Han Solo is, undeniably, a supporting player in the Star Wars saga, but he somehow manages to both be the character we identify with most — the skeptic, the reluctant hero, the smart-ass — and the one we most want to be — the hot shot who gets the girl. It’s an interesting arc, but it becomes iconic, thanks to a laundry list of quotable phrases that are elevated beyond their hokey construction by Harrison Ford’s charm. Remove that, and Solo is little more than Luke Skywalker’s big-mouthed, oafish flyboy buddy.
In that today is May the Fourth, a widely celebrated day of Star Wars fandom, it seemed like a good idea to look back at some of Han Solo’s best lines and moments, from the first one to the last one…
“Hey, Luke. May the force be with you.”
Ford oozes sincerity as he wishes his buddy well, after Luke stomps off while throwing a tantrum over Han’s refusal to stand in and fight for the Rebel Alliance.
“Don’t everybody thank me at once.”
Even heroes need a little appreciation sometimes. Maybe a medal ceremony.
“Great, kid! Don’t get cocky!”
Rock solid advice from Han to the eager Skywalker after a kill shot, but a little hypocritical, no?
“It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.”
Case in point, when we first meet Han Solo, he’s all brag with an inflated sense of himself and his ship. “Fast ship? You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon?”
As they say, it’s not bragging if you can back it up, though.
Han Shoots First
Here’s a GIF from the “enhanced” version (with a few flourishes), which was born out of George Lucas’ desire to revise our introduction to Han Solo as an outlaw badass, and undercut our initial fascination with this character who shot first when he had the jump on someone who was clearly going to kill him. Han shot first, I saw it with my own eyes, but that’s the insidious part of the refusal to release the theatrical cuts of the film: The onus of conveying Han’s true space pirate ethos falls on fan word of mouth and clips, not the official record that people will view when they want to see the films for the first time. In a way, it is its own battle between the Rebel Alliance (fans) and the Empire (Lucas, and now Disney), and the Rebels are winning.
“I know.”
This isn’t Han being a space pimp. There’s a deeper meaning to those words. Han’s reminding Leia that he’s known for a lot longer than she has that she loves him.
“Never tell me the odds!”
Just a great line that we’ve all thrown back at someone at one time or another and another and another.
“Chewie, we’re home.”
The second Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer was amazing, but admit it, it felt like someone else’s Star Wars movie until Harrison Ford showed up and uttered those words. No matter what happens in this film and all the others that come after it, that moment — as we sat on our couches or in a hall at Star Wars Celebration — signified the bridge between the first three films and the future. Damn right “we’re home.”