More Star Wars moments that demanded greater inspection.
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00:00From visually stunning action beats to strange easter eggs, blink-and-you'll-miss-it oddities,
00:06and slivers of incredible comedy, these Star Wars moments all begged fans to hit pause
00:11and just soak them in for a minute or two.
00:14So after already bringing you one list full of must-pause Star Wars scenes, I'm Gareth,
00:20this is What Culture Star Wars, and here are 10 more of the most paused Star Wars moments.
00:2510. The Holdo Maneuver – Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
00:30Whether you love or hate The Last Jedi, it does lay claim to one of the single coolest
00:34images in Star Wars history, when Vice Admiral Holdo pulls off the near-mythic Holdo Maneuver.
00:41In a desperate attempt to fend off the First Order fleet and buy the Resistance precious
00:45time to escape to Crait, Holdo sacrifices herself by suicidally ramming her ship, the
00:50Raddus, into Snoke's flagship, the Supremacy, at near-light speed.
00:55The result is pure destruction. The Raddus slices through the Supremacy and obliterates
01:00the surrounding fleet, all of this depicted in eye-wateringly beautiful slow motion and
01:05near-complete silence. Every shot in this sequence, as an explosive White Streak tears
01:11through the First Order armada, is 100% wallpaper-worthy, but they each pass quickly enough that you'll
01:17definitely want to smash the pause button a few times and soak in each individual frame.
01:22This might well be the single most paused moment in the entire sequel trilogy, honestly,
01:27and it's not hard to see why.
01:299. Vader's Scalp – Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
01:33Here's a moment that left a ton of Star Wars fans wearing out their VHS copy of The
01:38Empire Strikes Back back in the day. The ultra-brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of Darth
01:44Vader's exposed, burned scalp. Shortly after Luke crash-lands on Dagobah, a brief scene
01:50plays out where Admiral Piet visits Vader in his meditation chamber to update him on
01:55their efforts to catch the Millennium Falcon. At the start of the scene, though, we can
01:59see Vader's helmet being lowered down over his head, leaving his discoloured, deeply
02:04scarred scalp visible on-screen for about two seconds. It passes quickly enough that
02:09it practically begs fans to go back and pause to take another look, and this was surely
02:13especially true when Empire first hit VHS back in 1984. It's a tiny moment that nevertheless
02:20provided an extremely tantalising tease of the full sans-helmet Anakin reveal we'd
02:25eventually get to see in Return of the Jedi.
02:288. CGI Leia – Rogue One – A Star Wars Story Boldly and somewhat controversially,
02:34Rogue One included not one, but two digital recreations of Star Wars alums – Peter Cushing's
02:40Grand Moff Tarkin and Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia. Though it was publicised pre-release
02:45that a digital double of the late Cushing would be featured in Rogue One, the late film
02:49appearance of a young Leia, achieved by superimposing a CGI likeness of a young Fisher over stand-in
02:55Ingvild Dailer, was kept a secret for maximum impact. Critical and fan opinion was ultimately
03:01divided on the necessity of using not-quite-convincing digital trickery to recreate these characters.
03:07But at least in Leia's case, her screentime amounts to a single 7-second shot. And so,
03:12the close-up of Leia's face practically invited fans to hit pause and scrutinise every
03:17last detail, looking for imperfections which gave the game away. The irony, of course,
03:22is that it looks close to perfect in a freeze-frame, and the uncanny valley effect really only
03:27becomes apparent in a moving image, where the subtle movements of Leia's face just
03:31seem ever so slightly off. Still, it's certainly an impressive effort.
03:36But I wanna know, what do you think is the most impressive CGI moment in all of Star
03:40Wars? You let me know in the comments section down below!
03:437. Jango Fett's Flying Head – Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones
03:49For all of its violence, Star Wars is technically a family-friendly franchise. All the Fs. And
03:54so, the movies often have to sneak in their gnarliest moments in fleeting fashion. Case
03:59in point, in Attack of the Clones, we witness Jango Fett get decapitated by Mace Windu.
04:04With a swift swish of his lightsaber during the Battle of Geonosis, we very clearly see
04:09Jango's head parted from his body, though George Lucas still manages to keep the MPAA
04:14happy by showing not a drop of blood, courtesy of those wound-cauterising lightsabers. We
04:19do however briefly see Jango's helmet flying through the air, and if you pause this shot
04:24you'll see a somehow even grimmer implication. During this shot, there are actually two shadows
04:30on the ground. One of his helmet, the other of his decapitated head, which has seemingly
04:35slid out of the helmet and soared through the air on its own power. On one hand, it's
04:39good to know that young Boba doesn't end up cradling his own father's head when he
04:43picks up the helmet, but on the other, the idea of Jango's head flying off into the
04:47battlefield isn't a whole lot better.
04:496. Darth Luke – Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
04:54Of the many, many unforgettable moments in The Empire Strikes Back, one of the few that
04:59immediately burned itself into fans' brains was Luke's iconic trip to Dagobah's dark
05:04side cave, which in Yoda's words is a domain of evil. As part of Luke's training, he
05:09must battle the dark manifestation of the force that resides within the cave, embodied
05:14as Darth Vader himself. The brief fight of course concludes with Luke decapitating Vader
05:19with his lightsaber, at which point Vader's helmet falls to the floor and the faceplate
05:24explodes open, revealing Luke's own severed head underneath. It's a totally haunting
05:29image which represents Luke's fear of himself succumbing to the dark side, and can also
05:34be said to visually foreshadow Empire's final familial twist. It's one of the most
05:39horrific shots in the entire Star Wars saga, but also one that'll have you examining
05:43the frame to try and figure out exactly how they pulled it off.
05:47The answer is actually rather simple though. Mark Hamill hated the prop head they were
05:51originally going to use for the scene, and so simply poked his real head up from underneath
05:55the set. That was it. Thanks for pausing your day to watch this great little Star Wars video
06:00today. Now go and tap on that subscribe button for more What Culture Star Wars fun in your
06:05life.
06:065. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's Charred Corpses – Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope
06:12Because severed heads apparently aren't bad enough, here's a Star Wars moment so
06:16unremittingly bleak there's a good chance you've spent decades denying that you've
06:20ever actually seen it. In A New Hope, Luke returns home and discovers that his Uncle
06:24Owen and Aunt Beru have been killed by Stormtroopers. And for a few brief moments we can also see
06:30Owen and Beru's charred corpses, melted all the way down to the skeleton after their
06:34home was set on fire. As fans, we're left to ponder precisely how Owen and Beru ended
06:39their lives. But this haunting final glimpse of the pair certainly makes it clear it was
06:44not a good death. While it's an utterly traumatic image to include in a film watched
06:48by millions of children, it's one just about every card-carrying Star Wars fan has
06:53paused at some point now. It can't just be me, right? The morbid curiosity is overpowering,
06:58but even a prolonged stare at the burned bodies doesn't clarify whether they were shot and
07:02killed before being set afire, or were actually just burned alive. Fans are still fiercely
07:07debating it to this day, and we can only hope for the former, eh?
07:124. Mace Windu Feels Unlimited Power – Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith
07:17We've previously discussed the must-pause shot from Return of the Jedi, where Anakin's
07:22strangely deformed skull is visible when he's electrocuted by the Emperor. But Revenge of
07:27the Sith offers up something of a sequel, or rather prequel, to it. Mace Windu's battle
07:32with Palpatine comes to a brutal close when Anakin slices off Windu's hand, giving Palpatine
07:37time to unleash unlimited power, hitting Windu with a sustained blast of Force lightning,
07:43which sends him flying out the nearest window to his death. Much like Vader's electrocution
07:50in Return of the Jedi, though, a freeze-frame of this scene lets us take a close look at
07:55Mace Windu's traumatised skeleton. In addition to being strangely elongated, much like Vader's
08:00skull, it's also clear in many frames that George Lucas' VFX team simply superimposed
08:05a rather crude, basic 3D skull model over the top of Jackson's face. Even accepting
08:11that Revenge of the Sith is nearly 20 years old, it's a pretty goofy-looking effect,
08:16albeit one that's tough to fully notice in regular motion, so those pause buttons
08:20simply had to be smashed.
08:27There are many moments in The Rise of Skywalker that might leave you agape in sheer disappointed
08:32disbelief, though one you'll likely want to examine with a fine tooth comb occurs in
08:37the opening minutes of the film. When Kylo Ren visits zombie Palpatine's lair on Exegol,
08:42for a few seconds we can see a large tank that appears to contain a number of clones
08:46of Supreme Leader Snoke. This ties into Palpatine's revelation to Kylo that Snoke was effectively
08:52a puppet, created by him to lure Kylo to the dark side. And the visual of the tank where
08:57the Snoke clones are housed is just murky enough that you'll probably feel compelled
09:02to pause and take a closer look. While it's tough to glean much concrete from this quick
09:06shot, and it arguably only raises many more questions than it answers, it is a J.J. Abrams
09:11movie after all, it at least appears that the clones are alive in some way.
09:162. Yoda wants Luke to CONCENTRATE! Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
09:22And now for something a little less serious. We have the hilarious moment in Empire when
09:27Yoda sits on top of Luke while he performs a handstand, and attempts to move some rocks
09:31with the force. Luke eventually loses his focus, causing the rocks to fall over and
09:36Luke to lose his balance, taking Yoda to the ground with him. As Yoda falls though, he
09:41shouts CONCENTRATE as his face bears a terrified bug-eyed expression. We get to see Yoda at
09:47his most visibly hilariously demented, eyes about ready to pop out of their sockets, as
09:52he realises he's on a collision course with the ground. While the original trilogy has
09:57its fair share of unintentionally goofy puppetry shots of Yoda, this one was obviously absolutely
10:03intended, and ridiculous enough that you'll definitely want to take a more prolonged peek.
10:07That's if you haven't replayed it a thousand times already. I know I have.
10:121. The Death Star Explosion – Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope
10:16And finally, who among us doesn't love marvelling at a huge, awesome explosion? It's basically
10:22hard-wired into us to stare slack-jawed at them, and Star Wars has regularly catered
10:27to that part of our lizard brains. While the explosion of the second Death Star in Return
10:32of the Jedi is arguably much cooler, it isn't quite as statuesque as the original superweapon's
10:38destruction in A New Hope. Seeing the Death Star suddenly explode in a gigantic fireball,
10:44complete with that unforgettable shockwave ring, is an incredible payoff to everything
10:48leading up to it, and something surely any Star Wars fan worth their salt has rewatched
10:53time and time and time again over the years. Fun fact for the uninitiated, the shockwave
10:58ring was actually only added in the 1997 special edition, and honestly remains one of the most
11:04inspired changes George Lucas has ever made to any Star Wars movie post-release. So cheers
11:09for that, Georgie-boy!