Han Solo

"Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerfherder!"

- Princess Leia

Han Solo is a central figure of the first Star Wars trilogy and is known as one of the most famous and popular science fiction characters of all time. Played primarily by actor Harrison Ford, Han was introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars (later identified by its full title Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope). Ford reprised the role of Solo for the film's sequels, Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Beyond the films, Han has proven to be a staple of the Star Wars mythos making appearances in related media including novels, comic books, video games and audio dramatizations. Han is originally portrayed as a brash, cocky smuggler and pilot of the Millennium Falcon; forever on the run from bounty hunters and galactic crime lord Jabba the Hutt. With the promise of a hefty reward, he begrudgingly agrees to help Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi rescue Princess Leia Organa from the Death Star. Initially showing no interest in the struggle of the Rebel Alliance against the Empire, Han has a change of heart and returns to help the Rebels at a critical moment, allowing Luke Skywalker the chance to destroy the Death Star. With that, Han remains with the Rebel Alliance who help to shield him from underworld figures who come gunning for him. He develops a relationship with Princess Leia and the two slowly begin falling in love with one another. Their lives are turned upside down when the Empire captures them at Cloud City on Bespin. Han is tortured and frozen in a block of carbonite whereupon he is handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett for delivery to Jabba the Hutt. His friends devote themselves to rescuing Han and succeed in liberating him from Jabba's clutches shortly before he is to be executed at the Great Pit of Carkoon on Tatooine. He then commands a Rebel landing party to the forest moon of Endor where his team successfully destroys a power generator responsible that is shielding the Empire's second Death Star. Once again, Han heroically enables his friends the chance to deal a decisive and overwhelming blow to their enemies.

Early years
Han and Chewbacca were spending time at Chalmun's Cantina in the Mos Eisley space port on Tatooine. While Chewbacca mingled with the other spacers, Han sat in a booth in the rear of the bar spending time with a companion named Jenny. Han flirted with the young woman who was described as having "a wide, if inhuman, grin". After Jenny left the booth, he was approached by retired Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenboi and a Tatooine farm boy named Luke Skywalker. Obi-Wan and Luke were seeking a pilot willing to transport them to the Alderaan system. The group haggled over a fee, but Han was satisfied when they settled on 17,000 credits. As they prepared to leave the cantina however, a neophyte bounty hunter named Greedo corned Han, pointed a blaster in his face and made him sit down. Han had dealings with Greedo in the past - an experience that made Greedo extremely eager to prove his value as a hunter by bringing Solo in. Greedo attempted to collect the money that Han owed to Jabba the Hutt and even threatened to take Solo's ship. Shots were fired, but in the end, Han proved to be the more accurate gunman. Greedo fell over dead before him.

Leaving the cantina, Han ran into Greedo's employer, Jabba the Hutt, as well as his entourage of bounty hunters which included Boba Fett, a man whom Han would have many encounters with through the course of his life. Jabba playfully criticized Han for "frying poor Greedo" and reminded him of the large debt that was owed to him. Han assured Jabba that he was very close to paying him back and managed to buy himself more time with the Tatooine crime lord. After punctuating his dislike for the Hutt by unceremoniously stepping on his tail, Han sarcastically told him "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being", a sentiment that Jabba most assuredly took great offense to. With the meeting concluded, Han left to meet back up with Chewie and his new clients.

Han met up with Chewie, Luke and Obi-Wan at Docking Bay 94 at the Mos Eisley space port. By this point however, a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers had learned that Luke was sheltering two fugitive droids named C-3PO and R2-D2 who were wanted by the Empire. The Stormtroopers opened fire on the group and Han exchanged several shots with them before boarding the Falcon. Once the ship was primed, he blasted out of the space port and into outer space. Han traveled a safe distance away before entering hyperspace, at which point, he was able to leave the ship on automatic and take a moment to relax. He watched the elderly Kenobi attempting to train Luke in the ways of the Force and chided the would-be warrior by saying he didn't believe in any all-powerful Force that controlled everything. Kenobi, having long grown accustomed to such skepticism, ignored Han's jeers.

When the Falcon came out of hyperspace, the crew found themselves in the middle of a meteor shower. After checking his position, Han deduced that the planet Alderaan had been destroyed; the only lasting testament to its existence was the debris field that they were now navigating through. As they made their way through the asteroids, an Imperial TIE fighter (piloted by the bumbling Tag Greenley and Bink Otauna according to some sources) swept past them through the field. Han chased after the fighter, hoping to destroy it before it could identify his ship and report back to its superiors. They followed it to the Empire's latest "technological terror", a massive space station known as the Death Star. The Death Star caught the Falcon in its tractor beam and pulled it into its hangar bay.

Han was able to conceal himself and the others within hidden compartments located beneath the deck panels of the ship. Han normally used these areas for smuggling illegal contraband and scoffed at the notion of using them to "smuggle himself" onto the Death Star. When a scanning crew boarded the ship, Han, Luke and Chewie knocked them out then called for two Stormtroopers, TK-421 and TK-422 to give them a hand. They incapacitated the soldiers and donned their uniforms so they could move freely about the station. Han wore the armor of TK-422. Through these disguises, they were able to sneak off the Falcon and make their way to a computer room. Obi-Wan separated himself from the group in order to find the control center that operated the tractor beams and shut them down. Luke discovered that Princess Leia, the woman from Alderaan whom they were traveling to meet, was being held prisoner on the Death Star. Han had no interest in risking his life to save some woman he never heard of, but Luke played to Solo's greed, plying him with the promise of a reward yielding more wealth than he could imagine. Reluctantly, Solo agreed to help.

Still wearing their Stormtrooper disguises, they marched Chewbacca down to the station's detention level as part of a "prisoner transfer". Once inside the control room, they blasted away at the control room guards, clearing out the room. Han scanned the computer records and located the cell block where Leia was being held. While Luke ran off to find the Princess, Han tried to cover the room as a means of escape. He intercepted a communication from an officer demanding to know what was going on in the cell block. He tried to play the incident off as a reactor leak, but knew that the officer wasn't buying his story. Frustrated, he blasted the com system and yelled a warning to Luke to expect company.

Han and Chewie met up with Luke and the now free Princess Leia. While trying to get back to the ship, they ran into a group of Stormtroopers who cornered them in a corridor. The adversaries traded blaster shots until Leia took the initiative, grabbing Han's stolen trooper rifle and blowing a hole into a wall panel leading into a garbage chute. Han and the others dived through the chute into a trash compactor. Although they were momentarily safe, new dangers arose when Luke was attacked by a dianoga monster and the compactor walls began closing in on them. Fortunately for them, Luke was able to contact Threepio who released the pressure hatch to the room, enabling them to escape.

Han and Chewbacca split off from Luke and Leia and took an alternate route towards the hangar bay. They ran into another group of Troopers, but managed to avoid getting shot long enough to get to the Falcon. Obi-Wan had succeeded in deactivating the tractor beams, but lost his life in a lightsaber dual with Darth Vader. With everyone else safely aboard, the Falcon took off and blasted away to safety. Little did Han know that Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin took the liberty of planting a homing beacon aboard the ship in the hopes that they would lead them to the hidden location of the Rebel Alliance base of operations. To maintain an appearance of vigilance, Tarkin had a small group of TIE fighters pursue the Falcon, knowing that the freighter ship would easily destroy them. While Chewbacca piloted the ship, Han and Luke mounted the quad-laser cannons and shot down all of the enemy fighters. Leia was the only one who suspected the ruse and warned Han that the Empire let them escape.

Han brought the princess to the Rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin. Everyone thought that Han and Chewie would stay to help out with the Rebellion's struggle against the Empire, but Han was quick to show his mercenary side citing, "I ain't in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money". Embittered by Han's attitude, Leia was able to deliver Han the reward money that he had been promised. Chewbacca and he loaded up the Falcon and left Yavin IV. As the Rebel Alliance mounted a desperate offensive against the approaching Death Star, Han had a change of heart. Turning the ship around, he returned to the battle site and successfully destroyed two TIE fighters and crippled the TIE Advanced x1 Starfighter piloted by Darth Vader himself. This eleventh-hour rescue brought Luke Skywalker the precious seconds he needed to fire a proton torpedo into the station's exhaust port causing the Death Star to explode. Han and Chewie returned to the Rebel base with the other survivors for a victory celebration. Han was awarded a Medal of Honor for his participation in the Battle of Yavin.

After the Death Star
Having gathered their reward money for rescuing Princess Leia, Han and Chewie left Yavin IV to go pay back Jabba the Hutt. En route however, they ran afoul of a notorious space pirate named Crimson Jack. Jack stole the reward money and Han and Chewie were lucky to be left with the Falcon.

Their next stop was the outer rim world of Aduba-3 where they assisted a Verpine priest bury a dead cyborg.

Notes & Trivia

 * Han Solo is the only central character from the original Star Wars who does not make an appearance in the prequel trilogy. Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Wilhuff Tarkin appear at the end of Revenge of the Sith, while Chewbacca the Wookiee appears earlier in the film. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and the droids appear in all three prequels.


 * Although Han received an adequate reward for his part in rescuing Princess Leia from the Death Star, he never received the balance of 15,000 credits owed him by Luke and Obi-Wan for taking them to the Alderaan system.


 * Han enjoyed coming up with fanciful nicknames with which to address both Princess Leia and C-3PO. He frequently addressed Leia by various titles including "Your highness", "Princess", "Your worship", "Sister" and even "Highnessness". In regards to Threepio, sarcastically referred to him as "the Professor" and "Goldenrod" on more than one occasion.

"Han shot first"
In the original theatrical release of Star Wars, it was Han Solo who fired his weapon first at Greedo, ultimately killing him. In the 1997 Special Edition version of Star Wars, the scene was re-edited to show Greedo firing first and Han shooting Greedo in self defense. This change in historical canon has been the subject of great ridicule among fans and many feel that the change was made in an effort to un-necessarily sanitize the character of Han Solo. George Lucas has gone on record as saying that he re-edited the scene to make Solo more of a role model figure.

Parodies
A pastiche of Han Solo appeared in the 1977 parody short Hardware Wars. The character was called Ham Salad and was played by actor Bob Knickerbocker.