My Top 5 Favorite Moments From Across The All Star Wars Movies

Posted by Chris on 12/10/21 at 07:05 AM Category: Top 5

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So this list is specifically moments, and not scenes in their entirety. Just a few frames of film that really connect with me. Also this is just the movies, otherwise The Mandalorian would dominate the list. I'm going to go in reverse order leading up to number 1. Here we go.

5. Jango Takes Flight
Attack of the Clones

I don't like Attack of the...yadda yadda yadda...bad complete movie...yadda yadda yadda...great individual scenes.

Prior to this moment, Mandalorians were more promise than production, especially when it came to their super trooper Swiss army knife armor. Boba Fett does flash a little bit of the Mando gadgetry in Return of the Jedi, but all his jet pack does is allow him to cheat in the broad jump competition. Here Jango Fett uses the ability of flight to gain tactical advantage over a Jedi. The jet pack isn't a mode of transportation. It's a weapon. Good stuff.

4. Antoc Merrick Flashes His Pearly Whites
Rogue One

I'm a sucker for the deus ex machina aspects of any aircraft swooping in to save the day. It doesn't have to be just Star Wars. It could be a P-51 coming out of nowhere to saves some pinned down troops from an approaching panzer. So when Blue Leader saved the ground team from vaporization courtesy of the imminent blast from the AT-ACT chin guns , I was already getting misty. When he flashes a smile on top of it, I felt like I was watching Brennan sing Por Ti Volare at the [censored] Catalina Wine Mixer.

3. Darth Maul's Double Trouble Saber
The Phantom Menace

I want to say this was the last time where the in-theater Star Wars experience was truly electric for me. It felt more like a concert than a movie. When Maul ignited the second half of his saber several "WOO'S" erupted from the audience, despite the fact that this had already been spoiled by the trailer. I've heard isolated cheering at subsequent theatrical viewings, but this was the last time I sensed a wave of excitement sweep an entire audience. Ray Park's slow deliberation as he addressed the two Jedi with his weapon before battle makes this moment perfect.

2. Luke Ignites His Green Saber
Return of the Jedi

Sometimes the world needs to be reminded that it took Luke until the third movie to actually come into his abilities. He was mostly a sidecar for A New Hope with the exception of the golden BB he fires at the Death Star. He spends The Empire Strikes Back getting beaten up by the Wampa, Yoda, and Darth Vader. Heading into Return of the Jedi it looked like more of the same. Luke's rescue attempt seemed to fizzle when Jabba engaged the trap door to the Rancor pit, but when he ignites his green saber after his Triple Lindy off the skiff plank, Lucas would have been justified in using Hair of the Dog by Nazareth as the score. I would embed that song, but it has a no no word.

1. You're All Clear Kid
A New Hope

See everything I wrote about Antoc Merrick above and multiply it by one hundred. This is by far my favorite moment in all of Star Wars, and it still gets me every time I watch it. It not only snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for the Rebels, it completed the best character arc in A New Hope. What J.J. Abrams did to this character in The Force Awakens, turning him into a recidivist loser, is criminal.

So there they are. If I had honorable mentions it would be Lando and Nien Nunb celebrating their narrow escape from the Death Star in Return of the Jedi, and Lando raising a People's Armada in The Rise of Skywalker. So, yeah, I have nothing from The Empire Strikes Back. I love that movie, but it's decidedly downbeat, so I don't get any "goosebump" moments from it.