AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: BESPIN TOUCHDOWN!

Escorted by the Twin Pod Cloud Cars, the Falcon makes its way to Cloud City's landing platform 327 and a very smooth touchdown, the vessel's landing jets (animated by ILM) operating whilst its landing struts touchdown.

A selection of ILM behind the scenes images from the model/matte painting filming.

ILM veteran Selwyn Eddy with the Falcon model.

Ken Ralston, Selwyn Eddy and others at ILM clown around during long shooting hours.

Harrison Ellenshaw works on a matte painting for the surrounding platform and sky/city backdrop.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: CLOUD CITY'S SKY RIDERS!

 

The distinctive Twin Pod Cloud Cars of Bespin's Cloud City may have only appeared in a few brief scenes in Empire, but they have remained a memorable vehicle in the Original Trilogy.

Here's a selection of behind the scenes related images.

Early conceptual art for the vehicle.

Image: The Damien Steel Collection.

Artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero with the craft at ILM.

Nilo Rodis-Jamero concept art for a Cloud Car pilot.

Close-ups of the detailed pilot figures inside the singular model.

Don Dow does a lighting test prior to model filming.

Selwyn Eddy inspects the model on the blue screen filming stage.