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. This establishes Luke’s comfort with Yoda while simultaneously demonstrating that while he is already impressively skilled, he is still training. More impressive yet, the audience gets all this implicit meaning in 31 seconds without a single line of dialogue. 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, 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. The music suddenly contrasts to authoritarian imperial march music (the dark side theme). Luke and Yoda have an interesting dialogue dynamic that stress Luke’s recklessness by having shots of Yoda last 3 times as long as Luke’s. More importantly we can gather that Yoda is calm and wise, key traits that come to be associated with the light side. These are the last steps to force mastery that the impatient dark side users never achieve. 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.
As Luke lets Yoda down, the camera dollies in a strange fashion and the edges of the screen begin to grow and focus on Luke as he peers into a cave. At first it seems like a simple juxtaposition but as the scene continues, the camera closes in on Luke and a faint “death” whisper can be heard. It becomes clear that this represents the dark side residing within the cave and it is stalking susceptible Luke. 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 this evil. Luke asks what’s in the
cave and Yoda responds, “Only what you take with you”. This has dual meanings, explicitly this refers to Luke’s weapons and gear. Implicitly this refers to Luke’s dark side temptations that he as a character needs to overcome to become the hero of the story. Luke takes his weapons and the audience understands he is still naïve and susceptible to the dark side even though he is pursuing the light. 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. While Vader 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 lightsaber and only after he does, does Darth Vader react and the fight begins. Something interesting happens in this scene, the entire battle only consists of four lightsaber clashes. The camera quickly jumps between shots of the characters in each clash but the characters remain on distinct sides of the screen each time. This not only represents the high tension in the fight but more importantly is a reference to the fight being the two sides of Luke. 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. Meanwhile the camera cuts to R2 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.