Authors: George Lucas
LUKE You don’t believe in the Force, do you?
HAN Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. Ben smiles quietly HAN It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense. BEN I suggest you try it again, Luke.
Ben places a large helmet on Luke’s head which covers his eyes.
BEN This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. LUKE (laughing) With the blast shield down, I can’t even see. How am I supposed to fight?
BEN Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them. Han skeptically shakes his head as Ben throws the seeker into the air. The ball shoots straight up in the air, then drops like a rock. Luke swings the lightsaber around blindly missing the seeker, which fires off a laserbolt which hits Luke square on the seat of the pants. He lets out a painful yell and attempts to hit the seeker.
BEN Stretch out with your feelings.
Luke stands in one place, seemingly frozen. The seeker makes a dive at Luke and, incredibly, he managed to deflect the bolt. The ball ceases fire and moves back to its original position.
BEN You see, you can do it.
HAN I call it luck.
BEN In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck. HAN Look, going good against remotes is one thing. Going good against the living? That’s something else.
Solo notices a small light flashing on the far side of the control panel.
HAN Looks like we’re coming up on Alderaan.
Han and Chewbacca head back to the cockpit.
LUKE You know, I did feel something. I could almost see the remote. BEN That’s good. You have taken your first step into a larger world. INTERIOR DEATH STAR —CONFERENCE ROOM.
Imperial Officer Cass stands before Governor Tarkin and the evil Dark Lord Darth Vader.
TARKIN Yes.
OFFICER CASS Our scout ships have reached Dantooine. They found the remains of a Rebel base, but they estimate that it has been deserted for some time. They are now conducting an extensive search of the surrounding systems.
TARKIN She lied! She lied to us!
VADER I told you she would never consciously betray the Rebellion. TARKIN Terminate her…immediately!
EXTERIOR HYPERSPACE.
The pirateship is just coming out of hyperspace; a strange surreal light show surrounds the ship.
INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —COCKPIT.
HAN Stand by, Chewie, here we go. Cut in the sublight engines. Han pulls back on a control lever. Outside the cockpit window stars begin streaking past, seem to decrease in speed, then stop. Suddenly the starship begins to shudder and violently shake about. Asteroids begin to race toward them, battering the sides of the ship.
HAN What the…? Aw, we’ve come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower. Some kind of asteroid collision. It’s not on any of the charts.
The Wookiee flips off several controls and seems very cool in the emergency. Luke makes his way into the bouncing cockpit.
LUKE What’s going on?
HAN Our position is correct, except…no, Alderaan!
LUKE What do you mean? Where is it?
HAN Thats what I’m trying to tell you, kid. It ain’t there. It’s been totally blown away.
LUKE What? How?
Ben moves into the cockpit behind Luke as the ship begins to settle down.
BEN Destroyed…by the Empire!
HAN The entire starfleet couldn’t destroy the whole planet. It’d take a thousand ships with more fire power than I’ve… A signal starts flashing on the control panel and a muffled alarm starts humming.
HAN There’s another ship coming in.
LUKE Maybe they know what happened.
BEN It’s an Imperial fighter.
Chewbacca barks his concern. A huge explosion bursts outside the cockpit window, shaking the ship violently. A tiny, finned Imperial TIE fighter races past the cockpit window.
LUKE It followed us!
BEN No. It’s a short range fighter.
HAN There aren’t any bases around here. Where did it come from? EXTERIOR SPACE.
The fighter races past the Corellian pirateship. INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —COCKPIT.
LUKE It sure is leaving in a big hurry. If they identify us, we’re in big trouble.
HAN Not if I can help it. Chewie…jam it’s transmissions. BEN It’d be as well to let it go. It’s too far out of range. HAN Not for long…
EXTERIOR SPACE.
The pirateship zooms over the c amera and away into the vastness of space after the Imperial TIE fighter. INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —COCKPIT.
The tension mounts as the pirateship gains on the tiny fighter. In the distance, one of the stars becomes brighter until it is obvious that the TIE ship is heading for it. Ben stands behind Chewbacca.
BEN A fighter that size couldn’t get this deep into space on its own. LUKE It must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something. HAN Well, he ain’t going to be around long enough to tell anyone about us.
EXTERIOR SPACE.
The TIE fighter is losing ground to the larger pirateship as they race toward camera and disappear over head. INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —COCKPIT.
The distant star can be distinguished as a small moon or planet.
LUKE Look at him. He’s headed for that small moon. HAN I think I can get him before he gets there…he’s almost in range.
The small moon begins to take on the appearance of a monstrous spherical battle station.
BEN That’s no moon! It’s a space station.
HAN It’s too big to be a space station.
LUKE I have a very bad feeling about this.
BEN Yeah, I think your right. Full reverse! Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power.
The pirateship shudders and the TIE fighter accelerates away toward the gargantuan battle station.
LUKE Why are we still moving towards it?
HAN We’re caught in a tractor beam! It’s pulling us in!
LUKE But there’s gotta be something you can do!
HAN There’s nothin’ I can do about it, kid. I’m in full power. I’m going to have to shut down. But they’re not going to get me without a fight!
Ben Kenobi puts a hand on his shoulder.
BEN You can’t win. But there are alternatives to fighting. INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —DEATH STAR.
As the battered pirate starship is towed closer to the awesome metal moon, the immense size of the massive battle station becomes staggering. Running along the equator of the gigantic sphere is a mile-high band of huge docking ports into which the helpless pirateship is dragged.
EXTERIOR DEATH STAR —HUGE PORT DOORS.
The helpless Millennium Falcon is pulled past a docking port control room and huge laser turret cannons.
VOICE OVER DEATH STAR INTERCOM Clear Bay twenty-three-seven. We are opening the magnetic field.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —DOCKING BAY 2037.
The pirateship is pulled in through port doors of the Death Star, coming to rest in a huge hangar. Thirty stormtroopers stand at attention in a central assembly area.
OFFICER To you stations!
OFFICER (to another officer) Come with me.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —HALLWAY.
Stormtroopers run to their posts.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —HANGAR 2037.
A line of stormtroopers march toward the pirateship in readiness to board it, while other troopers stand with weapons ready to fire.
OFFICER Close all outboard shields! Close all outboard shields!
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —CONFERENCE ROOM.
Tarkin pushes a button and responds to the intercom buzz. TARKIN Yes.
VOICE (over intercom) We’ve captured a freighter entering the remains of the Alderaan system. It’s markings match those of a ship that blasted its way out of Mos Eisley.
VADER They must be trying to return the stolen plans to the princess. She may yet be of some use to us.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —DOCKING BAY 2037.
Vader and a commander approach the troops as an Officer and several heavily armed troops exit the spacecraft. VOICE (over intercom) Unlock one-five-seven and nine. Release charges.
OFFICER (to Vader) There’s no one on board, sir. According to the log, the crew abandoned ship right after takeoff. It must be a decoy, sir. Several of the escape pods have been jettisoned. VADER Did you find any droids?
OFFICER No, sir. If there were any on board, they must also have jettisoned.
VADER Send a scanning crew on board. I want every part of this ship checked.
OFFICER Yes, sir.
VADER I sense something…a presence I haven’t felt since… Vader turns quickly and exits the hangar.
OFFICER Get me a scanning crew in here on the double. I want every part of this ship checked!
INTERIOR MILLENNIUM FALCON —HALLWAY.
A trooper runs through the hallway heading for the exit. In a few moments all is quiet. The muffled sounds of a distant officer giving orders finally fade. Two floor panels suddenly pop up revealing Han Solo and Luke. Ben Kenobi sticks his head out of a third locker.
LUKE Boy, it’s lucky you had these compartments. HAN I use them for smuggling. I never thought I’d be smuggling myself in them. This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I’d never get past the tractor beam.
BEN Leave that to me!
HAN Damn fool. I knew that you were going to say that!
BEN Who’s the more foolish…the fool or the fool who follows him? Han shakes his head, muttering to himself. Chewbacca agrees.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —MAIN FORWARD BAY.
The crewmen carry a heavy box on board the ship, past the two stormtroopers guarding either side of the ramp. TROOPER The ship’s all yours. If the scanners pick up anything, report it immediately. All right, let’s go.
The crewmen enter the pirateship and a loud crashing sound is followed by a voice calling to the guard below. HAN’S VOICE Hey down there, could you give us a hand with this? The stormtroopers enter the ship and a quick round of gunfire is heard.
INTERIOR DEATH STAR —FORWARD BAY —COMMAND OFFICE. In a very small command office near the entrance to the pirateship, a Gantry Officer looks out his window and notices the guards are missing. He speaks into the comlink. GANTRY OFFICER TX-four-one-two. Why aren’t you at your post? TX-four-one-two, do you copy?
A stormtrooper comes down the ramp of the pirateship and waves to the gantry officer, pointing to his ear indicating his comlink is not working. The gantry officer shakes his head in disgust and heads for the door, giving his aide an annoyed look.
GANTRY OFFICER Take over. We’ve got a bad transmitter. I’ll see what I can do.
As the officer approaches the door, it slides open revealing the towering Chewbacca. The gantry officer, in a momentary state of shock, stumbles backward. With a bonechilling howl, the giant Wookiee flattens the officer with one blow. The aide immediately reaches for his pistol, but is blasted by Han, dressed as an Imperial stormtrooper. Ben and the robots enter the room quickly followed by Luke, also dressed as a stormtrooper. Luke quickly removes his helmet. LUKE You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it’s a wonder the whole station doesn’t know we’re here. HAN Bring them on! I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around.
THREEPIO We found the computer outlet, sir.
Ben feeds some information into the computer and a map of the city appears on the monitor. He begins to inspect it carefully. Threepio and Artoo look over the control panel. Artoo finds something that makes him whistle wildly. BEN Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire Imperial computer network.
Artoo punches his claw arm into the computer socket and the vast Imperial brain network comes to life, feeding information to the little robot. After a few moments, he beeps something. THREEPIO He says he’s found the main computer to power the tractor beam that’s holding the ship here. He’ll try to make the precise location appear on the monitor.
The computer monitor flashes readouts.
THREEPIO The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations. A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave.
Ben studies the data on the monitor readout.
BEN I don’t think you boys can help. I must go alone. HAN Whatever you say. I’ve done more that I bargained for on this trip already.
LUKE I want to go with you.
BEN Be patient, Luke. Stay and watch over the droids. LUKE But he can…
BEN They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path than mine. The Force will be with you…always!
Ben adjusts the lightsaber on his belt and silently steps out of the command office, then disappears down a long grey hallway. Chewbacca barks a comment and Han shakes his head in agreement.
HAN Boy you said it, Chewie.
Han looks at Luke.
HAN Where did you dig up that old fossil?
LUKE Ben is a great man.
HAN Yeah, great at getting us into trouble.
LUKE I didn’t hear you give any ideas…
HAN Well, anything would be better than just hanging around waiting for him to pick us up…
LUKE Who do you think…
Suddenly Artoo begins to whistle and beep a blue streak. Luke goes over to him.
LUKE What is it?
THREEPIO I’m afraid I’m not quite sure, sir. He says “I found her”, and keeps repeating, “She’s here.”
LUKE Well, who…who has he found?
Artoo whistles a frantic reply.
THREEPIO Princess Leia.
LUKE The princess? She’s here?
HAN Princess? What’s going on?
THREEPIO Level five. Detention block A A-twenty-three. I’m afraid she’s scheduled to be terminated.
LUKE Oh, no! We’ve got to do something.
HAN What are you talking about?
LUKE The droid belongs to her. She’s the one in the message.. We’ve got to help her.
HAN Now, look, don’t get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here.
LUKE But he didn’t know she was here. Look, will you just find a way back into the detention block?
HAN I’m not going anywhere.
LUKE They’re going to execute her. Look, a few minutes ago you said you didn’t want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay.