11 Ways Star Wars: The Last Jedi Was Basically The Empire Strikes Back

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is lured into a dark place which is usually referred to as a cave, but is more like a hole in the ground. Yoda urges caution but gives minimal advice. Once inside, Luke is faced with a mysterious setting and then a vision of Darth Vader. He bests him in battle, but discovers that his enemy was actually himself. It is his face inside Vader's mask.

On the island of Ahch-To, Rey (this film's young Force-sensitive protagonist who finds herself almost exactly in Luke's position in Empire) feels herself pulled towards a dark place, which this time really is a hole in the ground. Luke also urges caution, actually preferring in this case that she does not go in. But go in she does. Once inside, Rey is faced with a mysterious vision and some trippy special effects. Finally, she faces a dark figure and hopes to find her parentage. Of course, this face turns out to be her own.

Beyond these moments, in his youth, Luke battles temptation from Darth Vader himself, who urges him to join him and overthrow the Emperor. Of course, he shows little sign that he is likely to do so, but the reasons that he might are stacked up by his opponent. Rey, of course, spends her movie resisting the temptation of Kylo Ren, who later on in the sequence really has overthrown his master. In each case, the temptation of the dark pulls repeatedly at our heroes.