CT Han Solo's Rescue

I just recently finished a re-watch of "Return of the Jedi". Does anyone have an idea on what was Luke's original plan to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt's palace? Because after so many years, I'm still confused.

 

I have never figured out what his plan was. He had one as Artoo had the lightsaber

 

Oh, man, this has baffled me forever.

 

Luke always seemed like he was skirting the Dark Side in ROTJ to be as a kid.

Seems like 'the plan' was contrived with a few phases and attempts, which all ultimately failed and led to Luke's final plan which ended at around the time after Jabba dropped him into the Rancor pit and things pretty much went to pot. Everything else after that during the Sarlacc Pit was simply improvised since Lando was still in his disguise and R2 had Luke's lightsaber. I think they used up all their non-violent attempts and Luke's attempt at either forcing Jabba at gunpoint or whatever or shooting him really made no sense since he would not of made it out've there alive nor his friends. Luke's later confidence is just explained away that he still had R2 and Lando up his sleeve.



LIke Maul or Sidious using themselves as bait and feigning getting captured, may of been possible looking at the whole thing with post PT/TCW eyes for Luke. But Luke being a Sith mastermind and having that kinda control over the Force in neo-Canon probably is not in the equation and the heroes forming chaotic and half-baked infiltration and escape plans seems more a thing going by SOLO and ANH. I think though in the EU, and with Shadows of the Empire then being canon, they kinda established that Luke anticipated the Sarlacc which indeed made him more like a Sith(which eventually he did become the Clone Emperor's apprentice in Dark Empire).

 

The way I always sold it to myself was like this. Luke grew up on Tattooine, so he would likely have heard of Jabba the Hutt and maybe even that the gangster liked to kill his foes by throwing them into the Sarlacc. If each stage of the plan failed, the ultimate back-up plan would be to get everybody outside Jabba's palace, where they would have more of a chance to escape.

 

I just took it that Luke let's Jabba think that he's capturing each of them , but what he doesn't realise is that having them all together is very dangerous.

Luke doesn't know everything that will happen , but he does know that Lando is a secret weapon , and so is his lightsabre (literally).

 

I've never liked the Jabba;s palace sequence in ROTJ, because it takes up ONE THIRD of the film. Surely it could've been shortened by half. Also, I wish the rescue could've happened at a Coruscant prison instead of drab old Tatooine. It was possible, because Blade Runner did the city-planet thing in 1982.

 

Except Blade Runner bombed the previous year, so it wouldn't have made sense to copy that aesthetic

 

Okay, I’ve posted this several times over the years, but I may as well post it again. I must note that much of it is based on speculation and extrapolation from what is seen in the movies themselves. Anyway, on to Luke’s plan.

Using the Alliance to get Han out was not an option. Han, after all, is just one man, and the Rebels can’t spare an attack team with air cover to rescue one man, no matter who he is. Besides, Han was encased in a carbonite block in the middle of the palace. By the time the strike team gets to him, it’s a safe bet Boba Fett would’ve blasted him to pieces on Jabba’s order. So, Luke has to resort to what is essentially a con game. He’s got to get Jabba to basically hand Han over to him, rather than try to take him. So, he devises an operation, with multiple fail-safe points, to accomplish this. Here’s how it goes:

Luke puts together his own version of the IMF, consisting of himself, Leia, Lando, Chewie, Artoo and Threepio. They all rendezvous on Tatooine and get to work (though he keeps certain parts of the operation from Threepio, given the droid’s talkative nature). Lando goes in first, as Luke’s inside man. He’s a former con artist, so he knows how to put together a passable fake identity and slip in. He checks out the area and sends word back to Luke, then sticks around to help.

Next, the droids go in with a legitimate offer to buy Han’s freedom. (Remember, Leia’s rich; she can afford it.) Luke offers the droids as a gift just to sweeten the deal, and, in Artoo’s case, provide a weapon he might need later. If this works, an exchange is arranged and Han is freed, with Lando getting the droids out when he leaves. But, it doesn’t work. So…

Leia goes in, disguised as Boussh, to infiltrate the palace, with Chewie along to provide her with a legitimate reason for being there, along with street cred and needed muscle if the situation comes to it. She’ll sneak into the audience chamber to free Han and get him clear. Meanwhile, Lando will free Chewie to help out, and then get himself and the droids out. If it works, they all escape before Jabba catches on. But, it doesn’t work. So…

Luke goes in, unarmed, to try to mind trick Jabba into releasing Han. Sure, it might look odd for Jabba to suddenly go along with Luke’s wishes. But, hey, he’s the guy in charge; who’s going to argue with him? If it works, Luke takes the prisoners with him and Lando & the droids sneak out the back. But, it doesn’t work. So…

Luke tries a mild threat on Jabba. Yes, he says he could destroy Jabba, but Luke also still gives the impression that they could still strike a deal. He also warns Jabba of what he could expect if he decides to fight it out. If it works, Luke and the prisoners leave and Lando & the droids get clear. But, it doesn’t work. So…

Luke tries to kill Jabba, an attempt that is purposely meant to fail. Luke’s not an idiot. He knows that even if he gets lucky and takes Jabba’s head off, Boba and the guards will cut him down on the spot. In any case, the purpose isn’t killing Jabba. The purpose is getting dropped into the Rancor’s nest, and killing the beast. This is important; there’s no Plan B. This is a crisis point, and if it fails, the rest of the plan falls apart. But, it doesn’t fail; Luke kills the Rancor, greatly angering Jabba. So…

Jabba finds Luke’s actions so insulting that he doesn’t just have everybody zapped at once. He sentences them to get tossed to the Sarlaac, which is exactly what Luke wanted. Check the scene; when sentence is passed, Luke has a little smile and is nodding. He may as well be saying, “Got you, you son of a bantha!” So, it’s off to the Sarlaac.

There, Luke tries to avoid conflict one last time. He’s plain on the subject: “Free us, or die.” If it works, the good guys head for the hills and Jabba goes home. But, it doesn’t work. And here we are.

Luke’s hands are free, and he’s all set. Han is awake and ambulatory. Chewie and Lando are nearby, ready to move. Leia’s inside, waiting for her chance. Artoo is on deck, with Luke’s lightsaber. And Jabba is outside of his palace and away from the bulk of his guards, and he has no idea of what’s about to happen. The dominoes are in place, and Luke just has to knock down the first one.

That, people, is one well-made plan. It’s flexible, it accurately measures Jabba’s weaknesses (pride and overconfidence), it has several points where it can smoothly switch tracks, and it gives Jabba several chances to just walk away without the need for violence. And, when it gets to the big finish, it takes Jabba and his cronies down but good. As far as I’m concerned, Jim Phelps and his team couldn’t have done any better.

Over to you…

 

Blade Runner bombed because of its slow pacing and cerebral nature. Its style of city-planet aesthetics were always part of Lucas's vision for Star Wars, and were even in early scripts for ROTJ. The Emperor's throne was originally on the city planet (then known as Had Abaddon), but this was changed to the second Death Star when it was realized that it would be less confusing if everything (lightsaber duel, attack on the Death Star, destruction of shield generator) took place around one planet (Endor).

 

Bladerunner is irrelelevant , ROJ was scripted and shot before Bladerunner came out

 

It still seems very confusing to me. Convoluted.

 

According to all the early scripts, Luke's plan was to trick Jabba into taking everyone to the Sarlaac pit, because it wasn't possible to defeat him inside the palace.

 

Hence the M:I analogy. This isn't the sort of thing you can Indy your way through.

 

Great Analysis! THX!

 

To me it clearly seemed like Luke expected that Jabba would send them to the Sarlaac pit. If you look closely, when 3PO is telling them about the pit, Luke looks "knowingly" at Leia and nods-as if Jabba is doing just what he expected. And it also seems like Leia had planned to be the one to kill Jabba, cos it always looked to me like she was waiting on the opportunity, and didn't hesitate as soon as the power went out. She could've simply escaped in the midst of all that chaos-but she seemed determined to kill him. Also, clearly Lando Chewie and R2 were in on Luke's plan, for obvious reasons.

So-here's how I saw it:

-Luke has Lando pose as a smuggler or croney to infiltrate Jabba's circle and pass to Luke what he learns re: logistics of how Jabba works his palace, placing and schedule of guards, what kind of punishments he likes to use for certain things (i.e. Sarlacc pit), where Han is being kept in the palace, etc. This part could've taken weeks-even a few months.

-As the Jedi he is, Luke tries a peaceful non-violent approach first by offering a bargain.

-Luke sends Leia in with Chewie to rescue Han and get him out, but they end up getting caught. Leia agrees to try to kill Jabba if she gets the chance.

-When Luke realizes that plan failed, he arrives himself. When he gets there, Luke plans to try a few different things-mind trick, threats/warnings, killing him, etc. But he had a contingency plan incase it turned out to not be that easy. That plan was that they would be sent to the sarlacc pit if that fails (knowing this based on Lando's info)-which is why he stored his lightsaber inside R2, and relying solely on his Force-using ability in the palace instead of just bringing it in with him. This way, when he's in a difficult spot at the Sarlacc pit, he can access his lightsaber when he needs it.

-Obviously he let Leia and Lando and Chewie know all about this, as they seem fully in on his plan-not to mention Chewie basically tells Han everything Luke is going to do.



Sometimes I wonder if Luke actually foresaw some of this, rather than only relying on Lando's inside information. Ultimately I felt the original plan was for Leia and chewie to sneak Han out. And Luke showing up was the "plan B," since the others had failed and now it was "time to get serious."

 

All of this could have been handled better. Leia could have acted more inconvenienced by being Jabba's slave girl, and maybe even gave him some backtalk like she did with Tarkin. Luke could have told Han on the skiff that he knew he had to get Jabba out in the open because there was no way they'd have been able to get out of Jabba's palace alive even after they killed Jabba. Luke could have flashed a smile to Leia before he fell into the Rancor pit, showing that everything is going as planned. A lot could have been done to make this rescue sequence make more sense.

 

Problem with that is they'd give the game away too early and crash the whole plan. If Leia backtalks Jabba, then she could've gone into the Rancor pit instead of Luke. If Luke tells Han the whole plan on the skiff, a guard might overhear and radio in what's about to happen. If Luke gives a smile to Leia, Jabba may think something's up, not get too overconfident, and just shoot them.
Again, they were following IMF protocols. You play the con straight and give nothing away unless it suits your purposes. By the time Luke was defiant to Jabba after the Rancor's death, Jabba is well and truly ticked and not listening. It comes across as some nutty Jedi wannabe making empty threats, which is what Luke is counting on at that point.
Besides, as a moviegoer, it's a lot more satisfying to be kept in the dark, except for a few hints, when Luke catches that 'saber and our heroes take down the bad guys. We're not expecting it, and it's great to see them turn and fight back after 1 1/4 movies of being on the defensive.

 

@Kenneth Morgan Not everything needs a rebuttal. I'm just throwing out some ideas.

 

My apologies. I meant no disrespect. I've got to calm down, I guess.

 

The basic premise of the plan is as in the movie. Get agents into the palace (Lando, 3PO, R2 and Leia) then free Han from the carbonite knowing that escape that way isn't likely but at least it frees Han to move around. Luke then goes in to be the one to lure Jabba from the palace to the Pit of Carkoon. Jabba's habits are well known that first he wants to make a show in the palace but then he moves to the pit.

Jabba's preference of using the Sarlacc is so well know so they were counting on that method. Once outside at that point they have the insiders and the surprise advantage once R2 gets Luke his Lightsaber. That's why he didn't have it. Not wanting to use it inside the palace.

It's very much in the tradition of the cliffhanger serial tradition that so much of Star Wars comes from.

Of course if something similar happened later on then he would just "hallway" them rather than use the subterfuge!

 

That was always my take on it. It was established in Empire, that Luke could see into the future and he used this to plan the resuce.

 

I think this whole rescue was a convoluted mess. It could have been handled better - including any setbacks - with better writing.

 

Where is the particular convolution? As Kenneth Morgan went over in detail the way it plays out there are a multitude of plans at work. Any one of which in-universe could have plausibly worked before the final one was reached.

Of course this being an adventure movie none of them was going to work because they were all build-up to the cliff-hanging conclusion. The through-line is that Luke's primary plan is the important one to look at. All the secondary ones before it weren't going to work. Their actual importance is that it adds layers to and builds up the primary one.

That is he created the situation to get to the plan i.e. get insiders into the palace in multiple positions so that when they got out they could attack from multiple positions. Luke knew of and took advantage of Jabba's habits. The Rancor then the Sarlacc.

It's like the Death Star in ANH. Leia was able to position the Death Star where she wanted it to be in relation to her group of Rebels. Luke was able to position his group in relation to Jabba's criminals. Then each had a plan of attack that the other side had no idea was coming. Be it the Death Star or Jabba they both thought they were invincible.