The Empire Strikes Back

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the Lucasfilm sci-fi epic you can watch online on iFILM — directed by Irvin Kershner, darker and more urgent than the original, and still ranked by most critics as the peak of the Star Wars saga. The Galactic Empire strikes back hard, and this time the rebels lose ground.

After the Imperial assault scatters the Alliance from their Hoth base, the story splits in two. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) travels alone to the jungle swamps of Dagobah, where a nine-hundred-year-old Jedi Master named Yoda — voiced by Frank Oz — puts him through training that is equal parts wisdom and frustration. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) run from Imperial pursuit and take shelter with Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in a city built into the clouds. Darth Vader is already there waiting.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Sound and a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects. The final confrontation between Luke and Vader contains one of the most quoted lines in cinema history — best experienced without prior warning. Stream The Empire Strikes Back (1980) online on iFILM.