“You’ve failed your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

Once the end credits for “The Empire Strikes Back” rolled after a surprising cliffhanger in 1980, people were more than overjoyed with the outstanding movie that they just saw, but extremely disappointed that they would have to wait three more years to have all their questions answered. There were so many loose ends to tie up. Did Darth Vader actually lie to Luke when he told him that he was his father? Will Luke abandon his Jedi training? Will Han Solo sacrifice himself and save his friends after being frozen in carbonite? Will Luke join Vader and the emperor and be swayed by the Dark Side of the Force? Will the Rebel Alliance win and defeat the Galactic Empire? “Return of the Jedi,” the final installment in the original Star Wars trilogy, answered all those questions and it satisfied people’s hopes and prayers, for the most part.

“Return of the Jedi” was the third Star Wars film released and is the sixth chronological episode in the saga. The film was released on May 25, 1983, exactly six years after the release of “A New Hope,” and is set approximately two years after the events of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Jedi apprentice Luke Skywalker has devised a plan to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, a lawless crime lord and obese slug-like creature living in his sail barge on the desert planet Tatooine, Luke’s home planet. Under the command of Darth Vader, Luke’s supposed father, Han was frozen in carbonite and was taken to Jabba by bounty hunter Boba Fett. An astromech droid named R2-D2 and a protocol droid named C-3PO arrive at Jabba’s palace, and are hired by him as servants. Jabba’s palace is riddled with partying, dance music, and showgirls dressed in little clothing. After one of his performers is eaten by a flesh-eating Rancor, a bounty hunter arrives, accompanied by a prisoner, the Wookiee Chewbacca, Han’s first mate aboard the Millennium Falcon.

The bounty hunter walks around the palace at night while everyone is asleep. It finds Han, encased in a block of freezing carbonite, and frees him. The bounty hunter is revealed to be Leia Organa, Han’s lover and a princess of the Rebel Alliance. While Han is elated to know that she came to rescue him, he is temporarily blinded by the effects of the carbonite. Jabba and his minions find out about Han and Leia, and the latter is captured and enslaved as one of Jabba’s “objects.” Han promises that he will pay back a daunting debt that he owns Jabba, but Jabba ignores his excuses. Luke eventually arrives at Jabba’s palace, sneaking his way in by choking Jabba’s guards with the Force. Luke tries to bargain with Jabba and free his friends, even going so far as to use a hypnotizing Jedi mind trick on him, but this proves to be unsuccessful and he is thrown into the Rancor pit along with a guard. The Rancor eats the guard, and Luke tries to avoid his fate by jamming a large bone beneath his jaws before throwing a rock at the pit’s gate, killing the Rancor by making the gate fall on his neck. An incensed Jabba then orders Luke and Han to be eaten by the Sarlacc, a carnivorous creature with multiple tentacles and rows of sharp teeth that is buried in the sand, except for its gaping maw. With the help of Lando Calrissian, Han’s friend who was disguised as one of Jabba’s guards, Luke and Han manage to evade execution and fight against Jabba’s forces, including Boba Fett, who becomes the Sarlacc’s lunch. Leia kills Jabba by strangling her slave chain around his neck, and Jabba’s sail barge is blown up in the deserts of Tatooine. Han regains his sight and pilots the Millenium Falcon once again, taking Leia, Chewbacca, Lando, and C-3PO to a Rebel Alliance starship.

Luke and R2-D2 travel back to the swamp planet Dagobah to hopefully finish his Jedi training with Jedi Master Yoda. Luke asks Yoda if Darth Vader is his father, to which Yoda confirms to be true. On his deathbed, Yoda tells Luke that he has been taught all he needs to know. Luke apologizes for disobeying him in “The Empire Strikes Back” and choosing to not finish his training. Yoda accepts his apology, and reveals that when he dies, Luke will be the last of the Jedi. He also warns Luke to not underestimate the powers of the emperor, and after informing Luke that there is another Skywalker, Yoda passes away and becomes one with the Force, vanishing into thin air.

Outside Yoda’s hut, Luke sees the ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi, his other Jedi Master aside from Yoda. Luke is angry at Obi Wan because he had lied to him that Vader had betrayed and murdered his father. Obi Wan then calmly tells Luke that his father was once a respectable Jedi Knight and brave pilot named Anakin Skywalker, who was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, destroying the good man that he was. Obi Wan assures Luke that what he had told him was true, from his certain point of view. Obi Wan laments that Anakin is more machine now than man, twisted and evil. Despite Yoda’s orders to fight Vader, Luke expresses that he is unable to do it, to which Obi Wan insists that it must be done. Luke asks Obi Wan if he knows of the other Skywalker that Yoda alluded to. Obi Wan reveals that this other Skywalker is actually Leia, who is Luke’s twin sister. Both of Anakin’s offspring were deemed threats to him, so they were hidden away from each other at birth. Before leaving Luke, Obi Wan advises Luke to bury his feelings deep down, as while they do do him credit, they could be made to serve the emperor.

Luke then goes to the Rebel Alliance’s flagship, where the Rebels learn that the Empire has constructed a second and more powerful Death Star under the direction of the emperor. Plans are presented that describe the superweapon being protected by an energy shield, which is powered by a generator on the forest moon of Endor. If the generator is destroyed, a squadron of Rebel fighters would be able to infiltrate the Death Star and blow it up, as seen in “A New Hope.” Han leads a mission to destroy the shield generator, which consists of Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO amongst several Rebel warriors. Han’s strike team travels to Endor in a recently stolen Imperial shuttle. Luke feels that he has endangered the mission and that he should not have come along.

On Endor, Han, Luke, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO investigate its forests. Thinking with his stomach, Chewbacca approaches an animal carcass, which ensnares them all in a net hanging in the trees. Fortunately, handy-dandy R2-D2 frees them with his equipped saw, which cuts the net. Meanwhile, Leia encounters an Ewok named Wicket. Ewoks are a race of small bipedal forest creatures that resemble teddy bears. The others eventually come across the Ewoks, and Han’s team becomes allies with them. Later that night, Luke nervously tells Leia that Vader is his father and that she is his twin sister. Leia says to Luke that somehow, she has always known this. Luke additionally reveals to her that he can feel Vader’s presence, who has landed on Endor in his shuttle. Despite Leia’s urges to flee, Luke insists to her that he must confront him.

Luke then goes to see Vader in his shuttle. Vader concludes that his son has accepted the truth, but Luke declares that the only truth that he has accepted is that he was once Anakin Skywalker, his father. Luke tells Vader that Anakin is his true forgotten self, and since good still remains in him, he is unable to destroy him. Vader examines Luke’s new custom made green lightsaber, and deduces that he has grown to be very powerful with the Force, just as the emperor had foreseen. After unsuccessfully attempting to sway his father away from the Dark Side, Luke is sent to the emperor, who is meticulously observing everything unfold from the Death Star.

In the royal throne room, Vader gives Luke’s lightsaber to the cloaked and disfigured emperor. The emperor tells Luke that in time, he will call him Master, and that he will be turned to the Dark Side just like how his father was. Luke denies that this will happen. Then, the emperor slyly reveals to Luke that he has concocted a trap for Han’s strike team and the rest of the Rebels on Endor by deactivating the shield generator, and that he will soon restart it, which will in turn kill all of the Rebels. Sensing his fear for his friends, the emperor urges Luke to kill Vader and become his new apprentice. Enraged, Luke grabs his lightsaber from the emperor’s custody and fights his father while the emperor diabolically laughs.

On Endor, Han’s strike team and the Rebel warriors have formed an alliance with the small yet brave Ewoks, struggling to take down the Empire’s forces. The Ewoks are very skilled with their hands, and they have constructed wood contraptions to defeat the Empire’s steel mechanical weaponry. However, they are unaware of the emperor’s deceitful trick.

In the throne room, the two Skywalkers continue to battle against each other while the emperor grimly oversees them like a hawk watching two rabbits. After destroying one of the rafters, Vader is told by Luke that he is not powerful enough to kill him, and that he needs to let go of his inner conflict consuming him. Vader refuses. They fight some more until Luke hides from Vader. Vader senses that Luke’s thoughts are betraying him, and that his thoughts for his friends are strong. He then finds out that Luke has a twin sister, Leia. When Vader suggests that Leia could turn to the Dark Side instead, Luke infuriatingly propels his lightsaber at his father and cuts his right hand off, mirroring what he did to him in their previous battle in Cloud City in “The Empire Strikes Back.” The emperor praises Luke’s efforts, and compels him to fulfill his destiny and take his father’s place at his side. After seeing the sight of his mechanical arm, Luke throws his lightsaber away from him and declares that he will not turn to the Dark Side, as he is a Jedi, like his father before him. An angered emperor then starts to shock Luke with lightning, and Vader regains consciousness. Luke screams and cries in pain from the emperor’s bolts, which deeply disturbs Vader. In a sudden turn of events, Vader accumulates every ounce of strength left within him, picks the emperor up, and tosses him into the Death Star’s reactor shaft, burning him alive.

Despite the fact that the emperor had reactivated the shield generator on Endor, the Rebels are able to fight against the Empire’s TIE fighters in the sky with the help of X-wing captain Wedge Antilles and Lando, who is flying the Millenium Falcon with his companion Nien Nunb. Antilles’ X-wing and the Falcon fly into the Death Star’s reactor chamber and disable the main reactor, triggering the slow but triumphant destruction of the Empire’s superweapon.

While the Death Star is being destroyed, Luke drags Vader closer to an Imperial shuttle, hoping to take him to Endor alive. However, Vader insists to Luke that nothing can stop his death. Before he dies, Vader wishes to look upon his son with his own eyes. Luke takes his father’s helmet off to reveal the deformed and grotesque face of Anakin Skywalker, who begins to sob at the sight of his son. Luke tells Anakin that he has got to save him, but Anakin tells his son that he already has. Anakin then tells Luke that he was right about the good in him, and advises him to tell Leia about him. Anakin then passes away, and Luke tearfully takes his corpse onto the shuttle, heading to Endor while the Death Star explodes. Back on Endor, the Rebels and the Ewoks marvel over the newly-formed supernova in the sky, and Han finds out that Luke is Leia’s sister. While confused, Han kisses Leia.

Later that night on Endor, an emotional Luke holds a private funeral for his father where he is burned on a pyre in the forest. The fall of the Empire is celebrated by the Ewoks and by the Rebel Alliance, and Luke is grateful to be with his friends and his sister in a new age of peace and prosperity. During the Ewok’s festivities, Luke sees the ghosts of Anakin, Yoda, and Obi Wan, who all smile at each other in joy and pride.

Supposedly, “Return of the Jedi” was going to be the last Star Wars film that would ever grace the silver screen. And as the final chapter to one of the original trilogy, it concludes the story of Luke and the Skywalker family on a reasonably satisfying note. While still ranking above all three prequels, “Return of the Jedi” is the weakest of the original trilogy mostly due to its overly juvenile tone. “The Empire Strikes Back” left Luke and company in a dire and grim situation, and it would be assumed that its successor would retain that darker storytelling. However, since George Lucas was more involved in the production of this film than in that of “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi” definitely feels like it is aimed more for children. After seeing one of the trilogy’s heroes nearly die and learn a devastating and malevolent truth about himself and his background, it is somewhat of an underwhelming letdown to see that teddy bear creatures were able to take down the Empire. Rumor has it that similar to Jar Jar Binks, Lucas created the lovable furry Ewoks as a merchandising ploy, but nothing is set in stone.  That fact notwithstanding, the film still does contain several mature themes and ideas that pertain more to adults.

After the overblown and dragged out first act with Jabba the Hutt, Luke’s story becomes actually very gripping and intense. Within both Luke and his father, it is easy to sense an internal psychological battle festering inside of them. This concept alone is one of the best aspects in all of Star Wars. The conflicts of the protagonist and the secondary antagonist in the film revolve around what they are feeling rather than what they are experiencing. One of the themes of Star Wars is that everyone has the choice to be good or bad, the idea of moral duality. This is exemplified through Luke’s clothing. Throughout most of the film, Luke is clad in black, subliminally foreshadowing his possible turn to the Dark Side. As the film progresses and he clashes with his father in front of the emperor, it seems likely that Luke could very well turn. It makes sense as well, if he fails to sway his father away, it would be logical to join him and rule the galaxy together. However, once Vader saves him, it is revealed that Luke has been wearing white underneath his black outfit all along, symbolizing his virtuous and kind-hearted nature at his core. During the film’s climax, Luke’s father also had a choice to make, too. He had the choice to either abandon Vader and become Anakin again and save his son, or continue to embrace the Dark Side as Vader for the rest of his life. Ultimately, Anakin was revived and he returned out of hiding, hence the film’s title.

Despite being a minor disappointment when compared to “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi” is undeserving of its reputation as being perceived as the more light-hearted and kid-friendly Star Wars movie. Yes, the Ewoks can be overly cutesy and annoying at times, and some effects do not age as well as those of its predecessors (particularly the puppets and costumes in Jabba’s palace and the green screen over the Sarlacc pit), but there are several dark and gritty elements to it that rank alongside the aspects of “The Empire Strikes Back.” The idea of making choices for good or for evil and its effects that it will have is most apparent in this film. When Luke states his intentions and what he stands for in front of the emperor, one cannot help to root and cheer for what is good in the world. Star Wars may take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, but aside from its unavoidable cultural impact, it will continue to resonate with generations for years to come because of its timeless lessons that can be passed down to its younger viewers, molding them into morally righteous people. “Return of the Jedi” was assumed by many to be the last of Star Wars, but little knew of what was to come in the coming decades.