Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ft. Ryan Pappolla

[00:00:01] Hi, I'm Bram and I love Star Wars. I'm Ryan and I like Star Wars. I'm Dan and I love Force Fridays. And this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast! Deck The Hallmark, it's his podcast. Fa la la la la. Brinkley and Anne Friend's host his podcast.

[00:00:22] Fa la la la la. We hope you like this jolly podcast. Fa la la la la. Well, well, well. Boys. Hello everybody. Happy Friday to you and Yorn. That's right. And a special vroom vroom to you. Ryan, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm doing really good.

[00:00:47] You know what's cool about Force Fridays? Tell me. So much. Well, everything, like genuinely. But it's really making me like appreciate all of my, like, you know, all of my specific, my specific nerdy interests.

[00:00:58] It's giving me an even greater appreciation for them because I'm sure no one had an issue with anything we said last week. We're bringing all the communities together. We were not put into group text by Scott Newman, among others.

[00:01:13] What's wild is now that you bring that up, Ryan, because I'm enjoying this too, just from a pure nostalgia standpoint, but we had a lot of people say how much they appreciated the episode last week, but we did have a few people who were having some serious conniption

[00:01:24] fits with just our general take on the first episode. And that makes me happy. Like, I love these movies, but nothing like that kind of storm reaction does more for my spirit. Like, it's just the best.

[00:01:38] I think the big takeaway was I felt like I played the synopsis pretty safe last week. You did. Sure. And I was still told that I was wrong. So this week. That's right. Yeah. I can't believe you tried. I know. There's just no trying here. I do.

[00:01:55] I'm trying to get as much right as I can. But you're going to have some. I also get a little. Well, this is a long synopsis. Sorry. Wow. Are we going to loop the song?

[00:02:07] We got to find out because you and I are going to interject as much as we can. And here's the thing. I want to say one more thing. The people that have been upset at us about the Star Wars have ranged all the way from

[00:02:18] 12 years old to whatever Scott Newman's ages, which I think is right around mid 40s, if I'm not mistaken. So we got a good swath of people that are angry at us. And that's how you know you're doing something right. And we just tell it like it is.

[00:02:34] That's right. We just tell it like it is. It's all we're doing here. I didn't think we were that harsh on it. I didn't either. I think more of the anger comes from some of the stuff that we just casually would get wrong, I think. Yeah.

[00:02:46] But it's not like we're right when it comes to Hallmark movies. No. This is what we do. Point for the courts. We're wrong about everything. But also if Boba Fats wrong. That's exactly right. Thanks. Thanks.

[00:03:01] Dan, I do got to say, I know it's only been a couple of days since your birthday. Yeah. You look ancient. Thank you. Your son is a certain. I did. Yes, you're right. I turned 41 on Wednesday and it's Friday. We made a huge deal about it.

[00:03:16] And you know what? It's because you said let's drink for 48 straight hours. I said it. You came to me. I was like, that's a bad idea. We have families, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, no, no, no. You only turned 41 once. That's right. Let's drink for 41 hours.

[00:03:30] That's right. And so we right after we finished recording on Wednesday, we started and that's how while you'll notice Thursday's episode, we didn't do anything. And so I look ancient because I haven't slept.

[00:03:42] Brian, I mean, somehow you still look great, but I've always said I can hold it down way better than you can. That's historically. From a drinking standpoint, absolutely. And cookies really and everything. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Yeah. Puke face. I mean, you kidding me right now?

[00:04:01] Ryan, do you want to say anything to Dan about his birthday? Yeah, nothing. I mean, I sent him a bouquet and a really lovely voice. You sent me an edible arrangements, which I really appreciate. You're very welcome. Yeah, it wasn't inexpensive to ship. Oh, no, no, no.

[00:04:16] Those things are cheap. I get it. No, I as a lot of people know, I don't drink. I've never had a sip of alcohol, but I also drink for 41 straight hours in honor of Dan's birthday. And I'm feeling I'm feeling great. That's right. That's right.

[00:04:28] They're not even going to let him back into the Church of Latter-day Saints. We screwed all of that up. Yes. But happy, happy, happy belated, bud. I appreciate this without you. No, listen, I much appreciated. I felt very loved this week. I'm a saint. More like Latter-day sauce.

[00:04:45] Am I right? Hey, Dom was right. Corona's great. Am I right? Don't knock it, man. Oh, man. We're talking Star Wars. Episode V. That's right. Nobody likes this one, so no pressure here. This was like when the first one was originally just called Star Wars. Correct. Yes.

[00:05:09] And then retroactively a new hope, a new hope episode four. And so here we are now with episode five. I'm sure that wasn't confusing for anybody at the time. People at the theaters were like, this is fun. What happened over the last year?

[00:05:25] It was confusing to me this morning when a producer, Erin Shea, was in there watching a movie with us and she said, I've still yet to see the third one. And I was like, the episode six or the sixth one? She did. She said episode three.

[00:05:41] And I still wanted clarification because she told me she just watched Empire Strikes Back. And so I still was like, do you mean episode three is in Revenge of the Sith or episode six? And that's of course, she made episode three. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:55] Man, I imagine watching episode one and two and you're like, you know what? I'll pass on three. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. You got through two. Erin, do you want to give the reasoning for why? Yeah, of course. But you watched two though. Yeah.

[00:06:09] So which maybe to be fair, maybe you said I quit it too. I get it. Like, you know, but go ahead. I explained it to Dan earlier. I was a big fan of episodes four or five, six as a kid. I watched them a lot with my grandfather.

[00:06:22] Then I was young when episode one came out and I really liked Anakin and Skywalker. Yes. I can see you. Anakin. Anakin. Anakin Morris. Yeah. Morris. Fine fellow, Anakin Morris. And little, you know, 10, 11 year old me could not handle who Anakin became.

[00:06:46] And so when episode three came out in theater, I saw episode two. And when episode three came out in theaters, my dad said, do you want to come with me and your brother? And I said, no. So that makes more sense.

[00:06:57] Episode two or attack of the clones is when he just goes ham on all those children. Yeah. So they had it coming. I will say at that point, you're probably. I get it. Makes sense. Shout out to Anakin.

[00:07:08] I would rather stay home and like read a book or do something else. And you guys go have fun watching Anakin do his Anakin thing. Do his Anakin thing. No spoilers. Yeah, no spoilers. Yeah, we'll get there, guys. What? Let's talk episode five.

[00:07:28] It originally premiered on May 6th, 1980 at the Dominion Theater. OK, thanks, Brian. And then a couple of weeks later to the wide release May 21st, 1980 here in the United States. And it went a little something like this.

[00:07:46] You'd think that destroying the Death Star would be the end of it. I think it would be, but it's not. The Imperial troops have driven the rebel forces from their hidden base across the galaxy.

[00:07:58] Luke Skywalker has established a new base on an ice planet called Hoth and Darth Vader is obsessed. Believe it's both. Both alone with trying to find Luke Skywalker one day while Luke is scouting the planet. Luke is attacked by this abominable snowman looking thing. He's a freak.

[00:08:18] He's a real freak. Things are looking aren't looking good for old Luke, but thanks to Ghost Obi Wan is encouraging him to use the force. Also, he's like, hey, go to a swamp. You want to go to a swamp swamp? Go to the swamp. Guy named Yoda.

[00:08:34] You're going to love him. Yes, Luke is saved from the cold by Han Solo. Maybe you've heard of him back in the war. Han and Princess Leia are doing their flirty flirty thing where they argue and stuff, and

[00:08:46] she convinces Han that he's not all that by kissing Luke big ones. I'm sure it's totally cool. Nothing bad about that kiss at all. Darth Vader is told that they have tracked down the location of where the rebels are, but the rebels are ready for him.

[00:09:05] They start shooting at incoming ships. The Imperial forces do land, though. They're a little ground walker thing. So Luke and some of the other pilots try to destroy them by shooting him? No, by tripping up with big rope. Got him. But the trip plan only works so well.

[00:09:24] Eventually, the rebels have to retreat. Han, Leia, Chewie, C-3PO, they flee with the Millennium Falcon while Darth Vader just walks around a base unimpressed by what they got going on. He shows up just in time to see them take off.

[00:09:39] Luke and R2 are able to flee his own ship, and Luke decides that he's not going to join the rest of the gang. He's going to head to that swamp. Drain the swamp. Han and the gang are anti-Yoda. Anti-Yoda. Not my Yoda. Listen, he's been in office forever.

[00:09:57] So what, 650 years? It's too long! Well, somebody else trained the Jedi. Drain the swamp! It's literally... Project Episode 5. It's old! He is. Too old he is. It's literally Yoda and a ghost. Those guys are too old! Too old. The rent's too high.

[00:10:15] Han and the gang are actively being chased, so Han does the only thing that he can think to do, fly into an asteroid field. And it works because he's a really good pilot and everybody else sucks.

[00:10:28] But the ship does need some repairs, so Han lands the Falcon on a crater or something so that he can make those repairs. Luke crashes into the swamp and is quickly bothered by this Harry Green guy, not knowing

[00:10:42] that that Harry Green guy is the one that he's looking for. It's Yoda. While having more flirty, flirty fun time instead of working, working, working on the ship, Leia and Han kiss big once! A big movie for Princess Leia's lips.

[00:10:58] Darth Vader has a conversation with the Emperor and he tells him that the boy who destroyed... I know. That the boy who destroyed... That star is the new enemy. We have to destroy him at all costs before he becomes a Jedi.

[00:11:13] Vader says, well what if I can turn him before this happens? He'll be a great asset. The Emperor tells him that he can give it a old college try. His words, not mine. Back in Swamp Town, Yoda is already annoyed by Luke. Same.

[00:11:30] But after some convincing from Obi-Wan, the training begins. Complete with Luke carrying Yoda like a cute little backpack. They come up to a cave and Yoda tells him, go in the cave. It's dope. It's like shrooms but crazier.

[00:11:46] So he does go in and sure enough, he comes face to face with Darth Vader. Luke cuts his head off but then the mask opens up and he sees his own face behind the mask. That's crazy. Wonder what that's about. Luke's still riding that high though.

[00:12:02] Starts doing more force stuff like picking up rocks and stuff. Still, Luke doesn't fully comprehend the power of the force. So Yoda lifts up the X-Wing from the swamp. A little show off. A little hairy show off. Luke begins to get... Still got it.

[00:12:19] Six hundred years old, still got it. But just because you still got it doesn't mean... He ain't as good as he once was but he's as good once as he ever was. I just think that even though you could still handle the office,

[00:12:32] maybe it's time to hand off the baton. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drain the swamp. Drain the swamp. So Luke begins to get really good at the force and when he gets a vision of his friends being in danger, he's like, okay, I gotta go.

[00:12:47] I got this. Yoda's like, hey, if you leave now, you may destroy everything that they're fighting for. You're not powerful enough to fight off the dark side. Luke's like, sorry, got a blast. While Vader's still after them,

[00:13:02] Han decides to get some help from his old pal Lando on his planet. Lando was pumped to have him. Chewie is immediately suspicious though after finding R2 and a bunch of junk. He's like exploded. It's crazy. C-3PO? That's what I mean. Sorry, Scott. Same thing really, right?

[00:13:20] They're both droids. Lando shows up. Numbers and letters. Letters, numbers, colors. C-3-2-D-2. Yeah, that's right. Lando, just going forward, just whatever I say one, just assume it's the other. Lando shows up and is like, let's eat food.

[00:13:38] But then they go to eat food and the food room's bad, bad vibes in that food room because Darth Vader's there. Dang it, Lando. Lando tells him that he was forced to work with the Empire to prevent them from taking over his entire city. Fair, I guess.

[00:13:52] Darth Vader shows Han his weird sex machine. I don't know for sure. He says it's a torture device. Looks like a sex machine. It happens behind closed doors. You can't convince me it's not a sex machine.

[00:14:04] But the torture was all to get Luke to come and save him because he knew that he would be able to see it with the force. And so all of it's a big trap.

[00:14:13] Leia confesses her love to Han before Vader freezes him to test whether the process will safely imprison Luke. It's a classic. Let's test it. We'll test it on Han. If it works, we'll be good to go.

[00:14:25] After she says, I love you, Han simply responds by saying, I know. What a guy. So dreamy. The process work and Han is given to a bounty hunter, Jabba the Hutt. I'm kidding. It's Boba Fett. Luke shows up and sees a frozen Han being floated around.

[00:14:43] And gotta be honest, actually pretty dope way to get around. Not the frozen part, but like lying down and floating. It'd be pretty cool. Leia sees Luke and warns him that it's a trap by yelling out for everybody to hear. It's a trap!

[00:14:56] He ends up coming face to face with Darth Vader, who tells Luke that the force is strong with him, but he's not a Jedi yet. Luke immediately pulls out his lightsaber. Bold move, pal. Darth Vader pulls his out and they begin to fight.

[00:15:10] Luke is no match and loses his lightsaber almost immediately. Darth Vader begins to give him tips to be better with the force, such as release your anger, which, you know, work as Darth falls off this platform. Luke jumps down and tracks him down.

[00:15:27] Vader begins to use the force to fling parts of the planet that's building at Luke. It's totally fine, though. Don't worry about the structure. It's sound. This breaks open this window. Luke is sucked out of the window. He grabs onto the outside of this platform, pulls himself up.

[00:15:45] While all this is going on, Lando has decided I want to be a good guy again, so he's going to help the rest of them flee. They get to the Falcon. Back to the fight.

[00:15:53] Luke once again finds Vader and they fight some more on this catwalk that they use for fashion shows. If you ever get to see a fashion show at that height, I'd do it. Luke hits Vader's arm. Vader cuts off his hand.

[00:16:09] Vader tells Luke that he's only just begun to realize his power with his help. He can be great. Luke is like, nah, bro. Vader is like, Obi Wan hasn't told you everything. What did he tell you about his father? Looks like he told me enough.

[00:16:23] He told me you killed him. Vader says, no, I am your father. Luke cries like a little baby boy, like real nasty, like real sad. Vader tries one last time to get him to join the dark side, but Luke just jumped.

[00:16:39] He's like, I'd rather die than join you. Luckily for him, though, he doesn't die. He gets sucked into this tunnel thing, don't ask. And he's now underneath the city, kind of floating there, hanging on an antenna.

[00:16:53] Luke uses the force to call out to Leia, even though they're already gone. They've already flown away. So they turn that ship around. Don't make me turn that ship around. And they rescue him. The ship is now being chased by some other ships.

[00:17:06] And Chewie tries to turn on hyperdrive to get them to get out of there. But it was deactivated by one of Vader's men. Vader watches and calls out to Luke with the force, being like, one last time, buddy. Come on, join the dark side. Luke doesn't answer.

[00:17:21] He just basically asks. Oh, there it is. Oh, we did it. We did it. He just asked old Ben, why didn't you tell me? C-3PO fixes the... Dang it. Fixes the hyperdrive. And off they go.

[00:17:36] Vader watches and just walks away without saying a word, which is almost worse. It's like your parents saying that they're disappointed in you. They get Luke to the Rebel base so they can give him a new hand, which apparently they just have ready to go.

[00:17:51] A slew of hands lying around. He and Leia watch as Lando and Chewie head out to try to save Han. And Luke puts his arm around Leia because play is gonna play. And that, my friends, was Star Wars Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back. We did it.

[00:18:10] Yeah, we did. Good job, Bran. Nice work. Nice work. That's something to be proud of, man. Come at me. Come at me, nerds. Let's thank Quick Frank. We'll be right back here on Deck the Hallmark. Welcome back, everybody. Hopefully you're doing well today.

[00:18:32] And if you're not doing well, you're about to be doing well. We've got a great episode talking about Episode 5 of Star Wars. It's kind of an important movie. It's kind of an important movie. A big deal movie of the last 50 years.

[00:18:45] What are our thoughts on this big deal movie? Let's find out. It's time for the hot take. This is where we share how we felt about this movie. I'm going to start with Ryan. Ryan, what do you think about Episode 5 of Star Wars?

[00:18:57] Brian, we're like 15 minutes into the episode. You're like, we got a great episode here for you today. I was worried about that too. But you know what? He got through the synopsis and there were a few pitfalls I thought for sure

[00:19:06] he was going to fall into that he just didn't fall into. Drain the swamp, sex machine. I don't know why anyone would be mad at us. No, I don't either. So I've maybe, believe it or not, I've maybe much like pretty much all of these films,

[00:19:19] with the exception, I think, of one. I've most seen this film two times before. Wow. Legitimately only two. Definitely once, maybe a second time, but I can't recall the second time. Let's just say two.

[00:19:30] So I didn't remember a ton about it, although obviously I knew the big lore plot points that are just ingrained in our culture as media consumers. Within the first three minutes of this movie, it feels so lived in. It's a classic. This movie is incredible.

[00:19:47] I kind of wanted to do a bit for TV Scotty where I was like, this movie's trash. That's right. I couldn't do it. It's so hard to do, isn't it? Yeah. This is one of the best films ever made.

[00:19:56] And it's so much better than New Hope, which isn't a diss to New Hope. It's just a real compliment to Empire Strikes Back. They figure everything out in this, although we might have a bit of a disagreement on this

[00:20:08] later from what we were talking about before the show. I think Luke is much more likable and better. Vader is choking people out via Skype conference. The battle on Hoth is bananas. All of that is established before the 30-minute mark.

[00:20:23] Mark Hamill, like I said, is a lot better. Yoda as a character is fantastic. It made me so mad watching this that they CGI him up in the prequel. The puppetry here is pro.

[00:20:34] Yeah, I mean, and all this stuff, like everything that we talked about in terms of the practicalness of New Hope is better here by leaps and bounds. And again, not a diss to New Hope. This is just so good. The chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, electric.

[00:20:48] Lando is awesome. See you soon, Donald Glover. If I have one critique, it's that I think the movie honestly probably could have been a bit longer. Vader has so much to do in the last act of the film, but I almost maybe would have wanted

[00:21:00] another Vader scene or two in the middle. I think he gets a little bit lost. And this movie is also probably directly responsible for every major franchise film of the last five years ending on a cliffhanger.

[00:21:12] But if those are my only complaints, if those are my only critiques, this movie is incredible. It's probably the best movie we've ever covered, at least with me here on the podcast. I love it. I love it. I love it. Bran, don't screw up.

[00:21:26] I so this movie is great. It is a absolute blast. It is two hours, which is typically towards the top of where I'm comfortable living, but it doesn't feel two hours. This movie flies by. It gets straight to work and it doesn't stop. Darth Vader is so good.

[00:21:48] He's like such an evil character in this movie. And every time he is on screen, you're holding your breath. And that we talked about it a little bit last week, but that was kind of the big takeaway

[00:22:01] from episode four was like, like it felt like he was figuring out his groove as Vader. And in this one, boy, he is terrifying. I, the, as for as bad as the fight scene was in episode four, episode five makes up for it. A fantastic fight scene.

[00:22:20] And my only real complaint of this movie is the cutaways during that scene to Lando and Delia and the whole like, hey, let's get out of here. I really just, I kept wanting to fight every time they cut away. I was like, get back to the thing.

[00:22:35] And I really, I just like that fight scene was so good. The lightsabers looked significantly better in this movie than they did in episode four. This movie is a blast. It flies right by. It's probably the fastest two hour movie I can recall watching.

[00:22:52] Like, I couldn't believe it was done when it was done. And so everything about this movie is a hit. It was a hit. Dana, this movie is an absolute minted classic. If you are judging sequels based upon the best sequel of all time, this movie is it.

[00:23:11] But if you're judging how good the sequel is based upon its previous movie and it's still being great, this movie is in a literal category of one. Like people talk about the Godfather two, but the first Godfather is amazing. Arguably better than Godfather two.

[00:23:27] This like Star Wars without Empire Strikes Back is a genre changing cinematic experience that's meh as a movie. And I'm sorry, but the Empire Strikes Back not only cements Star Wars as history in the best possible way, but improves upon it at every single turn.

[00:23:50] It's a masterpiece of cinema. Why is it a masterpiece of cinema? A few reasons. We're going to start at the top. This is the only Star Wars movie until Force Awakens that George Lucas does not have a screenwriting credit on. George Lucas gets a story credit.

[00:24:04] He didn't write this screenplay. He didn't dabble with it. The rest of the movies, New Hope, Return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith. He wrote the screenplay for all of those. He didn't write this screenplay. Lawrence Kasdan wrote it.

[00:24:17] The guy who did The Big Chill, the guy who did Raiders of the Lost Ark, the guy who did Force Awakens. It is a much better script. The spots that are supposed to be funny are, the spots that are supposed to be serious

[00:24:29] are, the stuff between Han and Leia really pops off the screen. Great dialogue. That's number one. Number two, we separate Luke from the herd. What Luke is doing in this movie is not whining with the rest of the gang and being there

[00:24:43] going, but why don't we do this and why don't we do that? He's doing his own thing. By golly. He's hardly with them all movie long and it is to everyone's benefit. Number three, Lando freaking Calrissian. Dude, Billy Dee Williams is peak Billy Dee Williams here.

[00:25:02] He is crushing it at every turn. Number four, Vader. I didn't want a second more of Vader on screen because he has that thing that they try to replicate for the next 50 years that they have in the dark night, which is when he's not on screen.

[00:25:17] You're like, what is Darth Vader up to? What's he doing? Who's he killing? What's going on in the first movie? He's in trance. He's like, what's going on here? He doesn't know what he's doing. He's way too like Ray Fiennes as Voldemort.

[00:25:31] Like he's just all over here in this movie. He's a stone cold killer. He's amazing. The, the, the fight scene. And I'm just going to hard disagree with brand. The fight scene at the end of this movie in cloud city is perfect.

[00:25:46] It's perfect for a number of reasons. There's plot, there's pathos, there's great lightsaber work, but this begins the tradition that is maybe my favorite thing about star Wars, which is there are two simultaneously tense events happening at the same time.

[00:26:03] And John Williams is tasked with scoring them together as they both take place and up the ante until the end of the film. Phantom Menace is a crap movie, but the last 30 minutes of that movie, because of Darth

[00:26:16] Maul fighting Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan combined with Jake Lloyd flying a plane for the first time in space. And then they're on the ground also fighting all this spoiler. It is pure magic. What Lucas, not Lucas, I'm sorry, Irving Kirshner does in this movie and how they edit

[00:26:33] this thing to where every time you, you want one more second of Luke and Darth Vader, they cut away to Lando and the gang flying through trying to save their lives. This movie slaps. It is so good. It's very dark. Nothing is resolved.

[00:26:50] And then the last thing is there is a chance at the end of this movie that Luke Skywalker literally becomes a bad guy. And growing up, it never dawned on me because I'm watching these movies after they had already been released.

[00:27:03] But if you're watching this movie in 1980, you have to at least consider that there is a more than decent chance 10, 15% that our hero is going to become a villain. We have Han Solo. We have Leia. It could easily be father and son versus the two of them.

[00:27:24] And especially because he ends the movie just pissed at old Ben. Correct. And he says, and that's good. He says for the first time, he doesn't say Vader. He says father. And then Vader immediately says son. So very powerful moment.

[00:27:38] So like not only are you leaving with everything in shambles for the rebellion, you're also leaving with is the rebellion in shambles and its de facto leader going to the dark side to create an unstoppable force? This movie is amazing. It's amazing.

[00:27:55] It doesn't have to answer your questions. It sits there in a pure, pulpy, perfect level of what has become the cultural zeitgeist. It's unbelievable. No one should ever have to have a bad thing to say about it. It's just perfect. Bran, real quick.

[00:28:08] One other great thing I forgot to mention this during my hot take for someone like me who consumes a lot of this fandom type stuff, especially as I get older, what this movie

[00:28:16] does that's so, so, so good is that by the time you get to Lando's ship world building is overused, but I don't know how many Star Wars novels and all those things came out

[00:28:26] between new hope and empire strikes back, but empire strikes back is when I'm sure everybody's minds went, Oh my God, there's just so much happening in this universe. And because by the time you get to Lando ship, you're just like, Oh man, there's like

[00:28:39] things happening in every sector of the galaxy. And there was so many people who wanted to consume as much of that as possible, which is to answer part of my hypothesis from last week.

[00:28:48] That's one of the big reasons why I think this became the most popular thing ever. Cause there had never been anything like this before. But unlike new hope, this movie shows you that there's so much going on.

[00:28:57] I would, I would wager to say this is the, I know I just saw it and I saw it twice and once with my kids, which is also a blast. This is the best sequel of all time. I don't know why we're having this discussion.

[00:29:10] I've always, I've like if pure sequel, not third, fourth, fifth has to be the second one. This is the best one. I don't, don't give me toy story two. Don't give me godfather two. This is it. Yeah. The dark night. That's interesting.

[00:29:24] D two, the dark night is the best argument. In my opinion, the dark night is like alone to home alone to home alone to her D two are probably the only real content. Dude, dude, dude, I couldn't do it. Time out. Dislist best sequels.

[00:29:38] When are we doing that? Interesting. Oh, I'm in because that right there. No, Ryan is not invited. You're not, you're not invited. Oh, Shrek two is a good one. All of those movies are amazing. Empire Strikes Back is the best sequel of all time. I set it here.

[00:29:56] You know what would make this a dark night? Second, better. What is if at some point Darth Vader said to Luke, Luke, run. I don't know how he would say it, but maybe, maybe Luke Ron. I don't know why he would say it either. Yeah, I'd be weird.

[00:30:18] Um, that was fun. Uh, let's get to all the fields. That's where we talk about what in this movie gave us feels. Ryan, I have two once quick, uh, maybe one of the most badass moments in the history

[00:30:30] of cinema when Lando opens the door to the dining room and there's Vader at the head of the table. Oh my gosh. It's the coolest thing ever. Right? Sucks the gun. She's like, boom, got it. Oh man. It's the coolest thing ever.

[00:30:42] Uh, but then early on in the film and I thought this one, it gave me feels, but I also thought it was really, really important to bridge the gap between new hope and the first 15, 20 minutes of this. Uh, they tell Han that the temperature is dropping.

[00:30:53] He knows Luke is out there and he comes back to them telling him the temperature is dropping that. Yeah. And my friend is out in it. And then he goes to save Luke. I think that's important because we really need to establish that these people have become

[00:31:06] pals since new hope. So we do that. It also establishes Han as, you know, if there was any doubt as to where he was on the line between, you know, uh, this Luke guy is kind of annoying or friend or foe. He's a friend.

[00:31:18] And so I loved everything about that. Great scene. Um, we talked about how awesome Lando is and I think he might only be on screen for like five minutes of this entire movie, like actual screen time, nine tops, nine tops, and definitely less than 10 minutes. Not yet.

[00:31:36] It's a weird one to come up with. Nine tops is very interesting. I stopped clocking it at five 46, but definitely not more than nine. Definitely not more than nine. I would, I would bet the, bet the horse on it. Did you say all of them? I did.

[00:31:50] Um, but immediately you, this guy walks out, does the bit with Han and you're like, this is the coolest character in this entire, uh, uh, uh, uh, franchise. And I don't even see the rest of the movies. This guy's awesome. Yeah. And, uh, I, I loved it.

[00:32:08] I loved every second of him being on screen. It was fantastic. And, um, you should get his own movie. He's gonna, it's going to be Donald Glover. If you don't believe it.

[00:32:17] Um, I have two first, I watched this with my kids have never seen it, not spoiled for them. And one of my kids kind of disinterested the other one completely locked in and already is begging me to watch the next one.

[00:32:29] But that literally, and we're on the right camera. This is the, uh, this is my impression of him, uh, during the Luke, I'm your father scene. He's watching the movie here. And then I am where the camera is. He's watching. He hears Luke, I'm your father.

[00:32:40] And he does this like that full, like bug eyed mouth a gape. It was like the highlight of my week. It was so great to watch this with him and have that experience, which was fantastic. And my second feels is 1980. What a time to be Frank Oz.

[00:32:59] Um, the first Muppet movie came out in 79. The guy that's voicing Yoda is basically at this point, Andy circus before Andy circus. He is voicing a Fozzie bear, miss piggy Yoda. This guy is, is like waking up laughing in the morning with how much money he's making

[00:33:21] and all just by doing voices for puppets. And he crushes in this movie for Frank Oz, notoriously, uh, not a guy that is tough to work with as a director has some stories about him. I don't know.

[00:33:35] I don't know him obviously, but as a voice character, oh my goodness, what he's doing in these movies is just above and beyond. And I, and I love it and I love the Muppets. And so I just thought of that.

[00:33:47] I was like, I was trying to wrap my brain around exactly like what was going on. He's in two of the biggest franchises and it's just, he's just doing the voices and it's fantastic. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll get to the way.

[00:33:59] And the star Wars, you know, as you know, yeah. I almost called the last segment, the fault in our stars. And now I'm kind of mad doing it. We're doing star Wars. Star Wars. I have no stars is so much better.

[00:34:25] I will say the shirt that just says star or Wars on it with no context is going to slap people. Line up to get that shirt. Some of the way, what is what we're talking about? What in this movie just go wait, what Ryan?

[00:34:37] We talked about this maybe being one of the greatest movies of all time. Greatest sequel of all time. Anyway, what's oh, I got some, I just can't believe that Lando clocked in at under 10 minutes. No, this is I had it at nine. I had it at 914.

[00:34:53] So you guys are liars. I had the over under at 922. This is the second. Now your marriage, your mileage may vary on this. This is the second movie in a row where Ben Kenobi good old Ben.

[00:35:03] Oh, Ben time this time from the grave just tells Luke what the plot of the film is. And that's just what we do. And it's like, it's as hyper specific as go to this place, go meet this kid. Like, and it's fine.

[00:35:17] It doesn't really necessarily bother me, but I understand if it bothers others. I don't know if that's something that other star Wars people complain about, but it's just something that's bumped me a few times.

[00:35:28] We spend the first 10 minutes of this film really being led to believe that Luke is going to die, whether it be of hypothermia or any other of these numbers of things that could happen to him. And then they get them back to the base.

[00:35:43] They put them in this tube for approximately 10 seconds. That's right. And then he's fine. He's good to go. Yeah. So I'm really glad that we spent our time. The tech is there, man. It's there. That's the thing. Like, maybe that's not a wait.

[00:35:56] What for me as an audience member? Maybe that's a whoa. Look at what these people are doing. You're on off. It's a long, long time ago, but their tech was still way better than us. And then kind of the same point, Bran mentioned this in the synopsis there.

[00:36:12] Luke loses his hand. We basically pay no attention to it. There's not a hint of blood. They really could have made the movie without him losing his hand because he gets a new one immediately, much like how he was revived 10 seconds later back at off.

[00:36:27] And then if you want the real connected to this, Mark Hamill, Dan may disagree. I think Mark Hamill was better here. I think he was put in a position to succeed. I think Irving Kirschner directs the heck out of this movie.

[00:36:41] He's just as important as any screenwriter on this, etc. You go back to hot take. Yeah, he slid right into here's some thoughts. No, go ahead. No, no, no, no. I know it's coming. It's coming.

[00:36:50] Uh, Mark Hamill could have been directed better on reacting to finding out that Vader's his dad. Well, the problem is he doesn't get the line. The line when they made the movie was not I'm your father. He doesn't get that line.

[00:37:06] Literally no one knew that that was the plot twist aside from James Earl Jones. Maybe Mark Hamill knew. I'm not sure. But when he's there directing that scene, the line is not I'm your father. Somebody's going to know the line in the chat.

[00:37:19] I hope it's a different line. He literally doesn't even know that's the line they did it. James Earl Jones recorded that in post. I don't know that. That's how secret they kept the thing.

[00:37:30] So like there's the reason that is what it is, is because he doesn't say that. He says something else like I'm going to kill your family. I don't know. He says something else.

[00:37:39] Well, what does he think is like Arby's discontinued five is not five for 10 is over at midnight. No. Oh, meanwhile, cut to JC Shahzai. He's like, thank you. That's a step too far. Yeah. Let's see. No, no, that's not it. You just have the line pulled up.

[00:37:57] There's a whole story behind it where I didn't know that. That's how it didn't get out. The cast and crew. No one knew that that was the line that was being said because it wasn't said during the filming of the scene.

[00:38:10] James Earl Jones said it in a recording studio and literally he and George Lucas Lewin nobody else. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. And I guess at that point, it makes sense. They're like, you know what? Just give us the most over the top thing ever.

[00:38:21] Just because we don't know what this is. It's still not great, but that's a really cool story that I did not know. Good. And yeah, and then Aaron producer has looked it up. It looks like that the other line is lost. We don't know it. The audio media.

[00:38:36] Yeah, we'll see if we can get it. Oh, no, the line was, you know, the truth. Obi Wan killed your father. That was the line he says to Luke. Is that correct? It says you don't know the truth. Obi Wan killed your father. Yeah, yeah.

[00:39:00] So when they're acting in the scene, he says the truth is Obi Wan killed your father and then literally in post. I still think Ryan's critique stands. No matter what the line was. Dude, I'm a jump. I'm a jump. You can't. I've never.

[00:39:27] I just have never had a like I've never been like, man, that's great acting, but I've never had this. I've never had this thought that that was out of the box. And I thought it was pretty bad against anything he says in the first movie.

[00:39:40] This is better, but I mean, he's going for it. He's going for it. Yeah, also, I'd rather go for it. And so much better in this movie is as he gets separated, gets to do his own thing. And then the writing is so much better in this movie.

[00:39:53] Brant, imagine if he was just like, oh, shucks, my dad. What are you saying? Hey, who do you think you are? No way. No freaking way. That was the actual original. That was one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They did those lines. We got the tape.

[00:40:15] We got the tape. We got it. No freaking way. That's right. No, I'm your father. No freaking way. No, you're not. Are you sure? Brant, that's it for me. Luke, I just took a DNA test. Turns out I'm your father.

[00:40:35] So I felt like Han called Leia sweetheart a solid dozen times in this movie. It was a lot of sweethearts. At least nine. Mixes it in with your worshipfulness or your worship. So I googled the script.

[00:40:53] The script's available online, and there's only four sweethearts in the entire script, which is still four too many, but it felt like way more than four. Was it more than four? Did he improv some sweethearts? Did he throw or did it feel like four to you?

[00:41:08] The script wasn't gospel for Harrison Ford. It felt like more than four, but I think we can all agree that four is still four too many sweethearts. We listen. We love Lando. We love Lando. Lando's amazing. We love Lando. Fastest heel turn in the history of cinema.

[00:41:26] We are allowed to be fans of Lando for all of three minutes before he turns heel, and we were given, I don't know, 20 years before the rock turn heel last year. Somewhere in between, I think, is all that we're asking for.

[00:41:43] I just got a kick out of when Yoda and Obi-Wan are trying to convince Luke to stay, and Luke finally climbs up the thing and he's like, I'm out of here. Something about ghost Obi-Wan just going, throwing his hands up. Oh, this kid.

[00:41:59] There's only so much I can do here. Ghost Obi-Wan's like this freaking kid. Are you kidding me right now? Unbelievable. And also Luke sneaks into trying to find his friends and all that stuff and save them,

[00:42:14] and he's running around and there's no squeaking to be heard with his shoes on those ceramic floors. I imagine the original audio is like... Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. We do it with Brian Harrell in the office every two years. Yes, yes.

[00:42:28] There's no way that his shoes on that type of floor isn't producing an obnoxious amount of squeaks. No one can hear you squeak. That's the thing. That's the thing. You told me that. Yeah.

[00:42:43] The scripts at the beginning of Star Wars movies have this uncanny ability to kind of reset the deck for Hallmark movies, for Hallmark movies. Oh no. They're going to be so mad at us. No! No! Is this movie... No! No! There's no freaking way. No.

[00:43:05] Not on your life. It's not Hallmark at all. Yeah. For Star Wars movies. And the biggest swing there is definitely Force Awakens, which we'll get to when we get to it.

[00:43:17] But the idea in this movie that didn't dawn on me until my viewing last night of this movie, that the Empire created the biggest weapon in the history of the galaxy. The biggest, like, literally. It was a planet that was capable of destroying planets.

[00:43:38] And the Rebellion has destroyed that weapon. And the effects of that are not that the Rebellion has the Empire on the run, but that somehow the Empire is stronger now that their biggest weapon has been destroyed. And I don't understand that.

[00:43:58] You destroyed the biggest weapon in the galaxy, you have the momentum. And literally they're like, no, they don't. No, no, no, no. They're on the run. We got them on a run, Lost Boys. And speaking of the Empire, I'm not saying that they have a machine design problem.

[00:44:16] Yes, I am saying that we have a Death Star with a six meter window that can destroy the whole thing. Hey, we got a machine for snow as four legs and it's going to fight and shoot stuff. We're going to make it 100 feet tall and real top heavy.

[00:44:31] Questions? If those things are tanks, the Empire's done. Yeah. Why in the world are they 100 feet in the air and all the weight is at the top of them? Why are they doing that? Why are they doing that?

[00:44:43] The only way to take these things down is someone has big enough rope. There's no way no one's going to have big enough rope. You can't put a harpoon on a plane. We all know that. Too much rope.

[00:44:53] Hey, Darryl, you think you should lower those down like to the ground? No, no, no. Top heavy. That's the key. It's ridiculous. Han is flying into a meteor field, asteroid field, whatever. And C-3PO pipes up with the possibility of successfully navigating through an

[00:45:11] asteroid field or 3,720 to one. That's not actually terrible. Like I've seen Popola put a dollar on a parlay with worse odds than that. Popola made out like gangbusters on the Fourth of July, thanks to the hot dogging contest.

[00:45:27] So shout out to the I don't even remember his name, but thank you, sir. Like, you know, every now and then, Popola, if you got a fun money, a monopoly money,

[00:45:35] not real money, of course, no, never to win to win four grand on something you want to happen. You throw a dollar on that. Right? Absolutely. Yeah, blinking. Yeah, this isn't like the lotteries, like millions and millions to one 3,720 to one

[00:45:51] in the grand scheme of things could be worse. It really could be worse. Let's pod a monopoly money parlay. Yeah, for sure. I just wanted this is a wait. What just for me, because as a kid, when I watched this movie, the emperor,

[00:46:06] Emperor Palpatine was a thousand years old. He was so old. When I watched this movie, do you know how old Ian McDermott, the actor that plays Emperor Palpatine was when they filmed this movie? I believe you just turned his age. No Wednesday. Younger than that.

[00:46:25] No, he's not younger than 41. Ian McDermott, when they were filming this movie, I'm glad you're seated was 35. The guy that played the emperor was 35 when this movie came out in theaters. That is absurd. I know it's makeup. I know they've got the best puppetry department in the world.

[00:46:45] I just don't know how it's possible, especially considering how for the return of the Jedi, we get a lot of Emperor Palpatine. And at that point he's 37 or 38. I don't know. Listen, man, he's not even that old. A couple of years ago when he did it again.

[00:47:01] That's right. Yeah, that's how he was able to. I remember when he came back for Phantom Menace, I'm like, well, they got a new actor. Like I was in high school. I'm like, well, they got a new actor. How did he just nail it? Nope. Same actor.

[00:47:13] Because the first time he couldn't even run for president. Like, I don't know how they that was unbelievable to me. I couldn't believe they always say the camera has 10 pounds. The hologram adds 100 years. The hologram is 100 years. I've said that for years. You never want to do that.

[00:47:27] It just makes you look. And lastly, I do have some questions about Cloud City and like how many moons and suns there are and how often day turns to night because it's either dusk or bright morning all the time there. But Han shows up. Excuse me.

[00:47:41] Vader shows up. You mean C3PO? R2D2. Vader shows up. Lander's like, all right, I'll set a trap. Han shows up. It's nighttime. The trap is set in the morning. Did Lando greet his friends, get them all settled down for the evening, let them sleep

[00:48:05] an entire night and then set them up with a trap with the biggest villain in the galaxy? Did that happen? Yeah. Here's that way. Because he's worse than Vader. If you let him sleep on it, you gotta do what you gotta do. Lander's in a tough spot.

[00:48:18] But if you let him sleep on it, that's brutal. That's that is brutal, sir. You that's that's tough there, buddy. That's worse than eating it all. It's all I got. I mean, it's time for Star Wars. The rules are clear. I won't go over them again. Ryan.

[00:48:38] Dan basically already touched on this, but I didn't have time to think of a new one. So I'm gonna talk about Frank Oz. I didn't realize watching this until about halfway through. I'm like, I'm watching this ago, man, he sounds a lot like Miss Piggy Yoda.

[00:48:52] And then I'm like, it's conceivable enough that it could be. But I'm like, I'm like, you know, I didn't know. I mean, so like, so I'm going star. I will say I love the voice of Yoda. I love the voice of Miss Piggy. I'm not here.

[00:49:05] This isn't a wait. What? It is pretty funny that he barely changed the voice from Miss Piggy to Yoda. It's basically the same voice, but I love it closer to it definitely sounds like a combination

[00:49:17] of Miss Piggy and Fossey, both of which he is very close to say, holding up his cane and going, walk a walk. Like, he's very close to doing it, and he's crushing it. So I'm not mad that he chose to go about it that way.

[00:49:33] But I think it's hilarious that he chose to go about it that way. Brad, I am warzing myself. I had a real. Not anymore. I had a warzing yourself at the office. We've had that as a rule from the beginning. I had a realization.

[00:49:51] You talked about the crawl at the beginning, and it sets up the story and stuff like that. I had the realization last night as I was watching this movie that because I found myself doing it every time I've ever watched these movies. While you were warzing yourself?

[00:50:09] Every time. Every time I watch them. No. Every time I watch these movies, I get about halfway through the text, and then I stop reading, and I just enjoy the music. And I can't do that because I'm writing against adoption.

[00:50:26] So last night I did it, and I was like, I got to rewind it. So I had to watch it twice, which brings up this point. I'm warzing you, creator man. No, you're not. Because you can't do that. Because you can't.

[00:50:43] Listen, there's a lot of people like me that have a hard time reading, especially when there's bops like that going on in the background. And I would have appreciated it to go a little bit slower or have someone read it to me. Dano?

[00:50:58] Yeah, I'm warzing this week because I'm just a real... The war is internal because I'm very, very worried. Warzing twins! Because, no. No, no, no. You keep that to yourself. I... Return of the Jedi, I'm very worried.

[00:51:15] And I'm worried because as a kid it was my favorite one. I watched it on a loop. I just loved the heck out of that movie. And then when I watched it as an adult, I remember being very underwhelmed.

[00:51:31] Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, What is going on? You okay? Yeah. All right. Um, and I watched it as an adult was kind of underwhelmed.

[00:51:45] It was kind of hokey and cheesy and like, I felt like it was made to sell action figures. And so... That sounds awesome. I'm... It sounds like it's right up y'all's alley. I just am... I've not watched it in over a decade.

[00:51:59] And so I'm excited but I'm also very, very nervous as to what's going to happen. The saying is, I'm so excited, I'm so scared. I'm so excited, I'm so scared. That's exactly what I'm saying. Yeah, that's where I am. I'm whoresing this week.

[00:52:14] I also believe that there were additions to... Are there any noticeable additions in Empire like George Lucas doing stuff decades later? Because I know there are in Jedi and I think they make...

[00:52:25] Yeah, well, I think another reason the Empire Strikes Back is so good is there's very few of those add-ons. There's a lot less... I don't know what they are, if they are. Yeah. Yeah, there are some. There's like a thing in the background in the Planet of Hoth.

[00:52:37] Like there's a digital one of those tauntauns, whatever he's riding on. In the background, there's a digital one that looks really terrible. But there's no scene where Han and Jabba the Hutt are talking and it's so bad. There's nothing like that in Empire. It's way more practical. Right.

[00:52:54] We did everybody, congratulations. Another Star Wars down. Another Star Wars to come next Friday. We're going to be back with that. Did anything else we want to say to the people? I feel good about what we've done. Ryan? I feel great. Great. I think we nailed it.

[00:53:09] We nailed it. Take the rest of the weekend off. Oh, yeah. It's really time. Thanks, man. Start your weekend off right now and then don't do anything. See ya. All right. Cool. I appreciate that. And I give that permission to all of you at home.

[00:53:20] Everybody take the day off. Take the day off. You know what you can do this weekend? You could turn on Philo and you can binge the Philo deep dive to find your next watch. Take a weekend. Take the weekend to find it. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:53:33] philo.tv.dth to get started today. We'll be back next week with more. Until then, remember the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. Bramble Jam podcast is produced by Aaron Shay. For more information on Deck the Hallmark, you can go to deck the hallmark.com.

[00:53:48] For more information on the Deck the Hallmark family, you can go to bramblejamplus.com. Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv.dth.

[00:54:04] You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio. Thanks for listening or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi. But here they come.

[00:54:18] I promise they're coming. Yep. Here they are. Happy day.