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Celebs Share Empire Strikes Back Memories

To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of AT-ATs, tauntauns, wampas, and Yoda hitting the big screen, here are some of our favorite quotes from celebrities and bands interviewed in Star Wars Rocks who shared their favorite memories of The Empire Strikes Back.

Kyle Newman — Fanboys director: The Empire Strikes Back is the greatest sequel of all time! And one of cinema’s finest achievements to date. It is the Sgt. Peppers of celluloid. It had it all! It was fresh, vibrant, dark, thrilling, risk-taking, mythic, swashbuckling, romantic, innovative, and profound. I’m still talking about Act one! It was so good it even elevated A New Hope‘s legendary status. Thank you to George and everyone involved for inspiring a generation!

Sean Lennon — musician:
The scene where Yoda describes the Force to Luke is the closest thing I can remember to a religious experience in my childhood.

Milo Ventimiglia — Heroes actor:
The Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater. I remember waiting in line with my family when I was a little kid. We had pizzas and waited there for what felt like days. We went inside the theater — the Cinedome in Orange County which was like a stadium-seating kind of theater. I remember sitting down and staring at the big red curtain thinking that people were going to come out onto the stage and perform. I had no idea what to expect. Then the curtain parted and I saw the Twentieth Century Fox logo and heard the trumpets, and I got chills. Darth Vader scared the hell out of me!

Nathan Connolly — Snow Patrol:
Because I’m kind of a Star Wars purist I’d say Empire made the biggest impact on me as a fan. It’s so dark, and it’s hands down the best out of all six films. Darth Vader isn’t inA New Hope all that much, but in Empire he was such a sinister character. And at the time there were no real twists at the end of most films like Empire. Overall, it was an impeccably shot, directed and written film.

Hal Sparks — actor/comedian:
I love the scene where Yoda eats his food stick and for a moment you are wondering what exactly he’s eating. Because of that I thought in the future all we’d eat would be candy bars. And so I’m a firm believer that while Star Trek is probably responsible for cell phones, Star Wars is most certainly responsible for Power Bars.

Chris Jericho — pro wrestler:
The Empire Strikes Back is my all-time favorite because it’s so well-written and exciting. Of course, having Han end up in carbonite at the end was so unthinkable that it kind of scarred me for life — but in a good way. I learned that things don’t always end up the way you expect them to, but if you stick with it will end up okay.

Nick Harmer — Death Cab For Cutie:
I’ve seen them all and I find things to like about all of them, but even to this day I still think Empire is the best one. When I first saw it as a kid, it seemed so desperate. There’s a certain darkness in that one that’s not really in the other films so much even though the dark side is always looming. There were so many struggles that as a kid it made the film seem so real. I always knew the Star Wars stories were made up and didn’t really exist, but there’s an element to Empire that made me think that was really happening somewhere in the universe at that point. It had a weight to it that was great.

James Lavelle — UNKLE:
The film I love the most, and stands the test of time, is The Empire Strikes Back. It’s in many ways a piece of genius art in the fact that it defies any logic in a children’s movie because the hero doesn’t win at the end. It goes against the traditional Hollywood values in its movies. It’s still one of my top 10 films of all time.

Jane Wiedlin — The Go-Gos:
Empire, to me, is by far the finest of the six films. It is so exciting, so dramatic, and so full of pathos. Harrison Ford, as Han Solo, totally stole my heart and no one has ever outdone him in the scoundrel-as-hero role.

Nick Rhodes — Duran Duran:
I do have a particular fondness for Yoda. I especially liked his Tai Chi moves. And his ears and wise face, and basically everything he says I found somewhat appealing.

Bill Hader — Saturday Night Live cast member, actor: The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was The Empire Strikes Back with my dad. And when the movie got to the part with the tauntaun dying and he’s cut open and I saw all that rice-like innards, I freaked out. I was probably about 3 years old and that scene scared the crap out of me.

Chris Jericho — pro wrestler:
I cried when Han Solo was frozen in the carbonite. But the worst thing about it was the junior high bully was in the theater at the same time I was and saw me crying. So he made sure to tell everybody in the school and for the next three years the girls and guys made fun of me which totally ruined my street cred for awhile. However, later I used the frozen Han Solo scene as inspiration to freeze my own soul and become a tougher person and conquer all bullies in pro wrestling.

Margaret Cho — actor/comedian: Sometimes I get so emotional I can’t even watch, like when Han Solo gets frozen and Chewbacca lets out that painful scream. I can’t even think about it without crying. I am kind of crying right now when I am remembering it. It is painful for me but it is still my favorite.

Seth Green — Robot Chicken co-creator, actor: The first toys that I got were R2-D2 and C-3PO, but I was super excited when I got my Boba Fett in the mail; then being really confused and furious when I got that letter that his rocket pack didn’t fire because some kid shot himself in the face, though it wasn’t exactly worded that way. I was so mad. At first, I thought it I was the only one who got that letter, so I called all my friends to complain about it. I think the original Boba Fett that I got as a kid is still my favorite. I mean there were like six different versions of him that came out on different cards, but the very first one from the mail away was special. I still have one of those and I love it.

Les Claypool — Primus: The battle scene on Hoth with the Imperial walkers descending on the Rebels in the icy wasteland was incredible. Living in the East Bay, you’d see the big cargo container loaders around Alameda, Calif. which [some believe] was the inspiration for the design of the AT-ATs. So every time you drive by those, you get an Imperial walkers flashback.

Matt Greene: Los Angeles Kings hockey team: The Empire Strikes Back is awesome. I loved the Imperial Walkers! They are my favorite vehicles in the movies. I like that Empire is the middle of the story, and you get to see your favorite characters come back.

Mark Osborne — Kung Fu Panda director: My most-prized possession is still my original AT-AT because it was the most iconic and significant toy for me. The first time I saw it was in the Boston Globe Weekend Magazine with the cover story being all about The Empire Strikes Back. I obsessed over that image for weeks before I saw the film.

Milo Ventimiglia — Heroes actor: In Empire Strikes Back, everything was about Luke seeking to find about himself and so he had to go on this path of discovery where he met Yoda and really found out about the teachings of the Jedi. There was just something about it that was so fascinating to me as a kid. Given my background of the path I was put on at a young age and the family I was raised in, I really connected to it. Plus as a kid you want to be dazzled, so a big epic space battle is totally entertaining and fun to watch. The great part about movies is that you can relive that experience over and over.

Mark Hamilton — Ash: I think the most powerful Star Wars scene of all is when in Empire Leia and Han stare at each other desperately as Han is lowered into the carbonite chamber. Nothing can be more desperate and emotion-stirring than when the person you love most in the world is in peril. Everyone can relate to that.

Corey Taylor — Slipknot: Empire was by far my favorite. When A New Hope came out I was still kinda young, but when Empire came out, I was old enough to really be into it. My friends and I went like every weekend until they were refusing us at the door. The movies were an instant way to find friends. There were two categories of people then: those who loved Star Wars and those who LLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEDD Star Wars. I was firmly planted in the latter.

Simon Pegg — Spaced, Shaun of the Dead: Spaced was about a group of people in their 20s at the close of the last millennium. My character Tim, was a comic book geek, so inevitably, like myself, was a Star Wars fan. In Episode Six of the second series, the relationship between the six main characters becomes very strained and the group almost breaks apart. At the end of the episode, the audience was left unsure as to whether everything was going to come good.The Empire Strikes Back has one of the greatest low-key cliffhanger endings in cinema history and it only seemed right to reference it in order to communicate how desperate things had got for the Spaced gang.

Bill Kelliher — Mastodon: My favorite scene has to be the Hoth scene with the AT-AT walkers and snowspeeders. Just the sheer size of those things coming over the horizon destroying everything in sight was amazing! They had no chance against those things. It looked as though the Rebels were done for.

Bill Hader — Saturday Night Live cast member, actor: In college, I went with a bunch of my friends to see a midnight screening of The Empire Strikes Back. Fans were dressed up in costumes and everyone was excited to see the film. I brought this girl I had started dating with us since she said she’d never seen a Star Wars film before. I filled her in on the storyline from A New Hope and said she should just enjoy watching it and not get too caught up in the plot. So as the movie starts in Hoth, and as the characters show up onscreen, she turns to me and gasps loudly, “Hey! I didn’t know Harrison Ford was in this!” And it got super quiet and some guy in the back of the theater then said, “Who the hell just said that?” And then everybody in the theater groaned and starting booing my date. Obviously, we’re not dating anymore.

Mark Osborne — Kung Fu Panda director: I remember when I was seven years old trying to use the Force. I would lie in bed and try to move stuff; especially after Empire Strikes Back. They really explain how to do it. I should be able to do it because I heard everything Luke was told!

Hal Sparks — actor/comedian: That bald guy with the digital stuff on his head — Lobot, I think his name was — who sets up their escape off of Cloud City is totally overlooked as an important character. Without him there would be no set up for the next film. Sure Lando was helpful, but he was only covering for his own mistakes. He redeemed himself which brought him back to zero. Lando didn’t earn any extra points in my mind.

Greg Puciato — The Dillinger Escape Plan: The Empire Strikes Back is the one that I, like most people, seem to like the most. The movies resonate for the same reasons that they affect so many other people. They touch on timeless themes, the classic tragic hero structure, good vs. evil, resolution of paternal conflict, themes of religion and spirituality. They are also arresting visually, and for me the music of a movie is very important, and you don’t get much better than the classic themes John Williams composed for the original trilogy.

Mark Osborne — Kung Fu Panda director: I think part of the reason being that Yoda was such a compelling character for me. I was ten years old at the time and connecting more to the significant parts of the story like the spiritual and mystical aspects. I remember seriously pondering things like “Why did Luke’s face show up in the helmet when Darth Vader’s head gets chopped off?”

Nick Harmer — Death Cab For Cutie: I have a friend who has an old refrigerator and the freezer section over-frosts all the time where it almost chokes out anything you try to put in it and he never defrosts it. So instead, he has an old Luke action figure from Empire that he stuck hanging upside down inside the freezer. So when you open the door you see Luke with his arms dangling. I laugh so hard every single time I see it. It’s almost the perfect excuse not to defrost your freezer.

Sam Endicott — The Bravery: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have Star Wars figures lying around. I had everything. My favorite was the AT-AT because it was like having another pet around the house. We would pretend to leave food out for it, and my cat would get really jealous.