"Breaking Down the Hero's Journey" The Empire Strikes Back

Joseph Campbell's theory of "The Hero With a Thousand Faces"

Is one that has to do with this essay. The Hero's Journey is a chain of events that is applicable to any protagonist in a story. To demonstrate this I broke down the steps of the journey using one of my favorite movies: The Empire Strikes Back

            The hero’s journey is one that can be broken down and gleaned from many modern features. One of the best examples of these is in George Lucas’ Star Wars Trilogy; Lucas was a prodigy of Campbell and was inspired to relate his form of mythology into the modern era with Star Wars. An easy way to break down the steps of the hero is to look at one movie in the saga, but it is applicable to the entire series in another, overarching, and hero’s journey.

            These smaller journeys can be exemplified in movies like The Empire Strikes Back, which contains its own journey while also finding itself in the middle of the larger journey. The movie mostly represents the part of the journey involving initiation and trials; the situation is tense, the stakes seem much higher, and the film has an overall ominous feeling to it.

            The status quo that begins the film can be found with Luke being part of the rebel alliance on the run from the empire. The natural state of things is that the alliance is together and formed into an organized community. The flaw in this community is that the Empire is threatening the existence of the rebellion to the point of putting the base of operations on hostile, uninhabited, worlds like Hoth. The part of status quo that affects Luke Skywalker would be that he is a Jedi on the path to a great future, but he doesn’t have the means to master the force and to begin his progression to another piece of Joseph Campbell’s myth, being the master to two worlds.

            The call to adventure is what will set the character off into the outside world and would start the rising action in the story. In Empire Strikes Back, this call is easily recognizable as the ghost of Ben Kenobi calls to Luke across the snow covered landscape and implores him to very much literally meet his mentor in the next step of the adventure. Yoda is also one of the most prominent figures in media for the mentor archetype and helps the hero fall into a metamorphosis into something more than he was when he set off.

            The first threshold is what will set the main character off into the outside world (the difference between the two worlds is even more obvious in the movie as the outside world is literally on the different planets that aren’t Hoth). The major event that tells the audience that the hero is starting the journey is easily identifiable as the snow battle on Hoth, which literally forces the hero into the outside world; with the rebel base being evacuated, and the rebellion becoming separated, the situation of the outside world is very quickly defined and gives clues to where the plot is going.

            And in that spirit of trials, Luke begins his metamorphosis under the tutelage of Yoda and other trials are set for him, which he will have to face with his new knowledge. The trials will involve two specific parts of the monomyth: Apotheosis and Atonement with the Father. Obviously the father figure here is Darth Vader and “atonement” isn’t necessarily the best description. The real meaning is any kind of meeting with a male figure with power over life and death;facing Vader represents the culmination of all of Luke’s actions thus far and while the “atonement” in the overall series would be found in Return of the Jedi, the duel on Bespin is one that would fall under the same category. This duel can also be the approach part of the journey as again, all the trials are leading up to this encounter. The apotheosis and crisis in the movie involves the loss of Skywalker’s hand, and Han’s carbon freezing. While neither of these involves a literal death, the loss of the hand impairs Luke’s usefulness with a lightsaber and leads well into the flight and return to the normal world.

            The return is one, which may be victorious, or not with the enemy hot on the heels of the protagonist as is the case with Luke’s escape from Bespin on the Millennium Falcon, with Vader’s super star destroyer in hot pursuit. The hero may also go through a period where the flight involves “rescue without” in order to escape (Leia’s rescue of Luke from the weathervane under Cloud City works pretty well here). The magical aspect of the flight would center on the miraculous repair of the Falcon’s hyper drive at the last second. The return to the normal world as a whole is represented by the relative safety that the rebel fleet offers in comparison to the danger in being separated from them throughout the movie. Finally, there is often a talisman, which is granted to the hero to protect them from further trials as a form of divine intervention or supernatural aid. The science fiction aspect of Star Wars causes this to change a bit but the gist remains the same; Luke is reborn when his hand is remade robotically and ready with new knowledge from his adventure to continue on his journey.