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Earlier this week, I was hanging out a local New York City neighborhood pub with a couple of friends and the bar started playing Return of the Jedi on one of its televisions, as this bar often does. Now, The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite movie of all time (and, this may come as a shock, my favorite Star Wars movie, too) but I may be more fascinated by Return of the Jedi, and not in a good way. It’s a movie where a lot of character decisions make almost no sense. (We’ve already been down the road that the Empire had many chances to kill the Rebels in this movie and just decided not to for some reason.) But, on this night earlier in the week, a question was asked that at the same time put everything about this movie in perspective and no one could properly answer. That question is:
If Luke’s plan to rescue Han from Jabba had worked perfectly, what would that plan have been?
Seriously, no one could answer this question. (And this wasn’t a group of Star Wars slouches either; frequent Star Wars author Jason Fry was part of this group.) So let’s kind of go through what does happen in the opening act of Return of the Jedi, character by character, and see if it makes any sense.
C-3PO and R2-D2: They are the first characters we see show up at Jabba’s palace. R2-D2 plays a recording of Luke Skywalker who states that he’d like to bargain for Han and, as a gesture of goodwill, gives Jabba C-3PO and R2-D2 as gifts. So now, right off the bat, C-3PO and R2-D2 are captured. And, yes, Luke knowing that Jabba would turn down Luke’s offer for a bargain was probably part of his plan. But I do wonder what would happen if Jabba had said, “Oh, this is a good deal. Yes, I accept these droids and you can have Han Solo.” What would Luke have done then? I think, in good faith, Luke would have had to just leave C-3PO and R2-D2 behind. And we would have gotten a scene with a forlorn Luke telling Leia, “Yeah, I really misjudged Jabba. He seems nice.”
Lando: Lando is already working as a skiff guard when Return of the Jedi opens. I’ve always wondered about his interview process. I can only assume Lando had to interview with someone higher up, like Bib Fortuna.
Bib: “So, you want to be our new skiff guard?”
Lando: “I do.”
Bib: “You look familiar.”
Lando: “Nope, I’m just a resident of Tatooine looking for a job.”
Bib: “Do you like the musical styling of the Max Rebo Band?”
Lando: “Yes.”
Bib: “Well, you’re hired. Head downstairs past the dungeon and Rancor pit and we can get you set up with a uniform and a helmet mask.”
Anyway, even though Lando is there, he doesn’t really do much until later in “the plan” except let us know he’s there.
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Currently LOLing thinking about powerful crime boss Jabba the Hutt hiding behind a curtain to surprise a foe.
Thank you. Always confused me too. Especially considering the end of V when Lando (after raiding Han’s closet) and Chewie take off in the Falcon to rescue Han on their own, leaving L&L with the droids.
I think it was an escalating plan with Lando there as the inside man.
Plan A: Send in the droids. If that works, Luke gets Han and then Lando sneaks the droids out later.
Plan B: Send in Leia and Chewie. If she can get Han out, Lando gets Chewie and the droids out later.
Plan C: Luke goes in and tries to strong arm Jabba. If that works, he gets everyone out, except maybe the droids, whom Lando gets out later. If he even gets the droids back, Lando just calls in sick one day for guard duty and then never shows up again.
Rather than Luke planting the lightsaber inside R2’s head, perhaps Luke gave the saber to Lando just before Luke arrived at the palace. And it was Lando who planted it on R2, because clearly the first few plans didn’t work and shit was going to go down.
I think Jabba was suspicious of Boushh from the start, so he knew something fishy was going to happen there. Still, the idea of the entire palace playing hide-and-seek is pretty great.
Considering Luke lived there for 18 years, he might be a little familiar with the richest gangster on the planet and his operation from rumors. Look up the deleted scene on youtube where Luke is fiddling with his new light saber in a cave before putting it into R2 and sending them on to Jabba’s palace. They all were part of the same plan and Lando was the ace in the hole if all three plans failed.
Here’s something that occurred to me just now: Luke’s plan probably didn’t account for Han still being frozen. They expected Jabba to unfreeze Han and keep him in a cell as a prisoner. Then everything makes a certain amount of sense, assuming that nobody is able to communicate with each other *during* the plan:
Lando and Leia infiltrate Jabba’s crew, Chewie and Luke are willing prisoners, gambling that one of them is put in the same cell block as Han, and the droids are just there to smuggle Luke’s lightsaber to him, which he’d then use to fight his way out, rescuing the others in the process while Lando and Leia disrupt the guards.
Han still being frozen throws off the whole plan, forcing Leia to blow her cover when she unfreezes him, and leaving them with one less ‘inside man’.
It doesn’t make perfect sense, but if each participant in the plan didn’t know Han was still frozen until they got there and had to improvise, it helps explain the chaotic nature of the ultimate rescue.
That also explain’s Threepio’s “Artoo, look! Captain Solo! And he’s still frozen in carbonite!”, which had always struck me as a “THANK you, Captain Exposition” moment.
And just what happened to the restraints Han was wearing when he was lowered into the carbon freezing pit, which are nowhere to be seen when Leia frees him.
The restraints were gone before the freezing. Remember Han’s hands emerging from the carbonite?
I know the bindings must’ve been removed somehow for Han’s hands to have been free, I just don’t see how. I think what really happened was a good old-fashioned continuity error.
watch the scene again. the wrist restraints are taken off by the little ugnaughts. however, you are right about the upper arm restraints.
Luke was also really lucky that Jabba’s Boss Droid didn’t have
C-3PO’s and R2’s memories wiped.
Scene – Luke somersaults through the air
Hand extended
Whoops!
The novelization and comic adaptation both explained this. Luke tells Han as their on the skiff going to the sarlaac pit that Jabbas palace is too well guarded and fortified and they needed an opportunity to all get out in the open. Luke being a Jedi could already see how Janna was going to react to his brash rescue attempt.
*How Jabba would react.
The plan was, Luke doesnt know anything. He was a failure only learning from past mistakes. He is/Jedis are/were not perfect, that is the “message” of Star Wars. Our heroes arent infallible, they make mistakes. It is how they learn from them and redeem themselves that matters.
Proof of my statement: Yoda would have made very different decisions.
Luke was too eager. Too distracted. All his life, looking away, to the future, to the horizon…never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing! Hm.
If you dont get this, you need to rewatch Star Wars.
One part we have to wonder is if R2 intended to get assigned to the sail barge or if he was just being his normal smarmy self. Luke’s quick reaction and force grabbing of the gun seem a bit rushed and it really does make you wonder if he thought the mindtrick was the plan. Luke seemed calmer when they were taken to the sarlaac, so I think we should assume he wanted all his captive friends to be in one place, outside the palace, to save Han. The sequence of events seems very far fetched to have been predicted, but maybe Luke foresaw the end and just knew everyone had to be on tatooine.
The Rebel Alliance isn’t exactly poor either. They were presumably able to pay off Han’s debt rather easily in ANH. I get that vengeance is sweet for a gangster slug, but there has to be a price. Oh well.
it’s han’s fault for not trying to pay jabba sooner. also luke offers to pay but jabba refuses.
The other part that makes “the plan” bad, no matter what it was, was the insane risk to important and high ranking members of the Alliance. Han was a brash captain, still on the run from gangsters. For him, the Alliance somehow risked a baron administrator with military experience, a general and princess leader, 2 droids that have played a vital role in shaping the galaxy, and oh ya, a Jedi! That doesn’t even take into account Chewie. Who in the rebel alliance signed off on this? Did Luke pull a mindtrick on them? Was that why he was so confident he could do it to Jabba?
i don’t think anyone signed off on it. they just went and did it on their own. i don’t think luke and leia really had to answer to anyone in the alliance at that point.
The plan was more or less what we see transpire in the film. We know this because, on the sail barge, R2 was ready to launch Luke’s lightsaber after being given the signal. At the same time, we also see Luke and Lando give each other the “standing by” nod, as if both understood what their next moves were.
I believe Luke’s plan wasn’t an exact step by step plan. Luke saw a glimpse of the rescue on the sail barge (using the force) and put all the pieces in place to complete the rescue. He obviously didn’t think his first attempt would work or else he would have used his light saber. It also explains why he didn’t know about the trap door.
Luke intended to fight his way out as a last resort from the beginning, sendin the droids in first in case the stealth mission with leia failed. Leia was to rescue han, chewie, and the droids with Lando as a back up gun if she needed it. When she didnt return luke went in to finish the job with force. It was a gamble as to whether or not he would see r2, but this kind of mission requires a few gambles here and there. He probably meant to fight his way out of jabbas palace, expecting to see r2 sooner and not forseeing the rancor or sarlac, with things luckily coming back together in the end. The gambles payed off.
Perhaps being a Jedi Knight Luke had foreseen the outcome and prepared for it.
that’s the best explanation. luke really acted that way throughout the entire film. that’s why he was so cool about surrendering to the ewoks and the vader/emperor. he trusted the force and knew things would work out.
I was attempting to figure this out the last time I watched it. Part of me wondered if Leia went rogue and jumped the gun on unfreezing Han. Maybe the big stand off in the throne room was meant to be an ambush, but Leia got captured when she saw an opportunity to get Han out early.
Luke and Lando say they are going to rendezvous on Tatooine, probably to discuss their plan. This could have been after Lando got a job and cased the joint for Luke. Realizing Han is still in carbonate Luke sets up this series of unfortunate events to get everyone to the sarlaac pit. The only thing Luke didn’t plan for was the rancor. He was just trying to be captured when he pulled someone’s gun and that led to his oh shit moment. Everything else went according to plan.
what i always found weird about that line is that it took them a year to actually get there and do anything. i know books mostly covered it but it doesn’t really make sense.
Y’all overthinking the hell out of this one. Luke doesn’t have a plan. Leia and Landon have a plan, but Luke’s plan is to go in and clean up whatever situation there may be. The entre point of the scene was to showcase Luke as a Jedi now. He is cocky as all well and wants to test himself which is why he puts himself in as much danger as possible and wants to the literal last second to make a move. He is smirking the entire and as you mentioned that there is no way he could have planned for all of those scenarios to lead him to the sarlac pit. He is still so confident because he doesn’t care what happens, he is a Jedi now and he will get himself and his crew out no problem.
Here’s an idea: Han takes the loot he got from the Alliance at the end of A New Hope and pays Jabba back.
he was too busy putting leia’s pussy on a pedestal
The answer is actually in Empire Strikes back. Luke sees the future, a skill he has just acquired from his training with Yoda. Rushing to aid his friends in cloud city, things don’t go as “planned” because there wasn’t one, this time. We would all explore “what could I have done differently” in that scenario. Since Luke’s best and most current tool is using the newly acquired Jedi skill he would lean on that, along with his continued state-of-mind “what if” I could have done things differently. He sees images over and over, each playing out to a negative outcome. Luke finally uses this to his advantage and provides the correct response to each of them. Meditation in his responses to the events is what takes so long for him to rescue Han. So it was not many plans but a singular one. This skill also plays out in “The last Jedi” as he again uses this same skill to the point of projecting himself as a distraction for the resistance. That moment ties the beginning and end of Luke’s training all the way to master of mediation.
If I explained this correctly it will probably solidify Empire Strikes back as the greatest movie even more so.
Everyone in the comments seems to have forgotten that ROTJ was written by GEORGE LUCAS. There was no plan past get Carrie Fisher in a bikini and sell a bunch of toys.
Luke was plan B
The droids were sent ahead of time in case plan A failed because if there is one thing those guys know, is that their A plans stink worse than Stormtrooper target practice.
Plan A was for Lando to infiltrate and do reconnaissance. Leia would free Han and if they managed to escape, Lando would sneak Chewbacca and the droids out when Jabba’s palace was deserted when Jabba ordered an all out man-hunt.
Since that plan, like all of their plan A’s failed, Luke would just improvise.
Easy.
Luke force-projected the whole thing.
Counterpoint: George Lucas is a lazy hack who needed a way to reintroduce all his characters and this mishmash of action did the trick.
Has no one read Shadows of the Empire, the comic that tells the story of what happened between Empire and Jedi? It pretty well lays all of it out.
So here is sort of the way I always interpreted the whole rescue.
I think the basic idea is to get everyone in and then reveal themselves in an opportune moment with a large enough force to get themselves and Han out.
Luke grew up there, so he could have some knowledge of the area and would know a place to start to find information on Jabba, his habits, and forces. After a little digging and developing contacts, they send Lando in to be an inside man and gather more information.
He sends the droids in as a gift knowing that a protocol droid would be too valuable/useful for Jabba not to keep close at hand. Luke probably trusted R2 to find a way to make himself useful and be at hand most of the time. R2 has been very resourceful at things like this. R2 eventually got himself positioned as a server. They probably also counted on Jabba wanting to see his gifts/prizes from the Jedi. To have them at hand to rub it in Luke’s face, that he was taking them and not giving Luke what he wanted. They memory erased doesn’t see to be a common thing when acquiring new droids. Probably due to the lack of accumulated knowledge the droids have acquired makes them better at their jobs. It is probably in their programming that they have to serve their owners so, memory wiping doesn’t need to happen very often.
Leia was to go in masquerading as a bounty hunter and secure a position in Jabba court by turning in Chewbacca as a prisoner. How else do you get a wookie in there? Expecting Chewie to be kept in the same location as Han. Chewbacca could relate the plan to Han ahead of time. Then when Luke showed up they would all be there.
This is where I think things really started to go wrong. Han isn’t the prisoner they expected him to be but a decoration. Leia knows that Han still in carbonite is going to complicate their escape when Luke arrives. She is understandably anxious to free Han sees an opportunity to get to Han, free him and escape before Luke’s arrival. She takes the chance and tries to free him on her own. She does tend to take matters into her own hands.
I don’t really have a good explanation why Jabba and crew were waiting for her, except that maybe she gave herself away by sneaking around Jabbas palace and was spotted. Then they set the trap for the overly curious bounty hunter. Jabba would also want to know exactly what the bounty hunter was after. So trap laid.
Now the scene is set for Luke’s arrival. Luke shows up expecting to have several hidden allies. Upon his arrival, Leia is a clear indication that things are not going according to plan. Probably the first thing Luke was hoping to do is to mind trick Jabba into negotiating for Han’s release. Making it look like a completely plausible business deal. If that didn’t work, he could fall back on his hidden allies.
I think R2 with the lightsaber was a last resort measure. Luke would have known that he would be searched on entry so this was a gamble to sneak it in. Only accessing it at just the right time.
The Rancor was not at all part of the plan and almost destroyed the attempt. But Luke improvised and made it out alive.
Through their research or Lando’s insider investigations, they could have found out that Jabba’s favorite way to dispose of his captives was throwing them into the Sarlacc pit. So if negotiations broke down they could feel reasonably confident that Jabba would take them there. There, they would have a reduced opposition and easier time escaping than in the heavily guarded palace. Also because of Leia’s first attempt, the palace would be on guard for other attempts.
The rest is canon…
Well said. Although you neglected to mention that Luke has access, however vague or incomplete, to seeing the future through the Force. On all other points I agree.
Its official. The star wars movies have always been shit.
Star Wars is to the modern era what Homer, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Aeschylus, the Pentateuch, and the Epic of Gilgamesh were to antiquity or what Goethe, Shakespeare, Marlowe… oh, why do I bother listing authors? You don’t read.
You can make a fair criticism saying George Lucas shat the bed with stilted dialogue, poor direction, and too much CGI in the prequels. But how dare you, sir (or ma’am – we are in a gender sensitive time #MeToo) impugn the greatest myth of our lifetimes with such stark criticism? Pistols at dawn? Nay, lightsabers, bitch!
Wow. Okay. Were you trying to be funny? Ive seen the modern sw movies and i liked them but they are not great.
well Rebels did just introduce time travel as canon in star wars so there’s that.
I appreciate your obscure references to Weequay, Max Rebo, and Tessek (Squid Head’s real name) – they give you a modicum of nerd cred, but what you failed to address in your analysis was the overarching theme in the Hepatogy (and counting): The Force.
I understand the three-dimensional chess being a little far-fetched, but let’s reference back to your favortie movie (and mine): The Empire Strikes Back and a little bog planet called Dagobah.
Luke says during a meditation: I see a city in the clouds.
Yoda replies: Friends you have there.
Luke: They’re in trouble.
Yoda: It is the future you see…
Luke: Will they be alright?
Yoda: Difficult to see. Always in motion the future is.
The point being, even in his neophyte stages, Luke was able to see into the future. I believe ROTJ occurs a few years later, and Luke all the while has been continuing his Jedi training; after all, he had to search the galaxy for a Kyber crystal to build that new lightsaber that he put inside R2. And why again would he do that if he did not anticipate that R2 would be delivering it back to him at the opportune moment.
Agreed with what was said earlier about needing to get enough help on the inside and bring ing the fight out of Jabba’s liar. Perhaps Lando did provide that information; perhaps Luke just saw the future for where they would be at the moment. I’m not claiming that he knew every detail, lie fighting the rancor for example, but that he was pretty confident with the outcome.
Leia was sent in just to thaw Han out, and Luke probably told her she would be captured. Without Han thawed out, they all go out on the skiff without him, defeating the purpose.
Did Luke ever falter in his unwavering confidence? Jabba, free us or die. Last mistake you’ll ever make. What a bad ass.
I was a little bitter about the deleted scene where Luke finishes building his lightsaber and inserts it into R2; but in retrospect that would have stolen the greatest cinematic moment of my childhood, because I had no idea at 10 years old how they were getting out of that. The answer: Using the Force. Duh.
P.S. What do you mean no one died in Empire even though they were plenty of opportunities? Half the people on Hoth died. They only escaped because of that ion cannon manuever. And there was no intention of killiong any of them in Bespin. They hired bounty hunters to track them, and held them as prisoners, torturing Han to make sure that Luke would feel their pain through – you guessed it, The Force – so he could then also carbon freeze his son and deliver him as a prize to Palpatine. Is nthis really your favorite movie?
Maybe the writers just thought it would be a better way to start the movie. Get the whole gang back together in the same place at the same time for a great big good old fashioned jailbreak scene. Luke has all his backup and support infiltrate Jabba’s lair, get Han thawed and ready to go, smuggle in his light saber etc. Then he shows up, gives him every opportunity to settle the disagreement peacefully and when that fails all wait for the most opportune moment and strike as a team. Actually a pretty good way to counter the down ending of empire.
Yeah, so stick that in your Pote Snitkin, Amanaman. Get it? Cheeky obscure Star Wars references from Jabba’s lair…
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There are some great ideas here, in the article, and comments. Mike Ryan & Co. ideas are really fun yet seem a little unlikely, which I suppose is the purpose of this article. LuigiHann has a great point of possibility about them not realizing that Han would still be frozen in carbonite — Jabba’s crew all seemed delighted with their cleverness of leaving Han inside as a decoration. Yet I think that Hardrain77 gets to the real point: Jabba’s fortress is a prison. Jabba and his henchmen are not the real problem — though more of a problem than they’d assumed. They’ve got to figure out a way to get them all outside, so they can dispatch whoever is around them, and make a break for their ships across the open desert. As Mike wisely notes, Luke is familiar with Tatooine and the basics of Jabba’s operation. SO that was goal number one: Someone in The Company of the Captured needs to figure out a way to get everyone outdoors. The rest can be improvised.
For all their friendly comraderie and banter, these rebels are utterly lethal, and a formidably organized fighting force. Also, with R2 and 3P0 on the inside to perform hacking functions as needed, getting everyone out seems more a patience and waiting for the optimal opportunity.
They did not account for Jabba’s intelligence and impatient/rash ruthlessness (as seen with the dancing girl). I don’t think Team Jabba were hiding, I think they were passed out asleep after a long night of partying. Someone woke up (Jabba) and quietly alerted the others.
Moreover, Luke is a full-on Jedi now and everyone in his Company trusts him implicitly. And Jedi trust the Force, which helps them know the right way to go, without always know where that path leads.
Here’s an example from the days of the Old Republic. Through coincidence, Qui-Gon has wound up baby-sitting a naive, rejected-Jedi, being sent to work as a farmer, who Qui-Gon finds annoying. Their ship is attacked by pirates, and they crash land on a planet with tall craggy islands populated by flying, dragon-like creatures. Their prospects are grim. Qui-Gon climbs a cliff to retrieve essential food hidden by a thug/Hutt who is trying to extort the crew into slavery. He gets the bag of food then feels a prompting through the Force:
“Long had Qui-Gon followed the ways of the Force. Now he felt it beckon him. Run, it commanded. Go to Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon’s heart pounded. He ran three steps and leaped from the mouth of the cave, knowing that two hundred meters below, the sharp rocks stuck up like swords. Yet he trusted the Force.
“He did not fall even a dozen meters. His leap carried him straight to a draigon! He hit the beast’s neck with a thud. Long had Qui-Gon followed the ways of the Force. Now he felt it beckon him. Run, it commanded. Go to Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon’s heart pounded. He ran three steps and leaped from the mouth of the cave, knowing that two hundred meters below, the sharp rocks stuck up like swords. Yet he trusted the Force.” (The Rising Force, Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice, #1)
He leaps, lands on a dragon, who flies to Obi-Wan, where Qui-Gon helps the Jedi-reject fend off attacks on several fronts.
That’s what Jedi do, and it can (and should) be surprising, and hard to follow. And that’s what Luke is doing, too. He doesn’t know all the details, either, but he has faith it will work out.
In the words of Emperor Palpatine, “Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design” Luke had everything planned out in advance, and everything happened exactly as he had planned. This is the only logical explanation.
They sent in Lando as an advance scout. He knew about the trap door to the Rancor dungeon, that there were rocks and huge bones down there, that Han was still frozen behind a curtain, that Jabba was a light sleeper, that he loved to road trip to the Sarlacc’s pit, etc. Luke used all this information to form his plan.
The ingenious part of Luke’s plan was to implant courses of action into Jabba’s mind when he first entered Jabba’s chamber. (If Luke steps onto the trap door, drop him in with the Rancor. Make this golden droid your translator. Make the little blue droid serve drinks. If everyone gets captured, take a couple skiffs out to visit your ol’ buddy the Sarlacc, etc.) Once this was done (completely without Jabba’s awareness), Luke intentionally made a ham-handed attempt to use “mind control” on Jabba who easily defended against it. Once this was done, Jabba was convinced that he had thwarted Luke’s mind control attempt, never suspecting that Luke already implanted what he needed.
Then everything went according to plan.
Hubris was Jabba’s downfall.
Read Shadows of the Empire. The films and books are all connected. If people would just read, more questions would be answered. Disney needs to accept that and print more Legends.