Top 10 Favorite Moments in the "Star Wars" movies

Yes, this includes the prequels.

Since I decided to watch The Empire Strikes Back yesterday, I figured that now would be a pretty good time to countdown my favorite moments in "Star Wars" history. Maybe by the time Episodes 7, 8, and 9 come out these will change, but considering how most of these are some defining moments in the science-fiction genre, it'll be tough to topple them.

When I compiled this list I also realized that I managed to come up with exactly ten moments, so, there won't be an honorable mentions. I'll spoil some of it a little early by saying that there is nothing from Attack of the Clones. Because that movie was absolutely horrible (yes, I'm counting the Jedi battle amongst it because, really, like nothing happened and a heck of a lot of people died for no reason).

So without further ado, let's get started! Also, spoilers if you haven't seen any of the "Star Wars" movies...but then what are you doing if you haven't...?

10. Vader saves Luke

The start of this list comes at the end of all the movies, we have Darth Vader standing next to the evil Emperor as his son is being killed by his master due to his negligence to be like Anakin before him and turn to the Dark Side. It comes as a powerful moment because (well, up until the recent Blu-Ray release) all we see is Darth Vader looking from Luke back to the Emperor. Despite him wearing a mask and without him saying anything we can see that he is a man ripped to shreds in confusion of what to do. Does he betray his master, who saved his life, or save his son, who still believes in him?

Ultimately, he chooses to save Luke, realizing the error of his ways after so long of being filled with hatred. Thus, he takes the Emperor and throws himself of the edge into the core of the space-station, getting himself electrocuted and sacrificing himself in the process. Even without the knowledge of Vader's life in the prequels this is still a pretty powerful moment as we see a father sacrifice his life to save his son. With the added knowledge of the prequels we see that the prophecy they all talked about in Episode 1 finally came true and Vader managed to defeat the Sith. Regardless, though, it's an emotionally powered moment and one that has been forever tainted by having Vader speak during the moment. Darn you, Lucas...

9. Yoda moves the X-Wing

This is a combination of Yoda both using the Force to move the X-Wing out of the swamp and what he tells Luke afterward. Luke was unable to move the X-Wing because he didn't believe hard enough in himself and in the Force. He tells Yoda it's impossible to move something so large, to which Yoda tells him one of his famous lines, "Size matters not." After whiny Luke (yeah there's a lot of that in Empire) leaves Yoda manages to pull the X-Wing out of the swamp like it's nobody's business. When Luke says he doesn't believe it, Yoda tells him, "That is why you fail."

This is a pretty intense moment for several reasons. First we see that yeah, Luke might be a little old and too rash for the training because he isn't open to listen to reason. He is too full of questions and his own thoughts that he won't clear his mind and obey what Yoda tells him. Second, we see that Luke probably could have moved the X-Wing despite his lack of training by allowing the Force to just flow through him, but instead we see that his disbelief actually sank the ship. Finally, Yoda's telling him, "That is why you fail" is a pretty hefty line for Luke to get. Pressed for time as he is, getting told he's failed is not the thing you want to hear. I've just always liked Yoda proving Luke wrong and telling him that he is not a Jedi yet, sort of to prove him wrong and tell him that his lack of belief in the Force will never send him down the path of a Jedi. This is probably the biggest lesson that Luke learns in the prequels, that failure comes from disbelief.

8. Escaping the Death Star

Luke and the gang saved the Princess...but at the cost of dear old Ben Kenobi. However, they aren't out of the woods yet, kid, as four TIE fighters are on their tail.

This might not be the biggest moment in Star Wars but it is one of the coolest. Luke and Han get ready in their little pods and when the fast-paced music starts you know it's going to go down. I've always loved the cinematography of this scene as well. Constantly cutting between Luke, Han, Leia, the TIE Fighters, the laser blasts. It really helped set the atmosphere that they needed to take down those enemy ships quick before they could really be tagged by the Empire and all would be lost.

The fast-paced camera work mixed with the fast-paced music helped set up one of the best action sequences in the movie, as well as this being the very first space-fight we ever got in the "Star Wars" saga, mind you. The interaction between the characters is also pretty great, with Luke getting excited and Han, ironically, telling him, "Great kid, don't get cocky!"

Again, this might not be the most memorable scene of the original film, but it's still one of the most action-packed and, in my opinion, one of the most fun scenes.

7. Battle on Hoth

Probably the longest sequence on this list comes the fight to save the energy shield and evacuate the rebel forces on the ice-planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. We get to see all of our heroes in action here in various ways--Han and Leia are trying to escape while Luke is on the frontlines taking on AT-ATs, all while Rebel Forces are duking it out against the Empire.

This is not a good moment for the rebellion but I still think it's one of the most exciting sequences. It makes you wonder how those tiny ships are going to take down the giant walkers, or how Han is going to get away with a damaged ship. Throw in Darth Vader on the scene and suddenly everything becomes all the more dangerous. This also contains an often parodied moment where Luke single-handedly destroys an AT-AT.

Luckily the rest of the movie carries on the excitement but this scene set the stage perfectly for what would be a great movie.

6. Episode 3 opening

As what we all thought would be the last of the "Star Wars" movies, Revenge of the Sith had to start strong, it had to "wow" us. And I'd say it did.

Right after the typical text-scroll we get the sound of freaking war-drums in space, followed by the usual John Williams music, all accompanied by two unknown pilots flying down. All of a sudden they pull up and there is a full-scale CGI war going on! Whoa!

This was a pretty eye-opening moment because it was the biggest scene in space we'd seen since both battles on the Death Star back in Star Wars and Return of the Jedi. For me, this scene was super cool.

Not only was the action amazing but the back-and-forth between Anakin and Obi-Wan was some of the best we'd seen. It really went to show how close they'd grown in between the movies as well as how well they could work together on the battlefield, regardless of the situation. It also looked amazing as well. You could feel every explosion, you really thought those spider-droids were crawling all over their ships. Sadly, most of the movie didn't really live up to the hype the opening created.

5. "Luke, I am your father."

I mean, yeah. This is one of the biggest known spoilers of all cinema. To be honest that kind of sucks considering how impactful it is on the series, but hey. It has to be pretty darn epic for everyone to know about it.

I'm not entirely sure what needs to be said about this. This is just a humongous reveal that, even after you've seen The Empire Strikes Back several times, you still go, "Maybe he won't say it this time" but when Darth Vader utters, "No, Luke...I, am your father! *fist clench*" you can't help but get something of the thought as when you first saw it.

I always wonder what it was like in the theatre for people who saw this for the first time back in 1980, I've always wanted to see their reaction. I feel like it would be worth recording.

4. Anakin vs. Obi-Wan

Despite what anyone says about the prequels, you have to admit that this is one heck of a fight. Matched against the hell-ish landscape that is Mustafar you've got two legendary warriors, no, brothers duking it out as one feels they betrayed the other. You do kind of feel bad, if you still care like I did, because it's Anakin and Obi-Wan, the good guys.

This is also the most hyped fight in all of Star Wars. We'd all known that eventually master and apprentice would battle before the prequels were done, but this exceeded expectation. Having it set on such an epic stage was something I did not see coming. Not only that, but it had one of the best scores to accompany it in all "Star Wars"--"Battle of the Heroes," with a bit of "Duel of the Fates" intertwined within.

It's definitely the emotional high-point of the movie as the two fight with all of their strength and in the end, as we all knew, it was Anakin who would fall. Obi-Wan also delivered a pretty emotional speech, as Anakin symbolically burned away his human form to turn into a monster.

Now this would be the best fight in the prequels had one moment not come before it...

3. Darth Maul vs. Qui-Gon Jin and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Dude, I don't even care if you say this movie sucked, or if the prequels sucked. You know that Darth Maul and his double-sided light-saber was the best part of all three movies. And you know (!) that him fighting Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor sounds like it would be the coolest thing ever.

It wasn't...BUT IT WAS STILL AWESOME.

Almost everything about this fight was amazing. From the choreography to even the emotion--Qui-Gon kind dies--was pretty awesome. Darth Maul, for me anyway, has always been one of the most threatening villains in Star Wars simply because, in my opinion, he is one of the best fighters. The only reason he lost was because he blinked and Obi-Wan cut him in half. Whoops.

Of course, you can't bring up this fight without bringing up "Duel of the Fates," which has become one of the most popular battle songs of all time. Matched with the awesome fighter that was Darth Maul this song transcended the battle beyond just a light-saber duel...it was a war.

My favorite part of the fight is when Maul takes on Obi-Wan all by himself, because that, in my opinion, is where the real fight choreography kicks in. Maul is flipping and kicking and Obi-Wan is taking it like a man. Plus, the light-saber strikes are so quick that you can barely keep up with them. I will hand it to the Anakin vs. Obi-Wan fight that they show better light-saber technique, but you can't keep up with the double-sided terror that was Darth Maul. Even when he got the blade cut in half he was still intimidating.

Not to mention that he has the best entrance in all of the prequels. When you can scare the heck out of everyone and enter a room with "Duel of the Fates" as your background song, you're doing it right.

2. Rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt

The first several minutes of Return of the Jedi are kind of "meh" as we just see R2 and 3PO kind of meandering about Jabba's Palace and Leia, disguised, gets hit on by Bobba Fett and finds Han. So that's cool. It starts to heat up where Luke beats the Rankor, and finally, we get the big scene.

If you think about it, it's a very impressive feat. Four people, one of them blind, two robots, and a Wookie manage to, in one fell-swoop, destroy Jabba the Hutt and all of his allies. Granted, most of that was Luke and Leia, but that doesn't matter.

Starting off the scene is Luke seemingly dropping to his death before faking us out, getting his light-saber (a new green one, which is probably my favorite saber of the series now that I think about it) and kicking some butt.

The best part about all of this is the complete lack of control, it's kind of the exact opposite of how a rescue mission should go. Once Luke gets his light-saber everything turns to chaos. R2 is knocking people over, Leia's choking Jabba, Bobba Fett gets eaten, it's all a mess.

Luke isn't even fighting like the Jedi Knight he is, he's just kind of swinging his light-saber around hitting people. The complete disarray about this scene is what makes it so memorable. Well, that and the humor that's entwined within it. Han knocking Bobba Fett to his death and then the kind of funny moments where they have to save Lando are good. This scene was also very fast-paced, moving quickly to get through all of the action and humor to match the disorder of what was going on. In hindsight, the plan worked brilliantly, but in the moment, you have to be thinking that the heroes have no idea what they're doing.

1. First Attack on the Death Star

In my opinion, this is not only the best moment of the "Star Wars" saga, but one of the best moments in all of cinema. I often find it overlooked, as it's just seen as the 'final battle' in Star Wars, but I see it as a lot more than that.

You've got this farm-boy in Luke who is in way over his head but is attacking this space-station to destroy the foe that killed his family. You've got this mercenary in Han that is realizing that maybe it isn't all about money, maybe he should help his friends. And you've got this ragtag group of folks who want their freedom and are willing to pay the ultimate price.

The Empire throws everything at them, and this is why this is such a big underdog moment. The Rebels actually prove that their lack of strength is their victory, as the turrets and machines on the Death Star are unable to lock onto them. That's when things get really intense.

TIE fighters, and Darth Vader, come out to clean house. The true battle begins as we see TIE fighters and X-Wings duking it out in space, all while trying to hone in on that two meter exhaust point that will save the galaxy. Oh, and the Empire is closing in on the rebel base, giving us only 9 minutes to save the galaxy.

Star Wars was the first of the movies that I saw, and while I don't remember acting so hyped about it as a kid, I do remember watching in anticipation as the Death Star slowly moved into firing range and as Luke decided to go in for the kill on the target. Vader's chase and Han's help are two of the biggest moments in that fight and I remember them clear as day.

The scene also works because the acting and the music and the battle all go hand-in-hand. There are few moments of excitement in the battle and that is clear on the faces of the characters. They know they are running dangerously low on time in a very dangerous situation. It's their only shot at saving themselves and getting their first major break. The music plays that up as it goes from high-intensity to slow and depressing when someone dies, back to high intensity as Luke makes his run.

The battle itself is a major feat, showcasing most of the rebels fighting the Death Star. Obviously the spotlight is on Luke but we get a small moment where we're with the Gold Leader as he makes his attempt on the exhaust point, and sadly misses. It's a big blow for the rebels but hey, that's what Luke is for.

Best part of it all is Luke's run, and by God is it memorable as one of the most tense scenes in all "Star Wars." I get excited just thinking about it. Famous lines, famous moments, everything is in just two minutes of the two-hour movie. From "I have you now," to "The Force is strong with this one," to "Use the Force, Luke" are in that moment. It's just so awesome!

Again, it helps that Luke manages to get the shot in at the very last second, just as the Death Star is about fire. And we get to see General Tarkin one last time before he gets blown to bits, heck yeah!


So yeah, the first strike on the Death Star is easily my favorite "Star Wars" moment, but, I also think it's one of the best moments in cinema, just by what the stakes were and how it managed to play out. I never get tired of watching it and I don't think I ever will. I've also memorized the 9 minutes nearly by heart, from what happens during the battle to the dialogue. Yeah, I kind of love that moment.