The doors swung shut behind Duke Hauser as he stepped onto the cantina set.
Thick fog rolled through the space with three fog machines humming.
Duke ran his fingers along the curved stucco wall.
The scenic painters had mixed sand into the plaster, then washed it with brown and grays.
He walked past the booths seeing alien creatures filling every corner.
Each one requiring its own custom latex mold, made weeks ago in the workshop.
Under one table, a puppeteer crouched in a hollowed-out space, using his hands to move wooden levers.
Cables ran up through the tabletop, disappearing into the jaw of a blue-skinned alien. The creature's mouth opened and closed.
Duke stopped near a green Rodian puppet with three technicians surrounding it.
One worked the eyelids, another twisted a lever for the jaw while a third manipulated the arms.
The movements weren't perfect, even slightly janky, but they felt quite real.
Near the bar, the Bith musicians took their places on a raised platform.
Their instruments in their hands looked like they'd been salvaged from a scrapyard, plumbing pipes, exhaust tubes, and bits of metal welded together.
A speaker crackled to life and an upbeat swing jazz melody blared across the soundstage. .
The crew started tapping their feet.
This was the right music tone, bizarre and catchy, the kind of thing that stuck in your head after the movie ended.
A sound came from near the entrance as Harrison Ford walked in.
He moved with a sort of lazy confidence.
Wearing the iconic black vest, off-white shirt and a modified Mauser pistol sat in his hip holster.
His eyes were slightly red.
Duke walked over. "You ready?"
Ford shrugged. "What's the scene?"
"The booth with Greedo. You're going to shoot him."
Ford's hand drifted to the Mauser. He unholstered it, checked the weight. "You want dialogue first? The script has him talking. Then I fire."
Duke shook his head. "No warning. Try to catch us off guard."
Ford nodded with a grin on his face.
Tecnically they should first record the meeting between Luke, Obi-Wan and Han Solo.
But he decided to first shoot the Greedo confrontation to give time for Harrison to get in character.
"Quiet on set!" The assistant director raised his hand.
The Panavision camera hummed. The lens reflected the booth. The lights baked the set.
As Han prepares to leave his booth, Greedo, a blue alien intercepts him, already holding a blaster pointed directly at Han.
He forces Han to sit back down.
Han slides back into the booth.
To show he isn't intimidated, he casually kicks his legs up, resting his boots on the table, and leans back against the wall with his hands relaxed.
While Greedo talks, threatening to take Han's ship or his life to pay off Jabba the Hutt, Han subtly unfastens his holster.
Out of Greedo's line of sight beneath the table, Han slides his blaster into his hand.
Han continues to talk his way through the situation, keeping his face calm and his voice steady to ensure Greedo stays focused on the conversation.
Without shifting his posture or breaking eye contact, Han fires a single shot straight through the underside of the table, hitting Greedo point-blank.
Greedo slumps face-forward dead onto the table.
Han smoothly holsters his weapon, stands up, tosses a coin to the bartender to apologize for the mess, and walks out of the cantina without looking back.
____
Hours later, Duke pushed through the doors of Soundstage 22.
Gone was the smoky chaos of the cantina.
The Death Star corridor stretched ahead of him, an endless tunnel of sterile, white lighted corridors.
Geena Davis stepped from her dressing room on a white gown, two twin coils of hair pinned tightly over her ears.
"Where do you want me?"
"You're on the detention block," Duke said. "They blow the door, you take over the reins."
She gave a nod, gathered her hem, and strode onto her place.
"Action."
Disguised in stolen Stormtrooper armor, Luke and Han march Chewbacca playing the role of a captive Wookiee into a security station of Detention Block.
When the commanding officer questions their transfer orders, Chewbacca executes the plan:
He "breaks free," throwing off his binders and grabbing a blaster.
Using the Wookiee's rampage as cover, Han and Luke draw their own weapons and shoot every Imperial officer and guard in the room, then blast the security cameras to blind the command center.
While Luke searches the cell registry for Leia, an imperial officer calls over the intercom asking about the commotion.
Officer: "What happened?"
Han Solo: "Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but, uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine, we're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?"
Officer: "We're sending a squad up."
Han Solo: "Uh... uh, negative, negative. We have a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous."
Officer: "Who is this? What's your operating number?"
Han Solo: [Blasts the intercom, destroying it] "Boring conversation anyway."
Luke finally ends up locating Cell 2187.
He opens the blast doors, pulls off his helmet, and introduces himself with the now iconic line, "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you."
The princess is on a very atractive pose, providing eye candy for the viewer.
Before they can leave, a squad of Stormtroopers blows through the elevator doors, cutting off their only exit.
Han, Chewbacca, and Luke return fire from the cell block corridor, but they are completely boxed in.
Realizing the men have no actual escape plan, Leia seizes control.
She grabs Luke's blaster, shoots a hole through a nearby ventilation grate, and dives headfirst into the Death Star's garbage chute.
Chewbacca, Luke, and Han dive in after her just as the Stormtroopers close in.
"Cut"
___
Next chapter will be last Star Wars production one, and will be focused on the lightsaber fight of Darth Vader and Obi Wan