The 15 spookiest moments in the Skywalker Saga

5. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father

Perhaps the most climactic moment of the entire Skywalker Saga comes at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and it is also one of the spookiest. Luke has left Dagobah to travel to Cloud City to rescue his friends, and he’s forced to face Darth Vader all on his own, without his mentor to guide him. The clashing of blue against red in the shadows of the corridors of Cloud City creates a sense of dread for what could happen to Luke. He’s learned much from Yoda, but not quite enough, and Vader has been fighting Jedi for a long time.

The terror for Luke intensifies when Vader begins to use the Force to project objects toward him that he’s forced to try to fend off. Then he’s fighting Vader over a great chasm, and then the unthinkable happens: Vader slices off his hand and his lightsaber falls to the depths of Cloud City. He’s unarmed, injured, and one wrong step, and he’s falling to his death. Vader could end him now, but instead, he’s offering Luke a place at his side, a promise that the two of them could end the Emperor’s tyranny, only to claim the mantle as their own. Luke looks into Vader’s eyes, however, and only sees the man who killed his father as he recalls Obi-Wan’s words to him about Darth Vader’s betrayal of the Jedi. But Luke is so very wrong, and he’s about to learn the most horrific truth imaginable. The evil monster standing before him is his father. Luke doesn’t know how to deal with it and decides to take his chances with the deep chasm, somehow finding his way to freedom, but haunted now by the truth he was never supposed to know.