Thursday 9 June 2011

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: THE KILLING BLOW!


As the re-emerged Anakin Skywalker saves his son from the Dark Force energy blasts of Emperor Palpatine, his former Master's energy bolts surround and bombard the once Dark Lord of the Sith servant-with one particular blast hitting a fateful spot, reaching into Vader's helmet and destroying a fragment of his brain...

Despite many STAR WARS fans thinking that the animated bolts hitting Vader's head and exo-skeleton were an addition put on during the SPECIAL EDITIONS re-vamps they were actually on the original 1983 version of RETURN OF THE JEDI all along, but subtly animated in quick as a flash moments- so as not to disturb younger audiences- which you have to pause your VCRs/DVDs to fully see (intriguingly the X-ray image shows a metal neck and shoulders making Vader even more cybernetic than would be seen in EPISODE III in 2005). The bolts were a last minute inclusion to the film asked of ILM's animators by George Lucas,via an insightful suggestion from Ben Burtt, during the final stages of its 1983 post-production.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

For more on the making of JEDI, check out our special issue here: BACK ISSUE PDF CATALOG

No comments: