Digital Trends provides a comprehensive list of Star Wars Lists that are the most popular and powerful: Most powerful villains, Most powerful heroesEven better! coolest TIE Fighters (OK, the last one is not strictly most powerful, but I wrote it and it’s really funny.).
Although these lists are fun to make, the most important thing in Star Wars movies is storyline and emotion. We all cherish the times we thrilled, chilled, and gasped through the saga’s epic sacrifices, tragic losses, and shocking revelations. We have compiled a list of the most dramatic, boldest and operatic scenes from Star Wars films to honor those moments.
10. Obi-Wan dies (A New Hope)
Luke (Mark Hamill), Han(Harrison Ford), Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Luke (Mark Hamill) try to escape the Death Star. They encounter obstacles at every turn. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), confronts Darth Vader, David Prowse, and continues to engage in what remains. Lightsaber fight with the least stirringGeorge Lucas and other Star Wars creators are the only ones who have ever made a commitment to screen. This includes the Disney+ service. Obi Wan KenobiIt is used more or less as an excuse Restage of the duelAs elaborately as possible (though the fan may have already done it). Brilliantly reimagined).
Perhaps realizing that the fight was not very exciting, Lucas responded to it by writing a cathartic response. Luke, disbelievingly watching his mentor die, launches into a stormtrooper massacre. The reaction, more than the death itself, provides the emotion in the scene, along with, as always, John Williams’ legendary music.
9. Rey fights Kylo in a snowy forrest (The Force Awakens).
The Force AwakensThis movie is not great, but J.J. Abrams’ talent for faithful recreation (not even mimicry) provides a handful of moving moments. Finn (John Boyega), and Kylo Ren engage in snowy forest combat. Finn falls, and Kylo attempts Force to retrieve his lightsaber. The saber rattles suspenseful, then flies up and past Kylo into the sure grip of Rey (Daisy Ridley), who proceeds to whale on Ren like he’s the schoolyard bully who took her brother’s lunch money.
This is tremendously satisfying, not least because of its importance as a girl power moment, and I don’t say this with derision. A young woman, who was able to take on the Jedi Hero role, was one of the main reasons the movie was so successful. This scene is when Rey’s Jedi Force fully awakens. Did you know that she was the last Skywalker as well? A man who takes pride in his ability to recognize the best in othersMystery box storytelling, Abrams’ titles can be thuddingly literal.
8. Luke Skywalker is killed (The Last Jedi).
Whether you like the film or not, you can’t deny the power of Luke’s death scene. After having sacrificed himself to save his friends (without shedding any blood), he looks out at the setting Sun from the island. Ahch-ToHe thinks of Tatooine as his adopted home over the years and then he poofs out of the mortal realm to rejoin his fellow Jedi.
As I Previous writing: “The final vista of the twin suns, bold and glorious, reveal that his nostalgia for them never faded, despite all of Yoda’s entreaties to live in the moment. Luke was still a young man, a dreamer at heart.Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the SithPerhaps, then, his greatest sacrifice was to lay low for the greater good when he still wanted to be out among the stars, skywalking.”
7. ‘Execute Order 66’ (The Revenge of the Sith)
Lucas is a master at weaving parallel action. His multi-strand finales are his best, and this montage by him is his most powerful. Emperor Palpatine orders that the secret Order 66 be executed as Jedis and Clones battle Separatists across distant worlds. This is when the Clone troopers are transformed into stormtroopers who now serve the Empire. In an instant, their programming switches over and they assassinate the Jedi they’ve been fighting alongside. Clone fire is so brutal that Jedi are almost unable to resist, and they’re completely taken by surprise.
The montage is brief, but it’s among the most lyrical filmmaking in Lucas’ oeuvre. John Williams wrote some great choral music for the prequels — think “Duel of the Fates” — and the mournful choir he weaves throughout this requiem is among the most moving. Yoda clutches his broken heart as the sequence ends.
6. Scarif’s destruction (Rogue One).
The film was my first experience with it. I was both pleasantly surprised and grief-stricken when I watched it. As the Imperial troops continued to bombard us with troops, our heroes fell one by one. As a Star Wars fan, I was shocked out of my pants that the Stormtroopers had actually done something. Beyond that, it was a rare and surprising idea to think that the primary characters of a major serialized franchise would die without any chance of returning as Force ghosts.
I was certain that our protagonists would be saved when the Death Star blast crashes towards them, like the most frightening nightmare combination of nuclear apocalypse/tsupocalypse. Star Wars was given new depth by the bold ending. It emphasized the real costs of fighting totalitarianism. Disney didn’t have any worries. Even without Force ghost resurrections for characters, they can always be returned in A prequel.
5. Luke defies the Emperor. (Return of the Jedi).
After first seeing ROTJ at age 10, I knew this was my favorite movie scene ever, though I couldn’t articulate why. Years later, I recognized that it’s the moment in every good story when the protagonist makes a climactic choice under pressure that defines his values — the culmination of the moral struggle that is the raison d’être of storytelling itself.
“Your hate has made you powerful,” the Emperor tells Luke as he is on the verge of vanquishing Vader with his new lightsaber. “Now fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place by my side.” Luke, realizing with horror what he is about to do, throws away his lightsaber. “Never. I’ll never turn to the Dark Side,” he proclaims. “You’ve failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” It’s a simple but powerful expression of the willingness to die for your beliefs. Thankfully, Luke doesn’t end up paying the ultimate price, though the Emperor does fry him like a bucket of KFC for a while.
4. ‘You were the chosen one!’ (Revenge of the Sith)
Lucas was imagining the confrontation between Obi Wan (Ewan McGregor), and Anakin Skywalker, (Hayden Christensen), even before he made his first move. A New Hope back in the ’70s. I remember reading about it in a movie magazine as a kid in the ’80s and being very excited. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that we would all have to suffer through The Phantom MenaceYou can get there. However, suffering is only part of the journey. Hero’s JourneyI’m guessing.
The tepid reaction to the prequels was not surprising, even among fans. made a revisionist caseFor Attack of the ClonesThis is why the dramatic showdown between Obi Wan and Anakin on Mustafar’s lava planet Mustafar is so powerful. The intensity of the emotion is what makes it stand out from all the digital background and flat acting. When Obi-Wan, his voice raw and ragged, cries out, “You were my brother, Anakin!” as his erstwhile Padawan writhes in limbless agony, the tragic regret he feels cuts deep.
3. Han Solo enters carbon freeze (The Empire Strikes back)
This is one of the main reasons why this sequence is so terrifying. The Empire Strikes BackIt is breathtaking and so epic. Darth Vader captures Han, Leia and Luke as a means to lure Luke into Cloud City. His plan is for Luke to be carbon frozen (That is not the case., but definitely sounds cool) for his “journey to the emperor,” but they need to test it first to make sure it doesn’t kill the subject. Enter Han literally. Captain Scoundrel descends into lower depths. Han, Leia and their eternal exchange takes place. “I love you,” she says. “I know,” he responds, in a line Harrison Ford Famously, improvised.
Famously, the baroque scene was shot in rich blues and oranges, with smoke and mist flooding the chamber. But the amazing soundtrack is equally if not more responsible for the effects: Chewbacca’s stricken howls, the bizarre alien noises of the carbon-freezing process, the nerve-shattering boom of Han’s frozen husk toppling to the floor, and of course, John Williams’ lush orchestral score. All of it adds up to one of cinema’s most memorable scenes.
2. Luke finds his uncle and aunt murdered (A New Hope).
It’s still the most shocking and unexpected image in all of Star Wars: Luke rushing back to the family homestead on Tatooine to discover that Imperial Stormtroopers have burned it down and killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Lucas designed the scene as a homage to John Ford’s The SearchersIn which Ethan (John Wayne), and Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), similarly Discover their family being slaughtered by Comanche.
This scene wouldn’t be as powerful without the scorched skeletal bodies with gaping, ribcages. Beautiful fan-made action figurines. Their gruesomeness — which Lucas emphasizes in medium close-up — still feels out of place within this PG-rated universe. However, viewers quickly understood what the Empire could do (something which was also explained by Lucas). Andor has also brilliantly dramatized throughout its first season), and nobody that saw it ever forgot it.
1. Luke discovers the truth about his parents (The Empire Strikes Back).
We review the 1997 Special Edition. Roger Ebert wrote, “It is because of the emotions stirred in EmpireThe entire series has a mythic quality that resonates with the first and the third. This is the heart.” If EmpireThis is the heart. If this is the heart of Star Wars, then it is its dark, operatic heart. The sequence builds expertly, with the more experienced and powerful Vader forcing Luke into a series of retreats until he is on a gantry suspended over the metallic abyss of Cloud City’s reactor shaft. Vader stops playing with Luke and cuts off his hand. This sends the severed appendage spiraling down into the chasm. Luke, battered, and in danger of his impending doom, must then endure the most shocking revelation from his parents since Polanski’s Chinatown. Talk about adding insults.
I always point to Luke’s reaction whenever anyway claims that Mark Hamill isn’t much of an actor. His emotion is raw and unrestrained. Terrified, traumatized, and freezing (it’s really WindyThe young apprentice decides to go there because he has to. Thankfully, there’s a soft landing at the bottom of this endless void). Even though the big reveal has been known for decades, it still retains its full Force. It is still the most significant Star Wars moment after 45 years.
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