“I AM A JEDI”, STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI

Packed opening night at the Dominion, London, 1983. Audience in the depths of despair during throne-room duel. Then Luke throwing his lightsaber aside: “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” The theatre erupted as one. Never seen anything like it since.

PAUL HURT, VIA TWITTER

MARK HAMILL: It’s Luke’s crowning achievement. I mean, blowing up the Death Star is one thing. But since Vader is family, the fact that he’s able to reach him on some level and find that last vestige of decency is much more meaningful to Luke than being an ace pilot and getting that missile into the portal to blow up the Death Star. It’s the ultimate story of a child wanting the love and the approval of a parent. It’s primal. I think really it resonates with people because we all have issues with family.

People in the moment forget that since it’s based on a fairy tale, of course the good guys are going to have to win. There’s not going to be a tragic ending. But I remember saying to George [Lucas], “I don’t know about this.” After Empire I wanted Jedi to be more challenging to the audience. He reminded me, “These movies are designed to be for children. They’re fairy tales. There’s a certain form to those things where Hansel and Gretel get into great danger, but they’re not going to be eaten by the witch.” So he knew what he was doing. But I was going, “Oh, we gotta top Vader being my father. Why don’t we unmask Boba Fett and it turns out it’s my mother and she’s working for the Resistance undercover?” I had a lot of really terrible ideas that I was more than happy to share with George.