EXT. WASTE LANDS – DAY
Jabba’s huge sail barge moves above the rocky desert surface accompanied by two smaller skiffs.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Jabba’s entire retinue is travelling with him, drinking, eating, and having a good time.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – DAY
The sail barge and skiffs continue their journey.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Jabba the Hutt rides like a sultan in the massive antigravity ship. Leia is watching her friends in one of the skiffs.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – DAY
One of the skiffs glides close, revealing Luke, Han, and Chewie – all in bonds – surrounded by guards, one of whom is Lando in disguise.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
The chain attached to Leia’s neck is pulled tight, and Jabba tugs the scantily clad brunette to him.
JABBA: (subtitled) Soon you will learn to appreciate me.
CUT TO
Threepio wandering among the sail barge guests.
The protocol 'droid bumps into a smaller 'droid serving drinks, spilling them all over the place. The stubby droid lets out an angry series of beeps and whistles.
C-3PO: Oh, I’m terribly sor-- Artoo! What are you doing here?
Artoo beeps a quick reply.
C-3PO: Well, I can see you’re serving drinks, but this place is dangerous. They’re going to execute Master Luke and, if we’re not careful, us too!
Artoo whistles a sing-song response.
C-3PO: Hmmm. I wish I had your confidence.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – PIT OF CARKOON – DAY
The convoy moves up over a huge rock pit. The sail barge stops to one side of the depression, as does the escort skiff. But the prisoners’ skiff moves out directly over the center and hovers. At the bottom of the deep cone of stone is a repulsive, mucous-lined hole, surrounded by thousands of needle-sharp teeth. This is the SARLACC. A plank is extended from the edge of the prisoners’ skiff. Guards release Luke’s bonds and shove him out onto the plank above the Sarlacc’s mouth.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Jabba and Leia are now by the windows, watching. Threepio leans forward and the slobbering villain mumbles something to him. As Threepio steps up to a comlink, Jabba raises his arm and the motley array of interstellar pirates fall silent.
EXT. SAIL BARGE – DAY
Threepio’s voice is amplified across loudspeakers.
C-3PO: (O.S.) Victims of the almighty Sarlacc: His Excellency hopes that you will die honourably. But should any of you wish to beg for mercy …
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Bib Fortuna listens gleefully.
EXT. SAIL BARGE – DAY
THREEPIO: (O.S.; cont’d) The great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Jabba waits for the prisoners’ replies, as Artoo zips unnoticed up the ramp to the upper deck.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
HAN: Threepio, you tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden … filth he’ll get no such pleasure from us. (beat) Right?
Chewie growls his agreement.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Artoo appears on the upper deck of the sail barge.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
LUKE: Jabba! This is your last chance. Free us, or die.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
The assembled gangsters rock with mocking laughter. Jabba’s laughter subsides as he speaks into the comlink.
JABBA: (subtitled) Move him into position.
Leia looks worried.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – PLANK – DAY
Luke is prodded by a guard to the edge of the plank over the gaping Sarlacc. He exchanges nods with Lando.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Artoo is at the rail, facing the pit.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF –- PLANK – DAY
Han looks around for a way out of their plight.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Leia waits with bated breath.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – PLANK – DAY
Luke looks up at Artoo, then gives a jaunty salute: the signal the little 'droid has been waiting for.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
A panel slides open in Artoo’s domed head.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
JABBA: (subtitled) Put him in.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – PLANK – DAY
Luke is prodded and jumps off the plank to the cheers of the bloodthirsty spectators. But, before anyone can even perceive what is happening, he spins around and grabs the end of the plank. The plank bends wildly from his weight and catapults him skyward.
EXT. BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Artoo sends Luke’s lightsaber shooting out of his dome, arching toward him.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – PLANK – DAY
In midair Luke does a complete flip and drops down on the end of the plank in the same spot he just vacated, but facing the skiff. He casually extends an open palm and his lightsaber drops into his hand.
With blinding speed, Luke ignites the emerald blade and attacks the guard who prodded him off the plank, sending the hapless creature screaming overboard. The other guards swarm toward Luke. He wades into them, lightsaber flashing. Lando struggles with another guard at the back of the skiff.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – PIT OF CARKOON – DAY
A bewildered guard lands in the soft, sandy slope of the pit and begins sliding. He claws desperately as a Sarlacc tentacle grabs him and pulls him screaming into the viscous maw.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Jabba watches this and explodes in rage. He barks commands, and the guards around him rush off to do his bidding. The skuzzy creatures watching the action from the window are in an uproar.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
Luke knocks another guard off the skiff and into the waiting mouth of the Sarlacc. He starts to untie Chewie’s bonds.
LUKE: Easy, Chewie.
At that moment, the deck gunmen on the barge unleashes a series of white blasts from a blaster cannon on the upper deck. Lando is tossed from the deck of the rocking skiff. He manages to grab a cable, dangling desperately above the Sarlacc pit.
LANDO: Help!
Luke has freed Han and Chewie from their bonds when the skiff takes another direct hit from the barge’s deck gun. Shards of skiff deck fly. Chewie and Han are thrown against the rail.
LANDO: Han! Chewie‽
HAN: Lando!
CUT TO
Luke.
The Jedi is a little shaken but remains standing as a fusillade brackets him. The second skiff, loaded with guards firing their weapons, moves in on Luke fast. Luke leaps toward the incoming second skiff. The young Jedi leaps into the middle of the second skiff and begins decimating the guards from their midst.
CUT TO
Han.
Han grabs hold of a fallen vibroaxe. Lando, far below, can’t see any of this.
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Leia turns from the spectacle outside, picks up a statuette and smashes it over a control panel, throwing the observation deck into darkness. She then leaps onto Jabba’s throne, then throws the chain that enslaves her over his head around his bulbous neck. Then she dives off the other side of the throne, pulling the chain violently in her grasp. Jabba’s flaccid neck contracts beneath the tightening chain. His huge eyes bulge from their sockets and his scum-coated tongue flops out. He trumpets in dismay and outrage.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
Luke continues to destroy the foes on the guards’ skiff as Han extends the vibroaxe shaft downward to Lando, who is still dangling precariously from a cable on the prisoner’s skiff.
HAN: Lando, grab it!
LANDO: Lower it!
HAN: I’m trying!
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Leia pulls on the chain with all of her strength, bracing herself against Jabba’s back. The exalted Hutt’s huge tail spasms through its death throes and then slams down into final darkness.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
A major hit from the barge deck gun knocks the skiff on its side. Han and almost everything else on board slides overboard. The cable snaps and Lando falls to the side of the Sarlacc pit. Luckily, Han’s foot catches on the skiff railing and he dangles above Lando and the pit. The wounded Wookiee holds onto the skiff for dear life as another hit from the deck gun rocks the skiff violently.
HAN: Grab me, Chewie! I’m slipping!
Chewie grabs hold of Han’s feet, holding him upside down as Han extends the axe toward Lando, who is clutching to the side of the pit.
EXT. GUARDS’ SKIFF – DAY
Luke finishes off the last guard on the second skiff. He sees the deck gun blasting away at his helpless companions.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
The deck gunner continues to blast away.
EXT. SAIL BARGE – DAY
Luke leaps from the skiff, across a chasm of air, to the sheer metallic side of the sail barge. Barely able to get a fingerhold, he begins a painful climb up the hull, when suddenly a hand grasping a blaster pops out through a hatch millimetres from his head. With Jedi agility, Luke grasps the wrist holding the gun and yanks the helpless guard through the hatch and into the deadly pit.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
The injured Chewie is holding onto the dangling Han, who is in turn reaching down toward the desperate Lando. Lando has stopped his slippage down the sandy slope of the Sarlacc pit by lying very still. Every time he tries to reach for Han, the loose sand moves him closer to his final reward.
HAN: Grab it! Almost … you almost got it!
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK –- DAY
The deck gunner fires again.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
The blast hits the front of the tilted skiff, causing Lando to let go of the vibroaxe.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
The deck gunners have Chewie and the desperate dangling Human chain in their sights when something up on deck commands their attention. Luke, standing before them like a dark warrior, ignites his green lightsaber. The deck gunners have barely reached for their blaster pistols before the young Jedi has begun cutting them down.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
Again Han extends the axe shaft toward Lando.
HAN: Gently now. Al-alright. Easy, easy. Hold me, Chewie!
Lando SCREAMS. One of the Sarlacc’s tentacles has wrapped tightly around his ankle, dragging him down the side of the pit.
HAN: Chewie!
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Luke is warding off blasterfire with his lightsaber, surrounded by guards and fighting like a demon.
EXT. PRISONERS’ SKIFF – DAY
Chewie, give me the gun. (takes blaster from Chewie) Don’t move, Lando.
Han adjusts his aim as Lando lowers his head, and the smuggler fires at the tentacle. Direct hit. The tentacle releases Lando, and Chewie starts to pull them aboard the skiff.
HAN: Chewie, pull us up! Up, Chewie, up!
INT. SAIL BARGE/OBSERVATION DECK – DAY
Artoo extends a small plasma torch and blasts Leia’s chains apart.
LEIA: C’mon. We gotta get out of here quick.
Artoo and Leia race for the exit, passing Threepio, who is kicking and screaming as Salacious Crumb picks out one of the golden 'droid’s eyes.
C-3PO: Not my eyes! Artoo, help! Quickly, Artoo! Oh! Ohhh! You beast!
Artoo zips over and zaps Crumb. The noxious monkey-lizard expands and explodes.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Leia emerges onto the deck as Luke turns to face another guard.
LUKE: (to Leia) Get the gun! Point it at the deck!
Leia turns toward the blaster cannon, climbs on the platform, and swivels the gun around.
LUKE: Point it at the deck!
A blaster bolt hits Luke’s mechanical hand and he bends over in pain, but manages to swing his lightsaber upward and take out the last of the guards.
EXT. GUARDS’ SKIFF – DAY
Han, Lando, and Chewie have jumped ship to the intact second skiff. They pick up Artoo and Threepio.
EXT. SAIL BARGE/UPPER DECK – DAY
Luke runs along the empty deck toward Leia and the barge gun, which she has pointed down at the deck.
LUKE: C’mon!
Luke has hold on one of the rigging cables from the mast. He gathers Leia in his other arm then kicks the trigger of the deck gun. The gun discharges into the deck as Luke and Leia swing out toward the skiff.
EXT. GUARDS’ SKIFF – DAY
Luke and Leia land on the skiff with flair.
LUKE: Let’s go!
LANDO: We’re on our way.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – PIT OF CARKOON – DAY
The hull of the sail barge begins to buckle as the vehicle is engulfed in conflagration. The little skiff skips around the burning sail barge. As the skiff sails off across the desert, the barge settles to the sand and disappears in one final explosion.
EXT. WASTE LANDS – LANDING AREA – DAY
A ferocious windstorm buffets the rocky landscape. Then, through the ROAR, we hear the voices of our heroes. They emerge into view, pressing on against the wind. First come Artoo and Threepio, followed by Leia and Han, then Luke and Lando, each supporting one side of the towering Chewbacca, who hobbles from his wound.
Soon, they come to two parked starships. It is the Millennium Falcon and Luke’s trusty X-Wing. Taking out a remote, Lando hits a switch and the boarding ramp of the Falcon lowers with a HUM.
As soon as the group huddles under the bulk of the Falcon, the wind dies down.
LEIA: (hugs Luke) If you hadn’t arrived when you did….
LUKE: Why didn’t you go in with a strike team?
LEIA: Alliance High Command couldn’t sanction it. (exchanges glances with Lando) We had to do it alone.
LANDO: What sent you out this way?
LUKE: Just a feeling.
Artoo beeps.
C-3PO: (nonplussed) Don’t be impudent!
LUKE: What’s the word, Threepio?
C-3PO: He says if you’d held onto your lightsaber, this ordeal could’ve been resolved at the palace.
LUKE: (grins; to Artoo) I didn’t have a choice in the matter, did I?
Artoo gives a conciliatory hoot.
LUKE: (to Han & Leia) I’ll see you back at the fleet.
HAN: Why don’t you leave that crate and come with us? We’re faster.
LUKE: (shakes head) I have someone to see … an old friend.
Luke and Leia exchange kisses, then Luke turns to leave.
HAN: Hey kid!
Luke stops and turns back to Han.
HAN: Thanks for coming after me.
LUKE: Think nothing of it.
HAN: I’m thinking … I owe you one.
The two men shake hands, then Luke leaves for his X-Wing.
HAN: (to Lando; uncomfortable) Guess I owe you some thanks, too, Lando.
LANDO: Figured if I left you frozen like that you’d just give me bad luck the rest of my life, so I might as well get you unfrozen sooner as later.
LEIA: He means “You’re welcome”. (smiles) We all mean you’re welcome. (kisses Han’s cheek)
LANDO: Come on, let’s get off this miserable dust ball.
Han, Leia, Lando, Chewie and Threepio walk up the ramp into the Falcon. Han pauses and pats the side of the ship affectionately.
HAN: You’re looking good, ol’ girl. Never thought I’d see you again.
He heads up the ramp, and it finally closes.
EXT. SPACE – NAR HEKKA
The desolate gray planet fills the screen. The Falcon appears and grows huge, to roar directly over camera, followed by Luke’s X-Wing, which peels off to the left.
INT. LUKE’S X-WING/COCKPIT
A message from Artoo appears on the small monitor screen in front of Luke. He smiles at the monitor and speaks to Artoo as he pulls a black glove on to cover his damaged mechanical hand.
LUKE: That’s right, Artoo. We’re going to the Dagobah system. (beat) Still have some unfinished business there.
EXT. SPACE
Luke’s X-Wing soars off.
INT. MILLENNIUM FALCON/COCKPIT
Threepio sits at one of the side consoles, with Lando at the other side.
LANDO: Threepio, what’s holding up that hyperdrive diagnostic?
C-3PO: I’m very sorry, sir. My damaged photoreceptor appears to be giving me a bit of double vision.
Leia, seated in the co-pilot’s seat, looks at Threepio, surprised at the faint tone of hurt in the golden robot’s voice. She leans over to him.
LEIA: (concerned) Threepio, are you alright?
C-3PO: Well….
Leia rests a hand on Threepio’s shoulder. Lando helps Threepio up and out of the cockpit.
LANDO: Come on back to the engineering bay, Threepio. We’ll see if we can’t get your eye back in focus.
C-3PO: That would be much appreciated, sir. Thank you.
Han and Leia are left alone in the cockpit. Leia gazes at Han, who is carefully keeping his eyes from meeting hers.
LEIA: You’re welcome, Han.
HAN: (doesn’t look at her) Huh?
LEIA: Just … making it easy for you. You are sitting there trying to figure out a way to thank me, weren’t you?
HAN: Uh … yeah, I was getting to it. I was getting to it.
LEIA: And?
HAN: Not a … bad rescue. For a princess.
LEIA: (irate) Compared to yours, you mean? How well planned the Death Star foray was, for instance.
HAN: Well, you’re not in that detention cell anymore, are you?
LEIA: (temper rising) You’re not in that carbonite slab anymore, are you?
HAN: (placating) Alright, alright….
Leia gets up and starts out the cockpit, then pauses and looks back.
LEIA: And while you’re replying in kind … what about the last thing I said to you in Cloud City? (coy) Just before Vader froze you?
A beat. Han struggles with his answer.
HAN: Whew…. A lot of that’s … kinda blurry, Leia.
Leia is slightly disappointed.
LEIA: Nevermind. It’ll come back to you.
HAN: Uh, it looks like we’re about ready for the jump to hyperspace.
LEIA: Well, I’m sure you can handle that. So, if you’ll excuse me, Captain, I’m gonna go find some clothes that don’t require a cabaret permit.
She starts to leave again.
HAN: Uh, hey – uh, Leia?
Leia turns, hopeful.
HAN: Uhh … you gonna throw those ones away?
Leia smirks mischievously.
LEIA: We’ll see.
As she steps out of the cockpit, she bumps into Lando.
LEIA: Oops! Sorry, Lando.
LANDO: A distinct pleasure, Princess.
LEIA: Uh-huh.
LANDO: Where’re you going?
LEIA: I’m gonna throw on something a little more durable.
LANDO: Ooh. A crime against art, Your Highness.
LEIA: I thought you were repairing Threepio!
HAN: (sardonic) Yeah, me too.
LANDO: Chewie’s handling it.
Leia’s gone and the cockpit door slides shut. Lando takes her place at the co-pilot’s chair.
LANDO: (smiles) So what do you think of your baby, Han? Supple and bewitching, isn’t she?
HAN: (points at Lando; irate) Don’t push your luck, Lando!
LANDO: (frowns) What’s got up your afterburner‽ I’m talking about the Falcon!
HAN: (embarrassed) Oh. That.
LANDO: Put a lot of sweat and money into her while you were in cold storage.
HAN: Well, the way I heard it, you almost wrecked her on Coruscant.
LANDO: Oh, relax, pal.
HAN: (flustered) Gimme a break, Lando! You letting Threepio fly the Falcon‽
LANDO: (shrugs) We made it, didn’t we?
HAN: Okay. Alright. Let’s just drop it.
EXT. SPACE
The Millennium Falcon soars away into the starry void.