Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the classic sci-fi interpretation of a hero’s journey, follows young Luke Skywalker and his band of misfits across a galaxy far far away as Luke learns the ways of the force (space magic) from Jedi Master Yoda, an unlikely space wizard. All while his friends attempt to keep the evil Galactic Empire at bay from capturing Luke, the last young Jedi. While there are many great scenes to choose no scene better summarizes the entire plot of the movie than Luke’s evil cave scene. Luke’s cave encounter is just under 5 minutes and in that brief duration shows Luke’s personal struggles, his growth as a character and the entire struggle between the Light Side Rebellion and Dark Side Galactic Empire.

The scene begins by Luke training with master Yoda. The atmosphere is calm with soft lighting and light hearted music. Suddenly, there is a jump cut to R2-D2 (Luke’s Robot), R2 represents both a transition to the next sequence but more importantly foreshadowing of what the next sequence contains. This transition has R2 moving across the entire frame then stopping and looking towards the camera, representing the end of the training.

Another jump cut brings the audience back to Luke, as Yoda explains the temptations of the dark side while the music suddenly contrasts to authoritarian imperial march music. Luke and Yoda have an interesting dialogue dynamic that stresses Luke’s recklessness by having shots of Yoda last 3 times longer than Luke’s. This continues until Luke relaxes at Yoda’s request, demonstrating Luke’s resolve to become a stronger character. Again, there is a jump cut to R2 as he makes the classic curious beep, Luke is about to discover something.

A few moments later the camera zooms in on Yoda’s face, demonstrating his moment of realization that Luke needs to enter the Dark cave to face the dark side. Luke asks what’s in the cave and Yoda in one sentence give the Implicit meaning of the entire scene “Only what you take with you”. This refers to Luke’s dark side temptations that he as a character needs to overcome to become the hero of the story. There is another jump cut to R2 making fearful beeps, representing the fear Luke is about to feel.

The next sequence only serves as an important transition. Unlike the previous transitions with R2, a lizard hisses at the audience. Luke is now separated from anyone comforting and he is about to confront something that doesn’t like him, alone.

A part of the cave is suddenly structured with sharp concrete triangular hallways that are indicative of the authoritarian empire. The camera jumps behind Luke and the frame rate suddenly drops,
implying what is happening is not real. Darth Vader walks into frame and while he is far from Luke he is easily taking up twice the shots space. This has two implications; the dark side is intimidating (especially to Luke) and the empire is much Larger and stronger than the rebellion. Luke demonstrates his susceptibility to the dark side by being the first to draw his light-saber and only after he does, does Darth Vader react and the fight begins. Just as quickly as the scene started, it ends with Luke decapitating Darth Vader, demonstrating how Luke is not yet a hero as heroes do not kill their opponents. The camera then cuts down to Vader’s helmet as the mask blasts off, revealing Luke’s face inside. Luke has a moment of horror and realization, he, in his arrogance, was seduced by the dark side and failed a test of his character. The camera then cuts to R2 again as he makes slow apologetic beeps, foreshadowing Luke’s apology about the trial, though the audience never sees this.

Unlike the other good scenes in this movie, this is the only scene that fully encapsulates the plot while simultaneously demonstrating Luke’s character growth. Luke not only asks about the Dark Side, he shows he can be swayed by it, but is horrified by this realization as he wants to be a part of the light. The audience sees Luke enter the cave as a reckless young man but sees him emerge remorseful and wiser. The scene even manages to establish the struggle between the light and dark side by showing the lumbering mass of Vader versus the puny Luke. Thus, this is the ideal scene to represent not only Luke but the entire plot of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

 

Works Cited:

Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies. 5th ed., ser. 16, New York City, W.W. Norton & Co., 2015.

Lucas, George, director. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm LTD, 1980.