6) “I Know” – The Empire Strikes Back
Enough about Han’s death, though, let’s whizz back in time to his younger days. After Lando reveals his betrayal, Han’s frozen in carbonite by Vader, before being handed over to Bobba Fett and delivered to Jabba the Hutt. With no way out, Han accepts his fate. As he’s lowered into the chamber, Leia tells him “I love you.” “I know,” he replies, and continues to look at her as he descends.
The image of Han being frozen in carbonite is an iconic one, as it represents things really getting dark for our heroes. However, the icing on the cake is that “I know” line – perhaps Han Solo’s definitive piece of dialogue.
As fans will no doubt know, Harrison Ford came up with the line himself, after the script called for Han to simply reply “I love you, too.” It’s one of the best examples there is of an actor being in perfect unison with their character.
5) The Cantina Scene – A New Hope
Part of the core appeal of Star Wars is hopping into this amazing, sci-fi fantasy world, and the part that best sums up this wonder in A New Hope is the Cantina scene. From the jaunty, catchy music from the Cantina Band (officially called Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, fact fans) to the assortment of alien designs littering the place, this was the first scene of the franchise to properly convince us that it was set in a bustling alien world.
Besides all that, it’s important in numerous other ways, too, as we also meet Han Solo and Chewbacca for the first time. In particular, we get one of the great movie introductions with Han’s encounter with Greedo (do we need to tell you who really shot first?). Likewise, there’s our first chance to see a lightsaber in action, as Obi-Wan whips his out to cut off Ponda Baba’s arm.
Put all this together and you’ll be hard-pressed to find many more iconic sequences in the Star Wars franchise.
Published: May 4, 2017 06:51 pm