Theatrical Release:
The 70mm version of the film was slightly different from the 35mm version that was more widely seen. It is understood that when the movie was considered "finished," the elements were turned over to the lab and sound facilities so the desired 70mm print order could be prepared. The filmmakers, however, decided to make a few, albeit subtle, changes that, considering the expense and time involved in re-striking and and/or re-sounding 70mm prints, were reflected only in the film's 35mm prints. A couple of these differences can be found on the Ken Films Super 8 version of the film. An in theater recording of the audio exists (made by the same person who made a recording of the 70 mm showing of Star Wars) while only the first 4 minutes of video exist thanks to a CBS outlet. Some of the audio differences are likely because the in theater records captured the discreet left and right channels where the 35 mm release and subsequent home video used the matrixed Dolby Stereo track.
70 mm Visual Differences
- Shots of Leia, Han, etc., observing Luke in the Bacta Chamber are not present.
- The Emperor's hologram does not fade in at the start of his conversation with Vader.*
- Millennium Falcon sensor dish is not visible with Luke on weather vane. The position of the vane is also different on the background.*
- The frigate footage at the end consists of less shots than the 35mm version. *
- The exterior shot over which Lando says "When we find Jabba the Hutt and that bounty hunter, we'll contact you." is not in the 70mm version, instead when Luke says (voice over), "Good luck, Lando" the scene cuts directly to inside the rebel cruiser where Luke says, "I'll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine."
Found On:
* 8mm Ken Films Print
70 mm Audio Differences
- When Luke runs out of the wampa cave, there is a sound of his lightsaber deactivating even though it stays lit onscreen, this error later reappeared in the Special Edition.
- Different laserfire can be heard during the snow battle, the sound used for TIE fighters instead of X-wings.
- When R2 is being loaded into Luke's X-wing, C-3PO says the word "and" before saying "do take good care of yourself." The 2004 DVD really cranks up the quiet “and”.
- Yoda says the word "Run!" before "Yes. A Jedi's strength flows from the force." The following lines "But beware the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side of the force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight" are also much louder and clearer.
- The Imperial fleet establishing shot after the scene of Luke's failure at the cave has a different TIE fighter sound effect. (Can also be heard on the foreign GOUT-tracks, SE versions have the music as originally composed for the scene)
- While C-3PO is on Chewie's back when they enter the carbon freezing chamber, the line "Now remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don't do anything foolish" is louder and heard more clearly.
- In Cloud City, after C-3PO says "That sounds like an R2 unit in there. I wonder if it..." he says "Hello?" only once instead of twice.
- Lando's line at the end, "Luke, we're ready for takeoff." is a different take. (The same take can be heard in the Special Edition).
- The line "When we find Jabba the Hutt and that bounty hunter, we'll contact you." is not present.
- Lando's line "Princess, we'll find Han. I promise." is a different take.
- In the final scene, there is no tracked music from "Yoda and the Force".
35 mm Mono Audio Differences
In addition to the differences between the 35 mm Dolby Stereo and 70 mm 6 track audio, there was also a separate mono mix that had a few changes. It was found on a 16 mm print but likely was also distributed on 35 mm prints.
- In the asteroid field, after C-3PO says "Oh, this is suicide", the line "There's no where to go" was added.
- In Cloud City, after C-3PO says "That sounds like an R2 unit in there. I wonder if it..." he says "Hello?" only once instead of twice.
- While C-3PO is on Chewie's back when they enter the carbon freezing chamber, the line "Oh dear, what now?" is added to the beginning of C-3PO's dialog.
- When Darth Vader falls off the carbon freeze platform he grunts instead of saying "Argh".
Alternate Audio Sources
In addition to the differences in the 70 mm edit, There is an 8 mm shorter edit of the film and the audio from The Story of The Empire Strikes Back LP that contained the following differences.
- Luke: "Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han 'ole buddy, do you read me?" -Different take. *, **
- Luke - "I don't pick up any life readings" - Different take *, **
- Han - "I'm coming back" - Different take instead of the more widely heard “I'm going back” *, **
- Rogue 2: "Captain Solo, do you copy?" -Different take *
- Leia: "They're getting closer." -Different take *
- Han: "Oh, yeah? Watch this." -Different take *
- Obi-Wan's lines are not as 'echoed'.*
- The Cloud Car Pilots have alternate dialogue - "Any aggressive move will not be tolerated!" "Permission granted to land on platform 3-2-7. Any deviation from..." “Thank you!”-Han cuts off comlink.*
- After Lando tells Han, “Yeah, I'm responsible these days. It's the price of success.” The 8mm continues “And you know what, Han, you were right all along. It's over-rated.” as C-3PO talks with the other protocol droid.*
- More crowd noise as people flee Cloud City.*
Found On:
* 8mm Ken Films Print
** The Story of The Empire Strikes Back LP
LaserDisc Editions
Due to technical limitations, most pan-and-scan versions of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back are presented time-compressed (sped up by 2% for Star Wars and 4% for Empire Strikes Back) from their respective 121- and 125-minute lengths to fit one double-sided two-hour LaserDisc.
1997 Star Wars Trilogy Special Editions
- The opening credits were altered to lessen the effect that they move side-to-side sporadically.
- New scenes on Hoth with a fiercer-looking wampa ice creature (man in a suit), including showing the wampa screeching in agony following the loss of its limb. Two close-up shots of the original wampa mask are still noticeable.
- The opening battle sequence was cleaned up.
- Cockpits of the Snow speeders were cleaned up so as not to appear transparent.
- The blaster bolts of the TIE fighters have been made more green.
- An additional CG shot of Slave I pursuing the Millennium Falcon out of the Star Destroyer's floating garbage has been added.
- R2 whistles twice after Luke crashes into the swamp and before the huge shot of it with the Bogwing instead of once.
- Luke's line, "You're lucky you don't taste very good," after R2-D2 is spit out by a Dagobah swamp creature, is changed to "You were lucky to get out of there."
- Vader's breathing in the cave scene is at a lower pitch.
- New and additional shots of Cloud City with a CG Falcon and Cloud Cars approaching and flying through.
- Background cityscapes have been replaced in some areas with new CG versions.
- New sequence added following a Cloud Car patrolling Cloud City.
- Several wall panels have been digitally replaced with windows on Cloud City.
- In the scene where Luke heads to Cloud City, the Cloud Car is replaced by a Tibanna refinery.
- Lando Calrissian says "Attention" twice when he speaks on the Cloud City PA.
- Shot of Tian Chyler, a Bespin Wing Guard, and an unidentified blonde woman listening to Lando on the Cloud City PA ordering the evacuation of the city are added. Exterior shot of people milling about in Downtown Plaza.
- Luke screams as he jumps off the platform in Cloud City (the scream is actually lifted from the Emperor's death scream from Return Of The Jedi).
- Darth Vader's line "Bring my shuttle." is changed to "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival." The rest of the scene is extended with an additional shot of Vader walking to his shuttle and arriving on his Star Destroyer, where an outtake from Return of the Jedi was used (that's Moff Jerjerrod with his lines muted out who greets Vader).
- A digital hatch has been added to replace the white light that appears when Lando opens the outer hatch of the Falcon to rescue Luke.
- Some garbage matte boxes around starships were removed (but not all).
- "The Imperial March" is partially repeated in the ending credits music to make room for the Special Edition release credits.
- James Earl Jones was added to the credits as the voice of Darth Vader.
2004 Star Wars Trilogy DVD
- The wording in the opening credits has subtle transparency errors.
- Due to color timing issues, the explosion accompanying the destruction of the shield generator appears with a strange tint of green and purple.
- At least one shot of R2-D2 in space has been modified with CG recoloring to make him have blue panels instead of black (the blue screen technique in the original film removed all color from the droid). With the new coloring, his black central "eye" appears much smaller than normal. Despite this fix, R2-D2's domes appear black in several other shots throughout this release of the trilogy.
- In the original and special edition, when Darth Vader asks if the Falcon's hyperdrive is deactivated, Admiral Piett's rank plaque and code cylinders are on the wrong side of his uniform (the plaque is supposed to be on the left side of his tunic, but it was on his right side). This is corrected and Piett has the correct rank placement on his uniform. The same was done for another officer in the same shot.
- Due to color timing issues, Yoda appears much more green than in previous versions, although this is also true of his incarnation in the prequel trilogy and therefore may have been intentional.
- In a scene where Darth Vader speaks to the Emperor via hologram, the Emperor is now Palpatine as portrayed by Ian McDiarmid (in the original film and the Special Edition, Marjorie Eaton, wearing a specially made mask with chimpanzee's eyes superimposed over her own portrayed the Emperor, whose voice was dubbed in by Clive Revill.) A few lines of new dialogue have been added to this scene as well, in which Palpatine informs Vader that their new enemy is "the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."
- The four lines spoken by Boba Fett (Originally in the voice of Jason Wingreen) are now in the voice of Temuera Morrison, the actor who played Jango Fett (Boba Fett's clone "father"). The engine sounds of his ship, Slave I, have also been modified to sound as they did in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.
- The odd "pink glow" on the scene where the Cloud Car is replaced by the Tibanna refinery in the Special Edition version is removed.
- In both the original and Special Edition versions of the film, during the scene in which Han is lowered into the carbon-freezing chamber, a shadow on the actor's clothing has given rise to a rumored (but false) wardrobe blooper of him wearing his dark jacket during one shot (behind the scenes shots of the scene dispel the rumor). The "jacket" has been digitally erased in this release.
- Due to color timing issues, Darth Vader's lightsaber in the Luke/Vader duel now looks pink instead of red in almost all the shots it is in (this problem is also in the Episode VI lightsaber duel as well). It also changes to orange in a few shots (when Vader leaps at Luke in their duel in the Carbon freezing chamber, and when they encounter in the cave on Dagobah).
- The tracked Emperor death scream by Luke Skywalker introduced in the Special Edition re-release, which is heard during Luke's voluntary fall from the Cloud City platform after his fight with Vader, was removed.
- The credits are unchanged from the 1997 Special Edition, except that the format was changed in make it more in line with the credits roll of the prequel trilogy. Consequently, Clive Revill remains credited as the voice of the Emperor, despite being replaced by McDiarmid, who remains uncredited.
2011 Blu-ray Release
- Digitally removed puppeteering flaw of rig visible on Wampa arm attacking Luke.[12]
- A reflection has been added to a window in Cloud City when a cloud car passes by.
- Sparks have been added to the melting chamber when Chewbacca is searching for the remains of C-3PO in Cloud City.
2019 Disney+ 4K Restoration
- The 20th Century Fox logo and fanfare have been restored for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, due to the Disney-Fox merger earlier that year. For these versions as well as A New Hope, the 1994 logo is used minus the News Corporation byline. The 1997 Lucasfilm logo has also been replaced by the 2015 logo.
- After having been changed in the 2004 DVD release to fit in line with the prequels, the original typeface for the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." card before the opening crawl has been restored.
- Various shots throughout the film were recomposited to appear properly in 4K.
- The close-up shot of the Wampa's arm swiping at Luke was slightly re-framed in order to better hide the edge of the puppeted arm.
- The wipe from Leia and General Rieekan speaking in Echo Base to the Imperial fleet in space was redone.
- The shield generator explosion was redone in order to hide the color timing error made in the 2004 version.
- Shots of the interior of the Millennium Falcon cockpit were slightly cropped to appear tighter.
- Luke and Vader's lightsaber colors during their duel in the Dagobah cave were redone to appear paler.
- The window that Leia looks out in the Cloud City apartment was slightly touched up again.
- The new smoke and sparks added to the Cloud City furnace in the 2011 Blu-ray release were slightly touched up.
- New artificial lighting was added to Han's computer generated shoulders (added in the 2004 DVD release) before he is put into the carbon chamber.