A New Hope

Special Edition Laserdisc Side 2 Chapter 25

The Millennium Falcon has been pulled aboard the Death Star by a tractor beam. Ben, Han, Luke, Chewie and the droids have slipped away from their ship and have taken refuge in a Death Star control room, where Artoo has tapped into a central computer to learn the location of the tractor beam’s power supply. As he listens to the central computer describe a method for shutting down the power beam to allow the Millennium Falcon to escape, Ben’s face grows extremely serious and he says,

B: I don’t think you boys can help. I must go alone.

H: Whatever you say. I’ve done more than I bargained for on this trip already.

L: I want to go with you!

B: Be patient Luke. Stay and watch over the droids. They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path from mine. <pause> The Force will be with you...always. <Obi-Wan hurries away.>

Luke, Chewie and Han then concoct a plan to rescue Leia. As the plan unfolds, Vader and Tarkin talk in a conference room:

V: HE is here!

T: Obi-Wan Kenobi? What makes you think so?

V: A tremor in the Force. The last time I felt it was in the presence of my old master.

T: Surely he must be dead by now.

V: Don’t underestimate the Force.

T: The Jedi are extinct. Their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that’s left of their religion. <answering the intercom> Yes?

Intercom: We have an emergency alert in detention block AA23.

T: The Princess? Put all sections on the alert!

V: Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with him.

T: If you’re right, he must not be allowed to escape.

V: Escape is not his plan. I must face him, alone.

This is immediately followed by a shot of Ben in the hallway holding his lightsaber (sheathed) and moving purposefully forward, clearly toward his anticipated encounter with Vader.

1) Our adventurers seem to be making up everything as they go along -- every one of them except Ben. Ben Kenobi seems to know exactly what’s going on every step of the way, as though he has everything planned. When Owen and Beru died, Ben didn’t act surprised -- in fact, even though he warned Luke not to go home because it would be "too dangerous," he didn’t take even a step in Luke’s direction to stop him. I think he knew what Luke would find back at the farm. And even though the destruction of Alderaan nauseated him a little (he got over it pretty quickly), he was the one who recognized that it was a Death Star, not a moon, floating amid the pieces of Alderaan. And when he saw the map of the Death Star’s power grid, he insisted on going off down the hall alone. I believe Ben Kenobi knows exactly what’s going to happen, every step of the way, throughout ANH. Seems like either he has it all planned, or he’s using the Force to catch glimpses of the future. I hope it’s the latter.

2) Ben’s remark to Luke, "The Force will be with you always," sounds very much like Jesus’ promise, "And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

3) Just like Ben, Vader seems to know exactly what’s going on every step of the way. He knows when his old master has arrived aboard the Death Star and just like Ben, he insists on meeting his nemesis alone. Now are you going to try to tell me that Lucas isn’t signalling to us that these two guys, Ben and Vader, know exactly what’s about to happen? Of course they know! It’s obvious they’ve known for a long time that they were destined to meet, and even, I think, that Ben was destined to die --if "die" is the operative word in this case. The moment Ben set foot on the Death Star, Vader caught his scent and they both began planning to meet. Alone. This encounter had been in the works for a long time, and I think both men knew its preordained outcome. Vader even tells Tarkin that he knows Ben’s plan -- or at least he indicates that he knows what Ben’s plan *isn’t* -- and I’ve come to believe that Vader knows Ben has come aboard to die at Vader’s hand.