The Empire Strikes Back

"It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the Death Star has been destroyed, Imperial troops have driven the Rebel forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. Evading the dreaded Imperial Starfleet, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker have established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Hoth. The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space...."

"[after cutting open a tauntaun to form a makeshift sleeping bag for Luke] And I thought they smelled bad... on the outside!"

"[calling to C-3PO as they're about to escape the Echo Hoth base] Hurry up, goldenrod, or you're gonna be a permanent resident!"

"[to Princess Leia] You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life."

"The Adventure Continues…"

"The Star Wars Saga Continues"

"Mark Hamill — Luke Skywalker"

"Harrison Ford — Han Solo"

"Carrie Fisher — Princess Leia Organa"

"Billy Dee Williams — Lando Calrissian"

"Anthony Daniels — C-3PO"

"Peter Mayhew — Chewbacca"

"Kenny Baker — R2-D2"

"Alec Guinness — Obi-Wan Kenobi"

"Ian McDiarmid — Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious (DVD and Blu-ray versions only)"

"David Prowse — Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones)"

"John Hollis – Lobot"

"Bruce Boa – General Rieekan"

"John Ratzenberger – Major Derlin"

"Jack McKenzie – Cal Alder"

"John Morton – Dak Ralter"

"Denis Lawson – Wedge Antilles"

"Christopher Malcolm – Zev Senesca"

"Richard Oldfield – Hobbie Klivian"

"Kenneth Colley – Admiral Piett"

"Michael Sheard – Admiral Ozzel"

"Julian Glover – General Veers"

"Michael Culver – Captain Needa"

"Jeremy Bulloch — Boba Fett (voiced by Jason Wingreen (original) Temuera Morrison (later releases))"

"Frank Oz — Yoda"

"Clive Revill — Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious"

"The geek world, the scholars of Stars Wars, can tell you what scripts exist. I do not know. I’ve heard that. But what I know is when I came in to Empire and when I actually started to work, George said, “You know, Darth is Luke’s father.” And I said, “No shit?” So it was a total surprise to me and I thought wonderful. That to me was when the whole thing got really interesting and I thought, This thing’s going to be so much more complicated than I thought. It’s going to speak to things that I relate to very strongly and everybody who’s had to deal with their issues with their father, and this is really a mythic presentation of those things. And we’ve seen since then endless world catastrophes based on father problems. That’s why I think the saga is always going to be so interesting."

"I think the critics felt that they were going to see an extension of Star Wars. In other words, they wanted another Star Wars. I decided that the potential was much greater than a rerun of Star Wars. When I finally accepted the assignment, I knew that it was going to be a dark film, with more depth to the characters than in the first film. It took a few years for the critics to catch up with the film and to see it as a fairy tale rather than a comic book."

"Fans have written over the last 30 years telling me how eagerly they awaited the second film of the trilogy. I hadn’t realized how many young children would be seeing the film, and how it would affect them. I think the kids responded to the movement, the characters, and the fairy tale quality of the film. The humor helped make the film appealing to more mature audiences as well."

"I knew in the making of Empire that this was to be the second of a trilogy. Therefore I considered it the second act, the second movement—but it wouldn’t have the same climax that an ordinary film would have, where it sets up a premise, moves along, there is a payoff with a grand climax of some kind of action. The action in this film came at the beginning because it is a continuation of the first film."

"As for the idea of the Force, it is a mishmash of current cultic fashions without any base in ideas. It doesn't seem to be connected with ethics or a code of decent behavior, either. Shywalker (sic) is never called to account for having behaved unpleasantly to his guru (Yoda) before knowing who he is -- even to the extent of knocking food out of the hungry guru's hand. How many religions of any kind would tolerate a disciples having refused to share his food with his disguised spiritual leader?"