off Windu's hand, giving Palpatine time to unleash unlimited power. Hitting
07:40Windu with a sustained blast of force lightning, as eventually sent him flying out the nearest
07:45window to his death. Or apparent death, depending on who you talk to.
07:49Much like Vader's electrocution in Return of the Jedi, though, a freeze frame of this scene lets us
07:54take a close look at Mace Windu's traumatized skeleton. In addition to being strangely elongated,
07:59much like Vader's skull, it's also clear in many frames that George Lucas' VFX team simply
08:05superimposed a rather crude basic 3D skull model over the top of Jackson's face. Even accepting
08:11that Revenge of the Sith is nearly 20 years old, it's a pretty goofy-looking effect, albeit one that's
08:17tough to fully notice in regular motion. So those pause buttons simply had to be smashed.
08:223. Snoke's Clones – Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
08:27There are many moments in The Rise of Skywalker that might leave you agape in sheer disappointed
08:32disbelief. Though one you'll likely want to examine with a fine tooth comb occurs in the opening minutes
08:37of the film. When Kylo Ren visits zombie Palpatine's lair on Exegol, for a few seconds we can see a
08:43large
08:44tank that appears to contain a number of clones of Supreme Leader Snoke. This ties into Palpatine's
08:49revelation to Kylo that Snoke was effectively a puppet created by him to lure Kylo to the dark
08:55side. And the visual of the tank where the Snoke clones are housed is just murky enough that you'll
09:01probably feel compelled to pause and take a closer look. While it's tough to glean much concrete from
09:06this quick shot, and it arguably only raises many more questions than it answers – it is a JJ Abrams
09:11movie after all – it at least appears that the clones are alive in some way.
09:162. Yoda Wants Luke to Concentrate – Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
09:22And now for something a little less serious. We have the hilarious moment in Empire when
09:27Yoda sits on top of Luke while he performs a handstand, and attempts to move some rocks with
09:31the Force. Luke eventually loses his focus, causing the rocks to fall over and Luke to lose his balance,
09:38taking Yoda to the ground with him. As Yoda falls though, he shouts,
09:42CONCENTRATE as his face bears a terrified, bug-eyed expression. We get to see Yoda at his most visibly,
09:48hilariously demented, eyes about ready to pop out of their sockets as he realises he's on a collision
09:54course with the ground. While the original trilogy has its fair share of unintentionally
09:58goofy puppetry shots of Yoda, this one was obviously absolutely intended, and ridiculous enough that
10:05you'll definitely want to take a more prolonged peak. That's if you haven't replayed it a thousand times
10:10already. I know I have.
10:121. The Death Star Explosion – Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope
10:17And finally, who among us doesn't love marvelling at a huge, awesome explosion? It's basically hard
10:22wired into us to stare slack jawed at them, and Star Wars has regularly catered to that part of our
10:28lizard brains. While the explosion of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi is arguably much
10:34cooler, it isn't quite as statuesque as the original super weapon's destruction in A New Hope.
10:39Seeing the Death Star suddenly explode in a gigantic fireball, complete with that unforgettable shockwave
10:46ring, is an incredible payoff to everything leading up to it, and something surely any Star
10:51Wars fan worth their salt has rewatched time and time and time again over the years.
10:55Fun fact for the uninitiated, the shockwave ring was actually only added in the 1997 special edition,
11:02and honestly remains one of the most inspired changes George Lucas has ever made to any Star
11:07Wars movie post-release. So cheers for that, Georgie Boy!
11:10See ya!
11:10See ya!
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