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| Echo Base receives an unwelcome visitor! |
In the Fifth Draft shooting script for The Empire Strikes Back (20-28th February 1979), the mighty Darth Vader was to have entered the wrecked Rebel base of Hoth through an ice blockage in one of the corridors. The Snowtroopers push the blockage back and Vader enters (part of overall scene 205).
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| Imperial Snowtroopers blow their way into the base. |
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| Note that this is the same hole entrance Vader comes through in the above top shot. |
This scene was ultimately changed for a more explosive scenario where the Snowtroopers instead blew in an ice hole - the scene was filmed in some form as seen with the above two pics. One take filming the scene caused some hilarity following the opening explosion, as Dave Prowse/Vader's cloak was apparently snagged by a Snowtrooper's foot resulting in the actor/muscleman soon falling directly on the two mask-blind stuntmen ahead of him that had themselves been felled by the blast wreckage. Oh, to have that for a blooper reel! Some have suggested the two shots above are part of the Vader blooper, but if so, why isn't Vader, who had six other Snowtrooper actors behind him (according to Prowse in an interview around 1979/80), in the shot also?
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| Snowtroopers rush the corridors towards the hangar bay on the lookout for escaping Rebels. |
The action was re-shot and ultimately changed to a new location - the Command Centre, with two stunt Snowtroopers (one likely played by uncredited agile gymnast/stuntman Stuart Fell) leaping through a pyrotechnics burst (detonated from floor level upwards), followed by Vader and other troopers - a much better and exciting entrance for the saga's greatest bad guy.
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| Searching for the Rebel leaders, and Luke Skywalker. |
Scene 205 continues from the Fifth Draft- Imperial Snowtroopers then rush through the empty and wrecked Command Centre. As Vader surveys the remains of the centre, an ice chunk falls almost hitting him. No evidence suggests this sequence was ever filmed for the Command Centre, but it may have changed to another location - one of the ice corridors before Vader enters the hangar to witness the escaping Falcon (the ice chunk collapsing behind Vader is captured as an art image in the film's original pop-up book of 1980/81, though the background setting may have been used from referencing the image below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_KRxCWhi2s). If completed, this scene was likely deemed unsuccessful and re-shot, instead replaced with a long shot of an unobstructed Vader ominously striding down the steamy cold corridor with his troopers behind him.
If anyone has any more info on the Classic Trilogy deleted scenes, please get in touch.
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