At 40, ‘Jedi’ still the best ‘Star Wars’ finale
iral social media trends started innocently enough. ● In the early 2010s there was planking, the “Harlem Shake” dance and lip syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s summer anthem “Call Me Maybe.” ● Then came the ice bucket challenge, which raised an estimated $115 million for ALS research. ● In recent years, social media challenges have grown more popular – and more dangerous, leading to serious injuries and even deaths. It’s not hard to see why. The milk crate challenge dares people to walk or run across a loosely stacked pyramid of milk crates, the Tide pod challenge involves eating laundry detergent pods, and the Benadryl challenge encourages taking six or more doses of over-the-counter allergy medication all at once. ● As clinical psychology researchers, we study why social media challenges are so appealing to teens despite the dangers they pose, and steps parents can take to protect their kids.
Whether waiting in a line wrapping around a mall on opening day or thirsting over new “Star Wars” action figures at the toy store, if you were a kid 40 years ago, you knew “Return of the Jedi” was a big deal. And you loved it.
When “Jedi” was released in theaters on May 25, 1983, the box office wasn’t ruled by prequels and sequels. There weren’t even that many movie franchises around. Instead, we were just concerned about getting Han Solo out of that carbonite from “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Two more “Star Wars” trilogies followed, plus so many other blockbuster franchises that arose over the decades, but “Return of the Jedi” has managed to age pretty well. Here are five reasons why it’s still cool:
Luke Skywalker’s hero quest is still an all-timer (and so is his dad’s)
In George Lucas’ original 1977 “Star
Wars,” Mark Hamill’s Luke started off as a whiny farm boy who jumped in an Xwing, used the Force and blew up the Death Star. He, thankfully, grew up a little more in “Empire” – which was bound to happen, with all the Yoda training and Darth Vader coming clean as Luke’s space daddy. But in “Jedi,” Luke is fully in grown-up Jedi master mode, going to Jabba the Hutt’s palace to save Han (Harrison Ford), reveal to Leia (Carrie Fisher) that they’re twin siblings and face off with the Emperor for all the marbles.
Anakin Skywalker, aka Vader, also completes an evolution as well, from Jedi hero to villainous lord to Father of the Year candidate, throwing the Emperor down a shaft and giving up his life for Luke’s. After everything that went down, who doesn’t get a little verklempt when a dying Vader asks Luke to take off his mask and says – with James Earl Jones’ legendary voice – “Just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes.”
Thanks to Admiral Ackbar, a memorable meme was born
In 1983, everybody got such a kick out of a lobster dude leading the Rebel fleet into battle against the second Death Star. At the time, his line “It’s a trap” – spouted when the good guys expect the space station’s shields to be down but realize the Empire has tricked them – was just one of a bunch of nifty aspects to an epic “Star Wars” battle scene.
In the 2000s, though, that simple sentence took on a life of its own. It became one of the first memes in a burgeoning Internet culture, was borrowed by everything from “Family Guy” to “The Daily Show” and is still shared widely on social media as a reaction GIF.