Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back hits 30 years today. Hailed by most as the best movie of the Star Wars franchise,The Empire Strikes Back gave us a balance of personal drama, action, and an unforgettable twist; that being, Darth Vader confessed that he was Luke's father. Don't tell me that did not shock you. I mean, the most wicked guy in the universe, the guy who wanted to destroy you, is your father? Holy cow! That twist generated quit a buzz and had many fan boys peeing in their sleep dreaming of how the next movie will unfold.

And how exciting was it when Luke was able to lift his fighter craft from the swamp during his training?

Personally, I think it was a well written and smart script that exposed the character's strength, weaknesses, and emotions in such a cerebral way that it had me continuously thinking about the movie long after seeing it.

Here is what Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, had to say about The Empire Strikes Back.

Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)

I thought it was deeper; more cerebral. It was much more adult than what later followed... But it was a gruelling shoot. Where Star Wars took, I don't know, four or five months, Empire Strikes Back was nine months, and they saved all the Yoda stuff. They sent everybody home. For a month-and-a-half I was the only human being on the call sheet. It was 'Actor: Mark Hamill, Role: Luke. Robots. Lizards. Snakes. Vermin. Puppets'. It got sort of lonely, although I bonded with Frank Oz and his crew. When I read Empire Strikes Back I said, 'Oh my Gosh'. And, remember, there was a false ending. When [Vader] reaches out his hand and he says, 'You don't know the truth, Obi-Wan killed your father,' and I go, 'No!!' I thought, 'Wow, Guinness is the bad guy? That's a great twist!' They later took me aside and they said, 'Not only can you not tell Harrison or Carrie or Peter Mayhew or anybody, but don't even tell [your wife] Mary-Lou.' I said, 'Oh, that's going to be tough...' But I kept that secret. I could get White House clearance, because I kept that secret for a year-and-a-half - even David Prowse didn't know!

I wish it had gone further. It set me up to think that in the third, I would go to the dark side, probably try to kill Harrison [Ford] or Carrie [Fisher] and then at the last minute I would be redeemed. Little did I know he was saving that story for the prequels. So I was a little disappointed in the third one, thinking I was half-way to being Darth Vader myself.

Will Avatar be as iconic as Star Wars 30 years from now? I have a feeling 30 years from now, we'll be commemorating Avatar's anniversary, and talking about how it changed the way we view movies and how movies are made.