Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Scene 8 Summary

  • We cut to a bunch of Imperial forces blowing the crud out of an asteroid field. The Falcon seems safe and sound in its hideaway, but Leia (who's chilling in the cockpit) freaks out when a strange creature latches itself to the ship.
  • Han, Chewie, and Leia rush outside to take on the intruder, but they quickly realize that there's something... strange about this asteroid. It's so... moist.
  • They manage to kill one creature, but a bunch of others start popping up. During this attack, Han accidentally shoots the surface, which makes the entire asteroid shudder uncontrollably. Huh?
  • Everyone rushes inside the ship and Han starts the Falcon. That's when we realize that that they weren't hiding out in a cave at all—they were hiding in the belly of a giant worm. That's insane. They narrowly avoid its chomping teeth and make it out unscathed.
  • On Dagobah, Luke is performing Jedi CrossFit with Yoda, who spits a constant string of platitudes. Mostly, however, he just warns Luke to stay away from Vader and the Dark Side.
  • They finish training for the day, but Luke suddenly starts acting strangely. Yoda points to a nearby cave and says that it holds a great concentration of the Dark Side—and that Luke must go inside.
  • When Luke asks him what's in there, however, he replies simply: "only what you take with you." He also tells Luke to leave his weapons, but Luke refuses,
  • Luke crawls into the cave and ominous music swells. Suddenly, he hears a splash and an imposing figure starts walking towards him—it's Darth Vader.
  • They start dueling. It's actually a quick little fight, with Luke decapitating Vader like he was chopping broccoli.
  • Then something even weirder happens—Vader's decapitated head explodes to reveals Luke's face underneath. What in the name of Qui-Gon Jinn is going on here?
  • We return to the real Vader to find him hiring a group of bounty hunters to find the Millennium Falcon. He carefully tells one with a funny helmet that he is not to disintegrate the crew.
  • Meanwhile, the Millennium Falcon is still being chased by a Star Destroyer (so why did Vader need to hire those dudes?). With their hyperdrive still malfunctioning, Han decides to make a suicide run on the gigantic Star Destroyer.
  • The Falcon makes a close pass and suddenly disappears. The chief Imperial officer is baffled, but promises to take full responsibility for the failure. Vader's a forgiving dude, right?
  • We pop back to Dagobah to find Luke performing a one-handed handstand while balancing Yoda on one of his feet. That's not all, folks: He's also stacking stones with his mind.
  • Unfortunately, he loses focus when his X-Wing sinks deeper into the swamp, killing his chances of leaving the planet.
  • Yoda commands him to lift up the ship like he did the stones, and when Luke says that he'll "try," Yoda responds by saying "there is no try."
  • It actually works for a second, although Luke isn't able to free the ship from the muck. He's bummed, but Yoda gives him a pick-me-up by extolling the beauty of the Force—it connects everyone and everything.
  • Luke is still frustrated, calling the task impossible and sulking in the corner. Then, just like that, Yoda puts out his hand and magically moves the X-Wing to the planet's surface.
  • Like a boss. Our little padawan (Nerd alert: That's a Jedi-in-training) is suitably awed.
  • We cut back to the Empire as Vader chokes out the admiral from the previous scene. Angrily, he tells the crew to hunt down the Falcon by tracing its light-speed pattern,
  • Then we pull out to the exterior of the Star Destroyer to make a shocking discovery—the Falcon is clinging to the side of the ship, rendering it completely undetectable.
  • Inside, Han and Leia are discussing their plan. They can escape from the fleet by blending in with one of their garbage dumps, but they'll still need to figure out somewhere to go.
  • Han has an idea—his old buddy (and fellow scoundrel) Lando Calrissian is now a big-wig on the mining planet Bespin. Lando definitely doesn't like the Empire, so everyone agrees to go.
  • With that, the Star Destroyer releases its garbage and jumps to hyperspace, leaving the Falcon to get away scot-free.
  • As they fly away, however, we see a ship piloted by the helmet-wearing bounty hunter following from a distance. That's bad news, kiddos.