There’s a scene in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi that’s been bothering some people for years.
It happens during the first third of the movie when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is on Tatooine fighting Jabba the Hutt’s forces to save his friends. He’s on a desert skiff and right after he retrieves his green lightsaber he kicks one of Jabba’s guards, or does he? Because his foot is a good distance away from the guard’s face and yet the latter falls back like he was actually hit. This started a large debate about whether it was a choreography mistake or a really cool move dubbed as a “force kick.”
Recently, the scene in question was once again summoned into existence via a gif, which features the offending moment in a critical loop.
Unsurprisingly, this inconsistency in Return of the Jedi has been discussed to death. If you search for force kick on Wookieepedia, the above gif is used as an example. However, the article goes on to refer to the kick as a “blooper.”
“The choreography blooper consists of the stuntman reacting to the impact of the kick too late, when Hamill is already lowering his leg. The shooting ‘flaw’ consists of the camera being placed at an angle making it obvious that the kick did not actually hit the stuntman. The sequence is referred to as the “force kick”, which jokingly speculates that Luke uses Force telekinesis to make the henchman fall into the sarlacc pit rather than the physical impact of the kick.”
Alright. So what we have here is a fan page explaining that the term “force kick” was only created to explain the “blooper.” But is that the be-all and end-all? What if we asked Skywalker himself? Wouldn’t he have more authority on whether it was a blooper or not?
Hamill called it a “widely celebrated” and “perfectly executed Force-Kick.” Is there a hint of levity in his tone? Of course! But does it really matter whether or not it was a blooper or a force kick?
This is a movie about space battles and alien creatures, with explosions in space (there’s no oxygen so no explosions). I mean, people are more than ready to suspend their disbelief long enough to accept explosions in space, but a force kick is a hill they want to die on? God forbid we accept a kick when we accept everything else about this purely fictional film.
Just enjoy the movie. It exists to make you happy. Don’t turn it into a film class discussion. And just a reminder — it’s a force kick if anyone is still willing to argue.
If you want to see for yourself, all the original trilogy of Star Wars movies are currently streaming on Disney Plus.