Star Wars: 50 Greatest Moments - Ranked

27. The Rancor (Return Of The Jedi)

So much of Star Wars is George Lucas paying homage to a number of different cinematic influencers, and this creature is like something straight out of the Ray Harryhausen textbook.

There's a moment of sheer dread as we wait for Jabba's pet to emerge from its cave, which is followed by total shock (and a whole lot more dread) when the hulking mass does first appear (a rod-puppet, filmed at high-speed in order to slow its movements down).

The 'bear crossed with a potato' is a gruesome sight, and leads to a hugely tense sequence before Luke does finally defeat it, by which time it's proved itself as the best of the 'creature-feature' moments in the franchise. Really topping it off, though, is the Rancor's handler bursting into tears after its death, a brilliant example of how Lucas remade his influences with his own unique twists.