National Star Wars Day: Our top 10 Star Wars quotes
According to Lucasfilm, National Star Wars Day officially occurs on May 25, the anniversary of the release of the epic space opera in 1977. But May 25 is already taken up by Towel Day, a tribute to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams.
The last thing we need is another feud between sci-fi fans, and we can never pass up the opportunity for a cheap pun. So we've decided to join the rebels with the day's salutation: May the 4th be with you!
Here are our favorite Star Wars quotes:
10. "Aaaaaaargh!" - Chewbacca, "A New Hope"
Han Solo's hirsute co-pilot may have been denied his medal at the end of "A New Hope," but he did get the final line of the movie. Chewie's voice was mostly remixed growls from Tarik, a black bear who lived in a zoo in San Jose, Calif.
9. "I have a bad feeling about this." - Luke, Han, Leia, C3PO, and others.
Variations of this foreboding expression appear throughout the Star Wars saga. In "A New Hope," Luke says it as the Millennium Falcon approaches the Death Star, and then Han says it just before the walls of the trash compactor begin to close. In "The Empire Strikes Back," Leia says it in the belly of the giant asteroid slug. In "Return of the Jedi," C3PO says it as he enters Jabba's palace, and then Han says it again after the Ewoks capture the Endor strike team. In the prequels, the line is delivered twice by Obi-Wan and once by Anakin.
8. "It's a trap!" - Admiral Ackbar, "Return of the Jedi"
In stating the obvious, Ackbar reveals that he is the last person in the Rebel Alliance to realize that the Empire had set them up. Fortunately, instead of fleeing, the Mon Calimari commander took Lando's advice and ordered his ships to engage the imperial fleet at close range, and, well, you know the rest.
7. "Do. Or do not. There is no try." - Yoda, "The Empire Strikes Back"
A staple of high-school yearbook quotations, Yoda's dictum perfectly captures George Lucas's idiosyncratic blend of Zen Buddhism, Jungian analysis, and sportswear slogans.
6. "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" - Leia, "A New Hope"
This is how Leia greets her long-lost twin as he bursts into her cell to rescue her from being executed. She's not only ungrateful, she's wrong: At 5'9", Mark Hamill is actually almost two inches taller than actor Temuera Morrison, who portrayed Jango Fett, the template for the stormtrooper clones.
5. "Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!" - Leia, "The Empire Strikes Back"
In lashing out at Han, Leia betrays her aristocratic upbringing and her disdain for those working in animal husbandry. Stuck up?! Takes one to know one, Your Worshipfulness.
4. "I know." - Han
In the shooting script for 'The Empire Strikes Back,' as Leia expresses her true feelings for the smuggler as he lowered into the carbonite freezing chamber, Harrison Ford was supposed to say "I love you, too." But after many attempts to get the scene to work, director Irvin Kershner just told Ford to ad lib it. Which he did, in true scoundrel form.
3. "May the force be with you." - Various
The line has been said by at least one character in each of the Star Wars movies. Viewers heard it first from Jan Dodonna in "A New Hope," after the Alliance general explained the attack plan on the Death Star.
2. "I am your father." - Darth Vader
On the set of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke's parentage was such a closely guarded secret that even David Prowse, the actor who played the body of Darth Vader, was kept in the dark. Instead, he spoke the fake line "Obi-Wan killed your father," which was later overdubbed by James Earl Jones. Mark Hamill himself was only told moments before going on to shoot the scene, which goes a long way in explaining his overacting in that scene.
1. "Hold your fire. There's no life forms. It must have short-circuited." - Anonymous Imperial gunnery officer
Think about it: If this order had never been given, the escape pod containing R2D2 and C3PO would have been blown to smithereens, never reaching Tatooine. Luke would have lived out his days as a moisture farmer and would never have become a Jedi. Were it not for this Imperial officer's efforts to save on ammunition, the whole story would have never happened.
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Now it's your turn. Share your favorite Star Wars quotes on our Facebook page. And may the fourth be with you. Always.
