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Idea: A sensible Han Solo rescue attempt plan...

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 (Edited)

Hi everyone! I am working on a ROTJ edit that helps strengthen the first and third act of the film. Now, since this is in the early works there is not cutlist yet. But after tinkering around with other movies for quite some time, I would make a leap to start a fanedit. I just reposted this from fanedit.org just to get more attention. Hope this can be improved.

Here is my (very early concept) plan for Han’s rescue attempt, since the original plan (or would it even a plan) made no sense and relied too much on luck, or the Force perhaps.
Now, this is pretty much a bunch of failsafes, but hopefully It might be improved upon.

Before we get into this, we must have knowledge that Lando, Chewbacca and Leia are in the palace and giving the inside information to Luke.

The preliminary plan: Artoo and Threepio are gifted as messengers to Jabba and R2-D2 displays a hologram of Luke pleading to settle a deal with Jabba, in turn giving Han Solo back. Now, Luke knew Jabba wouldn’t let him off the hook that easy, so he smuggled a lightsaber in R2-D2 that would later come in handy for Plan B.

Since Jabba did not accept his request, but took the two droids, plan B would have to established.

Plan B: Luke would enter Jabba’s palace to mind-trick him to giving back Solo, and if that would not work, then he would need to kill Jabba.

During the execution of the actual plan, Leia had her own plan as well. She would make use of harmful sedatives that would later on, be released into the main room. She would also make use of her helmet, which had a double-purpose of being a gas-mask. She would then sneak across the room and un-freeze Han from the carbonite. She would also let Chewbacca wait outside to get Han and the droids, however it failed miserably. She and Chewie were later caught and Leia was forced to wear a suit that would be engraved into each Star Wars fan’s brain for the rest of their lives.

Lando told Luke about this and he was forced to modify his Plan B. Using the information that was gathered by both Lando and Leia, he had to become a prisoner, and be sent to the Sarlacc Pit just to fight to the death.

Since Luke also once lived in Tatooine he totally would have known about Jabba and his public executions at the Sarlacc Pit. This knowledge gave more advantage to him when he actually would have to be thrown in the pit himself.

This plan wouldn’t have been put up so easily without some people who have indirectly helped me make an edit as ambitious as this. Those people are NeverarGreat, nhoj3, ray_afraid, jarbear and other people who attempted to make ROTJ a great film before me.

this post has been edited.

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I’m glad people like the gas idea!
It would require some VFX work to sell the idea. I made a quick mockup to show how it might look in action:

https://vimeo.com/241122910
Password: gas

I’d prefer a bit more swirling and eddying gas in the first panning shot, so that Boushh is basically wading through it and can hardly see a thing. This makes her bumping into the chimes a lot more believable. Then it could stay quite dark and gassy until the shot of Han in carbonite, where the gas starts clearing dramatically.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I am still working on my ROTJ Edit, and though I really loved that idea of the release of harmful sedatives that Leia sets on the main room, I completely ditched that idea due to lacking scenes.

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Thanks for the shout out and good luck with your edit!

I like the idea of the gas, at least is some limited capacity (and using only existing scenes). I liked NeverarGreat’s idea of introducing the gas concept through Leia’s dialogue with Threepio. If I had the skills I would show the thick mist that NeverarGreat describes, but just before their capture I would have it quickly dissipate with an accompanying sound effect or a ventilation system kicking in.

Lastly, I would explore explaining away the ineffectiveness of the gas in Jabba’s subsequent subtitles, something to the effect of “you must think us fools to try that old trick”.

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I’m also trying to rework Han’s rescue for my edit. I’ve decided to skip the droids’ arrival to start with Leia’s arrival. We’re never shown how Lando got in the Palace, so why would the droids be any different. You don’t need to know that Luke gave them to Jabba as a gift or whatever. It’s easy for the viewer to fill in the blanks.

I’m having Luke start on Dagobah as a way to explain why he’s not involved in the first rescue attempt. He only intervenes after plan A fails. However, it just occured to me that this would create the plot hole of why Luke gave R2 his lightsaber. For that matter, R2 should be with him on Dagobah. Maybe this isn’t such a simple change after all. I suppose the solution would be to have R2 arrive with Luke. Given that I’m scrapping the droid’s arrival, it might be feasible to remove him from the earlier scenes.

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Lastly, I would explore explaining away the ineffectiveness of the gas in Jabba’s subsequent subtitles, something to the effect of “you must think us fools to try that old trick”.

I was thinking something more to the effect of “You fool. [Gas name] gas has no effect on hutts.” Then again, everyone around him was fine too, so I guess that wouldn’t work. That said, your line wouldn’t be any better, since it doesn’t actually explain why they weren’t affected.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

Lastly, I would explore explaining away the ineffectiveness of the gas in Jabba’s subsequent subtitles, something to the effect of “you must think us fools to try that old trick”.

I was thinking something more to the effect of “You fool. [Gas name] gas has no effect on hutts.” Then again, everyone around him was fine too, so I guess that wouldn’t work. That said, your line wouldn’t be any better, since it doesn’t actually explain why they weren’t affected.

I didn’t have the whole scene in front of me so I didn’t want to write too much, just give a sense of direction. The idea was that they were prepared for the ploy… I’m sure with some effort we could collectively come up with an explanation. 😃

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I’m currently thinking on a way to cut out the bargaining with Jabba scene to go straight to the rescue attempt on Han. But I do not know where to cut straight to the outside matte of Jabba’s Palace. So where should I cut?

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