User:Stephenfisher2001/sandbox/Star Wars 2

The Empire Strikes Back, also known as Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner and written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas. The second installment in the original Star Wars trilogy, as the sequel to Star Wars (1977), it is the second film in the franchise to be produced, and the fifth episode of the "Skywalker saga". The story is set three years after the events of the first film, as the Galactic Empire hunts the scattered Rebel Alliance throughout the galaxy. While Darth Vader relentlessly pursues Luke Skywalker's friends—Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca—Luke studies the Force under Jedi Master Yoda to prepare himself for his upcoming confrontation with Vader.

Plot
Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, the Imperial fleet, led by Darth Vader, dispatches probe droids across the galaxy to locate the Rebel Alliance led by Princess Leia. One such probe locates the base on the ice planet Hoth. While investigating the probe, Luke Skywalker is captured by a wampa, but escapes using the Force and his lightsaber. As Luke starts succumbing to hypothermia, the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke's deceased mentor, instructs him to go to the swamp planet Dagobah to train under Jedi Master Yoda. Han Solo discovers Luke and insulates him against the weather until they are rescued the next morning.

Alerted to the Rebels' location, the Empire launches a large-scale attack using AT-AT walkers to capture the base, forcing the Rebels to evacuate. Han and Leia escape with C-3PO and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon, but the ship's hyperdrive malfunctions. They hide in an asteroid field, where Han and Leia grow closer amidst the tensions. Vader summons several bounty hunters, including Boba Fett, to locate the Falcon. Meanwhile, Luke travels with R2-D2 in his X-wing fighter to Dagobah, where he crash-lands. He meets Yoda, a diminutive creature who reluctantly accepts Luke as his Jedi apprentice after conferring with Obi-Wan's spirit. After evading the Imperial fleet, Han's group travels to the floating Cloud City on the planet Bespin, which is governed by his old friend Lando Calrissian. Fett tracks them to the city and Vader forces Lando to hand the group over to the Empire. Vader uses the group to lure Luke, intending to recruit him by turning him to the dark side of the Force. Luke experiences a premonition of Han and Leia in pain and, against Obi-Wan and Yoda's protestations, abandons his training to rescue them.

Vader intends to hold Luke in suspended animation by imprisoning him in carbonite and tests the process on Han. He survives and is given to Fett who intends to collect his bounty from Jabba the Hutt. Lando frees Leia and Chewbacca, but they are too late to stop Fett's departure. The group fights their way back to the Falcon and flees the city. Luke arrives and engages Vader in a lightsaber duel over the city's central air shaft. Vader severs Luke's right hand and tempts him to embrace his anger and join the dark side. Luke refuses to join his father's murderer, but Vader reveals that he is Luke's father. Desperate, Luke drops into the air shaft and is ejected beneath the floating city, latching onto an antenna. He reaches out through the Force to Leia, and the Falcon returns to rescue him. The group is pursued by TIE fighters and almost cornered by Vader on his Star Destroyer until R2-D2 repairs the Falcon's hyperdrive, allowing them to escape. Aboard the Rebel fleet, Luke's hand is replaced with a robotic prosthesis. He, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 observe as Lando and Chewbacca depart on the Falcon to find Han.