Kevin Smith Asks Mark Hamill to Send Him a Bacta Tank

Kevin Smith is out of the hospital and back at home after surviving a near-fatal heart attack last week and while he's receiving well-wishes and support from fans and others in the entertainment industry, the filmmaker has a very specific request from Star Wars star Mark Hamill.

It started when Hamill replied to Smith's tweet about the Disney Channel sending him Mickey Mouse-shaped cookies jokingly made out to actor Kevin James. Smith explained that he had recently told people at the Disney Channel that he is frequently mistaken for the television actor. Hamill responded, commiserating with Smith as Hamill himself is often mistaken for other actors with similar names and offered a gift basket full of classic B-movies by filmmaker William Castle. Smith was totally down for the cinematic gift basket, but also had something else in mind -- a bacta tank.

"Oh HI, Mark!" Smith wrote. "You still got one of those Bacta tanks they use on a guy after a Wampa attack? Send one of those, medical droid 201B and the aforementioned Get Well Basket! It'll all help me mend my big red one just in time to enjoy the Corvette summer!"

As fans may recall, in the Star Wars universe, bacta tanks are cylindrical tanks that are filled with bacta, a liquid that accelerates healing and treats major injuries. In The Empire Strikes Back, Hamill's Luke Skywalker was gravely injured after being attacked by a Wampa on the ice planet Hoth and is placed in a bacta tank to recover from his wounds. Smith's request that Hamill send one of the tanks -- along with the surgical droid, 2-1B, that treated Luke by putting him into the back tank -- is both a humorous nod at his own health, but also to Hamill's career. Luke's recovery from the Wampa leads to one of many iconic moments in Empire where Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) kisses Luke to shut down Han Solo's (Harrison Ford) boasting with none of them aware at the time that Luke and Leia are siblings.

Smith follows the bacta tank request up by suggesting that he wants it to heal up before watching another of Hamill's movies, 1978's adventure comedy Corvette Summer.

All joking aside, Smith is taking his recovery very seriously. Smith told fans during a Facebook Live that he initially didn't realize he'd had a heart attack and, now that he's on the other side of the near-death experience, he's making changes to better his health while acknowledging that he's "on borrowed time."

"I don't want to say I feel like a dead man walking, but I do feel like I'm not supposed to be here anymore, and it doesn't make me want to leave, but it makes me appreciate how ... like, all right, let's do everything," Smith told The Ralph Report. "I was supposed to be dead in that room, no doubt."