Star Wars: 10 Best Ever Uses Of The Force

1. Do Or Do Not: There Is No Try - The Empire Strikes Back

There are no ifs or buts, this is the best lesson Luke – and an entire generation of Star Wars kids - ever received in the Force. Luke, although clearly able to interact with the Force, is not having the best of times in Yoda’s Jedi School for Remedial Adults. He didn’t have the wisdom to identify the quirky little green muppet as the great Jedi Master he’d been sent to find; he failed to understand Yoda’s warning about the paranoia that comes with heading, armed and ignorant, into the unknown; now, the last part of his X-wing has sunk into the swamp and is apparently unrecoverable, trapping him on the planet.

Luke tries to lift it out with the Force but soon fails. Dejected, he slumps at his master’s feet, bemoaning the size of the problem. “I can’t... It’s too big,” he moans. What follows is probably the most sublime moment (to date) of the entire franchise.

There’s a reason the character of Yoda became so popular with fans – and it has little to do with him bouncing around with a lightsaber in a duel with Christopher Lee. After one of the greatest speeches in the series, performed so wonderfully by Frank Oz and Mark Hamill, Luke still doesn’t believe it’s possible and walks away huffily.

Yoda, calmly and without fanfare, proceeds to blow Luke’s mind wide open by raising the sunken ship himself, floating it across the swamp and landing it gently at his student’s feet. John Williams, meanwhile, scores the scene incredibly beautifully, heightening the experience immeasurably.

“I... I don’t believe it,” says a stunned Luke. Yoda’s reply is short and to the point, the scene ends and the whole audience have been schooled.