Today is May the 4th, and you know what that means – it’s Star Wars Day! To mark this celebration of all things from that galaxy far, far away, we’ve decided to take a look through the most iconic scenes across every film in the franchise.
These are not necessarily the greatest moments in Star Wars history – though obviously all of the moments listed here are pretty damn great – but rather, the most recognizable, if you will. These scenes, taken from the original trilogy, the prequel movies, and the recent sequel trilogy, are such epic pieces of filmmaking that they’ve sunk deep into popular culture. Which is to say that even if you’re not a hardcore Star Wars fan, you’ll probably still know about these scenes.
As we’ve limited ourselves to a mere top then, many moments didn’t make it onto this list. So, commiserations to the likes of the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, Vader’s massacre in Rogue One, the trash compactor scene from A New Hope and the Order 66 sequence from Return of the Jedi.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look back at the 10 most iconic moments in Star Wars movie history!