corellian77 said:

ImperialFighter said:

Not sure if this is what you were trying to point out at the end of your post IF (when mentioning the vanes), but it looks as though the vane Luke is hanging from changes position between these shots relative to all the other vanes. Whereas all the other vanes seem to be static between these shots, the one Luke's on moves. The difference in position can't be attributed to the camera moving, as all the other vanes appear in the same position in each frame.

Sorry if I'm just repeating what you said, but it's a noticeable error, so I wanted to be clear about it.

This is one of those differences between the 35mm version and the 70mm version. The earlier 70mm version has Luke just falling off the vane and out of frame. We assume that Luke landed on the Falcon, but aren't sure, especially when Leia calls back from the cockpit to see if they have him.

To make the scene more clear, George had the scene tweaked and added the Falcon's sensor dish to the shot. To make room for this addition in this shot, they had to re-matte Luke on the vane.

See evidence below from the Puggo Edition thread:

The Starkiller said:

...

GOUT DVD:

Same frame from the '85 Laser:

And the same frame from the Super 8:

Again, this corresponds to the 70mm cut.

I believe this is the first confirmed visual evidence of alternate footage existing within one of the films!