AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: ROGUE LEADER IN COMMAND!

Luke Skywalker's pivotal command of his Rogue Snowspeeder squadron is strong, even in the face of the armoured plated firepower that is the advancing Imperial AT-AT Walker platoon, as the epic Battle of Hoth intensifies during The Empire Strikes Back.

SPECIAL EDITION CLASSIC IMAGE: SKYWALKER FIGHTS BACK!

Luke Skywalker's Rogue Flight soars into battle against Imperial firepower threatening the Rebel Alliance's existence, in this great image from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. All of the Snowspeeder model and cockpit scene elements filmed against blue screen and incorporating difficult white background optical overlays would receive welcome technical upgrades and fixes for the SPECIAL EDITION release, as well as the incorporation of a once deleted line from Mark Hamill...

Watch the recent Blu-ray release and you'll also see that, in the model shots of the speeders, Luke's vessel has a rank denoting grey stripe running done from the middle of the craft under the front canopy between the blaster weapons, whilst all the other craft bear orange markings.

CLASSIC IMAGE: SPEEDER CRASH

Atop his crashed speeder, Luke Skywalker, seeing the oncoming Imperial Walker, reaches out to get some last minute equipment in this classic scene from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, filmed on location in Finse, Norway in March/April 1979. The body of Luke's friend and co-pilot, Dack, within the speeder would be a prop dummy and not actor John Morton.

UPDATE 24/8/15 

TESB's Norway filming historian Martin Dahl has kindly provided this BTS information: "I just spoke to one of the Norwegian extras connected to the shoot, who stood in for John Morton (as Dack). He got placed in the co-pilot seat during this scene as fit the costume perfectly, and a dummy would move unconvincingly when pulled back (as seen when Luke checks on him and retrieves the explosive device)." 

Thanks for the info, Martin!