The conflict known as the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon, alternatively referred to as the battle over the Great Pit of Carkoon, or simply the Battle of Carkoon, transpired in 4 ABY. It was part of Luke Skywalker's operation to liberate his friend, Han Solo, who was being held captive by the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. After their initial attempt to infiltrate Jabba's stronghold failed, Jabba sought to execute Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Solo's Wookiee companion Chewbacca by casting them into the depths of the Great Pit of Carkoon, the habitat of the fearsome Sarlacc.
However, Skywalker had anticipated such a scenario. He had discreetly stored his new lightsaber within his astromech droid, R2-D2, before initiating the rescue mission. As the execution was about to commence, the droid projected the lightsaber into the air, enabling Skywalker to equip himself and swiftly subdue Jabba's assembled guards. Amidst the resulting pandemonium, Leia Organa, another participant in the rescue operation who had been enslaved by Jabba, assassinated the Hutt. Simultaneously, Boba Fett, a renowned gunfighter and associate of Jabba, was inadvertently launched into the Sarlacc's gaping maw by Solo.
Years prior, Jabba had contracted Han Solo to engage in spice smuggling operations on his behalf. However, during one particular spice run, Solo's vessel was intercepted by Imperial forces, compelling him to jettison the illicit cargo to evade prosecution. Consequently, Solo was unable to fulfill his financial obligations to Jabba, prompting the Hutt to place a bounty on his head. Several years after the initial bounty was issued, Solo was located in Cloud City on Bespin by the formidable bounty hunter Boba Fett. There, Solo was apprehended, subjected to torture, and subsequently frozen in carbonite by Darth Vader. Following his entombment, Solo was handed over to Fett for delivery to the Hutt crime boss. After a period spent attempting to locate Boba Fett, including a near miss on Gall, the Rebels discovered Solo had been delivered to Jabba.
As a contingency, Lando Calrissian had already infiltrated Jabba's Palace, assuming the guise of a guard under the alias Tamtel Skreej. Subsequently, Luke Skywalker dispatched his droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, to deliver a message to Jabba the Hutt. The holographic message conveyed the request that Jabba release Solo in exchange for a mutually agreeable arrangement with the young Jedi. As a gesture of goodwill and to demonstrate a preference for peaceful resolution over confrontation, the droids were presented as gifts to the Hutt. Jabba, however, rejected the proposal and refused to relinquish his prized captive.
The second stage of the rescue plan involved Leia Organa, disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh, bringing a "captured" Chewbacca to the palace to claim the bounty on his head. Jabba initially offered 25,000 credits for the Wookiee, but ultimately paid her 35,000 credits following intense negotiations involving a thermal detonator. The following night, Organa surreptitiously entered Jabba's throne room and attempted to liberate Solo, freeing him from the carbonite encasement. However, their escape attempt was thwarted as they were captured, Jabba having anticipated their actions and laying in wait. Jabba imprisoned Solo in a cell with Chewbacca and added Organa to his collection of slave girls.
Luke Skywalker then arrived to liberate his companions. He easily bypassed Jabba's Gamorrean guards and employed a Jedi mind trick on Bib Fortuna to gain access to the Hutt's throne room. However, the Hutt crime lord proved resistant to the Jedi's influence. He was immune to mind tricks and refused to release Luke's friends. When Skywalker attempted to eliminate the Hutt with a blaster he had acquired, Jabba activated a trapdoor, sending him into the rancor pit. After evading the rancor, Skywalker threw a skull at the gate-control switch, causing the heavy gate to fall and impale the rancor through the neck. Enraged, Jabba ordered Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca to be brought before him. There, he sentenced them to death by being fed to the sarlacc. Upon hearing of the execution, Solo initially quipped that he "hated long waits", although he quickly changed his mind when he learned the nature of the planned execution.
The three captives were transported to the Great Pit of Carkoon aboard a desert skiff, while Jabba, his entourage, and Leia observed from the Khetanna, Jabba's personal luxury sail barge. While on the skiff, Luke offered Jabba a final opportunity to release him and his comrades, warning of the consequences should he refuse. Skywalker was then forced to jump, but he maneuvered as he fell, catching the end of the plank and using it to propel himself back onto the skiff. Unbeknownst to all but Skywalker, R2-D2 was concealing Luke's newly constructed lightsaber. Once he had reached the deck of Jabba's sail barge, Artoo launched the lightsaber into the air, delivering it into his master's waiting hand. As the surprised guards prepared to defend themselves, Luke swiftly cut through them, sending them tumbling over the edge into the pit and the sarlacc's maw. Boba Fett, intent on eliminating the Jedi, propelled himself from the barge to the skiff. As Fett raised his EE-3 carbine rifle, the Jedi bisected the weapon. When Luke became distracted, Fett ensnared him with a fibercord whip, but the Jedi was able to free himself, knocking Fett to the ground.
He then jumped onto the second skiff and began deflecting blaster fire. Taking advantage of this, Fett prepared to shoot him. With Fett now focused on Skywalker, Solo, half-blind from hibernation sickness caused by being frozen in Carbonite, inadvertently swung a vibro-ax into Fett's jetpack, having panicked when he learned from Chewbacca that Fett was behind him. Solo's actions caused Fett's jetpack to malfunction, sending Fett crashing into the side of the sail barge, causing him to roll into the sarlacc's mouth and upon swallowing him, the sarlacc let out a massive belch.
Lando Calrissian, still disguised as the guard Tamtel Skreej, assisted in subduing some of the guards on the skiff. During the melee, he was knocked into the Pit of Carkoon. Han and Chewbacca attempted to rescue their friend by lowering a vibro-ax, but the sarlacc seized Lando's leg and began slowly dragging him in. Han was able to free Lando and pull him to safety by wounding the beast with a blaster shot, due to his eyesight returning in the nick of time, forcing it to release him.
Observing that the skiffs were sustaining heavy fire from the deck-mounted blasters on Khetanna, Skywalker leaped onto the barge, scaling its side to reach the upper deck. There, he engaged Jabba's henchmen, knocking many overboard into the pit. He also swiftly neutralized the guard operating the heavy cannon.
The Rebels received assistance from some of Jabba's disloyal henchmen, such as Ree-Yees, a Gran who did not prevent Leia Organa from strangling Jabba to death. Though not a rebel sympathizer, Hermi Odle also unknowingly provided aid when he took advantage of the chaos and shot his rival, Pote Snitkin.
As the battle raged outside, Organa exploited the chaos to cut power inside, closing the side viewports and plunging the interior into darkness. In the confusion, she wrapped her chain around Jabba's body and, summoning all her strength, choked him to death. With the help of R2-D2, she was released from her chains, Salacious started to rip out Threepio's wires from the droid's photoreceptors and Artoo shocked Salacious away from Threepio the droids then hurried to join Skywalker on the deck, followed by Artoo and Threepio. Skywalker instructed Organa to aim the cannon at the deck of the barge, at which point Taym Dren-garen shot his right hand, exposing his mechanical limb, but the Jedi quickly recovered and continued to prevent any guards from reaching the cannon. R2-D2 pushed C-3PO from the barge and both droids landed getting partially buried in the sand. Skywalker swung with Organa from the barge to the skiff just as he kick-started the blaster cannon. After picking up the droids, Calrissian piloted the remaining skiff with all the rebels aboard safely away from the ensuing explosion of Khetanna.
Boba Fett miraculously escaped from the pit several days later, owing to his Mandalorian armor and unwavering resolve. He was discovered by a fellow bounty hunter, Dengar, and Kateel of Kuhlvult who nursed him back to health. Kuat of Kuat, the leader of Kuat Drive Yards, then arranged a bombing run on the Great Pit of Carkoon to ensure the death of Boba Fett but the bounty hunter managed to escape.
Jabba's death resulted in the cancellation of numerous debts, leading to widespread gratitude towards Luke for eliminating this troublesome element from their lives. This led to the permanent downfall of the Hutt Cartel and the temporary collapse of Jabba Desilijic Tiure's criminal network. In retaliation for his son's demise, Zorba the Hutt placed a bounty on Organa, which the Desilijic kajidic subsequently extended to Solo, Chewbacca, and Skywalker. The bounty was not officially rescinded until Organa's election as Chief of State, as the Hutts were unwilling to further provoke the New Republic.
Many of Jabba's former slaves gained their freedom and began new lives, including Doallyn, the dancer Yarna d'al' Gargan, and the members of the Max Rebo Band.
Skywalker and the other Rebels went on to participate in the Battle of Endor, where the Jedi triumphed over Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine met his end. The Death Star II was destroyed, granting the Rebel Alliance their most significant victory in the Galactic Civil War. However, one year later the criminal empire was resurrected by Jabba's father and nephew.
In 44 ABY, after Jaina Solo, Leia's daughter, sensed a Hutt in the Old Town on Sakuub, Jagged Fel, her husband, briefly referenced Leia's killing of Jabba as an explanation of his slithering out of sight in the event that the Hutt knew who Jaina and Fel were.
The Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon was initially depicted at the commencement of the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the concluding chapter of the Star Wars original trilogy. Despite the widespread assumption that George Lucas conceived the battle, it was, in actuality, the brainchild of writer and director Richard Marquand and Lawrence Kasdan. This revelation was eventually confirmed through transcripts of meetings from The Making of Return of the Jedi.
Lawrence Kasdan proposed the idea of killing Jabba the Hutt during the battle, while George Lucas suggested having Leia Organa strangle him with her chain as an homage of Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 classic film The Godfather, mirroring the scene in which Luca Brasi gets garrotted to death by Virgil Sollozzo and his men.