10 Fun Facts About 'The Empire Strikes Back!'

Let me ask you something: what is the best Star Wars movie? Even though us Star Wars fans are a bit divided in this day and age of The Last Jedi, I think a lot of us can agree that our favorite Star Wars movie is The Empire Strikes Back.

And since it's my favorite Star Wars film as well, I've decided to give you ten fun facts about the film.

1. Darth Vader never said, 'Luke, I am your father.'

The most well-known line in the film is often the commonly quoted plot twist, in which Darth Vader says, "Luke, I am your father." However, the line has actually been misquoted for decades.

If you watch the scene, you'll hear that Darth Vader says, "No, I am your father."

The misquoted line has been used in the past as evidence for the Mandela Effect.

In the theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back, when they filmed this scene with the Emperor, he was portrayed by a 78-year-old woman named Marjorie Eaton. She was wearing heavy makeup and superimposed chimpanzee eyes. Her voice was dubbed over by Clive Revill.

However, in Return of the Jedi and the subsequent prequels, the role was portrayed by Ian McDiarmid, and as a result, when The Empire Strikes Back was re-released in 2004, McDiarmid filmed the scene from the 1980 film.

Near the beginning of the film, Luke is trapped in the cave of a Wampa. He sees his lightsaber nearby and he uses the Force to pull it towards him and free himself.

They filmed this scene by having actor Mark Hamill throw the lightsaber into the snow, and they then reversed the footage in post-production.

4. Carrie Fisher had to stand on a box while filming many of her scenes with Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford, the actor who played Han Solo, is 6'1", whereas Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Leia, is only 5'1". In order to make the two look closer in height, Fisher usually had to stand on a box while filming her scenes with Ford.

You can see evidence of this in the screencap below.

5. The blizzard scene on Hoth was a real blizzard.

While filming on location in Finse, Norway, there was a huge blizzard. Normally, blizzard conditions halt filming, but director Irvin Kershner decided to use the blizzard to film the scene on Hoth, in which Luke is riding his Tauntaun and gets knocked out by the Wampa.

In the era when The Empire Strikes Back was released, credits were placed at the beginning of a film. When George Lucas made the original Star Wars, he convinced the Writers' Guild and Directors' Guild to let him move the credits to the end in order to have the dramatic opening crawl.

They only let him do it because they were unconvinced that Star Wars would be unsuccessful, and when the sequel came out, they fined Lucas nearly $250,000 for not putting the credits at the beginning.

There's an iconic moment in the film in which Han is about to be frozen in carbonite. Leia tells Han, "I love you," and Han responds with "I know."

However, in the script, Han was supposed to respond with, "Just remember that, ‘cause I’ll be back." However, actor Harrison Ford didn't want to say the line like that, so he suggested that the line be changed to "I know," and it ended up in the film.

8. This film wasn't the first appearance of Boba Fett.

Although The Empire Strikes Back is the first SW film to feature the character, Boba had originally appeared in the San Anselmo Country Fair parade in 1978 and had a large role in The Star Wars Holiday Special the same year.

For those who don't know, The Star Wars Holiday Special was considered so bad that George Lucas has said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it." Ford, who appeared in the special, has claimed that he has never seen it.

9. Yoda was originally gonna be named Minch.

In an early draft of the film, Luke was gonna travel to the planet of Bog (instead of Dagobah), and receive training from a frog-like Jedi named Minch. In later drafts, Minch was renamed Yoda.

10. The plot twist in the film was a heavily-guarded secret.

When the decision was made to have Darth Vader as Luke's father, there were only three people who knew the twist. Writer George Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, and Kershner later told Mark Hamill (Luke) the plot twist so that he would know how to act.

On set, they had David Prowse, the actor in the Darth Vader suit, deliver the line as, "No. Obi-Wan killed your father." This was the plot twist that was put in the script, and neither Lucas, Kershner, nor Hamill told anyone the true plot twist. You can hear Hamill tell the story here:

And that's it!

Oh, and I just want to say, I recently rewatched The Last Jedi and it was so much better the second time. I have to say, TLJ is my fourth favorite Star Wars movie after The Empire Strikes Back, A New Hope, and The Force Awakens.