Info & Ideas: ESB and ROTJ Wishlist — Page 138

My personal preference for the Death Pit would be to take the basic wheel shape of the circular area around the elevator shaft and just duplicate it to near infinity and make it darker all the way down.

So Palpatine falls down through all the segmental gaps (like the one he was thrown down at the top).

He wouldn't have a chance to jump to the next floor because the air friction would make him explode (besides it's a PT style superhero trick of the type that needs to be toned down in PT re-workings).

Bingowings said:

He wouldn't have a chance to jump to the next floor because the air friction would make him explode (besides it's a PT style superhero trick of the type that needs to be toned down in PT re-workings).

But the point about the bridges is there are no floors underneath. How can there be with the model that was shown earlier? Those bridges go to the inner shell of the tower. That's a bridge to nowhere if there ever was one.

I know that's why I'd lose the bridges and put in floors, each with their own segment shaped gaps which Palpatine can be pulled through on his way down.

This is very rough (thrown together in a few minutes) the wheel shapes are floors with segmented pits of their own, the big column would have to be replaced with the lift shaft which would be much smaller).

Add traditional tube light patterns and away you go :

I would lose the bridges and rework the inner lift shaft as just that, making it look less industrial. Adding the usual Empire strip lighting would help that I think. I don't think I'd put in extra floors, just leave it as a lift that only goes from the throne room to a secure area at the surface or lower.

Viewers don't read scripts and it doesn't make sense based on what we know.

As I said it was knocked up in a few minutes and I was trying to find something round with segmented gaps in it to mirror the area around the lift shaft and the wheel was the nearest thing on a quick google search.

But sure, if you want it to be an Event Horizon style meat grinder go with the flow (maybe the tower is part of the ventilation system and he sits on the top to get the best view on the station). It would be ironic seeing as this came from an attempt to disprove the tower leading to the reactor and I really wanted the reactor chamber to spin to add more peril to Lando and Wedge's attempt to destroy it.

Star Wars has lots of bottomless pits so having a bottomless pit filled with spinning razor sharp blades at least adds variety.

What I was trying to show was the tower filled with circular floors each with it's own connection to the death pit (if it's silly enough to be at the top why not have one on every storey?).

fishmanlee said:

Darth Venal said:

the glow at the bottom is not the reactor core.

does the script say its not? if the script says it is then it is and it doesnt than its not

EDIT: it calls it a "the shaft",  "central core" a "void" and a "abyss"

I have one fishmanlee on my scope, reading a script.

I think the reason the reactor core version is preferred is because it's just a lot more "epic" a death for the big bad Emperor, even if it makes no sense at all. I think TV Tropes calls it the "Rule of Cool", instead of the Emperor of the galaxy being killed by Darth Rorshach Vader throwing him down a lift shaft and him exploding for some reason at the end, being thrown into the reactor core of his own giant battlestation is a much more "dignified" death.

Still, if you can't reconcile the two things coming together (almost nothing in SW makes sense really, it's science fantasy rather than sci-fi really), I guess a new matte and maybe a new reveal of the tower is in order.

P.S. For some reason, as a kid I never actually clicked that the Emperor's throne room was in a tower above the surface of the Death Star, I though it was just on the surface, so I never thought it didn't make sense that he fell to the reactor core (massive distance covered in too fast a time aside, my kid brain didn't consider that).

Angel Blue01 said:

We have a shot that shows the tower of course, I noticed that on my first viewing in 1997 as a kid, but it always struck me as a not terribly imposing tower, especially after seeing the cool architecture of Coruscant. But I've always assumed the shaft led to the core, but its open whether the Emperor got there or not. After all, we never see the bottom of any of the many shafts in the other movies.

 

That's exactly my interpretation. But even if it's not the MAIN reactor (or core), it could still be A reactor.

A reactor shaft can still have a lift shaft within it...that's all I've ever argued...

Oh okay bingo, I see what you were getting at in your tower description. Cool.

Dear God, not more reactor talk.

Who gives a rats if it's a core or not? The main point is that whatever it was, the emperor blew up in it.

shanerjedi said:

Oh okay bingo, I see what you were getting at in your tower description. Cool.

 

Dear God, not more reactor talk.

Who gives a rats if it's a core or not? The main point is that whatever it was, the emperor blew up in it.

 

I don't particularly care whether anyone names it a reactor shaft or not. After all it's not alluded to directly by name in the film. It's open to interpretation.

I just don't like people's assertions that it's definitely not a reactor shaft, or that it definitely is a lift shaft. The latter statement being the most confusing of all because we can see palpy falling alongside the lift shaft, not within it.

For fuck's sake, shut up about it.

Haha, ok mr "if a lunch box contains a banana, that makes it a banana itself"

This is becoming very silly.

The matte doesn't match the set or the model.

He can't be thrown down the lift shaft Luke and Vader travelled up because the lift is clearly some distance away and as there is no other lift around it's doubtful it's a lift shaft at all.

It can't be the main reactor because that is way too far away.

He falls to his death and explodes down a chasm in the centre of the tower to the side of the lift shaft.

There may be a reactor somewhere down there but as we don't see it does it matter?

The one thing that is clear is the matte needs to be changed and possibly the model too.

As much as Jedi has some fine effects work much of it is kludged in this manner and getting hot under the collar about it serves no purpose.

Hopefully someone will one day reach a successful adjustment that can make sense of the mess.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

some really awesome ideas and artwork in this thread :)

I had an idea how to kill 2 birds with one stone. An earlier poster linked a video where Vader's 'Leave them to me' line was removed when the rebels are trying to land on the surface of endor. It was a change I really liked, it added to the tension a bit.

I think that line could be re-used earlier in the film to give Boba Fett a bit of closure, without radically changing his own storyline. Boba would still suffer his jetpack malfunction, but the shot where he is eaten by the sarlac can be removed. Then, after the rebels have escaped tatooine, we could cut to a short scene of Fett standing standing in the flaming wreckage of Jabba's sail barge. He could then pull out a small hologram transmitter or communication device and vader will appear. Fett will inform Vader that Luke arrived to rescue Han as expected, but the rebels succesfully escaped, killing Jabba in the process. He will then ask vader if he wants him to persue but Vader will reply 'No leave them to me', then another line about Fett's recieving payment. This establishes Boba as a spy for vader, which explains why he has been sitting about Jabba's palace all along. Then provides a reason as to why he doesn't turn up later in the film, his contract is terminated and he moves onto the next bounty.

p.s. for added badassery, the scene could open with a scavengers picking their way through the ruins of Jabba's barge before suddenly being shot dead. the camera could then pan round to Fett. Or he could casually shoot them as he talks to Vader. Although killing unarmed scavengers doesn't seem like something he would do.

Nice idea, but how on Earth would we achieve all that?

ah, you probably couldnt. I was putting it in this thread becuase its a scene Id like to see if large changes were ever made to the trilogy. Its probably beyond the scope of editers. 

Ive just re-read the first page and realise now its a wishlist for fan edits, my mistake.