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FILM 1229: STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

TRIVIA:  In order to avoid sharing creative rights, George Lucas decided to avoid using a major studio to finance this film. Instead, he bankrolled the $33 million production himself, using a combination of his profits from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and a bank loan. Although the move was risky, it paid off several times over. Lucas recovered his million investment within three months of the film's release. He then showed gratitude far beyond the Hollywood norm, by sharing the profits with his employees (nearly $5 million in bonuses).

The shots where Luke uses his Jedi powers to retrieve his lightsaber from a distance were achieved by having Mark Hamill throw the lightsaber away and then running the film in reverse.

Han Solo is the only non-Jedi/Sith in the entire original trilogy to ever use a lightsaber when he cuts open the tauntaun's belly.

In the asteroid scene, one of the asteroids is actually a shoe. The rumor is that George Lucas asked the SFX people to redo the scene so many times that they got annoyed and one of them threw in their shoe.

The sound of Darth Vader's shuttle door opening is reportedly a recording of a whole block of Alcatraz cell doors slamming shut.

The AT-AT Imperial walkers were all animated through traditional stop-motion techniques, except for the scenes where they fall (e.g. the walker which is "tripped up" by cables and falls on its face, or the one that Luke throws a grenade into, which falls on its side). These were filmed in real-time on high speed cameras with precision-timed mini-pyrotechnic charges.

The sound effects on Mynocks were created by playing horse noises backwards.

The sound of Vader's helmet being lowered onto his body was the sound of someone putting their hand over a vacuum tube while it was still sucking in dust.

The scenes where R2-D2 is submerged in the mud pool were shot in George Lucas' unfinished swimming pool. Most of the crew were hidden under the water and the entire sequence was shot by George Lucas himself.

During principal photography it remained unclear if Sir Alec Guinness would return as Obi Wan Kenobi. Guinness had just had an eye operation at the time and was still a bit upset about the last minute decision of his character being killed off in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He finally did agree and worked just one day on the film (Wednesday September 5 1979). He arrived at 8.30am and completed his scenes by 1pm, for which he was paid a quarter of a percentage point of the film's gross which was worth millions of dollars.