Star Wars: Mark Hamill Went To School For The Bacta Tank Scene In The Empire Strikes Back
"The Empire Strikes Back" is widely regarded as one of the greatest — if not the best — films in the "Star Wars" universe. It has a perfect blend of action and drama. It takes the initial stakes of "A New Hope" and raises everything up a notch in preparation for the final showdown of the trilogy in "Return of the Jedi."
"Empire" starts off with the Rebellion collected on Hoth, where they resist the forces of the Empire in a knock-down, drag-out battle. When this goes south for the Rebels, they flee in different directions. This leads to a primarily solo romp for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) through the film as he meets Yoda, receives his Jedi training, and eventually seeks out his friends and enemies once again.
In 2020, Mark Hamill gave a lengthy interview on the Star Wars website in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the film. In it, the actor rehashed a voluminous number of memories associated with the production of the movie. This included a story about a fascinating scene where his character spends some time in a Bacta tank. It's the first time that the liquefied healing tool is ever seen on screen.
To perform the scene, Hamill had to receive a crash course in the submersible art of scuba diving. "They took me to a private school that had a big enough swimming pool because I had never been scuba diving before," the actor explained, "And I said to them, 'Well I don't think it's any big deal. I'll just breathe through the tank. What's the big whoop about that?' And they said, 'Well, you'd better try it.' So, I went to an all-girls school and they had the swimming pool closed as I had my lessons."
Hamill's Bacta pod prep was entertaining
During his private scuba training, Mark Hamill may have been prepping for a shoot (rather than filming the scene itself), but it turns out that he had an audience the whole time, anyway. "I remember, at one point," he explains, "looking up and on the second floor balcony there were, I don't know, 50 girls all up there giggling and pointing and laughing. So that was interesting."
Once he was ready, the actor was brought back to the studio, where he was hooked up and installed into the dunk-tank alternative seen on film. His training came through, and the experience ended up being quite relaxing. The actor explained, "It was wonderful because the water was warm enough to be comforting and it was very much like being in an isolation tank. [Luke Skywalker is] supposed to be unconscious so you're just floating there ... It was surreal because you could look out and see the outlines of Harrison and Carrie and [the director] Irvin Kershner and the crew. It was a unique experience to me. I don't think I've ever done anything like that since."
The odd scene wasn't the last time the liquid health plan would be front and center in the Star Wars universe. The Bacta tank has made an appearance in several locations in the four decades since its native on-screen voyage. It popped up, among other places, in "The Book of Boba Fett," where the titular character consistently uses a portable version of the contraption to heal from his wounds. Darth Vader also inhabits a Bacta tank on multiple occasions, including in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series.
The rest of Hamill's Empire filming wasn't so relaxing
Mark Hamill may have been able to kick back and relax during the filming of the Bacta tank scene, but the rest of the experience was hardly a cakewalk. Luke Skywalker's character journey in the movie is rigorous and exhausting throughout — and Hamill's desire to do his own stunts didn't make things easier for him.
On the contrary, the interview on the Star Wars website clarified that he trained for four months before filming his scenes for "The Empire Strikes Back" — some of which took place in the arctic frozen tundra of Norway, literally in the midst of an epic snow storm. In the lead-up to filming, Hamill practiced karate and bodybuilding with a healthy dose of fencing and kendo tossed in for good measure. He even practiced with Olympic fencing champion Bob Anderson — you've got to do whatever it takes to prep for those lightsaber duels.
This equipped Hamill with the ability to perform the majority of his stunts, even if studio insurance concerns occasionally forced him to step aside for a scene or two. The actor was so prolific with his stunts that he was eventually made a member of the British Stunt Union. While he may have been up for filming any and every kind of risky scene, though, the Bacta tank sequence (and his odd preparation for it) stands out as one of the strangest moments in Hamill's on-screen career.