One of the best scenes in The Acolyte used a filmmaking trick that Star Wars has been making use of since The Empire Strikes Back. Since the very beginning, Star Wars has always been on the cutting edge of film. In the original trilogy, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic were masters of practical effects. A great example is the miniature replicas they made of the Death Star, the AT-ATs, and other vehicles. In the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, they pioneered CGI technology through Jar Jar Binks and other aliens. Each installment of Star Wars pushes the envelope just a bit more.
The most recent live-action Star Wars show, The Acolyte, continued the franchise’s long tradition of using unique technology and special effects. From the way it transformed Hassan Taj into the tynnan Bazil to the improvements it made to the evolution of lightsaber VFX, The Acolyte was a technical marvel in many regards. One of the coolest scenes in the entire show was also achieved through some unique filmmaking, but the technique wasn’t entirely novel. The Stranger’s descent from the Khofar canopy in The Acolyte episode 4 actually borrowed a method from The Empire Strikes Back.
How The Acolyte Created Episode 4’s Cliffhanger
In The Acolyte episode 4, the helmeted Sith Lord the Stranger made a heart-stopping introduction to the show by levitating down from the trees behind Osha. To get the Stranger to float down and glide towards Osha, the team behind The Acolyte actually hooked him into a rig and lifted him up, then reversed the footage to make it look like he was descending instead of ascending. It was an incredibly eerie and unsettling scene, and it gave the Stranger an almost ghost-like quality. The introduction of the Sith Lord of The Acolyte was one of the show’s best moments.
Star Wars Has Been Using This Technique Since The Empire Strikes Back
While the Stranger’s arrival was certainly impressive, it wasn’t exactly innovative for Star Wars. In an interview with Graham Norton on BBC, Mark Hamill revealed that Star Wars has been using reversed footage since The Empire Strikes Back.
As Hamill explained, the shot of Luke Skywalker using the Force to retrieve his lightsaber in the Wampa’s lair was achieved by pulling the lightsaber out of his hand using fishing line and simply reversing the footage. Hamill also mentioned that the reversed shot was due to budget and technological limitations at the time, and that most modern projects would simply use CGI to achieve the same effect. The Acolyte, however, used the same classic low-tech trick as The Empire Strikes Back, albeit with much stronger cables instead of fishing line.
The Acolyte’s use of reversed footage highlighted something really special about the show: even as it broke new ground for Star Wars, it also remembered the highlights of the franchise’s past. The show’s creators were always looking to history for inspiration, whether it was the special effects like in the Stranger’s introduction or in the various ways it borrowed from Star Wars Legends lore. Even though it was borrowing a tried and true method, though, The Acolyte used it so perfectly that the Stranger’s introduction is now one of its highlights. The Acolyte owes one of its best moments to The Empire Strikes Back.