Trivia

In the asteroid scene, one of the asteroids is actually a shoe. The rumor is that George Lucas asked the SFX people to redo the scene so many times that they got annoyed and one of them threw in their shoe.

Lighting for SFX was so strong that several models melted.

Further scenes with the Wampa were shot, and later cut. R2-D2 encountered one within the Rebel base, where it was killed by troopers. Later, the beasts were lured into a prison within the complex. In the completed film, a medical droid is seen examining the wounds of a tauntaun killed by a Wampa, and Princess Leia mentions the "creatures" while discussing the Imperial probe droid. A scene filmed but cut had Han, Leia and C-3PO running through a corridor. Han went to take a short-cut through a door with a sign on it, but Leia warned him "that's where those creatures are kept". They run off, but not before C-3PO rips off the sign, hoping that the stormtroopers will enter the room. They did. A few seconds of this last scene can be seen in the theatrical trailer on the DVD.

There seems to be many stories behind Alec Guinness and his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi. In George Lucas's original treatment (When it was ALL one story instead of a trilogy), Obi-Wan lives throughout the whole story (A fact confirmed by Lucas in the DVD Commentary). However, Obi-Wan ends up getting killed off in the first film (Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope). There are many stories as to why Lucas changed it. There are some stories that either Guinness demanded that Obi-Wan was killed off so he wouldn't have to appear in any sequels or Lucas did it on his own much to the bitterness of Guinness. In the Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope DVD Commentary, Lucas says that he felt it was a waste of Guinness's talents to have him stand beside Leia in the control room during the Death Star battle (as it was scripted) and too outlandish to have the elderly Obi-Wan join the dogfight. So he killed off Obi-Wan in order to spur Luke on to going into Jedi training and defeat the Empire. In any event, when it came time to make Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), in which Luke begins his training, Lucas drew from the "ugly creature with mystical powers" mythological archetype (as he did when creating Star Wars) and created Yoda as Luke's new Jedi master. Eventually, Alec Guinness was lured back into the role of Obi-Wan when he was promised more money. Therefore creating the "force spirit" motif that remains throughout the rest of the films, including the new trilogy.

In the DVD commentary, Carrie Fisher relates that during some of the London filming, she stayed a house rented from Eric Idle. Idle and the Pythons were filming Life of Brian at the time. One evening, Idle had a small party, including Harrison Ford and The Rolling Stones, and served a potent liquor (which the Pythons had been distributing to extras on their film, to help boost morale) that he referred to as "Tunisian Table Cleaner". They stayed up most of the night drinking and having fun. The first scenes shot the next day were the arrival at Cloud City, which she says helps explain why she and Ford were so happy in those scenes. Idle is said to be pleased that he had a small hand in how the finished film turned out.

Carrie Fisher traveled to the filming location of Finse, Norway, even though she was not scheduled to take part in any outdoor scenes.

Original start date of shooting at Elstree was slated to start in March 1979 but was delayed for three months because at that time, set 3 of the studio which was used for The Shining was burned down and had to be rebuilt at a higher scale

Director Irvin Kershner provided the voice of Darth Vader himself in the temporary mix of the film, before James Earl Jones recorded the final version.

The scene in the Cloud City apartment where Han Solo enters to tell Princess Leia that the repairs on the Millennium Falcon are almost complete played out differently in the finished film than it did in the original script. There, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is lounging around in the apartment when Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) enters, having changed from the white combat clothes she wore on Hoth to the brown dress and having her hair done up differently. In surprised reaction to how she's dressed, Solo attempts to flatter her ("You look beautiful. You should wear girls clothes all the time.") and Leia teases him by mentioning Luke; the scene ended with them sharing a kiss. The film was originally shot this way, but director Irvin Kershner felt it wasn't coming out right, so he re-shot it to appear as it does in the finished film. Excerpts of how the scene was originally filmed can now be seen on the special edition DVD.

Production difficulties meant that the film went over budget by $10 million.

Second unit director John Barry joined the film after quitting Saturn 3 following a dispute with that film's star, Kirk Douglas). Barry died of meningitis during production.

Irvin Kershner initially turned down the opportunity to direct the film as he felt that it would be too difficult to top the success of Star Wars. He took the job when his agent convinced him that he shouldn't pass on the opportunity to make a sequel to one of the most popular movies in history.

Several crates of simulated snow as seen on the Hoth Hangar set were taken along to Finse, Norway, just in case there was not enough real snow lying about.

The Millennium Falcon was constructed in a hangar at Pembroke Docks where great flying boats were made in the 1930s. It was brought to Elstree studios, London in sixteen interlocking sections by a convoy of trucks. After reassembly, the Falcon was floated into position on the then brand new Star Wars stage by means of compressed air pads similar to those used on hovercraft.

A total of 16 sets of Luke's combat outfit (aka "Bespin fatigues") were made.

In order to avoid sharing creative rights, George Lucas decided to avoid using a major studio to finance this film. Instead, he bankrolled the $33 million production himself, using a combination of his profits from Star Wars and a bank loan. Although the move was risky, it paid off several times over. Lucas recovered his million investment within three months of the film's release. He then showed gratitude far beyond the Hollywood norm, by sharing the profits with his employees (nearly $5 million in bonuses).

The carbon freezing chamber is the only time in the original trilogy that Darth Vader and C3PO can be seen on screen together.

The sound of Darth Vader's shuttle door opening is reportedly a recording of a whole block of Alcatraz cell doors slamming shut.

The two other scenes, which are the swamps of Dagobah; and the asteroid's creature (which has the Millenium Falcon) was done on the same sound stage used for the interior backgrounds of the Echo base in Hoth

Luke cuts off the Wampa's arm. C-3PO loses an arm when blasted by the Stormtroopers. Darth Vader cuts off Luke's hand. See also Star Wars and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

More scenes of the AT-ST Imperial "chicken walkers" were filmed, but George Lucas decided that the larger AT-ATs were more menacing and impressive. He later realized that the AT-STs would work better in close quarters, which led to using them extensively in the forest battle in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

The incident where R2-D2 accidentally electrocutes himself by mistaking a power outlet for a computer terminal was taken from the novelization for Star Wars.

The following characters "have a bad feeling about this": Leia. See also: Star Wars and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

Denis Lawson plays Wedge Antilles. Wedge was not originally scripted to appear in this film, but intense fan interest prompted George Lucas to include him. See also Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

The voice-over line "The first transport is away" during the Rebel evacuation was re-recorded by 'Mark Hamill 1997 for the Special Edition release.(I)'.

After an extra fell sick, Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) was called in as a replacement to the Imperial Guard who escorts Princess Leia and pulls her into the elevator after she screams "Luke! It's a trap!". He's the same Imperial Guard who is captured by Lando Calrissian's men.

Carrie Fisher stood on a box for many of her scenes with Harrison Ford in order to make up for the height difference and have her appear in the frame with him. Carrie Fisher is about a foot shorter than Harrison Ford.

The shots where Luke uses his Jedi powers to retrieve his lightsaber from a distance were achieved by having Mark Hamill throw the lightsaber away and then running the film in reverse.

The concept design for Cloud City was originally created for Star Wars (as a floating Imperial prison), but was never used. The design was recycled for use in this film.

Mark Hamill had to bang his head 16 times on the ceiling of Yoda's hut before the director was satisfied.

George Lucas was so impressed by Frank Oz's performance as Yoda that he spent thousands of dollars on an advertising campaign to try and get him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Lucas's campaign ultimately failed because it was felt that a puppeteer wasn't an actor.

For the Dagobah scenes, Mark Hamill was the only one listed on the callsheets as an actor. Everyone else was listed as crew.

The book "Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays" reveals that, when the script for this movie was first written, the idea of it being "Episode V" of a 6 (or 9) part serial had not yet been established, and it was at one point called Episode II.

Most of the rebel ground troops in the Hoth battle were Norwegian extras. Because they didn't speak any English, second unit director Peter MacDonald had to "act out" what he wanted them to do, by pointing in the direction of the "enemy" (which wasn't visible during shooting) and demonstrating the recoil motion he wanted for the blaster rifles.

Most of the extras in the snowy battle scenes on the ice planet Hoth (shot at Finse, Norway) were Norwegians. One of the extras - Tom Egeland - would later become the chief news editor for one of Norway's largest TV networks, as well as a critically acclaimed mystery writer, one of the others - Arve Juritzen - would become one of Norway's best known TV-personalities (hosting eg. Vil du bli millionær?, Big Brother Norge).

Producer Gary Kurtz came up with the title for the movie.

Temuera Morrison who played Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones re-dubbed Boba Fett's lines for the 2004 DVD.

The only Star Wars Original Trilogy film that does not take place on the desert planet Tatooine (although it is mentioned by name at the end of the film). Tatooine also appears in Episodes I, II, and III, making it the only planet that appears five times in the entire saga.

One of the first ideas for Lando Calrissian was to have him as a clone who survived the Clone Wars who leads legions of clones on a planet they settled on. Another idea had Lando as the descendant of survivors of the Clone Wars, born into a family who reproduced solely by cloning. Originally, his name was "Lando Kadar".

WILHELM SCREAM: Heard twice in the film. Once during the battle on Hoth as a rebel soldier and his laser gun dish explodes. And right before Han is going to frozen in the carbonite. As Chewie, in a fit if rage, throws a stormtrooper of the ledge (barely audible).

The sound of the Tauntauns was produced by recording the sound of an Asian sea otter named Moda.

The entire sequence with the Wampa attack was designed to explain the difference in appearance of Mark Hamill, who had been in involved in a car accident in between shooting and had a large chunk of his nose missing. Noticeably, Kershner does not show much of Hamill's nose before the Wampa attack. The scene, however, was part of the story before Hamill's accident.

Darth Vader was ranked #3 on the AFI's list of 50 Greatest Villains

Production was stopped at one point following the death of studio second unit director John Barry. Harley Cokeliss took over Barry's duties.

In an interview with Cinescape magazine, director Irvin Kershner said that he thought the first film was trashy and how he had no interest in films with special effects. However, he was won over by George Lucas, although Kershner was determined to make the film more about characterizations than hardware. Kershner spent several months working on the script, pushing the writers into humanizing the characters more (something that Lucas has often been criticized for failing to do).

The chasm deep in the heart of Bespin in which Luke and Vader have their lightsaber duel was created using a matte painting. The same strategy was used in the original film in the scene where Luke and Leia blast Stormtroopers across an inactive bridge.

When Han Solo is about to be frozen, Princess Leia says, "I love you." In the original script, Han Solo was supposed to say, "Just remember that, Leia, because I'll be back," but at the time of filming, Harrison Ford wasn't entirely certain he did want to come back for a third film. There is a recurring legend that his line, "I know", was ad-libbed; however Alan Arnold's book "Once Upon A Galaxy: A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back" includes a transcription of the discussion between Ford and Irvin Kershner in which Ford suggested the line.

In the Hoth command center, Han references "That bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mandell". "Rebel Mission to Ord Mandell" was released in 1983 as an NPR radio drama, and later on 33 1/3 LP. It starred the voices of many of the original cast.

Voted #3 On Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008)

The bounty hunters are never referred to by name. Every time Boba Fett is referenced, he is called "the bounty hunter".

It has been widely rumored that Luke's injury early in the film was included to explain the difference in Mark Hamill's appearance, as a result of a car accident he had been in shortly after the release of the first film. In fact, however, that scene was already in the early drafts of the script before Hamill's accident.

This movie featured the first appearance of the Emperor whom appeared as a hologram to Darth Vader. The 'Emperor' was actually portrayed by an elderly female stand-in with a hood and heavy makeup. The yellow, Dark-Force eyes were in fact chimpanzee eyes superimposed over the stand-in's eyes to give the Emperor a less-human, more unworldly look. The Emperor's voice was provided by Clive Revill who provided the voice only and not the appearance.

The only way to get to the set in the midst of a blizzard during filming in Norway was on a snowplow train, which had a giant auger on the front, pushing through the snow to deliver the actors to the set. The weather conditions were so severe that the crew put the camera in the back door of the hotel the cast and crew were staying and shot from out the door, 12 feet from the hotel out in the blizzard.

Darth Vader's command module is said to be a hyperbaric chamber which charges the interior air to greater than one atmospheric pressure, thus allowing him to remove his helmet and breathe normally for limited periods of time; this was not as originally presented in the film, however, which featured an additional breathing mask for Vader in the chamber, which was notoriously shown for only a split second and never made it into the official continuity.

The bounty hunter dressed all in white is named Dengar. His backstory is that he was once a fierce rival of Han Solo's, and was badly beaten by him. He vowed revenge and has been hunting Solo for some time.

The only movie in the original Star Wars trilogy in which the Jedi mind trick is never used. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi uses the Jedi mind trick to get past the Stormtroopers on Tatooine, and in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker uses (and attempts to use) the mind trick several times inside Jabba's palace.

In the Star Wars galaxy, travel between the solar systems is via hyperspace routes; essentially, super-highways between stars. The route containing the planet Hoth is the equivalent of an unpaved road, which was why Admiral Ozzel was so skeptical that the rebels were there.

The armored speeders parked at the rebel base on Hoth were built by Ogle Design Ltd. of Letchworth Heath, near London. ODL is known for manufacturing the famous/infamous three-wheeled Reliant sports car.

Luke is separated from most of the main characters for the majority of the film.

Director Irvin Kershner decided that for this movie, members of the Rebel Alliance would speak with American accents, while the Imperial Officers would speak with British accents, to make the story analogous to the American Revolution. However, most of the supporting actors that appeared as Rebel personnel on Hoth were in-fact British actors. Consequently, Kershner had to re-dub several of the scenes taking place at the Hoth rebel base with American voices in post production.

One of only two Star Wars films without English subtitles to translate alien languages, the other being Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

Features the only instance of breaking the fourth wall in the entire "Star Wars" saga. When several characters are escaping from the rebel base on Hoth as the Empire begins to invade, a door closes before C-3PO can exit through it, and he turns to the camera and mutters, "How typical."

Months prior to the film's release, John Williams was named Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. During Williams first televised performance with the Orchestra on PBS's Evening At Pops, he publicly premiered some of the new scoring pieces he composed for the movie.

Dutch film director 'Paul Verhoeven' was considered to direct this film, based on his work in the film Soldier Of Orange. He was invited for a meeting with the producers and brought with him his newest film Spetters, that he was proud of and wanted to screen for the producers. After the screening he never heard from them again and the film would eventually be directed by Irvin Kershner. Verhoeven revealed this information at a Q&A session in Helsinki Finland during the Night Visions Film Festival in 2012.

The film's most famous line is often misquoted. While many believe that Darth Vader says, "Luke, I am your father." He actually says, "No, I am your father." Even James Earl Jones, who provided the voice for Darth Vader, misquoted the line when referring to it on the Empire of Dreams: The Story of the 'Star Wars' Trilogy documentary.

Security surrounding this movie was so intense that George Lucas had regular reports about "leaks" from actors. George Lucas was so determined that the ending be kept secret that he had David Prowse (Darth Vader) say "Obi-Wan killed your father", and dubbed it later to be "I am your father". In fact, only five people eventually knew about the ending before the film's release: George Lucas (came up with the idea in his second draft, after the death of Leigh Brackett), director Irvin Kershner (informed of such during story conferences), writer Lawrence Kasdan (also informed during story and script conferences), Mark Hamill (informed shortly before the shooting of the infamous scene), and James Earl Jones (told during the recording sessions for the final dub, and whom himself believed that Vader was lying).

During his battle with Vader, Luke's hand is severed and he loses his lightsaber (once used by Anakin/Vader and given to Luke by Obi-Wan). As part of the Expanded Universe, Luke's hand and lightsaber were recovered and kept by the Emperor as trophies. Later, the hand was used to create a clone of Luke that also wielded the lost saber. After the clone's death, Luke presented the lightsaber to Mara Jade, his future wife.