Day 77:
The speeder bike chase scene from “Return of the Jedi” seemed like a fast-paced race across the forested moon of Endor. But the reality was nearly as interesting. The chase was filmed in a grove of Redwood trees taht were slated to be cut down for logging. This gave George Lucas’ production team a lot of leeway for how to shoot it. What they came up with was having Steadicam operators walk the route in a slow, steady path through the forest, but shot it at three-quarters speed. So when it was speed up to full-speed, it seemed as if the shots from Luke’s POV on the Speederbike was going at a blazing 120 miles per hour.
In the 100 days of Star Wars trivia series, we share 100 unique facts about the Star Wars franchise as we count down the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 18, 2015.