Spoiler Alert!
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I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. (v. 4)
Spoiler alert!
Those two words warn us not to read, listen, or watch any further. Something crucial about a book, show, film, or fact is about to be revealed, and we’re being told if we want to be surprised when we finally get around to reading or watching we’d better stop listening right now.
I wonder if that term was invented because of the great reveal in the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. Empire as a sequel to the runaway 1977 movie hit Star Wars (now more commonly referred to as A New Hope).
The first Star Wars movie followed the adventures of a discontented youth, Luke Skywalker, raised on a backwater desert planet by his uncle and aunt, who longs to escape the dull life of a moisture farmer and travel the galaxy in search of adventure. As most of us already know, in a swift turn of events Luke accompanies the strange desert hermit Obi Wan Kenobi on a quest to rescue a princess from the evil clutches of the empire and the mysterious Darth Vader, a sinister, masked, and helmeted being who seems to struggle for every breath. Luke believes he is following in the footsteps of his father, one of the mysterious Jedi knights, and receives his father’s light saber from Obi-Wan. In short order, Luke rescues the princess, joins the Rebellion, and destroys the diabolical secret weapon known as the Death Star.
Spoiler Alert.
In the sequel a shocking fact is revealed late in the film. Darth Vader, having defeated Luke in a battle of light sabers, invites Luke to join him to rule the galaxy. Luke refuses, proudly proclaiming that he, like is father, is a Jedi knight. In response, Darth Bader says simply, “Luke, I am your father.”
Suddenly the Star Wars universe was turned upside down. People were warned — if you’ve seen the film don’t say anything about it. If you haven’t, don’t listen to anybody.
What might have been more shocking than the big reveal itself was the secret didn’t slip out during the movie’s production. But this was no accident. George Lucas, the film’s creator, took the page with that line out of every single script. The other actors, the people who worked in filming, the people who built the sets, were all in the dark.
What about those who were present on the set when the climactic scene was filmed? They never knew what Vader really said because the man who was hidden inside the costume of the evil Darth Vader, David Prowse, was different than the man who voiced him, James Earl Jones. On the set, Prowse delivered the shocking — and untrue — line, “Obi Wan killed your father.” Prowse thought that was the real line that Jones would voice later from the studio. He never knew what was really said by the character he played until he saw it on the movie screen.
Meanwhile, when James Earl Jones read Vader’s real line aloud in a sound studio. “. . . I am your father,” he assumed Vader was lying.
It worked. No one saw it coming. In this manner, the big reveal became the big secret which, when viewed in the theater, became the big surprise.
Now of course, the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader is a well-known fact, a key element in the eleven movies and innumerable television programs. It is so well known it’s hard to imagine just what a shocker it was.
In the same way we are in the position of George Lucas and almost nobody else involved in the filming of The Empire Strikes Back. We know before the big reveal what the sons of Jacob only discover about the powerful Egyptian official in charge of food distribution during the famine is, when he tells them, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”
Talk about a shock.
(Want to know more? See “George Lucas: A Life,” by Brian Jay Jones, Little, Brown and Company, 2016.)
Spoiler alert!
Those two words warn us not to read, listen, or watch any further. Something crucial about a book, show, film, or fact is about to be revealed, and we’re being told if we want to be surprised when we finally get around to reading or watching we’d better stop listening right now.
I wonder if that term was invented because of the great reveal in the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. Empire as a sequel to the runaway 1977 movie hit Star Wars (now more commonly referred to as A New Hope).
The first Star Wars movie followed the adventures of a discontented youth, Luke Skywalker, raised on a backwater desert planet by his uncle and aunt, who longs to escape the dull life of a moisture farmer and travel the galaxy in search of adventure. As most of us already know, in a swift turn of events Luke accompanies the strange desert hermit Obi Wan Kenobi on a quest to rescue a princess from the evil clutches of the empire and the mysterious Darth Vader, a sinister, masked, and helmeted being who seems to struggle for every breath. Luke believes he is following in the footsteps of his father, one of the mysterious Jedi knights, and receives his father’s light saber from Obi-Wan. In short order, Luke rescues the princess, joins the Rebellion, and destroys the diabolical secret weapon known as the Death Star.
Spoiler Alert.
In the sequel a shocking fact is revealed late in the film. Darth Vader, having defeated Luke in a battle of light sabers, invites Luke to join him to rule the galaxy. Luke refuses, proudly proclaiming that he, like is father, is a Jedi knight. In response, Darth Bader says simply, “Luke, I am your father.”
Suddenly the Star Wars universe was turned upside down. People were warned — if you’ve seen the film don’t say anything about it. If you haven’t, don’t listen to anybody.
What might have been more shocking than the big reveal itself was the secret didn’t slip out during the movie’s production. But this was no accident. George Lucas, the film’s creator, took the page with that line out of every single script. The other actors, the people who worked in filming, the people who built the sets, were all in the dark.
What about those who were present on the set when the climactic scene was filmed? They never knew what Vader really said because the man who was hidden inside the costume of the evil Darth Vader, David Prowse, was different than the man who voiced him, James Earl Jones. On the set, Prowse delivered the shocking — and untrue — line, “Obi Wan killed your father.” Prowse thought that was the real line that Jones would voice later from the studio. He never knew what was really said by the character he played until he saw it on the movie screen.
Meanwhile, when James Earl Jones read Vader’s real line aloud in a sound studio. “. . . I am your father,” he assumed Vader was lying.
It worked. No one saw it coming. In this manner, the big reveal became the big secret which, when viewed in the theater, became the big surprise.
Now of course, the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader is a well-known fact, a key element in the eleven movies and innumerable television programs. It is so well known it’s hard to imagine just what a shocker it was.
In the same way we are in the position of George Lucas and almost nobody else involved in the filming of The Empire Strikes Back. We know before the big reveal what the sons of Jacob only discover about the powerful Egyptian official in charge of food distribution during the famine is, when he tells them, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”
Talk about a shock.
(Want to know more? See “George Lucas: A Life,” by Brian Jay Jones, Little, Brown and Company, 2016.)
