10 More Deleted Movie Scenes That Explain Confusing Moments
Key context on the cutting room floor.
Who doesn't love watching a film's deleted scenes? There may not have been a place for them in the final edit, for a plethora of different reasons, but that doesn't mean that they can't offer something outside the walls of the finished product.
In some cases, these deleted scenes can actually give vital context that can't be found anywhere else through the story, as previously looked at in our 10 Deleted Movie Scenes That Explain Confusing Moments. Movie scenes rarely happen in a vacuum, they will often lead to something else, no matter how big or small, or will inform a subsequent moment later in the story. If a scene is to be cut, then everything it affects surely has to be considered, but this is not always the case.
Moments have been left out of movies that have explained character motivations, given context to conversations that without them made absolutely no sense, and even solved massive plot holes that almost overshadowed the entire thing.
The following moments may have been left on the cutting room floor, but they still offer insight and answers to some highly confusing questions left by their absence.
10. The Lies About Luke Skywalker's Father - Star Wars - Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi
Darth Vader (James Earl Jones & David Prowse) revealing himself to be Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) father in The Empire Strikes Back is one of the biggest twists in cinema history and was only made possible by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) keeping the young Skywalker, and thus the audience, in the dark from the very beginning.
Instead, Ben told Luke that his father had been killed by Darth Vader, something that has always been a point of contention among the Star Wars fandom. In reality, it simply wasn't decided yet that this was the path the story was going to take, but in-universe, why would Obi-Wan keep such vital information from the future Jedi Master?
Yoda (Frank Oz) did actually explain the lies and secrecy to Luke on his deathbed, though the dialogue was cut from Return of the Jedi's final edit. Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke the truth because Yoda told him not to.
Yoda was counting on Luke defeating Vader, and as soon as he found out that this meant killing his father, there was a weakness within him. Some doubt or sentiment was always going to show itself when the truth came out, and with Luke essentially being less than a Padawan at the time, with a fight against one of the greatest Jedi ever on the horizon, this was a weakness they could not afford.