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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.
It is hard to imagine a world in which Star Wars is not the galaxy-conquering behemoth we know today.
As of 2025, George Lucas’s sci-fi franchise includes nine films and three movie spin-offs, with more streaming and animated series being added all the time.
Of course, none of this would have happened without the 1977 original, a pitch-perfect popcorn odyssey buoyed by John Williams’ triumphant music and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)’s dazzling special effects.


But it was the 1980 sequel, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, which is 45 this month, that turned this stand-alone success into an enduring pop-culture phenomenon. And it almost ended in disaster.
Pulled in too many directions, Lucas gave the directorial reins to journeyman Irvin Kershner (Eyes of Laura Mars), although the likes of Alan Parker (Fame) and John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) were considered for the role.
The script was written by veteran screenwriter Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep), who died in 1978, then rewritten by Indiana Jones writer Lawrence Kasdan, with Lucas retaining a “story by” credit.
Still, there was little doubt who was really in charge – Lucas financed the film himself. It was a decision he came to regret when the budget swelled from an estimated US$8 million to US$30.5 million during the troubled shoot.

“It wasn’t the most fun movie to make, but it was definitely a rewarding film,” Lucas told StarWars.com.
“It turned out well. I learned some things. I thought I could let somebody else direct the movie and still run a company and I realised that wasn’t gonna be possible. So I put the company aside and stayed there with Kershner helping him.”
Kershner, it transpired, would need all the help he could get.
A fire at Elstree Studios – on the stage where The Shining was being filmed – meant The Empire Strikes Back’s sets had to be moved and altered at the last minute. On location in Norway, standing in for the ice planet Hoth, a snowstorm caused havoc with the schedule. Then second unit director John Barry died, replaced by Harley Cokeliss.

The main cast, meanwhile, were either frustrated (Mark Hamill), ill (almost everybody) or on drugs (Carrie Fisher). So it is no wonder the finished film turned out so pessimistic.
The opening crawl reads, “It is a dark time for the Rebellion,” and the ending is shockingly inconclusive for a blockbuster. But that is what Lucas and co do so well, retaining what was great about the original while moving the story in surprising directions.
Although it takes place on a grander canvas, The Empire Strikes Back’s main beats are smaller, more intimate ones. Who can forget the improvised sign-off between Han (Harrison Ford) and Leia (Fisher) as he is lowered into a carbon-freezing chamber: “I love you!” “I know.”
Contrary to what most remember, the film opens not with the famous Hoth battle, but with Han and Leia firing sassy one-liners at each other in the rebel base – an incredible set by production designer Norman Reynolds – while Luke (Hamill) fights off a yeti-like creature outside.

When the battle comes it is truly epic, with the empire’s giant, four-legged AT-ATs (All Terrain Armoured Transports) stomping across the snow as rebel snowspeeders zoom in between them. One of the joys of Star Wars has always been the ability to visit other, fully realised planets, and Hoth does not disappoint.
If the film’s middle section meanders – showing Luke being trained by Jedi master Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz), and Han, Leia and co trying to avoid Darth Vader (David Prowse) and the empire – the finale more than makes up for it.
After a Freudian foreshadowing, Luke and Darth Vader face off on an extraordinary – and unfinished – carbon-freezing chamber set; all flaring neon, film noir shadows and swirling dry ice, beautifully shot by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky.
Not only is it one of the most striking duels in the entire series, there is real venom in their blows, the lightsabers sparking off the surroundings before hitting their targets.

To keep the legendary plot twist – that Vader is Luke’s father – from being leaked, Lucas only told Kershner and Hamill, and the script named Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) as Luke’s father instead.
When Vader says the immortal words, “No, I am your father,” while towering over an almost defeated Luke, it turns the film from space opera into something approaching a modern myth.
Though The Empire Strikes Back was a box office success, critics did not know what to make of its more complex themes. But they missed the point.
If Star Wars was year zero for geek culture – that obsessive need to escape to a galaxy far, far away – then The Empire Strikes Back was the film that suggested that, just maybe, it might all actually mean something.
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How 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back set Star Wars on the way to becoming phenom it is today

David Prowse as Darth Vader in a still from The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Photo: Lucasfilm

David Prowse and Mark Hamill in a still from The Empire Strikes Back. The 1980 film set Star Wars on track to becoming an enduring cultural phenomenon. Photo: Lucasfilm


Mark Hamill in a still from The Empire Strikes Back. Photo: courtesy of George Lucas Studios

A scene inside the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back. Photo: Lucasfilm

Mark Hamill in a still from The Empire Strikes Back. Though ultimately a success, George Lucas said the second film in the original Star Wars trilogy “wasn’t the most fun” to make. Photo: courtesy of George Lucas Studios

Darth Vader in the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where he delivers his famous line. Photo: Lucasfilm

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Denzel Washington (left) and Gene Hackman in a still from Crimson Tide. Photo: Online

Gene Hackman (left) as the captain of a submarine armed with nuclear missiles and Denzel Washington (centre) as his executive officer in a still from Crimson Tide, the 1995 film directed by Tony Scott. Photo: Online

Gene Hackman as Captain Frank Ramsey in a still from Crimson Tide. Photo: Online

Denzel Washington as Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (left) and Gene Hackman as Captain Frank Ramsey in a still from Crimson Tide. Photo: Online

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Clive Owen (left) and Rosario Dawson in a still from Sin City.

Brittany Murphy in a still from Sin City.

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A still from Tank Girl. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Takeshi Kaneshiro at an interview with the Post in July 2004. Kaneshiro, who debuted as a singer in Taiwan in 1992, has not been seen on the big screen since 2017 – but remains as popular as ever. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu in a still from “This Is Not What I Expected” (2017).

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Brigitte Lin in a still from “Chungking Express” (1994). 

Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada in a still from the drama series “God, Please Give Me More Time” (1998).

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Takeshi Kaneshiro in an interview with the Post in December 2006. Photo: SCMP

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As the Star Wars sequel turns 45 we look at how it bolstered the franchise with its epic fights and plot twist and why it wasn’t fun to make


As the Star Wars sequel turns 45 we look at how it bolstered the franchise with its epic fights and plot twist and why it wasn’t fun to make.


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How 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back set Star Wars on the way to becoming phenom it is today

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As the Star Wars sequel turns 45 we look at how it bolstered the franchise with its epic fights and plot twist and why it wasn’t fun to make

As the Star Wars sequel turns 45 we look at how it bolstered the franchise with its epic fights and plot twist and why it wasn’t fun to make