ESB Novel/Film

I have a question about the Donald F. Glut novelization of ESB. During the attack on Hoth, right at the end Hobbie slams his snowspeeder into General Veers' AT-AT, killing all on board. Does anyone know if that was in the original script or in a deleted scene? It was an interesting addition.

Thanks!

 

I don't think it was in the original script, nor was it a deleted screen.

I can say that Hobbie and Veers both survived. . .somehow in the EU.

 

That would have been a cool scene to have seen.

 

The incident still happened, but Hobbie and Veers both survived, albeit badly injured. Hobbie got stuck into a bacta tank when other Rebels found him. Veers lost his legs and lived the rest of his life in a hoverchair.

 

Ever wonder why the head of the AT-AT explodes after Luke throws a grenade into it's belly?
The shot of the head exploding was done for the scene where Hobbie crashes into it.
Somewhere along the line they decided to delete Hobbie's Kamikaze dive but used the shot anyway in conjunction with the one Luke brings down.

Originally the one that Luke gets was supposed to just shake from the explosion and then stop, paralysed still standing.

I heard that the Hobbie scene was changed for 2 reasons - 1. bringing down 3 Walkers was a bit much considering the rebels were meant to be getting thrashed.
2. the Kamikaze thing didn't seem right.

g

 

I read an interview once with the actor who played Hobbie. He mentioned filming a death scene where he flew his Snowspeeder into the head of one of the Walkers, then as he was leaving the set, was told they were short on actors and was asked if he'd like to play one of the pilots in the same Walker. He said, "Okay" and commented (in the interview), "So basically I'm flying into myself." He also mentions that his death was later cut from the film.

 

Hobbie crashes into a SD in ROTJ as well. I find it extremly hard to believe that he would of had survived that one.

 

Yes, the shot was even put into story boards. Try "StarWarsCutScenes.com".

 

IIRC, Hobbie was hit by a SD's ion cannon which disabled him from the remainder of the battle. Or at least until he could get his systems back up and running.

 

Both Hobbie and Veers survived the Battle of Hoth but suffered injuries. Their injuries happend "off screen". Veers died in Dark Empire. Veers son defected to the Rebels.

 

Excuse me, but that's all EU drivel written by an independent novelist who never heard about Veers' death at the Battle of Hoth.

The original plan was to have Veers die when the Snowspeeder hit his cockpit. How the hell is someone supposed to of survived such a direct impact at such a high speed and at such a hight I ask you?!

No, the novel and the Lucas storyboards firmly have Veers biting the dust (snow?) in the Battle of Hoth, so I'm sticking by what GL had in mind.

 

Excuse me, but that's all EU drivel written by an independent novelist who never heard about Veers' death at the Battle of Hoth

Zethlin: The writers dont randomly write books. They have continuty checkers. If Veers didnt die onscreen it didnt happen until it was writen in the EU.

 

That site is really good, too bad none of the videos work though

 

How the hell is someone supposed to of survived such a direct impact at such a high speed and at such a hight I ask you?!

If the cockpit were more heavily armored than the snowspeeder, it wouldn't be out of the question. Remember that the walker is huge and the snowspeeder relatively small, so conservation of momentum says the walker wouldn't recoil very hard.

 

The novelists don't randomly write books? No, they just fantasise about "the further adventures of my favourite characters", to put it in their words, and then put their imaginations for what "could have happened" to their favourite character down into a story. But this all has nothing to do with what GL originally had in mind for that character.

Hmm, How big is a Snowspeeder? Answer: About the same size as an AT-AT cockpit/head. How fast does a Snowspeeder travel? My guess is about the same speed as something like an F-16 or F-5. So, no matter how much armour an AT-AT has, if it were to be hit by something so large that was traveling as fast as a missile, I'd guess that the crew of the walker would be dead meat. And if you remember the only part of the scene to have survived, that of the walker head exploding and the walker then falling over, you'll notice that the cockpit/head totally disintegrates under the force of the collision.

 

Veers lived because he leaped back into the AT-AT's body, away from the crashing snowspeeder. Hobbie ejected (or was flung from his speeder) and ended up on the ground, where other Rebels found him and got him into bacta.

 

Maybe Hobie's speeder had air-bags.
Luke could do with them in his Speeder and his X-Wing, he's rather prone to crashing both of them in ESB!

As for Veers - he's toast.

g

 

Yep, Governor Beltane's SD-10's vaporized Veers pretty effectively.

 

Hehe, I was just reading Starfighters of Adumar, and I remembered this scene:

Hobbie: I ought to do promotions for bacta. Bacta is a type of medicine.
Cheriss: You are not a well man?
Hobbie: Oh, I'm well enough. It's just that sometimes the ground and I get along a little too vigorously.

 

Yes, I've figured it out now thanks to The2ndQuest! The clip where we see Veers look out from behind his view finder to see the reactor explosion was originally shot for him seeing the Snowspeeder approaching the walker's cockpit! The pilots would then be seen yelling and pointing at the speeder moments before the collision. We'd then see the head explode and the walker fall over.

 

Yep, the shot of Veers looking around the targeting computer after the explosion was meant to be used in Hobbie's crash scene.

 

You know, I'm sure I saw that scene completed for the first release of the movie in 1980. And no, it isn't false memories, because as a kid I remembered that scene and felt soooo disappointed that it wasn't included on the vhs copy when it came out on video. ?

 

It might have been a trailer on TV. It couldn't have been the Marvel Comics adaption, because they didn't feature the scene. It couldn't have been the novel, 'cause I didn't read novels in those days (too young). The only times I ever saw anything to do with the film itself, was at the cinema and maybe on a trailer on TV.

I know for a fact that GL tends to like having several versions of his films, all slightly different from one another. Maybe GL does have a master copy somewhere with all the missing scenes in it. If so, maybe it slipped out for a short time into cinemas, especially foreign cinemas? I live in England (where the originals were made), and if I remember right, there was a lot of trouble at the time about copies of ESB being stolen and pirated. Maybe, just maybe, one of these stolen copies was one of the masters with all the cut scenes on it, and somehow it found its way into the local cinemas over here?