Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
The Millennium Falcon
First seen in: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Legendary. Iconic. Enduring. All of those adjectives have been used to describe Han Solo‘s Millennium Falcon and they are all more than accurate. The most famous (and fastest!) “hunk of junk” in the galaxy is easily synonymous with the Star Wars universe and it is the favorite vehicle for many fans of the franchise, myself included.
Introduced to the world by Solo’s boasts of making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, the fan’s love affair with the Falcon began after that first jump to hyperspace and has been ongoing ever since!
Quite a few significant moments with this ship stand out to me from throughout the entire trilogy.
From A New Hope, Solo piloted his ship right into the fray, knocking Darth Vader off course right as he was lining Luke’s X-wing up in the sights of his TIE fighter. Solo’s intervention freed Luke up enough to fire the shot that dealt the Empire its first significant loss with the destruction of the Death Star.
From, The Empire Strikes Back, Solo and Chewie successfully piloted the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field in order to evade and escape from Imperial spacecraft.
In Return of the Jedi, it was (original Falcon owner) Lando Calrissian and Nien Nunb who piloted the Falcon during the incredible Battle of Endor sequence and fired the final shots that would go on to doom the Death Star II.