“Darth Vader is standing there as the Emperor is zapping his son,” Kazanjian would say. “Then in dailies, we’re watching and talking, and I turned to George and said, ‘George, we don’t see Darth Vader making the decision. There are no closeups of him.’ So we went back and George shot Darth Vader standing there kind of turning his head left and right, and making the decision to throw the Emperor into the pit.”
“George was working out camera angles and discussing things with Richard before every take,” McDiarmid would say. “But I think both of them up to a point, although they respected each other and they worked well together, found that frustrating. George needed things to happen in a certain sort of programmed, geometric way and needed to be in control. Richard would come up now and again, and say quite helpful things about acting, but his role was necessarily limited by the storyboard, which, of course, he had seen and agreed to and no doubt been a part of. It was a very friendly collaboration, but from the technical point of view, it was an uneasy one.”
“We gave George at least three alternatives in the way it ends,” says Hamill. “And if he dubs onto people wearing masks and such, he can do even more than that.” Later when asked to expand upon the different endings in another interview, Hamill said that he was pleasing two people, Lucas and Marquand: “I wasn’t told to play it differently, but, in the course of shooting, I delivered a variety of readings. In one version I kept everything in check, letting it all happen behind the eyes. In others I was more open with it. The choice was up to them.”
After Vader makes his decision, he lifts his master over his head and throws him down the reactor shaft, an illusion that would be completed in post. “I was waiting to do the scene myself, when I saw them bring in Bob Anderson,” Prowse would say. “Marquand told me they were using Anderson because it was a stunt job. I sat down and watched them try to do the scene. It was most amusing. Their idea was to attach wires to the Emperor and have Anderson lift him up while somebody pulled on the wires. They tried it that way for two days, but it wouldn’t work. Anderson is nearly 60 and couldn’t lift the Emperor.”
“I had to come back to do some reshooting on my ‘death,’ ” McDiarmid says. “The precise moment when the dummy takes over and it’s no longer me was very difficult to do. I was on a harness and had to be lifted up by Darth Vader. Once, he let me go and I went spinning around his head. I think they were rather sorry they hadn’t filmed that incident. The scene took a while, and George supervised it himself, because it was mainly a technical thing. I spent about three days being jerked about on a wire.”
“I kept suggesting to Marquand that I could do it easily, but he wanted to continue—until the stunt director asked could I do it,” Prowse continues. “By this time, I was having trouble with my knee—it was so badly swollen that I could hardly walk. I was on crutches, but I knew I could still do the shot. I simply picked the Emperor up, lifted him above my head, and threw him off the balcony. I did it in one take.”
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A printed daily from circa March 19, 1982, of Vader picking up the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), who is rigged with wires; his cowl comes off, and stunt coordinator Peter Diamond runs in to help after “cut” is called. (0:21)
During the following weekend Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams returned, as did Dennis Muren to supervise the impending rancor shoot, staying at the Royal Lancaster hotel. By Tuesday, Stuart Ziff and his puppet were also back; after working “feverishly” for a week, he and Tippett had succeeded in giving Nunb blinking eyes, waggling brows, and increased mouth movement.
“Jedi has been a lot more work for me,” says Hamill. “I’m not complaining. But hanging upside down on a bluescreen wire and being battered around by stunt guys is not a lot of fun. I kept track of how much time Carrie and Harrison had off while we were in England—it was six weeks more than I had.”
The Emperor unleashes his dark side lightning (which would be animated in post) on Luke. “George at one point said, ‘What do you think this place looks like?’ ” McDiarmid would say. “And I said, ‘Oh, you mean the Oval Office?’ And he just sort of smiled, not committing himself to anything. But it was Nixon time, wasn’t it?”.
McDiarmid and Marquand go over the script.
Special effects floor controllers Ian Wingrove, Trevor Neighbour, Barry Whitrod, and Neil Swann (in this case, they are igniting squibs on cue to simulate sparks from the Emperor’s dark-side lightning).
REPORT NOS. 48–49: WEDNESDAY–THURSDAY, MARCH 17–18; STAGE 1—INT. RANCOR PIT, SC. 17 [LUKE VS. RANCOR]; SECOND UNIT: STAGE 4—EMPEROR’S ROOM, SCS. 96, 107, 114, 122, 118
With less than a month before the big move to the first location, Ewok wardrobe personnel Janet Tebrooke and Elvira Angelinetta flew to San Francisco to prepare, and main unit embarked on the first stage of the intricate rancor sequence.
“The rancor pit set was great fun because you were making arbitrary decisions about performance without the other actor, the rancor,” says Marquand. “The rancor behaved like some spoiled Hollywood brat—he never turned up for work. So what we did was to make three life-size wood cutouts of the side-views and a front view of this creature, to scale, so that Mark and I and the camera crew knew where the rancor was at any given time.”
“We had two different rancor sets, different sizes,” says Kazanjian. “The full size one, because we had Mark running around, guards, a full size door, and the rancor keeper’s bay. Then you have the smaller rancor set at ILM where you have the rancor, part of which is a little man in a suit, and a small Mark.”
One of the full-scale humanoids in the scene was the rancor keeper, played by Paul Brooke, who becomes distraught when his “pet” is vanquished. “I like the idea that everyone loves someone,” Lucas would say. “And even the worst, most horrible monster you can imagine was loved by his keeper. And the rancor probably loved his keeper.”
“I pleaded for the rancor’s giant hand,” says Marquand. “George didn’t really want to go to the expense, understandably, because I think it cost $150,000 [sic]. But I knew that there would be a moment when I’d really need Skywalker and the rancor to actually grapple—just for a moment—so they are not constantly matted together, one front to the other all of the time.”
“I have an amazing encounter with this 30-foot creature, the rancor, who wasn’t there at all,” says Hamill. “In shooting that sequence one of my biggest acting dreams came true: I actually got to be held in a giant rubber hand. But most of it was bluescreen and tape measures for eye lines. It was great to have George around; he’s like a walking textbook of the parameters of his world. It comes up in the most unexpected ways, like how big a rock can I easily lift to smash down on the rancor’s toenail—because if it’s too large, the scene might get an unintentional laugh.”
“When Mark swings from the girders and lands on the eye of the rancor before crashing to the ground, you have to have the eye there,” says Marquand of a moment that wouldn’t make the final cut. “So we had this little section of head with the eye built, too.”
“I went over to England and sort of supervised—‘watched’ is really more like it—the live-action plate and bluescreen shooting for the rancor pit sequence,” says Muren. “E.T. was still in the works at that time, but I needed to be over there just to make sure the plate photography was going okay and that everything would eventually come together.”
On Thursday, with Lucas and second unit, Ian McDiarmid finished his role as the Emperor after 13 days’ shooting. That same day, an item in Hank Grant’s Rambling Reporter column in The Hollywood Reporter stated that his “London spy” had revealed that a page was missing from the script “in which the villainous Darth Vader will be killed off—and Dave Prowse, who plays Darth, is chewing his fingernails because no one as yet has told him about it …”
Hamill in the clutches of the li
fe-sized “rancor monster arm” (which cost $63,923), directed by a bone-wielding Marquand (with assistant property master Charles Torbett and senior FX technician Neil Swann).
Continuity reference Polaroids for scene 17 of Luke and the rancor keeper and guard (Paul Brooke, human keeper, and Colin Hunt, Wooof monster guard).
Muren (just off the plane) on set with the life-sized rancor cut-out, used for camera and eye-line reference, making sure that the live-action footage would cut together with postproduction work at ILM.
Keepers filmed against bluescreen (the dead rancor would be supplied in post).
Continuity reference Polaroids of Falcon‘s “rebel gunners,” Trevor Butterfield, Michael Stevens, and Richard Bonehill as a Nien-like alien, for scenes S129 and S129A (which would both be cut). They filmed the gunners’ scenes for about three days in March 1982.
Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) pilots the Millennium Falcon with copilot Nien Nunb, a puppet.
REPORT NO. 50: FRIDAY, MARCH 19; MAIN UNIT: STAGE 6—INT. MILLENNIUM FALCON COCKPIT, SCS. 84, 99, 102, 103, 112, 113, 117, 120, 121, 125, 126, 129; SECOND UNIT: STAGE 1—INT. BLACK VELVET HOLOGRAM FOR INT. JABBA’S PALACE; STAGE 4—EMPEROR’S ROOM, PICKUPS ON SCS. 8, 122
Mike Quinn’s first official day as puppeteer of Nien Nunb took place aboard the pirate ship. “The Falcon cockpit was the toughest for me,” Quinn would say. “Mainly because I was flat on my back, wedged into the floor with just a small TV monitor so I could see what the camera was shooting. They had to lower the puppet onto me. Then the rocking began, stagehands rocking and rolling the Falcon to simulate motion and flight. ‘Ohhhh, man … Lando, you gotta install sick bags on that thing!’ ”
“Nien Nunb is a Muppet, a guy under the deck does his thing,” says Marquand. “He’s got some dialogue to do. He’s got this funny, twitchy face. He’s a terrific character in my mind. But do you know how hard it is to hold your arms up in the air for hours? Whenever I said, ‘Cut,’ Nien Nunb would disappear through his seat—this guy would go, ‘Woohoo!’ and disappear. Actually Nien Nunb has a brother called Ten Nunb. I haven’t met him, but I know he’s out there somewhere.”
“I love the Jedi creatures,” says Billy Dee Williams. “I think they are funny and an extension of something very real. George has a perverse way of looking at things. Here’s this little, quiet guy with all these ‘things’ going on in his head—and they have lots of humor. He’s like Picasso, in a way. I liken George to Picasso only because I think that he’s also created something quite monumental.”
Only two weeks before, script changes had given Lando more dialogue as he organizes the fleet’s last-ditch defense and had described the rebel attack on the Death Star in much more detail: The Falcon executes a complete flip, blasting at TIE fighters from its belly guns; as rebel fighters navigate the superstructure on their attack run, the shaft through which they’re flying is “ever narrowing”; obstructions block their way and the Falcon can barely squeeze by at breakneck speed. Meanwhile, Ackbar realizes: “The Death Star is turning away from the fleet. It’s going to blow up the Endor moon!”
Inside the Death Star, Commander Jerjerrod actively tries to salvage the situation, opening the “discharge gates” to slow down the fighters in the superstructure by spewing out something like radioactive waste. But the Falcon uses concussion charges on the main reactor shaft, scoring a direct hit—and has to race ahead of a series of chain-reaction explosions to escape the imploding space fortress.
Because Lando’s scenes were often quick shots with perhaps two lines, the economical way to shoot it was to combine them into a single long take. “Down the side of my script you’d see different cue marks for different things that are happening,” Marquand explains. “If there’s a laser flash or a big explosion or if he turns the Falcon, then you’d have to turn these huge lights to get the shadows to move across his face. And all of that is hard for the actor because he’s having to move from one attitude to another one and to another one; from worry to concern to excitement. So you say to the guy, ‘Look, this is the way we are going to do it and hold on tight. I’ll be here. I’ll help you. Don’t worry.’
“But poor Billy was very confused,” Marquand continues. “I mean, it’s the worst thing in the world to sit in this seat and there’s nothing there, but in front of you is a barrage of cameras and me, yelling and screaming, and machines going and lights crossing backward and forward. It is appalling. If you can remember your lines, you’re a genius, let alone give a performance.”
The heroes are reunited in the cockpit of an Imperial shuttle.
Continuity reference Polaroids of rebel pilots, color-coded. There were a dozen or more extras used in the Ewok village celebration scene, rebel hangar, and wherever else needed.
REPORT NOS. 51–52: MONDAY–TUESDAY, MARCH 22–23; STAGE 9—INT. RANCOR PIT, BLUE BACKING, SC. 17; STAGE 3—INT. LANDING PLATFORM, LOWER DECK, SC. 82 [LUKE DELIVERED TO VADER]; SECOND UNIT: STAGE 4—EMPEROR’S ROOM, PICKUPS ON SCS. 118, 122
The last couple of weeks of production at Elstree was a somewhat frantic run from set to set, as short scenes and long were completed in a hurry. A list of about a dozen bluescreen shots was issued for first unit on the rancor pit. After finishing those, Paul Brooke had completed his role as rancor keeper after three days worked.
Another list of 14 shots was sent around, this time for second unit, of the observation deck on Jabba’s barge, including “Salacious hits ceiling … monsters looking out … Artoo serving drinks … Jabba’s tail hits deck, dead … Close up of Artoo cutting chain.” “Artoo is the only one who really gets on my nerves as an actor,” Marquand says. “I don’t mean Kenny, I mean Artoo-Detoo. He is a pig. He is terrible. He’s impossible. He decides to take the day off, so he takes the day off. He won’t put his third leg down, so he doesn’t put his third leg down. Or suddenly, in the middle of a thing, he’ll just, zip, walk away. He shouldn’t be allowed on any set.”
On Tuesday, Bill Hoyland played the Imperial officer who hands Luke over to Vader. Prowse was hobbling on a painful knee.
“A lot of the sets weren’t even finished being designed when we started rolling cameras,” says Kazanjian. “I really didn’t know what the landing platform would look like until we were halfway through production. That was one of the last sets. And it was one of the few sets that George said wasn’t big enough. So we went back and added to it even after we had seen it. Fortunately, we had enough time.”
The scene turned out to be Marquand’s favorite: “It’s a very emotional meeting that takes place when Luke is brought to Darth Vader. The scene has such depth to it, wonderful echoes of passion; it’s a very human sequence and Mark plays it so well.”
Vader and Luke on Endor’s Imperial landing platform. Only the week before, the number of lights in the AT-AT interior had been reduced, minimal jets of steam added, and a multi-armed spherical robot put in the lift for the scene of Luke’s surrender to Vader (which wouldn’t quite make it into the film).
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A printed daily from circa March 23, 1982, of Luke and Vader (David Prowse) on Endor, with Marquand speaking Vader’s lines (and cuing the lightsaber effect). (1:14)
An Imperial commander (Barrie Holland) springs his trap, taking Solo and Leia prisoner in the bunker. (Bullet hits were added to the bunker corridor as set dressing, while the rebel bomb cases contained two bombs each.)
REPORT NOS. 53–56: WEDNESDAY–WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24–31; STAGE 3—INT. LANDING PLATFORM, LOWER DECK, SC. 82; STAGE 8—INT. SHIELD GENERATOR MAIN CONTROL BUNKER AND BUNKER CORRIDOR, SCS. 97 [REBELS OVERPOWER IMPERIALS], 104 [IMPERIAL TRAP SPRUNG], 123 [HAN’S TRICK], 124; STAGE 6—INT. COCKPIT, IMPERIAL SHUTTLE, SCS. 2 [VADER IN SHUTTLE], 56 [REBELS IN SHUTTLE], 60 [HAN: “I DON’T KNOW—FLY CASUAL.”]; STAGE 6—INT. REBEL DOCKING BAY, SC. 50 [HAN AND LANDO FAREWELL]; SECOND UNIT: STAGE 9—
INT. FALCON COCKPIT; INT. B-WING, SCS. 102, 120, 126; STAGE 1—INT. RANCOR PIT, PICKUP ON SC. 17; STAGE 8—INT. BUNKER, PICKUPS ON SCS. 123, 124, 96
While Marquand and main unit continued to finish smaller scenes, on Thursday, March 25, Lucas returned to San Anselmo, Kazanjian to LA, and Muren to San Rafael.
In the bunker on Stage 8, Anthony Smee played an Imperial who opens the “back door,” while Barrie Holland played another bad guy, a more proactive Imperial. When Han and Leia enter the bunker and realize the whole setup is a trap, Holland was, originally, to shout, “That is correct, rebel scum!” But the line was shortened on set to, “You rebel scum.” (An extended shootout featuring Han and company blasting their way through the Endor bunker was also shot, but would not make the final cut.)
“During the very first rehearsal of the scene Harrison Ford said to me ‘What did you call me?’ and playfully slapped my face,” Holland would say. “It was a very complicated scene to do and took one and a half days of continuous filming from various angles. I had seven stormtroopers with me at the time.”
The following Monday the Academy Awards ceremony took place in LA and Raiders won for Best Art Direction, Sound, Editing, and Visual Effects. “I was sitting in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,” Norman Reynolds would say. “And when they called out Raiders and my name, I was absolutely—I thought, I’m going to go up there and I won’t know what to say! But I got up there, said the words, and it was okay. I was walking on air after that. It was so unreal, just wonderful, wonderful.”
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition) Page 36