Top Five most brutal moments in ‘Star Wars’

For the most part, Star Wars is a family friendly franchise. It’s predominately for young viewers. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a dark side.

There are sad moments and surprises, but these haunting moments, at least for me, hit hardest in that they feel raw and powerful.

Death of Shmi Skywalker

Hands down the most brutal moment in the Star Wars films, in my opinion. Anakin Skywalker, our flawed hero, desperately combs the desert in search of the mother he hasn’t seen in a decade… only for her to die in his arms.

Tormented by dreams of her being in danger, Anakin fears something has happened to his mother, Shmi. So with Padme, he returns to Tatooine where he lived as a child, to find her. While there he discovers she is no longer a slave. In the ten years they’ve been apart she was freed, fell in love, got married, and is mother to a step-son.

Sadly, he also learns that she was taken in a raid by Tusken Raiders (who are often referred to in a derogatory fashion as “sand people”) a month earlier. Her husband lost a leg trying to rescue her, and many others were killed. So the Jedi jumps on a speeder bike to search her out and bring her home. He had told her when he left as a child that he would come back to free her from bondage. He was now about to fulfill that promise.

In a short period of time, Anakin finds his mother. He discovers her inside a Tusken camp and she appears to have been tortured. Her face scarred and bloody. He undones her bonds, and they share a moment where they look into one another eyes. She smiles.

Shmi
“My son. My grown up son… I’m so proud of you, Ani.”

Anakin
“I missed you.”

Shmi
“Now I am complete…I love…”

Anakin
“Stay with me mom. Everything…”

Shmi
“I love…”

Unable to complete the words, she dies. But she doesn’t merely go lifeless or fade away. Shmi’s head falls back, one last breath, her eyes open and mouth agape. And she never finishes her final thought. Never expresses the full words of her affection for her son. The brief performance in Attack of the Clones by Pernilla August perfect.

It gets me every time. The saddest moment in the entire franchise, bar none.

Chewbacca reacts to the death of Han Solo

It’s the death everyone saw coming. Harrison Ford had made no secret of the fact that he’d campaigned to have his character, Han Solo, killed off in Return of the Jedi. But George Lucas was very much against it.

So when Disney came calling for him to return as the scruffy-lookin’ nerf herder, Ford was apparently quick to highlight that he’d always had this idea of bringing the character to a meaningful end.

But what’s so powerful, at least to me, about the scene where Kylo Ren (aka Ben Solo), skewers his own father with a lightsaber, is the reaction of Solo’s longtime partner in crime, Chewbacca the Wookiee. The growling, grumbling beast releases a painful cry at the realization that his best friend has just be murdered. And in a fit of rage, he shoots and very-near kills his friend’s sinister son. The Wookiee then immediately sets off a series of explosions that, as far as he was clearly concerned, would finish the job his bowcaster blast failed to do.

The friendship between Chewbacca and Han Solo is one of the more endearing relationships in all of the franchise, and that moment just choked me up. And it still maintains that power over me whenever I see it, in part because of the performance of Chewbacca (Chewie to his friends) during that scene. Both the late Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo, who would take on the role in several films after, played Chewbacca throughout The Force Awakens. Suotamo was apparently the one in the costume for that scene, as suggested in an interview on StarWars.com.

Burn, Anakin, Burn!

The fate of Anakin Skywalker was set in stone. He was destined to be gruesomely disfigured and require a suit of armor to keep him alive. But exactly how he got those terrible injuries was (for the most part) unknown until the climactic moments of Revenge of the Sith.

Anakin engages in a lengthy duel to the death with his former friend and mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, on the volcanic surface of Mustafar. They start inside, then move outside, then on flowing lava, until finally Kenobi escapes to “the high ground” as Anakin remains on a levitating droid over the flowing magma.

Obi-Wan
“It’s over, Anakin. I have the high ground.”

Anakin
“You underestimate my power!”

Obi-Wan
“Don’t try it.”

Spoiler alert… he tries it. And loses his flesh and blood arm, as well as his legs below the knees, in the process. Left only with his mechanical arm, Anakin angrily tries to pull himself up the slope towards Kenobi.

Anakin
“I hate you!”

Those prove to be his final words before a spark from the lava ignites his clothing. In seconds, Anakin is engulfed in flames. A horrified Kenobi then chooses to walk away instead of putting his former padawan out of his misery. Although he assumed Anakin would die, the fallen Jedi’s hatred proves too powerful and keeps him alive long enough for Palpatine to arrive. The Sith Lord then takes him away to don the last suit he’d ever wear.

That’s one dark moment. Perhaps the darkest of the entire franchise. Anakin, a shining beacon of hope in a galaxy torn apart by war, falls to the dark side and pays a horrific price. The good man who once saved Naboo is burned away, leaving behind the villainous Darth Vader. The way he screams, the way he writhes in the dirt, flames consuming his flesh. Its a deeply brutal moment that has gone unmatched in the franchise, as far as I’m concerned.

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru get Cooked

In the early morning, Luke Skywalker and C-3PO leave the farm in an effort to retrieve R2-D2, who’s rolled off to find the elusive Obi-Wan Kenobi and deliver an important message.

Meanwhile, Luke’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were left at the homestead, and were sadly there when Imperial stormtroopers came looking for the wayward droids. What exactly happened is sadly unknown, but the aftermath is revealed when Luke returns after realizing that the only parents he ever knew may be in danger.

When the young man jumps from his speeder he finds his home a burning mess, with black smoke darkening the blue skies of Tatooine. Through the smoke he spots his aunt and uncle, or what remains of them. The two had their flesh burned away, their scorched skeletons the own things left of them in the physical world. One can be seen laying face down, the other appearing to have been knocked over, the head fallen backwards and upside-down.

What happened? We don’t quite know. I always felt they were both likely on fire in their final moments. One of them fell face forward and burned, who I took to be Owen. The other, Beru, screaming as her flesh was consumed but also at the sight of her dying husband. She was then perhaps silenced by a stormtrooper’s blaster bolt.

The scene, inspired by John Ford’s The Searchers, is an iconic moment from the original film. It firmly established the idea that despite these movies being for younger audiences, it wouldn’t shy away completely from darker moments.

It’s haunting.

Wampa Room!

There are many beasts throughout the Star Wars films, but the first and most notable one is the Wampa. And I would argue the creature’s first appearance is the closest the franchise came to having a real jump scare, horror movie moment.

I’m talking about the bloody attack on Luke Skywalker and his doomed tauntaun.

In the opening moments of Empire Strikes Back, Luke is riding a beast of burden over the frozen landscape of the planet Hoth. In the distance he spots something crash into the ice. As he does, his tauntaun starts to stir. Something is not right. Like a horse in a western sensing the presence of a snake.

Then, suddenly, the gnarly jaws and matted hair of a growling Wampa appear from the bottom of the frame. A massive claw cuts through the air and slashes the unsuspecting Luke across the face. He’s knocked from the animal and collapses unconscious on the ground. A moment later, that same claw digs into the throat of the tauntaun, killing the horned animal as it gurgles its final breaths.

Luke is then dragged away to an unknown fate.

The scene really punches hard, and as I note, it’s the closest the franchise ever gets to something that’s straight-up horror. The original plans for the film would have had the Wampas play a continued part, attacking the rebel based, no doubt leading to more carnage. But the effectiveness of the scene could not be fully achieved at the time. It wasn’t until the Special Editions where we got a more expanded look at the creature.

But it’s a great moment, and an effective way to start off the film, establishing this sequel as different and darker than its predecessor.

It also remains the best of the franchise.