The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition)

by Rinzler, J. W.

  Jabba’s dungeon concept art by Johnston.

  “Looking for Han” concept sketches by Rodis-Jamero.

  THE STORY OF ANAKIN

  Lucas: Anakin Skywalker starting hanging out with the Emperor, who at this point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official.

  Kasdan: Was he a Jedi?

  Lucas: No, he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. He sucked Luke’s father into the dark side.

  Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?

  Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.

  Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?

  Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.

  Marquand: They use it as a technique.

  Lucas: Like yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate. Also another misconception is that Yoda teaches Jedi, but he is like a guru; he doesn’t go out and fight anybody.

  Kasdan: A Jedi Master is a Jedi isn’t he?

  Lucas: Well, he is a teacher, not a real Jedi. Understand that?

  Kasdan: I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t believe it; I am in shock.

  Lucas: It’s true, absolutely true, not that it makes any difference to the story.

  Detail from an undated McQuarrie page of Emperor-on-Death-Star thumbnails with notes, such as, “does final duel with Vader occur in Emp. chamber on Death Star [?]” and “suppose Emperor rides in tethered spherical explorer sighseer type ship drifting thru structure.”

  Concept thumbnails of Luke being brought before the Emperor on the Death Star, by McQuarrie.

  Kasdan: You mean he wouldn’t be any good in a fight?

  Lucas: Not with Darth Vader he wouldn’t.

  Kasdan: I accept it, but I don’t like it.

  Lucas: Well, anyway, Luke’s father gets subverted by the Emperor. He gets a little weird at home and his wife begins to figure out that things are going wrong and she confides in Ben, who is his mentor. On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed—and it’s because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down. The president is turning into an Emperor and Luke’s mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up.

  Now, when he falls into the pit, his other arm goes and his leg and there is hardly anything left of him by the time the Emperor’s troops fish him out of the drink. Then when Ben finds out that Vader has been fished out and is in the hands of the Empire, he is worried about it. He goes back to Vader’s wife and explains that Anakin is the bad guy, the one killing all the Jedi.

  When he goes back his wife, Mrs. Skywalker has had the kids, the twins, so she has these two little babies who are six months old or so. So everybody has to go into hiding. The Skywalker line is very strong with the Force, so Ben says, “I think we should protect the kids, because they may be able to help us right the wrong that your husband has created in the universe.” And so Ben takes one and gives him to a couple out there on Tatooine and he gets his little hideout in the hills and he watches him grow. Ben can’t raise Luke himself, because he’s a wanted man. Leia and Luke’s mother go to Alderaan and are taken in by the king there, who is a friend of Ben’s. She dies shortly thereafter and Leia is brought up by her foster parents. She knows that her real mother died.

  Kasdan: She does know that?

  Lucas: Yes, so we can bring that out when Luke is talking to her; she can say that her mother died when “I was two years old.”

  A PROBLEM WITH REVENGE?

  Lucas: There are already people sending me letters saying Jedi don’t take revenge; it’s not in their nature; it’s just not the way that they are. Also, obviously, a Jedi can’t kill for the sake of killing. The mission isn’t for Luke to go out and kill his father and get rid of him. The issue is, if he confronts his father again, he may, in defending himself, have to kill him, because his father will try to kill him. This is the state of affairs that Yoda should refer to. And then Luke says, “I don’t think he’ll kill me because he could have killed me last time and he didn’t; I think there is good in him and I can’t kill him.”

  Kasdan: In a way, I do think it’s dangerous to tip it this early; it takes all the guts out of it.

  Lucas: We don’t want it to be a tip off, but we do want it to be a setup.

  Kasdan: An oblique setup.

  Lucas: The “other” could be explained by Yoda or described by Ben. We could save that for Ben.

  Kasdan: Ben doesn’t even know about it.

  Lucas: Ben knows about it.

  Kasdan: How come in Empire he says, “He is our last hope” and Yoda says, “No there is another.”

  Lucas: He discounts women because he is a male chauvinist pig.

  Kazanjian: Well, he forgot.

  Kasdan: Wouldn’t that be weird that Ben has forgotten?

  Lucas: She isn’t trained, she isn’t ready and Ben wasn’t thinking. Let’s assume that Ben knows there is the other.

  Kazanjian: He has to.

  Lucas: The other thing is, I think you can make Ben take the blame for Vader. “I should have given him more training. I should have sent him to Yoda, but I thought I could do it myself. It was my own pride in thinking that I could be as good a teacher as Yoda. I wish that I could stop the pestilence that I’ve unleashed on the galaxy.” His burden is that he feels responsible for everything that Vader has done.

  DEATH OF A DEATH STAR

  Marquand: I had an idea about these Death Stars, which Larry doesn’t like. I wonder if this is a great thing for the Emperor to know: That these half-built Death Stars do work and they are complete.

  Lucas: The one thing that Death Stars do, which I like, is they create a time lock: The rebels have to attack before the Death Stars are finished. They can’t wait until next year. They have to attack Had Abbadon. One thing I also visually like about the Death Stars, if they are spidery half-finished things, is then the rebels can fly through them.

  Marquand: Exactly.

  Lucas: Somehow we work it out that the Death Stars are turned toward the planet of Had Abbadon. The idea of those Death Stars is: one, a time lock and, two, as the device that blows up the capitol and is the Emperor’s downfall. That’s how we connect him to those Death Stars.

  Kasdan: Why do you want two of them?

  Lucas: We don’t have to have two of them, we can have one.

  Kasdan: My problem is that it’s complicated. I like the idea of it being a trick, I like it very much. The Death Star looks half finished, but it’s not. That’s a lovely idea, but it should be only one, because we’re getting a lot of targets here.

  LANDO CALRISSIAN DIES?

  Lucas: We’re going to have to cope with Billy.

  Marquand: Well, seriously, the Falcon is the thing to send him in.

  Lucas: I’m just going to have to break the news that it’s not about him.

  Kasdan: Why does he think it’s about him.

  Lucas: Because he’s an actor.

  Kasdan: It’s not because you misled him.

  Lucas: No, I didn’t mislead him. I said his part would probably be bigger in the next film than it was in Empire.

  Marquand: You can give him something really smart to do.

  Kasdan: What about killing him now, since it’s so late in the picture?

  Lucas: You can’t kill him now.

  Kasdan: Why not? What if they need someone to go to Had Abbadon for some reason and he volunteers to do that and then accomplishes his mission but is killed by Vader?

  Kazanjian: Then you make him a hero.

  An undated Johnston drawing of a TIE fighter in pursuit of an X-w
ing through the Death Star innards.

  Concept illustration by Johnston (no. 0200) of a Star Destroyer cruising above a Death Star with the forest moon in the background, circa summer 1981.

  Another undated drawing by Johnston of a TIE Interceptor plunging into the Death Star.

  Death Star concepts by Johnston.

  Lucas: Well, the trouble is it’s complicated. Then you have another story line you have to intercut.

  Marquand: I think Lando should fly straight into the Death Star. Give him a great ending.

  Lucas: I think it’d be better to put him in the air battle, because then we’ve personalized the air battle.

  Kasdan: The air battle at the end?

  Lucas: If he dies right at the end of the movie, then you come back to the celebration and yet you’ve just killed one of the main characters.

  Kasdan: You want me to give him some meaningless job, hey.

  Lucas: Put him with the fleet and have him lead the rebel attack.

  VADER’S MOTIVATION

  Kasdan: What is it that Vader wants?

  Lucas: Vader’s plot is to convert Luke to the dark side, make him an ally, and then topple the Emperor. At this point he and the Emperor want to turn Luke to the dark side. I don’t think Vader would care whether he turned Luke to the dark side or if the Emperor turned him, because he feels that once Luke is turned, he can use him for his ally. The Emperor and Vader are in total agreement about what’s going to happen. They both want to get a hold of Luke. They both want him converted to the dark side: the Emperor to replace Vader, and Vader to replace the Emperor. They are perfect bad guys.

  Kazanjian: Wouldn’t Vader want to get to Luke before the Emperor for that reason you just stated, before the Emperor can get to Luke and throw Vader out?

  Lucas: Let’s say that Luke goes to the Emperor and pretends to become part of the dark side. Another way to get around this is to imply that Ben can cloud the mind of the Emperor. The thing I like about that is it makes true what Ben said before sacrificing himself, when he says, “I will become even more powerful than you can imagine.” The way he becomes even more powerful is that he becomes a part of the Force. In that way he’s able to short-circuit just enough of their visions so they don’t quite know what is going on as much as they normally would.

  Marquand: They think that they do.

  Lucas: And that’s more powerful. He could distort the future.

  Kasdan: You have to really lay down the rules.

  Lucas: That’s a rule that I laid down early on.

  Marquand: The Emperor doesn’t have Jedi powers, does he?

  Lucas: Well, he is like Yoda: Yoda isn’t a Jedi, the Emperor isn’t a Jedi. Yoda has mystical powers and it’s the same thing with the Emperor; he’s like the grand priest, but he’s not chief of the tribe. Jedi are the chiefs, they are the warriors who go out and fight with their swords. The Emperor and Yoda are the priests who are the spiritual chiefs; they have powers that are much stronger.

  RESISTING HATE

  Lucas: Luke holds Leia and comforts her and he says, “Look, I have got to go” and she says, “Luke, this is bigger than you, this is bigger than all of us. Let’s run away.”

  Kasdan: That would be a real turn-about for her.

  Lucas: I know, but all we’re talking about is one line.

  Kasdan: What exactly is Luke’s plan?

  Lucas: Luke’s plan is to sneak onto the shuttle, disguised as a stormtrooper or Imperial officer, get to Had Abbadon, and kill the Emperor. We could follow him around and he gets to the Emperor and lights his lazer sword, but the Emperor turns and laughs at him and says, “That is not going to do you any good against me. I am glad you finally arrived.” The Emperor traps him and then he’s sitting there in a little cage.

  Kasdan: Well, it’s not really satisfying, but …

  Lucas: We’ve also been talking about getting Luke, the Emperor, and everybody on the Death Star and doing it up there.

  Kasdan: Might be workable to have Luke’s scene with Leia and then he just goes to the Imperial transport place and says, “Take me down there.” We do a wipe and he’s brought in and says to the Emperor, “I’ve turned.”

  Lucas: What if Vader says, “I’m going over to the moon” and the Emperor says, “Okay, bring him back here to me.” Luke senses that Vader has arrived on the moon. He tells Leia, “He’s here, he’s coming after us, so I’m going to him because it’s me that he wants.” Luke goes and we have one of those little Imperial shuttle bases. Luke confronts Vader and tries to get Vader to come to his side: “This is your chance, Dad—come on, throw off the shackles of the Emperor and come over to me. I know it’s in you.” Vader says, “I am not going to come over to you; I am going to take you to the Emperor …”

  Kasdan: “… My entire wardrobe is black …”

  Lucas: “… I will have to buy a whole new outfit.” No, but we play it so that Luke can make a convincing enough statement.

  Kasdan: That’s great.

  Lucas: Vader is totally the Emperor’s plaything. Luke tried to save his father and all he did was get trapped. Then Vader takes him to the Emperor. This is where we have to work some things out. The Emperor could have some kind of a test, some kind of a temptation.

  Kasdan: Well, you know the perfect thing.

  Kazanjian: Kill Vader?

  Kasdan: Yes. That’s the perfect thing. Now, how do you pull it off?

  Lucas: “I know there is hate in you and you can learn to hate.” The Emperor starts preaching to him Jim Jones–style. “You hate your father and you want to kill him.” What if we say Luke is getting more and more tempted to kill the Emperor. The question is do we want to deal with the Death Star zapping the fleet at the same time?

  Kasdan: That’s what concerns me.

  Lucas: You know what would be great: Luke says in the beginning, “You will never change me to the dark side.” And the Emperor says, “That’s not true and you know it. You hate me, you hate your father, you hate your father for being so weak.” He gets Luke worked up to where Luke is ready to kill. The Emperor says, “See, you have got it in you. Here, take this sword. Kill your father.” Luke reaches the point where he is so pissed that he goes over to his father and starts to attack him with the lazer; Vader turns on his lazer and blocks the blow, and they have a little sword fight.

  Concept art by Johnston shows an Imperial walker approaching the platform on Endor, next to an enormous satellite dish/gun.

  Concept art of the Imperial landing platform and satellite (or weapon?) on Endor by Johnston, circa summer 1981. The Imperial’s anti-environmental policy is evident in all of the tree stumps.

  Concepts for the Imperial base on Endor by Johnston.

  Luke is angry and is using the dark side and the Emperor keeps saying, “See how much stronger you are becoming—hate him more!” Like the thing that we did in Empire, but on a grander scale. And just when you think Luke is going to kill Vader, the Emperor says, “Finish him.” Now we have Luke about to kill an unarmed defenseless man; we’ve never done that before. If he kills a defenseless man, especially a defenseless father, then he has gone over to the dark side. But Luke turns off his lazer sword, throws it at the Emperor. “I have controlled my hate; I don’t hate my father. If you are so much on the dark side, you kill me—I dare you.”

  The Emperor gets enraged. The Emperor has a temper. He is a hateful, angry person, and so he says, “You little twerp!” And maybe he does what I had in the other script where he starts shooting lightning bolts and Luke starts gasping for his breath. Luke is about to be killed and then Vader kills the Emperor.

  VADER’S MOTIVATION, PART II

  Lucas: I don’t like the idea of Vader saying to Luke, “Come on over to our side.” Let’s forget what Vader is really trying to do, kill the Emperor.

  Kasdan: That’s what Vader said at the end of Empire.

  Lucas: I know, but I don’t think at this point we should bring up that his plot is to get rid of the Empero
r. It’s going to foretell, in an oblique way, that he’s going to kill the Emperor. The way to do it here is to make Vader evil and terrible and turn his son in, and they go before the Emperor and they have a fight.

  Kasdan: You’re willing now to drop Vader’s explicit plan.

  Lucas: It’s there implicitly. It doesn’t have to be an explicit plan. It has to be what is operating in the character’s head.

  Kasdan: What is operating in Vader’s head when he brings Luke to the Emperor?

  Lucas: What is operating in his head is: “The Emperor will turn Luke to the dark side because I can’t do it, because I am not strong enough; he will turn Luke and then I will be able to …”

  Marquand: “… join with Luke and destroy the Emperor …”

  Lucas: “… join with Luke and eventually turn him to destroy the Emperor. Once he is on the dark side, then it will be easy; then we are a team, then we are father and son.”

  Marquand: But it is never spoken.

  Lucas: Vader doesn’t realize that the Emperor wants to replace him.

  Kasdan: Does he now know about the sister?

  Lucas: Who, the Emperor? No. Well, the trouble is if you bring it up there, then you deal with Vader not knowing …

  DEATH STAR DOUBTS

  Lucas: One of the troublesome things for me on a practical level is the rebel fleet destroying the planet. How in the hell are they going to do it? You can blow up a city by bombing. You can’t destroy the whole planet. What does the audience get that tells them, “Oh, boy, the Empire has been destroyed.” It has to be something that gets blown up. The universe has been cleansed of this evil thing. In the first show, it was a Death Star. That was the personification of the Empire.

  So there is a very convenient thing of being able to have the Death Star blow up the planet and have the rebel fleet blow up the Death Star. We’ve gotten ourselves into a fix here.