AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: IN RECOVERY...

 

Luke's physical injuries are healed, but what about his psychological scars from the conflict with Vader?

As the 2-1B medical droid attends to Luke's injuries and applies his replacement hand, the boy and Leia communicate with Lando and Chewie at the Millennium Falcon as they prepare to part company, bound for an eventual rendezvous at Tatooine...

The scene where Luke Skywalker flips the skin lid over the interior housing of his new hand was an age old filming trick captured by the second unit on 30th August, 1979, with an extra's hand poking out from a table, underneath the fake hand housing the robot servos. Irvin Kershner insisted on demonstrating that Luke has feeling in his artificial hand: "We were starting to make him a mechanical man, and he's not; I wanted to show that in the future when he makes love to a woman he'll have some feeling there -- that's what I was thinking.” Stand-in Chris Parsons was approached (and call sheet listed) to be Luke Skywalker’s hand model. Unfortunately, his habit of nail biting at that time precluded his taking the part.

A likely moment from the additional shooting that matches a revised November 1979 ILM storyboard.

Despite having a British police bodyguard escort start the week (which stays with her until she has completed her filming - due to kidnap threats intercepted by mother Debbie Reynolds in the US), Carrie Fisher is in high spirits for the Medical Frigate scenes captured on Stage 8 at Elstree Studios during July 12th/13th, 1979. In real-life science fact news, the 11th July saw the abandoned Skylab space station fall to Earth and disintegrate. For additional humour on set, Mark Hamill would be wearing a hat announcing, 'Skylab is falling'!

The finale sequence also shows Threepio fully repaired and polished up after his prior ordeals-the camera crew having to be very careful the way they photograph him so that they won’t be mirror-esque reflected on his gold casing. 

In the later released Donald F. Glut adaptation of the film, there is no mention by Luke of his meeting Lando and Chewie at the Tatooine rendezvous point. All we know is that Lando and Chewbacca are off to find Han and Boba Fett. Presumably this was Glut working from one of the pre-filming scripts, with that new part of the plotline scheduled for Revenge of the Jedi. 

Another stunning shot of Carrie Fisher as Leia.

Fisher confers with Kershner.

Having fun with Gary Kurtz.

A previous deleted look at the filming of the scene (including re-shoots):

https://starwarsaficionado.blogspot.com/2012/01/deleted-scene-and-re-shoot-medical.html

Carrie clowns to the camera once more.

Polaroid shot (by Continuity Supervisor Pamela Mann?) of Carrie Fisher partying with the Medical Droid on set.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: IN THE SAFE HANDS OF FAMILY...

Inside the Medical Frigate, Luke has his injuries - an early script indicating a new replacement left arm comprising metal struts and electronic components - looked over by a Medical Droid, where once again, Princess Leia (back to wearing her original Star Wars hairstyle) is by his side through this difficult and painful time.

As seen in this production painting by Ralph McQuarrie, Luke was to have originally received his lightsaber injury from Vader to his left side, especially as Mark Hamill himself is left-handed - indeed, an unfinished hand cast was done of Luke's left hand at Elstree by Stuart Freeborn and his team. (Freeborn eventually auctioned it off to a private collector.) This idea was ultimately changed by Summer 1979 filming -  instead, Luke lost his right hand, and with a new casting of Hamill's right hand achieved.

ROGUE ONE: IN THE DOMAIN OF SAW GERRERA! (DELETED SCENES)

'Escorted' by his unique band of Rebel soldiers fighting for his cause on Jedha (and part of the 'Cavern Angels' squadron), Jyn Erso and her new friends are taken to the lair of the enigmatic and dangerous Saw Gerrera, an isolated but nonetheless powerful force of violence and retribution against the Empire. Early conceptual art ideas saw the group make their way via the catacombs of Jedha, where dark tunnels were chillingly filled with hundreds of ancient, eerie skulls.

Conceptual art clearly envisaging Forest Whitaker as the enigmatic and aggressive Saw Gerrera.

In the originally filmed version of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Saw Gerrera was still the bald, flight suit/armour wearing figure originally seen in communication with Galen and Lyra Erso years before on Lah'mu. Saw's talk with the grown-up Jyn on Jedha had him concerned at her future well being with the other side of the Rebel cause and her potential survival. The early teaser trailer has some of that concerned and angry dialogue ('What will you do when they catch you?', 'What will they do if they break you?', and 'If you continue to fight, what will you become?'). With his deteriorating medical condition, several deleted scenes would see him talking whilst sitting in an old starship flight chair turned into a medical monitoring device, a moment from that can be briefly seen in the first teaser trailer of 2016. By the time of the film's infamous reshoots by April 2016, the character of Saw had visually, physically changed to reflect an older, even more severely ill figure. His death scene was filmed twice, firstly outside the caverns as he helps Jyn escape the Jedha catastrophe, then reshot with him inside his chamber, ready to embrace the onrush of death.

Saw in his medically reconditioned flight chair.

Mentioned in the official Rogue One sticker encyclopedia, Saw Gerrera had a 'secret mission' to accomplish whilst on Jedha - presumably linked to the uncovering of the Death Star with the finished movie but also altered once the character of defector Bodhi Rook was changed and expanded with the reshoots - Gerrera's plot element linked to the discovery of the Death Star was later developed within the Star Wars Rebels animated series, of which he made several special episode appearances, the character also voiced by Forest Whitaker.

A 2-1B medical droid would be constantly at Saw's side monitoring his ever-deteriorating conditions. The sequence was deleted from the movie as reshoots saw the character of Gerrera change.

More behind the scenes info:

https://ew.com/tv/2018/07/20/forest-whitaker-rogue-one-character-dark-side-star-wars/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUdFH57wwnA

Gareth Edwards confers with Forest Whitaker during the original shooting for Rogue One.

A look at Saw's interior domain used in both the original shoot and the later reshoots for Rogue One.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: BACK TO DUTY!

Image: Star Wars Screencaps website.

With the Empire arriving in the Hoth system, the Rebels need their top pilots ready for action, and Luke Skywalker is discharged from the Medical Centre by 2-1B. This brief but notable little sequence was added to the film late in production to replace Summer 1979 Rebel hangar footage that didn't flow in the film's pacing, with the Medical Set being partially rebuilt after having been dismantled earlier in the year. The small sequence would be directorially handled by George Lucas and a special unit, of which Mark Hamill was very happy to see the Star Wars creator back at Elstree Studios.

Mark Hamill behind the scenes.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: IN BACTA RECOVERY

Now out of his Bacta tank soak, Luke Skywalker receives further tender skin repair treatment from the 2-1B medical droid, watched by a relieved and happy Princess Leia. A tender moment between the pair begins, but when Luke announces he has to leave the Rebel Alliance to go somewhere not too far away, Leia is soon understandably angry that, along with Han Solo, her reliable friends and comrades in battle are seemingly deserting her. Shot on March 21st, 1979, this was a deleted scene, cut for time reasons more than anything else so as to instead focus on the fun banter involving Han Solo, that has not yet been fully released on home entertainment.

The bacta half-face bandage removal scene, as presented in the original 1980 Marvel Comics film adaptation.

Newly returned to the UK from Finse, Gary Kurtz, with the also recently arrived George Lucas, watch some of the earliest studio footage for The Empire Strikes Back being shot at Elstree. Lucas's presence there is much appreciated by the cast and crew, now more appreciative and respecting of his talents since the huge success and public acclaim of the original Star Wars.

A facially frost bitten Gary Kurtz and George Lucas supervise the rehearsal before filming.

Lucas, Kurtz and Graham Freeborn watch a scene rehearsal of the Medical Droid arm attending to Luke.

Some serious discussion between Kershner and Hamill.

Anthony Daniels is partially costumed as Threepio, assisted by John Birkinshaw (aka on set as 'Mother'), whilst DP Peter Suschitzky talks to a crew member.

Producer Gary Kurtz sneaks in some quick fun photography.

Kay Freeborn makes some lip make-up adjustments.

Going through the scene with Kershner.

Filming Luke close-up shots.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: BACTA OBSERVERS!

Responding well to the Bacta treatment, much to the happiness of his concerned friends, Commander Skywalker is soon removed from the tank and put into the recovery area of the medical centre.

Here are a selection of images from this curtailed sequence.

Han and Leia worry about Luke's delirious words, before good news comes from the Medical Droids.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: BACTA TANK REPAIRS!

With severe frostbite and facial injuries that need urgent attention, a delirious Luke Skywalker, talking about his late mentor in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and mysterious words like 'Yoda' and 'Dagobah', is installed in a Bacta tank for physical repairs, in a scene ultimately truncated in The Empire Strikes Back.

The Medical Centre set built on Elstree Stage 1 contained a treatment room (housing a 7’6” high and 3’8” in diameter tank for Bacta tissue (filled with 400 gallons of chlorinated water) and a recovery area (a bed was originally planned for the set, as in the McQuarrie painting where Han, relaxing on it, with Leia next to him, looks towards the window where Luke is in the Bacta tank). The area also houses two UK built medical droid props-2-1B and FX-7.

Early concept sketches for 2-1B, which had limited upper body movement when created on set, suggest that the droid’s design came about from rejected masks that human surgeons would wear. Early notes described the droid as having a “human brain.”

2-1B is brought to life at the Elstree workshops via sculptor Roy Rodgers.

Prior to filming in the Bacta tank at ELSTREE, Mark Hamill wore scruba gear and tested safety equipment for the upcoming scenes apparently at a nearby girl’s school swimming pool (the only place in the time provided where it could be done). Hamill remembers all the giggly school kids present at the pool that day, watching him in his swimming briefs as he was lowered in and out of the make shift tank erected in the water for filming.

Later in the studio, with Hamill in the water (though a wet suited Colin Skeaping was lowered into the tank to check its safety before filming), a different way of lighting and photographing the scene has to be accomplished. Peter Suschitzky enhances the sequence with careful lighting, formulating a method of illuminating the important moment of Luke’s healing by making it the focal point, and brightest part, of the scene, creating the almost purity of his recovery in the tank by suspending a mirror from the studio ceiling and positioning a massive search light below the tank. The light would bounce off the mirror with the end result successfully showing Luke immersed in the eerily “glowing” Bacta fluid (the aqualung Hamill wears also incorporates a light emitting diode that pulses green, red and yellow). Skywalker’s friends, carefully silhouetted in the foreground, frame Luke in the shot and draw the audience’s focus towards him. Luke’s delirious crying out in the tank about Ben, Yoda and Dagobah were never dubbed on, the mentions of all three being used instead for a new audience plot clarification scene shot later in post production, and appearing earlier in the film, with Luke by his injured Tauntaun, being rescued by Han Solo and deliriously imparting the words.

Set reference diorama created by Elstree Production Design department.

Medical droid FX-7

Colin Skeaping tests the water tank which will be coloured red but appear blue with the set lighting of filming.

Graham Freeborn applies some make-up adjustments to Mark Hamill prior to filming.

Hamill is hoisted out of the tank after completing his scene.