10 Movies That Were Saved By One Genius Tweak
8. George Lucas Irons Out A Confusing Ending After The Film Hits Theatres - The Empire Strikes Back
Long before his penchant for tweaking and adjusting his darlings became something of a stick to beat the iconic director with, George Lucas decided that something just wasn't quite working with his second Star Wars epic. The only problem was the fact that he discovered this issue after The Empire Strikes Back had already been released.
However, with Episode V still not being released in 35mm to a wider audience for another three weeks, Lucas saw an opening to rejig a rather confusing sequence late on.
As revealed on StarWars.com later down the road, ILM general manager Tom Smith took a phone call from Lucas stating that "we need some more shots for Empire" due to the geography of the ending scene being a bit confusing.
With it initially not being clear where Luke and Leia were in relation to Chewie and Lando on the Millennium Falcon, three new special effects shots were created to clear up the whereabouts of our heroes; those being a shot of the Rebel fleet showcasing how there were more ships present than just the Falcon, a closer shot of the iconic light freighter, and a panning shot from the Falcon to the Rebel medical frigate.
It's a tiny detail, but one that saved the film from potentially leaving many fans a touch puzzled after such a compelling middle chapter.