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The 'Independence Day Ending' of the ROTJ SE

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Recently i listened to the RLM Audio Commentary for ROTJ. In the last minutes Jay Bauman mentioned that the new ending felt like ‘Independence Day’ where everyone on earth celebrates the destruction of the alien ships at the same time, whereupon in ‘Jedi’ everyone in the galaxy celebrates the downfall of the Empire at the same time.

That similartity between both movies is kind of interesting and makes me wonder if Lucas actually saw ID4 in the summer of '96 and decided to create a similar happy ending for the upcoming ROTJ Special Edition in March of '97.

There is a clue that a ‘certain’ friend suggested to Lucas that he should see ‘Independence Day’ in the theatre. Steven Spielberg mentioned in the Making Of Featurette ‘The Return of a Legend’ for Indiana Jones KOTCS that he called up George after he saw ID4. He told George that it’s impossible to further develop the ‘Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars’ script, because ID4 deals with the same topic.

So, is the new ending of ROTJ another indirect/passive contribution to the Star Wars Saga from Steven Spielberg or another example Lucas borrowing ideas from other movies? Maybe both…

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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I fail to see why the ending of a Roland Emmerich movie would be a Steven Spielberg contribution to ROTJ SE. The only Spielberg contribution I know to the SW saga is one or two ideas during the Yoda v Sidious fight. What are the others ?

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Did you miss the part where Spielberg told Lucas to watch Independence Day?

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MalàStrana said:

I fail to see why the ending of a Roland Emmerich movie would be a Steven Spielberg contribution to ROTJ SE. The only Spielberg contribution I know to the SW saga is one or two ideas during the Yoda v Sidious fight. What are the others ?

As far as i know Spielberg was one the friends (besides Coppola, Huyck, Katz and others) Lucas consulted for at least rough cut feedback for the original Star Wars movie. According to the ROTS Bonus DVD, Spielberg was the one who suggested to George that during the Anakin VS Obi-Wan fight one of the antennas should break off and land on the lava river. Lucas also asked Spielberg for his feedback on the first rough cut of ROTS. Michael Kaminski hinted in his book ‘The Secret History of Star Wars’ that Lucas got the idea for the infamous AOTC conveyer belt scene from Spielberg, because Steven experimented at Lucasfilm with Pre-Viz shots for his movie ‘Minority Report’ (remember the conveyer belt scene in the Lexus factory) during the Post-Production phase of AOTC.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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Basically almost everyone on Earth saw ID4 in 1996. Did Spielberg also buy him pop-corn and a (rail of) coke to watch it ?

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MalàStrana said:

I fail to see why the ending of a Roland Emmerich movie would be a Steven Spielberg contribution to ROTJ SE. The only Spielberg contribution I know to the SW saga is one or two ideas during the Yoda v Sidious fight. What are the others ?

Well I believe Spielberg said that he watched a rough cut of the original SW with a group of George’s other filmmaker friends, and he was the only one who liked it. So I’m pretty sure he’s been giving George encouragement for a long time. Not sure about specific contributions, but I find it hard to imagine he’s never tossed out ideas while talking to George or that George wouldn’t take them into consideration.

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It’s known that Brian de Palma re-wrote the opening crawl, but actual Spielberg contributions on the original SW (and the OT) I’m not sure about that; Spielberg was quite busy with his own movies at this point of his career to take the time to help Lucas. His main contribution probably was just a “never give up” encouragement.