How The Empire Strikes Back Flipped Star Wars On Its Head

The video began by pointing out every sequel's challenge— how to make the story feels new and familiar at the same time. George Lucas achieved this by literally flipping the Star Wars on its head.

A simple straight-forward story of A New Hope was flipped on its head into a story of Empire Strikes back filled with deception and twists. Nothing was what it appeared at first glance (from a cavern that turned out to be a space monster to the betrayal by who you thought was your friend). The sense of disorientation throughout the film culminated into the moment the world turned upside down, when Darth Vader told Luke "I am your father."

We then explore the many visual cues on the screen that provide a literal representation of the thematic changes in this sequel. For example, in A New Hope, the movie ended with an air battle, and a Rebel victory. In Empire Strikes Back, the movie began with a ground battle, and an Empire victory. Watch as scenes were compared side by side to show the visual and thematic mirroring.

James Cameron used the same context reversals in Terminator: Judgement Day(e.g. T-800 was now the hero and as opposed to the villain in the first movie), making it one of the beloved movie sequels.

The video ended with how George Lucas expertly mirrored the scenes and stories in the Prequels to show how that is another side to the story as the Prequel trilogy is the other side to the Original trilogy. It opened up new possibilities for a sequel in creating something different in the structure of something familiar.