Some of Cloud City’s citizens responded to their administrator’s warning by frantically trying to escape, filling the city’s hallways. Amid the chaos, Lando, Leia and Chewie fought their way to the Falcon and took off.

While his friends fought to escape Cloud City, Luke confronted Vader in the carbon-freezing chamber. Luke escaped being frozen in carbonite, but Vader trapped him at the end of a gantry over a deep shaft. There, the Dark Lord cut off Luke’s hand and revealed the terrible truth that he was Luke’s father.

The young Jedi refused to join Vader and escaped capture by letting himself fall down the shaft. He survived the fall and was left clinging to a weather vane on the underside of Cloud City. Reaching out through the Force, Luke managed to contact Princess Leia’s mind. She insisted that the Falcon turn back to rescue him.

Vader curtly ordered his stormtroopers to bring his shuttle, and returned to the Super Star Destroyer Executor, confident that Luke had only briefly eluded him. Imperial operatives had deactivated the Falcon’s hyperdrive, undoing the Cloud City technicians’ work. The freighter would soon be captured.

R2-D2’s quick action allowed the Falcon to escape into hyperspace, leaving Cloud City and Bespin behind. After the destruction of the second Death Star at Endor, Cloud City’s citizens cheered the momentous rebel victory over the Empire.