TYPE OF VIOLENT WEATHER: Snowstorm
ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN THE MOVIE: Three years after destroying the Death Star, the rebel forces fighting the evil Empire find a temporary home on the ice planet of Hoth. While on patrol for signs of Imperial probes, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is attacked by a ferocious creature called a wampa. He makes his escape from the monster’s cave and stumbles outside into a raging storm. Luckily for Luke, his friend Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is out looking for him (and makes effective use of recently expired tauntaun).
RANDOM (BUT SLIGHTLY RELEVANT) FACTOID: Like all the Star Wars movies, Empire was among the first movies to have the “directed by” credit come at the end of the movie. The Director’s Guild of America had no problem when George Lucas did this in the first movie, but had issues when Lucas did this with the Irvin Kershner-directed sequel. They fined him $250,000—and briefly tried to stop distribution of the film.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXmp1hLK0tY]