The Empire Strikes Back : Ars Technica's look back at the best science fiction film of all time

Image: 20th Century Fox

An excellent look back at the classic film on it's 30th Anniversary. The bad guys won, and it ended up being the best film in the original Star Wars trilogy. The dark tension of the film completely defined the internal conflict faced by Luke Skywalker as he faced Darth Vader, and I think it had a profound effect on society as a modern tale of myth.

The film is jet black in tone. Luke lost the only person he knew that connected him to his father, and to the legacy of the Jedi Knights, when Obi-Wan was struck down by Vader in A New Hope (or as older Ars staffers still refer to it, Star Wars). Han Solo is biding his time with the rebels before leaving to return to his life of being a professional smuggler and scoundrel; the bounty on his head is becoming too much to bear. The rebels may have destroyed the Death Star, but they're still undersupplied and on the run, holed up on a frozen hell of a planet. Darth Vader is scouring space to find them, and he seems oddly preoccupied with a young pilot named Luke Skywalker. It only goes downhill from there.

The Empire Strikes Back. What a classic.

Check out Ars's in-depth look back HERE.