Why did the Storm Troopers run away from Han Solo on the Death Star instead of shooting him?

That was out of character and just beyond pathetic, it goes against everything that is said about the Storm Troopers being the fearless and elite soldiers of the Galactic Empire that are afraid of nothing and that ignore losses to their own ranks in combat, the Storm Troopers see Han Solo and Chewbacca and Han just blasts one of them after the lead trooper says "Its them!Blast them!." and instead returning fire they run away down the hallway and only fight when cornered and boxed in at the end of the hallway.

They dont hold their ground and start shooting at Han and Chewie but instead run away, thought that was foolish because they could have easily ignored the death of their own man and fought back and then gone after Luke and Leia after killing Han and Chewie, they could have even ran forwards and hit Han in the head with the butt of their Blaster Rifle and knocked him out.

The retreat never made any sense to me, as someone that goes to a gun range twice a week i would have just opened fire on Han as he started to advance and dropped him while he was too busy running forward to do anything, that would have put him out of commission and enabled the Storm Troopers to kill Chewie as well, who would be too overcome with shock and grief to shoot at them and who also would have been killed.

 

Hm, well stormtroopers aren't known for having the best shots in the movie, and when a Correilian smuggler and his large wookie friend start running at you shooting and screaming, I think instict is to run away. I mean, it worked right? They ran, Han followed, realized their was too many and ran back.

But out of universe explanation, it was done for humour. I don't know about you guys but I laughed. Han running at them all cofident and screaming like a bachee, and then running away like 2 seconds later.

 

I always kind of thought that it was because the stormtroopers thought they were being attacked by more people than just Han and so retreated out of the hallway and regrouped. I don't think the stormtroopers thought someone would be so stupid to charge them single handedly, and so figured they were probably outnumbered.

 

Yes, the 'Troopers were simply surprised; they saw a man on their side drop, saw a giant Wookiee and several other people with guns, heard laserfire and shouting, lost their morale, and ran for it. Pathetic it might be, but not of character and certainly not beyond the realm of believable human reactions.

 

Actually, I think that it was a ploy to trap the pair, but it also can pass as humor. That's a good laugh!

 

It was obviously a tactical retreat to lure the 'Rebels' into the trap of hundreds more stormtroopers in the hangar

 

They hadn't yet finished building their large wooden badger...

 

Well in troubled time we find ourselfs troubled.

Especially when large wookies come into it.

 

I think in the novelization it indicates that the troopers had no idea how many there were and Solo was also cursing at the top of his lungs in several laguages as he chased them.

 

Now that you mention that, I'm pretty sure that is what it said in the novel. Han was cursing in different languages to give the appearance of a miniature army, or atleast a capable strikeforce.

 

They can't see anything in those helmets.. That's why they keep missing... and why they ran.. They can hear yelling and make out some blurry shapes...then yelling...and blasting...

 

It's funny that Luke says you can't see anything out of the stormtrooper helmets, but they navigated themselves threw a station they've never even been on while wearing the helmets with no problem.

 

It was for humor and no one thought this movie would seriously make it so why seriously detail it that much? Look at Luke's plan for rescuing Han in ROTJ.

 

well #1 it was just for comic relief and it is to this day one of the funnest parts of the movie,its harmless and #2 if you really want to get into it that much i guess it was a tactical retreat to go get backup like someone sed and i think that is the main reason why GL put in the new background shot of the army of stormtroopers to make the group look smarter and if that hanger wasnt right around the corner than i dont think they would ever run becouse it has always sed that the reason why the imperial stormtroopers are so scary and effective is becouse they are TOTALLY loyal to the empire fighting the most dangerous of battles with out hesitating at all.so that would be a very good explanation.

 

Stormtroopers in general are seen as jokes in the original trilogy anyway. Just mindless dumb drones that are pawns of the Empire. I think the troopers do care for their fallen comrades, we see a stormtrooper trying to see if another trooper is dead or not on the blockade runner at the start of ANH. The trooper immediately snaps to attention once Vader arrives however, but I think that trooper was concerned about what had just happened to his buddy.

 

Yeah, stormtroopers only get to be capable, dangerous people when the script needs em to be.

And in the EU.

 

i woulda prefered han having blaster scarring and perhaps a hole in his leg, yay for realism.

 

..So the rest of the movie would've had Chewie carrying Han everywhere?

Holes in your leg tend to make you unable to walk.