The re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy in 1997 proved to be a very polarizing pop culture event. The thrill of seeing the seminal blockbusters on the big screen again was offset by the controversies that sparked from the various changes George Lucas made. While these alterations allegedly brought the films closer to his original vision, many older fans took issue with them, criticizing Lucas for leaning too heavily into CGI special effects and fundamentally changing the meaning of specific scenes. Some of the most confounding changes include Han’s confrontation with Greedo, the reinsertion of A New Hope‘s deleted Jabba the Hutt scene (which is rendered redundant by the Greedo sequence), and a new musical number in Return of the Jedi.
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The special edition of The Empire Strikes Back, which opened in theaters on February 21, 1997, is arguably the special edition that’s aged the best. Perhaps due to Lucas’ reverence for director Irvin Kershner (who was his teacher at USC), it has some of the least-invasive tweaks in the entire trilogy. Most fans would agree changes like the re-done wampa attack and the expansion of Cloud City enhance the overall experience. But there was still one infamous change that left many viewers scratching their heads: Luke Skywalker’s scream as he jumps off the Cloud City platform after his duel with Darth Vader.
Luke Skywalker’s Empire Strikes Back Scream Made No Sense
Luke’s scream is arguably the most distracting change in the Empire Strikes Back special edition for a variety of reasons. First off, it undercuts what is perhaps the most dramatic moment in the entire film. After learning Darth Vader is actually his father (a shocking revelation that shatters his entire worldview), Luke decides he would rather risk death instead of joining the dark side. He had no way of knowing whether or not he’d survive his jump off the platform, but he went through with it because he believed it was the right thing to do. By jumping, Luke made it clear he was at peace with whatever consequence awaited him — even dying.
Having Luke scream as he falls down the air shaft makes the scene unintentionally comical. It makes it seem as if he didn’t think everything through and immediately regretted his choice after letting go of the platform. Much like how Greedo seemingly shooting Han Solo first alters Han’s character arc in A New Hope, the inclusion of Luke’s scream in The Empire Strikes Back fundamentally changes a key scene for the worse. In the original theatrical cut, Luke plummeting to his potential death in silence was seen as a noble act, his complete rejection of the dark side. The special edition version takes on the tone of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
The scream is distracting not just because of how it changes the intention of the scene, but the sound effect should be familiar to long-time Star Wars fans. Luke’s scream is actually the same as the Emperor’s from his death scene at the end of Return of the Jedi, which makes the change all the more bizarre. With all of the resources that went into completing the Star Wars special editions, one would think Lucas would have been able to get Mark Hamill to record a new scream as opposed to using a voice that sounds nothing like Hamill’s. The only way this alteration could have been weirder is if the infamous Wilhelm scream was inserted.
As time went on, Lucas seemed to realize the error of his ways. In 2004, the Star Wars trilogy was re-released yet again when it became available on DVD for the first time. In that version of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke’s scream was removed, and it has not returned in any of the subsequent home media releases over the past couple of decades. The original message of the scene — that Luke is willing to die than join the dark side — is now intact. It doesn’t make the original change from ’97 any less strange, but it’s nice to see this is one of the alterations Lucas decided to undo.
Did The Empire Strikes Back Have Any Other Confusing Changes?
None of the other changes in The Empire Strikes Back are quite on the level of Luke’s scream, but there are a few that are a tad confusing. A couple of lines of dialogue were altered. One notable example is Luke telling R2-D2 “You were lucky to get out of there” after the Dragonsake spits the droid out. In the theatrical cut, the line was “You’re lucky you don’t taste very good.” One of Darth Vader’s lines towards the end of the film is changed from “Bring my shuttle” to “Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival.” There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why these changes were made. They feel like changes for the sake of change as opposed to making improvements to the movie.
The original lines from the theatrical cut still work within the context of the respective scenes, and are arguably the better options. Luke telling Artoo he doesn’t taste very good has some more personality and comes across as a funny joke to cut the tension after what was a horrifying moment. In the case of Vader, it’s arguably more logical for him to be curt with his Imperial officers. James Earl Jones’ reading of “Bring my shuttle” is very angry, encapsulating how Vader was probably feeling in this exact moment. He had just lost his best chance to connect with his son and bring him to the dark side, thwarting whatever plans he had to overthrow the Emperor. It makes sense for him to be seething; in the special edition, it comes across as Vader making a polite request, which is not typically in line with the character.
Fortunately, the other noteworthy changes in The Empire Strikes Back feel much more sensible. The expansion of Cloud City feels organic, taking advantage of the modern technology to enhance the location and make it seem more like a sweeping, bustling metropolis. The new shots of the wampa are beneficial as well, making the creature feel like more of a threat. Additionally, there isn’t much issue to take with the touching up of various visual effects shots. An argument can be made the the original work done by Industrial Light & Magic should be preserved, but these changes brought the visuals of The Empire Strikes Back up to modern standards, removing matte lines from ships and fixing some of the compositing for the Battle of Hoth.
While The Empire Strikes Back‘s special edition has some head-scratching alterations, especially now that Luke’s scream has been removed, there isn’t anything as confounding as Han vs. Greedo or “Jedi Rocks.” Of course, Lucas continued to make tweaks to the film each time it hit a new platform (such bringing in Temuera Morrison to re-record Boba Fett’s lines), but the version of The Empire Strikes Back that’s widely available now is arguably closer to the original theatrical cut than either of its classic trilogy counterparts. All these years later, The Empire Strikes Back is still regarded as the best of the Star Wars movies, and the fact it didn’t need as many special edition changes is a testament to how well it held up.
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