Darth Vader’s revelation that he’s Luke Skywalker’s biological father in the climactic scene ofThe Empire Strikes Backhas been hailed as arguably the most iconic plot twist in movie history. Whilethe spoiler-ridden prequel eraand countless parodies have taken away a lot of its impact for modern viewers, audiences back in 1980 were blown away (as satirized byThe Simpsons).
All the best plot twists seem obvious on rewatches of the movie, because a filmmaker with their eye on the ball willcarefully foreshadow it in the build-up. InThe Prestige, Christopher Nolan indirectly explains the twist to the audience via the birdcage trick. InThe Departed, Martin Scorsese marks characters for death with an “X” duct-taped near their head. InFight Club, David Fincher uses all kinds of editing tricks to hint at Tyler Durden’s true nature. This is also true ofEmpire, which drops a few hints about Vader’s connection to Luke in the lead up to the big reveal.
RELATED:Star Wars Will Never Be Able To Top The ‘I Am Your Father’ Twist
Widely regarded as the greatestStar Warsmovie of them all (although the 1977 original set an incredibly high bar),The Empire Strikes Backhas a handful of iconic moments, like Yoda lifting Luke’s X-wing from the swamp with the Force orLeia telling Han, “I love you,” and Han replying, “I know,”right before being frozen in carbonite and sent to an uncertain future hanging on Jabba the Hutt’s wall. But the “I am your father” twist is undeniably the biggest, boldest, most memorable moment in the whole movie.
The first and second acts of the movie subtly foreshadow the third-act rug-pull. When an admiral catches a glimpse of Vader’s helmet being lowered onto his scarred head through a crack in the door of his medical pod, it reinforces the idea that there’s a human being under the mask. The ruthless dictator who’s been magically strangling his underlings throughout the movie is actually a person. After the firstStar Warsmovie had introduced Vader as a faceless embodiment of evil, the second onewent out of its way to humanize himbefore revealing he has kids.
The fact that “vader” is the Dutch word for “father” – and the German word for “father,” “vater,” is very similar – has been interpreted as a subtle hint that Vader is Luke’s father. However, this has been debunked by the release of early script drafts that assign the name “Darth Vader” to a different character, an Imperial general. Still, it’s a neat little detail, even if it was unintentional.
Not all ofEmpire’s foreshadowing is subtle, of course. While Luke is training with Yoda on Dagobah, he’s drawn into a mysterious cave where he experiences a disturbing Force vision. Luke hallucinates a confrontation with Vader in which he manages to decapitate him. But when he looks down at the infamous Sith Lord’s severed head on the ground (this iseasily the darkestStar Warsmovie), Vader’s mask falls off and Luke sees his own face underneath it. Without knowing Vader is Luke’s father, there are a number of ways to interpret this. It could be a hint that Luke is susceptible to turning to the dark side, like his all-black clothes inReturn of the Jediwere intended to suggest. But, knowing the twist that’s coming, it seems to pretty clearly telegraph that Vader is a Skywalker.
When Luke senses that Han and Leia are in trouble on Bespin and decides to cut his Jedi training short to save them, Yoda warns him against leaving. He promises to return and complete his training, but Yoda insists he’s not ready to face Vader. Of course, the wise old Jedi turns out to be right. Not only does Luke find himself hopelessly outmatched by Vader physically; he’s not prepared for the emotional toll of learning that Vader is his father.
The “I am your father” twist is one of the main contributing factors – along with Han’s unsettling fate – inThe Empire Strikes Back’s groundbreaking downbeat ending. The bad guys winning in a big blockbuster sequel likeStar Wars 2(as it was known back then) was unheard of back in 1980.Empire’s downer ending was as shocking as Alfred Hitchcock’sPsychokilling off an A-list movie star at the midpoint.
While contemporary moviegoers were shocked byEmpire’s twist, some fans thought that Vader might be lying, so Lucas included the scene inReturn of the Jediin which the more trustworthy (or so we thought) Obi-Wan confirms that Vader is indeed Luke’s father and that, from a certain point of view, his blatant lies about what happened to Luke’s father were true. This echoesThe Last Jedi’s own twist reveal. AfterThe Force Awakensneedlesslyturned Rey’s parentage into a big deal,Star Warsfans rejected Kylo Ren’s revelation that her parents are “nobodies” inThe Last Jediand assumed he was lying.
Instead of including a scene that clarified the twist likeReturn of the Jedi,The Rise of Skywalkerconfirmed this fan theory andturned Rey into a Palpatine, creating all kinds of plot holes. With the current state of the franchise’s big-screen output, it’s fair to say thatStar Warswon’t be topping the shock factor of “I am your father” any time soon. Then again, it’s possible that no movie,Star Warsor otherwise, will ever topEmpire’s twist.
