Duel on Cloud City

The Alliance to Restore the Republic suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of Hoth in the days leading up to the duel. Although the Alliance successfully avoided total destruction, their new headquarters was destroyed during the battle, scattering the surviving members. As the Imperial forces completed their assault, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and C-3PO managed to escape aboard Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon. The ship's hyperdrive motivator had been severely damaged prior to the battle, rendering it inoperable. Darth Vader, the leader of the Imperial assault, was determined to locate and capture Luke Skywalker with the intention of turning his son into his apprentice. He arrived at the hangar just as the Falcon was departing.

Recognizing the importance of Skywalker's friends to him, Vader decided to exploit this connection to lure the young Jedi. His plan involved capturing and torturing Skywalker's friends, hoping that the Force would transmit their pain to Skywalker, prompting him to attempt a rescue. Consequently, he instructed his personal fleet, Death Squadron, to intercept the Falcon as soon as it escaped Echo Base. Solo managed to evade capture initially, but he quickly realized that the hyperdrive damage was too extensive to repair without external assistance. Unable to rendezvous with the remaining Rebel forces, Solo sought refuge on the nearby planet Bespin, where his old acquaintance, Lando Calrissian, served as the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, the largest settlement on Bespin.

As the Falcon journeyed to Bespin, with Solo hoping Calrissian could aid in the repairs, the bounty hunter Boba Fett secretly tracked their movements. Fett informed Darth Vader of Solo's destination, and, thanks to their functional hyperdrives, an Imperial detachment under Vader's command arrived at Bespin before Solo's crew. Upon arriving at Cloud City, Vader informed Calrissian of his scheme to use Solo and his companions to capture Skywalker. In exchange for his cooperation, Vader assured Calrissian that the Empire would leave Cloud City undisturbed after Skywalker's capture. Faced with the threat of Imperial occupation, Calrissian reluctantly agreed. With Calrissian's assistance, Vader captured Solo and his companions shortly after their arrival and began torturing them to draw out Skywalker.

Meanwhile, Skywalker had heeded the advice of Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force spirit and traveled to Dagobah to continue his Jedi training under the guidance of Grand Master Yoda for several weeks. However, Vader's plan proved effective; Skywalker sensed his friends' suffering and prepared to depart for Bespin to rescue them. He disregarded the warnings and pleas of Yoda and Kenobi, who cautioned that his friends' distress was likely a trap. Unaware that Imperial forces had been monitoring his approach since he entered orbit, Luke approached Cloud City in his X-wing starfighter. After landing without incident, he cautiously entered the city. While searching for his friends with R2-D2, he encountered Boba Fett and a group of Imperials transporting Solo, encased in carbonite, to Fett's ship. Hoping to remain undetected, Skywalker quietly followed them until they disappeared. As Skywalker prepared to proceed, Fett reappeared and fired at him, causing Skywalker to take cover.

After firing a few deterring blaster bolts, Fett disengaged and Skywalker, not knowing what Fett's cargo had been, did not attempt to follow him. Shortly after, he encountered Organa and Chewbacca, who were being brought to Vader's flagship as prisoners. The stormtroopers escorting the pair began shooting at Skywalker, who took cover again. Organa saw him and, aware of Vader's trap, desperately tried to break free of the grip of an Imperial officer in an attempt to warn Skywalker. As the group of Imperials with Organa broke off the fight and dragged her away, Luke attempted to follow. Just as he passed through the door where Organa had disappeared, it slammed shut behind him, cutting him off from R2-D2. Making his way through the catwalks and elevators of a gas-processing vane in the lower levels of Cloud City, he eventually reached the dimly lit carbon-freezing chamber. Suddenly, the chamber lit up, revealing Darth Vader, standing atop a flight of steps to the walkway above. Vader claimed that while the Force was with Luke, the boy was not a Jedi yet. Striding up to the Dark Lord, Skywalker ignited his lightsaber. Vader responded by calmly activating his own saber, and the duel began.

Skywalker initiated the duel with two swift but unsuccessful attempts to strike Vader's torso. He then attempted an overhead strike, which Vader blocked with a single-handed grip on his weapon. Skywalker's attack resulted in a blade lock, which Vader broke by casually pushing Skywalker to the floor. Skywalker quickly regained his footing and advanced, launching a series of aggressive attacks as Vader retreated. However, Vader soon countered and forced Luke back to the top of the stairs. During a brief pause, Vader complimented Skywalker on his swordsmanship, and Luke arrogantly agreed. As he spoke, Skywalker attacked Vader again, but after a few strikes Vader disarmed him with a quick flourish.

Vader then lazily slashed at Skywalker, hoping to herd him towards the carbon freezing pit. Skywalker dove out of the way of the attack and rolled down the stairs to the freezing chamber's main platform. Vader jumped after Skywalker and held him at blade-point just beyond the edge of the pit. As the pit was closed and Skywalker's attention was focused on his opponent, the young Jedi did not perceive Vader's trap. Vader then claimed that Skywalker's destiny lay with him, and that Obi-Wan had known it. As Skywalker denied this, Vader continued to walk Luke towards the now-open freezing pit and Luke, not realizing that the pit had opened (or indeed that it was even there), continued to retreat. As such, when Vader performed another casual swing of his weapon, Skywalker backed right over the lip of the pit and fell in. Vader immediately activated the chamber with the Force, remarking that his victory had been disappointingly easy. But before the freezing process could begin, Skywalker used the Force to leap out of the pit and grab onto the hoses above it. Vader then approached the pit, contemptuously musing that Skywalker was not as strong as he had been told, when he heard a metallic crash from above and noticed Skywalker trying to climb the tubing above the pit.

Praising Skywalker's escape, Vader severed one of the hoses in an attempt to dislodge him, triggering alarms throughout the chamber. Skywalker jumped down, seized the severed hose, and sprayed gas into Vader's masked face. Taking advantage of the Sith Lord's momentary disorientation, Skywalker used the Force to summon his lightsaber. He re-engaged Vader, and their blades clashed once more. Vader taunted Skywalker, asserting that embracing anger was the only path to victory, despite the control he had over his fear.

The Sith Lord broke the blade-lock and attacked. Skywalker managed to fend off Vader's onslaught, flipping over the Sith Lord to avoid an attack at his legs. Landing behind Vader, Skywalker went on the offensive and drove the Sith Lord to the edge of the platform, kicking Vader in the abdomen. Vader toppled over the edge of the platform and disappeared from sight. Seeming to have gained the upper hand, Skywalker jumped down after Vader.

Skywalker, in search of the Sith Lord, ventured through a tunnel leading into the city's processing vane, which overlooked a deep, low-pressure reactor shaft. There, he found Vader, standing at the chamber's far end with his weapon ignited.

As Luke cautiously advanced, Vader used telekinesis to tear a section of metal pipes from the wall behind Skywalker and hurl it at him. While Skywalker deflected the pipes, the Sith Lord lunged forward, engaging him in a brief sword fight. As their blades locked, Vader used the Force to throw a metal box at Skywalker, which struck him in the back of the head and broke the blade lock. Vader then retreated and began telekinetically bombarding Skywalker with various objects from the room.

Unable to defend against the improvised projectiles, a stray piece of piping shattered a large observation port behind him. The chamber depressurized violently, pulling Skywalker out into the reactor shaft while Vader clung to a nearby wall. As the pressure equalized, Vader observed from the shattered port that Skywalker had managed to grab onto a catwalk railing several floors below.

Skywalker climbed onto the catwalk and resumed his search for Vader. He eventually entered a narrow corridor in the processing vane, where Vader ambushed him. The Sith Lord launched a series of ferocious overhead strikes, forcing Skywalker into a defensive stance. Overwhelmed by Vader's strength, Skywalker was quickly pushed back through the corridor. After locking blades with the boy, Vader threw him against a wall and slashed at him, but Skywalker recovered just in time to avoid Vader's attack. The attack struck the wall behind Skywalker and showered the corridor in sparks. After dodging another such attack, Skywalker attempted to retreat along the catwalk from whence he had come but Vader quickly cut him off. Shoving Skywalker onto the dead-end that was the central catwalk, Vader continued his relentless assault. Blocking or shunting aside everything Skywalker threw at him, Vader soon blade-locked with the youth one final time and pushed him to the ground.

Holding his saber at Skywalker's throat, Vader declared the boy defeated, warning him that further resistance would result in the same fate as Kenobi. However, Skywalker defiantly pushed Vader's weapon aside and stood up. As they resumed their fight, Skywalker managed to inflict a slight wound on Vader's right shoulder with a desperate swing before retreating. Enraged by the breach in his defenses, Vader moved to end the duel, driving Skywalker to a small extension at the end of the catwalk. There, Vader sliced apart a piece of equipment on the catwalk, parried Luke's weapon hard enough to expose his wrist, and sliced off his right hand with a swift undercut. Both Luke's hand and his lightsaber fell into the depths of the reactor shaft.

As Skywalker recoiled in pain, Vader deactivated his weapon and began to speak with him. While Skywalker retreated to the end of the extension, Vader attempted to entice him to the dark side, promising that together they could end the Galactic Civil War and restore order to the galaxy. Skywalker refused, but Vader then revealed that he was once Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father. Despite Skywalker's vehement denial, based on Kenobi's account of Vader betraying and murdering Anakin, he sensed the truth in Vader's words. Shocked and horrified, Skywalker chose to jump off the catwalk to what seemed like certain death rather than betray his Rebel comrades and join the Empire. During his fall, Skywalker was pulled through a series of vents, eventually landing on a weather vane below Cloud City. Severely injured, exhausted, and emotionally drained, he called out to Kenobi for help but received no response. He then desperately tried to contact Organa through the Force.

Unbeknownst to Skywalker, Lando Calrissian had switched his allegiance to the Rebels after Vader repeatedly violated their agreement. Realizing that Vader could not be trusted, Calrissian freed Leia and Chewbacca, and they attempted to rescue Solo from Fett. Although they failed to do so, they managed to reach the Falcon and escape the city. As they departed Bespin, Organa heard Skywalker's mental cry for help and ordered the freighter to turn back and rescue him.

As the crew of the Falcon recovered Skywalker, Vader arrived aboard his flagship, the Executor, and pursued the freighter. As the Falcon left Bespin's orbit, the crew attempted to jump to hyperspace, only to find that the hyperdrive had failed again. As the Executor closed in, panic ensued aboard the Falcon as the rebels desperately tried to determine the cause of the malfunction in the supposedly repaired hyperdrive. As the freighter evaded a small group of TIE fighters, Vader telepathically contacted Skywalker and tried once more to turn him to the dark side. Skywalker continued to grapple with Vader's revelation, particularly the fact that Kenobi had failed to tell him the truth. With the rebels unable to determine why the hyperdrive of the Falcon was not functional, the Executor closed and prepared to tractor the freighter. However, R2-D2 had discovered during the escape from Cloud City that the Falcon's hyperdrive had in fact been repaired, and that Imperial agents had simply deactivated it. The astromech droid quickly reactivated the drive, and the Falcon lurched into hyperspace just before the Imperials could activate the tractor beam.

Despite Vader's reputation for executing Imperial officers for their failures, he spared Admiral Firmus Piett, the commanding officer of the Executor, and silently left the bridge. Meanwhile, the Falcon rendezvoused with the Rebel fleet, where Luke received a prosthetic hand that was visually indistinguishable from his original one (he would later build a new lightsaber to replace his lost weapon as well). With his operation concluded, Calrissian and Chewbacca departed aboard the Falcon for Tatooine, intending to locate and free Solo. Vader's revelation deeply affected Skywalker, shaking his trust in Kenobi and shattering his image of his father.

During the battle over Jekara, Skywalker realized he was not yet to duel Vader again and instead lured him into a starfighter chase over the planet. Approximately a year after the Cloud City duel, Luke had come to terms with his parentage and even considered using it to persuade Vader to return to the light. During his confrontation with Vader and the Emperor on the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station during the Battle of Endor, he succeeded. Redeeming himself, Vader defeated the Emperor and succumbed to his wounds, restoring balance to the Force and fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One that Qui-Gon Jinn believed he would fulfill years ago.

In 28 ABY, Leia cited the duel between Luke and Vader as one of the main reasons for which she couldn't forgive her father, even posthumously, to Senator Ransolm Casterfo from Riosa. In 34 ABY, the Force-sensitive scavenger Rey discovered Skywalker's original lightsaber in the basement of Takodana Castle, having been recovered by Maz Kanata through secretive means. Upon touching it, Rey had a Force vision, in which she appeared in the corridors of Cloud City and witnessed the duel of Vader and Skywalker.

The Duel on Cloud City is featured in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the Star Wars original trilogy. Many fans, including 501st Legion founder Albin Johnson, consider the duel to be the most memorable lightsaber battle in Star Wars history and perhaps the most memorable scene from the original trilogy.

As George Lucas aimed for the lightsaber battles to become progressively "faster and more intense" as Skywalker's lightsaber skills improved, a noticeable change in dueling style emerged, with the initial appearance of some one-handed fighting techniques. This offered a glimpse into what lightsaber duels of ancient times would eventually be revealed to resemble.

The revelation of Skywalker's parentage was so closely guarded that even David Prowse, the actor physically portraying Darth Vader and reciting the lines on set, was unaware of the truth. The film crew feared he might reveal it in an interview. Although it's said that Prowse spoke the line "Obi-Wan killed your father," which had been printed on a substituted page of the screenplay, Prowse himself revealed that he actually never said that line in April 2006. Instead, Prowse said "Come and join me and the Dark Side." On the other hand, he believes that the revelation of Luke's parentage was a wonderful twist. Meanwhile, the overdubbed voice of James Earl Jones spoke the true line. Mark Hamill himself was informed only moments before filming the scene, and no other cast member besides Jones and Hamill learned the truth until the premiere of Episode V.

An early version of Rey's Force vision in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens included Rey witnessing the duel on Cloud City. However, director J.J. Abrams scrapped the idea, wanting a more personal narrative filled with incomprehensible elements, like the Knights of Ren or her initial experience on Jakku. This concept was, however, preserved in Alan Dean Foster's novelization and Michael Kogge's junior novel, both of which contained segments where Rey glimpsed a small portion of the duel in her vision.

The extensive efforts taken by the production team to prevent the revelation of Skywalker's father's identity from leaking to the public were later parodied in The Simpsons episode "Worst Episode Ever." In the episode, one of the valuable Star Wars items that Mrs. Prince unknowingly sold to Comic Book Guy was a film reel labeled "Alternate Ending: Chewbacca is Luke's Father."