Greatest Moments in the Star Wars Trilogy

[matrixman]

This is taken from a magazine called Sci-Fi Universe (sadly defunct now). Herewith, the 10 Greatest Moments in the Star Wars Trilogy, according to Dan Vebber:

1. WARS - The Laser Blasts Heard 'Round the World
When that Star Destroyer crawled across the top of the screen in hot pursuit of the Rebel Blockade runner, it changed all the sci-fi rules in a single shot. But you already know that, so let's move on.

2. WARS - "If this is a consular ship..."
The Dark Lord at his evil best, crunching the esophagus of some poor Rebel lackey and belting his lifeless body into a bulkhead.

3. WARS - An Introduction to Hyperspace
The Falcon's first jump to light speed is one of those scenes that needs to be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. One wonders how many shocked people dropped their Jujubees back in 1977.

4. WARS - Death Star, We Hardly Knew Ya
All of the visuals, sounds and music building to the Death Star's explosive end are forever stamped on our brains: the moan of the laser powering up. "Stand by. Stand by." Cut to Grand Moff Tarkin. BOOM.

5. EMPIRE - Rebels Without A Chance
There's a definite moment when the Hoth battle becomes hopeless for the Rebels. The shots that follow, in which screaming ground troops retreat past burning laser cannons and are randomly picked off by AT-AT fire, encapsulate the ominous feel of the movie as a whole.

6. EMPIRE - Smoochus Interruptus
Han and Leia's awkward but intense first kiss is handled with so much dramatic poignancy and detail, it's easy to forget they're sci-fi icons on a spaceship and surrounded by robots. That is, until that bastard Threepio barges in, ruining the moment.

7. EMPIRE - "Size Matters Not"
The greatest testament to both Yoda's wisdom AND the power of the Force is when the little runt makes Luke look stupid by raising the X-Wing out of the swamp. More of John Williams's best insures the scene will always induce goosebumps.

8. EMPIRE - Family Ties
When the Bespin lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader makes its way out onto the gantry, we're witness to the very core of the Trilogy. Vader is unbelievably convincing as he crinkles his glove and speaks of the power of the Dark Side. And when he voices the "I am your father" line, well, forget it -- we're in nerd nirvana.

9. JEDI - Luke Finally Snaps
Vader gets Luke to show himself by threatening to turn Leia to the Dark Side, but his plan backfires as the eerie chorus swells and Luke just plain goes nuts, beating his old man into submission with all the ferocity of a cornered gundark. It's an awesome moment, and the one time in the Trilogy when Luke actually comes across as a warrior.

10. JEDI - Vader Gives Palpatine the Shaft
When Vader tosses the Emperor to his doom, it's an undeniably epic and needed payoff. We'll probably go to our graves without ever again witnessing an entire theater audience rising to its feet and screaming in unison at the screen. But it happened in '83, and the chant was something along the lines of, "Throw him in! Throw him in!"


Some of the scenes I think are truly "great" and some not, but they're all fine moments, anyway. What do you think?

[Avatar]

The first two I totally agree with. 5, 7 & 8 too.

--A

[Usivius]

1. WARS - The Laser Blasts Heard 'Round the World
When that Star Destroyer crawled across the top of the screen in hot pursuit of the Rebel Blockade runner, it changed all the sci-fi rules in a single shot. But you already know that, so let's move on.

stop right there.
That's it.

THE moment.

It is the best singular moment that sums up the wonder of the trilogy. Never before had we seen a shot like that and it had the greatest effect.

[Cail]

Gotta agree Usivius. Seeing that scene on a big screen completely obliterated everything that had come before.

[High Lord Tolkien]

Gotta agree Usivius. Seeing that scene on a big screen completely obliterated everything that had come before.

Which was in turn blown out of the water by this paragon of creativity:

[Usivius]

(oh, excuse me ...)

[Usivius]

eedee-beedee-beedee

Oh god that sucked!....

[Cagliostro]

Gotta agree Usivius. Seeing that scene on a big screen completely obliterated everything that had come before.

Which was in turn blown out of the water by this paragon of creativity:

I still wonder why they gave him a penis head.


Anyway, are we just talking about the first three? Or should we include the entire saga?

I would definitely put down #1. And it was amazing how powerful that image is, as when in Ep. 3 and the Blockade Runner is reintroduced, it blew me away. Seeing the recreated interior of the ship was such a knockout.

Okay, here's my list of stuff not mentioned previously that were the best in the saga.

Wars - The cantina. These days, it's pretty much nothing to see weird looking creatures in spacy shows. The cantina scene is why. Very exciting to me as a kid. Nowadays, it looks a little rubber-masky, but hey...still a classic.

Wars - Dogfight scene when they are escaping the Death Star. Set up for many videogames to come.

Wars - taking a few moments here and there on Tatooine to slow down and show a desert planet. Something very cool in those shots, from C3PO standing by some big long skeleton of some giant snake thingy, to Luke looking up at the twin suns.

Empire - Bounty Hunter scene. Alright, not a pivotal part of the story, but an introduction to some of the coolest in the series. Amazing that about a minute scene could spark off a whole line of books.

Empire - Luke's training - I really wanted more scenes, and was very excited about what was shown. Always wanted more of this, and Lucas never delivered. Especially the scary tree.

Empire - Subtle peek under Darth Vader's helmet. Didn't jump up and down about it. Just a very subtle, blink and you miss it moment.

Empire - Sad ending. Everything went to hell, and I wasn't expecting that at all. Han in the carbonite was just such a creepy image.

Jedi - the music. Williams, building off what he did before really outdid himself during the climatic lightsaber sequence.

Jedi - Death Star Mark 2. Unlike the Roadrunner cartoons, Wyle E. Coyote went back with something that worked before, and tried to make it better. In it's half-built stage, it was quite a sight. Still got blowed up though.

Jedi - Leia in the slave outfit. Best thing of the whole movie. Topped Leia in the Bespin outfit that pulled me through puberty.

Menace - opening scene - Seeing Jedi's in their heyday, you see why they were certainly a force to be reckoned with at the height of their kick-assery.

Menace - the battle droids - the main skinny little droids were so much fun to watch fall apart. I can't explain why, but it really was a joy to see them knocked over.

Menace - Darth Maul duel. Amazing bit of casting for Darth Maul, despite how dippy he looked. Brought the world of lightsabers beyond old men swinging sticks at each other.

Menace - The surprise I felt when Qui-Gon didn't disappear after being struck down. A total WTF moment. And again, very subtle.

Clones - Detective work plot - I liked the film noir-ish feel of Kenobi's side plot of hunting down the bounty hunter. It didn't last all that long before it returned to your regular Star Wars, but it was a nice new feel to the familiar.

Clones - Origin of Boba Fett. Didn't expect that at all. Caught me off guard and made it pretty interesting.

Clones - "Guitar bomb". Y'know, in the asteroid field where a bomb goes off, not making a sound for a bit, and then it sounds like a twanging guitar. One of the coolest audio experiences in a movie theater. Second only to the opening of Fellowship when Sauron blows up.

Clones - Yoda kicking ass.

Clones - Padme's ripped white outfit. What can I say? It turned me on.

Sith - Code 69 or whatever it was. Clones suddenly turning against the Jedi was awfully sad. And kind of disturbing.

Sith - Palpatine talking about the Sith. A dangerous and kind of scary moment, making the Sith sound a bit more attractive than JUST having goth contact lenses.

Sith - Annie walking into the Jedi temple, and some kid asks what is going on, and the lightsaber ignites. Ugly, gruesome and disturbing. Like Vader choking the dude at the beginning of Ep. 4.

Sith - the final shots. Finally, a shot on Alderaan. We'd heard about it for, what...30 years? Then finally we see it. And then it ending on the familiar twin suns. Beautiful.

[aTOMiC]

Empire - Loved the asteriod navigation scene. Loved the music. The effects at that time were awe inspiring.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKsVVmOGV9I

"The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are forty seven thousand to one!"
"Never tell me the odds."
"You don't have to do this to impress me."
"You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, well, this could be it, sweetheart."

[matrixman]

Bravo, Cagliostro! Your list blows Vebber's out of the water...don't know why, but a lot of explosions involving water seem to be happening in this thread.

It's true that Vebber was talking solely about the original trilogy, but I'm glad you gave the prequels equal time. Sometimes we get so caught up dissing the prequels that we forget they have their share of great moments, too.

Empire - Luke's training - I really wanted more scenes, and was very excited about what was shown. Always wanted more of this, and Lucas never delivered. Especially the scary tree.

Yes! Luke's duel at the tree oozed the stuff of nightmares - "death and dark decay." Add the otherworldly electronic sounds and the "jumpy" staccato editing, plus the bizarre beheading of the "Vader" phantasm, plus a stunned Luke seeing his own face staring back at him from behind that mask...and this sequence is one of the things that lifts Empire beyond the first film to a whole other level.

Empire - Sad ending. Everything went to hell, and I wasn't expecting that at all. Han in the carbonite was just such a creepy image.

Absolutely, the whole carbonite thing freaked me out as a kid, the way Han's face and hands stuck out of the slab like that...

Clones - Padme's ripped white outfit. What can I say? It turned me on.

She was very sexy in that outfit. I'm thinking it was an homage to Leia's similarly white "Hoth" outfit. Hmm...like mother, like daughter.

Sith - Code 69 or whatever it was. Clones suddenly turning against the Jedi was awfully sad. And kind of disturbing.

Very. Another great moment.

Sith - the final shots. Finally, a shot on Alderaan. We'd heard about it for, what...30 years? Then finally we see it. And then it ending on the familiar twin suns. Beautiful.

Yes, both a heartbreaking and glorious ending. To use Mr. Vebber's words, this sent us SW fans into total "nerd nirvana."

[dlbpharmd]

Great posts, I'll have to think awhile on this but I'll be back....

[Cagliostro]

Clones - Padme's ripped white outfit. What can I say? It turned me on.

She was very sexy in that outfit. I'm thinking it was an homage to Leia's similarly white "Hoth" outfit. Hmm...like mother, like daughter.

Yeah, I thought the same thing, so I guess it wasn't just me. I have a funny story to tell about Leia in that Hoth outfit, but uhh....it's probably not that family friendly, but mainly it's embarrassing.

[Cail]

The Empire Brokeback

[dlbpharmd]

Hilarious!

[Cagliostro]

I left out a something in my list:

Menace: The unfolding rack of robot warrior dudes. For me it had echoes of some kind of clothing store assembly line gone horribly horribly wrong. Just eerie.

[Seafoam Understone]

Agreed with the previous lists of "Great Moments"... my own are as follows...

Episode 1: The death of Jar-Jar Binks... wait, damn, it didn't happen.

Episode 2: The death of Jar-Jar Binks... wait, damn, STILL didn't happen.

Episode 3: The death of Jar-Jar Binks... ??? whats going on here? You mean Lucas company actually LIKES that guy enough to have him live? Sheesh!

Admittedly Episode 3 was probably the best of all the sequels (excuse me PRE-quels) and while I feel that much of it should've been told somewhere along the time of Episode 2 so to allow more character build-up for Vader for Episode 3. It was good.

Episode 4: Yeah definitely, I recall watching that Star Destroyer go on endlessly over my head (so it seemed). Was blown away by the sheer size of it.

Agree (again) on the cantina scene. All those creatures. And... HAN SHOOTING FIRST!! yeah! (before the stupid edit).

The updated version of Han and the Storm-troopers running into a dead-end on the death-star... now there were several hundred troopers 'round the corner instead of just the 4 he was initially chasing. More realistic, I'd turn and run like hell the other way too.

Again, updated sequences of the battle of Yavin. More rebel ships and realistic take offs from the planet and the variety of ships "locking S foils in attack position". The battle above the death star more exciting.

Episode 5: The Horned Yeti/Sasquatch creature; gnawing on his lunch of Tauntaun meat with Luke hanging there as a frozen dessert. (updated version showed more).

Asteroid scene; yeah! As well as the Avenger literally making the Star Destroyers tiny by comparison. Can you imagine what it must've took to build that thing (if it were real)??

Yeah definitely Luke's training. Yoda explaining the Force in a way that I understood it. No mention of midi-cholrans. WTF were they thinking in Ep. 1?

Climatic lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke. Simply awesome. Topped of course with the "Who's your Daddy?" moment.

Episode 6: Big bad ass Rancor, who'd ever conceived a monster like that before?

Battle above the Sarlacc pit. Luke showed his warrior prowess had grown by then. Leia's slave outfit did it for me as well.

Death of Yoda, proving that real Jedi's don't die... they just fade away.

Anyone else notice how Lando's piloting of the Falcon through the Rebel Fleet prior to hyperspace jump was similar to Han's piloting through the asteroid field? Saw that right off I think.

Battle of Endor; kept thinking about how those poor bastards in the AT-ST walkers got squished like roaches in a coke can when those two tree-trunks smashed together with the control cabin in between. Also how those little (annoying) fur-balls were actually able to turn the tide of battle.

Above the battle of Endor... Thousands of Tie-Fighters screaming towards you at the beginning.

[matrixman]

Thanks for your input, Seafoam! You make some good observations.

Don't mince words, tell us your true feelings about Jar-Jar.

The updated version of Han and the Storm-troopers running into a dead-end on the death-star... now there were several hundred troopers 'round the corner instead of just the 4 he was initially chasing. More realistic, I'd turn and run like hell the other way too.

Again, updated sequences of the battle of Yavin. More rebel ships and realistic take offs from the planet and the variety of ships "locking S foils in attack position". The battle above the death star more exciting.

I agree, these two updated scenes genuinely improved upon the original shots.

[High Lord Tolkien]

My son has become a Star Wars addict and in turn, so have I.
So over the last few months I've seen all the movies several times over.
I have to say I love them all more as I see them.
My son's laughter at his antics have even made me forgive the creation of Jar-Jar Binks.


There's something special about New Hope though.
Although I also remember the awe of the opening sequence with the Star Destroyer, my magic moment is the first time Luke uses the lightsaber at Ben's house.
The sound and the light......it just hits me. I can't describe it.
I don't think there's another movie that does that do me.
No idea how or why though.

[Creator]

The prison break scene in A new Hope (#4)

two parts - the first one where Han Solo shoot the console and says "Boring Conversation Anyway!"

And then when they get into the Garbage Chute and Han Solo says "What an incredible smell you've discovered!"

[Tull]

The entire Battle of Yavin. Williams is just an absolutely amazing genius in writing the score there; that main theme towards the beginning as the X-wings start their attack gives me shivers of awesomeness every time I hear it, much less see it.

And Luke pwning Jabba's barge. It's the perfect intro to RotJ - kind of like "Whoa, what the hell happened to that whiny farmboy from the first two movies?"