Han Shot First

There’s been some controversy about a famous scene in the original “Star Wars” film (Episode IV: A New Hope) in which Han Solo and Greedo meet up in the cantina in Mos Eisley.   Soon after arranging transport for Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids to Alderaan, Han is accosted by Greedo, an alien bounty hunter working on behalf of Jabba the Hutt, the huge, ugly sluglike creature we all love to hate.

Initially the scene plays out with Han and Greedo shooting each other at the table, with Han obviously winning the encounter.   He did so by shooting first.  Supposedly this made Han a cold-blooded killer, so Lucas redid the scene so the two characters fire almost simultaneously.

One argument I haven’t heard, and which I’ll make here, is that Han DID fire first, but that doesn’t make him a cold-blooded killer.

He owes Jabba the Hutt money.  He’s just made a deal which should give him enough to pay off Jabba, though he’ll have to travel to Alderaan first to pick up the money.   In the meantime, Greedo is trying to capture him – or shoot him – to take him to Jabba and collect the bounty.   Naturally, Han doesn’t want that to happen.  [Apparently bankruptcy is not an option.   In addition to this, in a distant galaxy in which hyperdrive travel between star systems is possible, they don’t have banks or checks.  Finally, in all these films, I’ve yet to see a single lawyer.  Science fiction indeed.]

Oh, by the way:  wanted, dead or alive.   In “Django Unchained”, Christoph Waltz plays a bounty hunter in the Wild West.  Back then then bounty is the same, dead or alive, so he kills his target, reasoning that (A) the bounty is the same either way and (B) a corpse is less likely to cause problems or escape.   In “The Empire Strikes Back”, when setting up the carbon freeze for Solo and then Luke, bounty hunter Boba Fett warns Darth Vader that “he’s worth nothing to me dead”, referring to Solo.   So presumably Greedo would have simply rendered Solo unconscious but would still deliver him to Jabba.

Anyhow, when Han is finally delivered to Jabba, he starts off as a decoration on Jabba’s wall – in carbon frozen state – and is later brought to the sarlaac (pit monster) to be “slowly digested over a thousand years” (as per C3PO) – along with Luke.  Neither scenario is optimal for Han.   So why isn’t he justified in shooting Greedo first anyway?  That doesn’t make him a cold-blooded killer, just sensible.  Enough already.

Guido?   Greedo was originally called Guido and spoke with an affected Italian accent.  “I’m-a gonna take you to Jabba!”  But this tested poorly with test audiences, so Lucas changed this to Greedo (signifying an inherently greedy character motivated by greed, not working for the public good) and gave us yet more of this peculiar Star Wars affectation whereby the parties to a conversation are speaking different languages (R2D2, Greedo, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, etc.  Of course, we never see a conversation between two characters whose language isn’t English….).   (True story.)

Pirates.   By the way, Han is paid by the Alliance at the end of “Star Wars”, yet in “The Empire Strikes Back” he’s still pursued by Boba Fett.   So why didn’t he pay Jabba with the money?  Apparently, tucked away in the Star Wars multiverse, there’s a story taking place in the three years which divide the events of the two movies:  Han and Chewie are robbed by pirates, who took the money Han would otherwise have paid to Jabba.  For some reason this didn’t make it into “The Empire Strikes Back” or was simply added later to explain the discrepancy. 

Anyhow….