Movie Smarts

The Empire Strikes Back Quiz: The Questions Strike Back

Fifteen questions, four choices each. Give your movie memory a moment to shine.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Watch the trailer.

The Empire Strikes Back: The Empire Has Filed a Complaint

The rebels won a big victory, and the Empire is taking it personally. Luke sets off to learn more about his strange new powers while his friends try to stay one step ahead of a very angry fleet. Their escape plans keep running into broken equipment and people with questionable loyalties. Being the good guys is getting harder, and the bad guys have brought extra ships.

Search your memory. It probably knows more than it is letting on.

1. Who directed The Empire Strikes Back?
- Steven Spielberg
- Richard Marquand
- Irvin Kershner
- George Lucas
Kershner had taught Lucas at USC and took some persuading, assuming a sequel could only disappoint. Lucas financed the film himself and stayed on as story writer and producer; Richard Marquand, among the distractors, directed Return of the Jedi.
2. What is the rebels' icy base planet?
- Endor
- Yavin
- Mustafar
- Hoth
The Hoth exteriors were shot on a glacier near Finse in Norway, in weather so bad that Luke's walk in the storm was filmed from the hotel doorway. Yavin's moon held the base in the first film; Endor and Mustafar belong to other episodes.
3. What creature attacks Luke in the snow?
- A wampa
- A rancor
- A dewback
- A bantha
The wampa drags Luke to its cave and hangs him from the ceiling; he gets free by pulling the lightsaber to his hand with the Force, his first such trick. A rancor is the beast in Jabba's pit in the next film; banthas and dewbacks are Tatooine mounts.
4. What animals do the rebels ride on Hoth?
- Tauntauns
- Blurrgs
- Banthas
- Dewbacks
Han's tauntaun dies in the cold, so he cuts it open and stuffs the unconscious Luke inside for warmth until the shelter is up. 'And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.' Blurrgs, among the distractors, come from later Star Wars television.
5. What are the Empire's huge four-legged walkers called?
- A-wings
- AT-ATs
- TIEs
- AT-STs
All Terrain Armored Transports, animated in stop motion by Phil Tippett's team because motion-control models could not walk. Wedge fells one by tangling its legs with a tow cable; the AT-ST, among the distractors, is the two-legged scout walker.
6. Where does Luke go to find Yoda?
- Tatooine
- Bespin
- Dagobah
- Coruscant
Obi-Wan's ghost sends him there, and Luke sinks the X-wing in a swamp on arrival, which Yoda later lifts out with the Force to make a point about size. The whole planet was built indoors on a soundstage at Elstree, swamp, mist and all.
7. Who performs Yoda's voice?
- Kenny Baker
- Jim Henson
- Peter Mayhew
- Frank Oz
Oz, Jim Henson's longtime partner on the Muppets, also operated the puppet, with other puppeteers working the ears and eyes from below the raised set. Kenny Baker, among the distractors, was inside R2-D2 and Peter Mayhew inside Chewbacca.
8. Who plays Lando Calrissian?
- James Earl Jones
- Richard Pryor
- Billy Dee Williams
- Carl Weathers
Williams was already a star from Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, and Lando was the series' first major Black character. He and Han have history, since Lando lost the Falcon to him years before, which is why the warm welcome is so hard to read.
9. What floating settlement does Lando run?
- Theed
- Cloud City
- Echo Base
- Mos Eisley
A gas-mining colony floating above Bespin, which Lando runs as baron administrator, and where Vader has arrived ahead of the Falcon to set the trap. Theed is the capital of Naboo, Echo Base the rebel base on Hoth and Mos Eisley the spaceport on Tatooine.
10. What color is Yoda's skin?
- Blue
- Green
- Gray
- Orange
The look was the work of Stuart Freeborn, the makeup artist who had built Chewbacca, and he modeled the face partly on his own and partly on Albert Einstein's eyes and wrinkles. Lucas had considered using a trained monkey in a mask before the puppet won out.
11. Which bounty hunter tracks the Millennium Falcon to Bespin?
- Boba Fett
- Dengar
- Bossk
- IG-88
Fett works out that Han has hidden the Falcon on the back of a Star Destroyer to drift off with its garbage, and follows him to Bespin. The character debuted in the animated segment of the 1978 Holiday Special; Jeremy Bulloch wears the armor here.
12. What repeatedly prevents the Falcon from escaping cleanly?
- Its empty water tanks
- Its missing landing gear
- Its faulty hyperdrive
- Its jammed airlock
The ship fails to jump to lightspeed twice, fleeing Hoth and then Bespin, and Han and Chewbacca spend much of the film head-down in the floor panels. R2-D2 finally gets it going after Cloud City's computer tells him the Imperials had switched it off.
13. What substance is used to freeze Han Solo?
- Cortosis
- Durasteel
- Kryptonite
- Carbonite
Carbon-freezing is how the city packs its gas for shipping, and Vader has Han frozen to test whether a human can survive it before trying it on Luke. Boba Fett carries the slab off to Jabba the Hutt; Kryptonite, among the distractors, is Superman's problem.
14. What does Leia call Han shortly before their first kiss?
- A coward
- A scoundrel
- A farm boy
- A pirate king
'I happen to like nice men,' she says, and he replies that he is one, until C-3PO interrupts to announce he has isolated the reverse power flux coupling. The later 'I know' was Harrison Ford's suggestion in place of the scripted 'I love you too'.
15. Who composed the Imperial March introduced in this film?
- John Williams
- John Barry
- Jerry Goldsmith
- James Horner
Williams wrote the march as the theme for Vader and the Empire; it did not exist in the first film, where Vader's entrances were scored with other material. The score, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for an Oscar and lost to Fame.

All the answers

1. Who directed The Empire Strikes Back?

Irvin Kershner

Kershner had taught Lucas at USC and took some persuading, assuming a sequel could only disappoint. Lucas financed the film himself and stayed on as story writer and producer; Richard Marquand, among the distractors, directed Return of the Jedi.
2. What is the rebels' icy base planet?

Hoth

The Hoth exteriors were shot on a glacier near Finse in Norway, in weather so bad that Luke's walk in the storm was filmed from the hotel doorway. Yavin's moon held the base in the first film; Endor and Mustafar belong to other episodes.
3. What creature attacks Luke in the snow?

A wampa

The wampa drags Luke to its cave and hangs him from the ceiling; he gets free by pulling the lightsaber to his hand with the Force, his first such trick. A rancor is the beast in Jabba's pit in the next film; banthas and dewbacks are Tatooine mounts.
4. What animals do the rebels ride on Hoth?

Tauntauns

Han's tauntaun dies in the cold, so he cuts it open and stuffs the unconscious Luke inside for warmth until the shelter is up. 'And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.' Blurrgs, among the distractors, come from later Star Wars television.
5. What are the Empire's huge four-legged walkers called?

AT-ATs

All Terrain Armored Transports, animated in stop motion by Phil Tippett's team because motion-control models could not walk. Wedge fells one by tangling its legs with a tow cable; the AT-ST, among the distractors, is the two-legged scout walker.
6. Where does Luke go to find Yoda?

Dagobah

Obi-Wan's ghost sends him there, and Luke sinks the X-wing in a swamp on arrival, which Yoda later lifts out with the Force to make a point about size. The whole planet was built indoors on a soundstage at Elstree, swamp, mist and all.
7. Who performs Yoda's voice?

Frank Oz

Oz, Jim Henson's longtime partner on the Muppets, also operated the puppet, with other puppeteers working the ears and eyes from below the raised set. Kenny Baker, among the distractors, was inside R2-D2 and Peter Mayhew inside Chewbacca.
8. Who plays Lando Calrissian?

Billy Dee Williams

Williams was already a star from Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, and Lando was the series' first major Black character. He and Han have history, since Lando lost the Falcon to him years before, which is why the warm welcome is so hard to read.
9. What floating settlement does Lando run?

Cloud City

A gas-mining colony floating above Bespin, which Lando runs as baron administrator, and where Vader has arrived ahead of the Falcon to set the trap. Theed is the capital of Naboo, Echo Base the rebel base on Hoth and Mos Eisley the spaceport on Tatooine.
10. What color is Yoda's skin?

Green

The look was the work of Stuart Freeborn, the makeup artist who had built Chewbacca, and he modeled the face partly on his own and partly on Albert Einstein's eyes and wrinkles. Lucas had considered using a trained monkey in a mask before the puppet won out.
11. Which bounty hunter tracks the Millennium Falcon to Bespin?

Boba Fett

Fett works out that Han has hidden the Falcon on the back of a Star Destroyer to drift off with its garbage, and follows him to Bespin. The character debuted in the animated segment of the 1978 Holiday Special; Jeremy Bulloch wears the armor here.
12. What repeatedly prevents the Falcon from escaping cleanly?

Its faulty hyperdrive

The ship fails to jump to lightspeed twice, fleeing Hoth and then Bespin, and Han and Chewbacca spend much of the film head-down in the floor panels. R2-D2 finally gets it going after Cloud City's computer tells him the Imperials had switched it off.
13. What substance is used to freeze Han Solo?

Carbonite

Carbon-freezing is how the city packs its gas for shipping, and Vader has Han frozen to test whether a human can survive it before trying it on Luke. Boba Fett carries the slab off to Jabba the Hutt; Kryptonite, among the distractors, is Superman's problem.
14. What does Leia call Han shortly before their first kiss?

A scoundrel

'I happen to like nice men,' she says, and he replies that he is one, until C-3PO interrupts to announce he has isolated the reverse power flux coupling. The later 'I know' was Harrison Ford's suggestion in place of the scripted 'I love you too'.
15. Who composed the Imperial March introduced in this film?

John Williams

Williams wrote the march as the theme for Vader and the Empire; it did not exist in the first film, where Vader's entrances were scored with other material. The score, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for an Oscar and lost to Fame.