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This answer to a question about the looks of hyperspace travel in Star Wars seems to indicate the "blue tunnel" effect, which happens once the ships are traveling through hyperspace, was already there in Return of the Jedi.

Now, I know memory is a tricky thing, but my childhood memories of the original trilogy are very vivid when thinking of the stretching stars when entering hyperspace, but I don't remember the "blue tunnel" effect at all.

Does anyone have any footage of the original Return of the Jedi, unmodified by later SFX remixes, to check whether the blue tunnel was always there or it was added in later edits of the movie?

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  • Do you have a time hack for when it occurs? I've got the "original theatrical versions" but right now I can't sit and watch the whole movie, as much as I might like to.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 17:39
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    This would have been easy if the original 1982 trailer had contained a hyperspace sequence. As it stands, there's no way to tell which version of the film any of the other videos is from.
    – Spencer
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 17:39
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    @OrganicMarble when Ackbar orders the fleet to jump to Endor, we get the jump persepective from inside the Millennium Falcon.
    – Spencer
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 17:41
  • @Spencer thanks, that helped me find it. It's on the other side of that jump, when they come out.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 17:43
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    I didn't remember it either. But I think it's only there very briefly and there are far more interesting things to remember immediately after. In the original trilogy it's not like hyperspace in Babylon 5 where we see the ships in hyperspace for long periods. In star wars OT it's a second before the action starts
    – lucasbachmann
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 6:27

2 Answers 2

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I know of no way to prove that this is really an unLucased version, but I have the "original theatrical versions" that were included as flipsides on one of the early DVD sets.

In that version of ROTJ, there is a blue tunnel at 1:33:17

enter image description here

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  • Thanks for this. Looks good enough for me. The description you linked to indicates this is indeed the original theatrical version, which is what I was asking about. So the blue tunnel was there all along! Memory is a strange thing indeed...
    – Andres F.
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 19:11
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    FWIW, I remember this effect on a VHS we recorded from a TV broadcast of RotJ in the mid-to-late eighties. I reasonably confident I've never even SEEN another version of RotJ besides that one.
    – Stephen Collings
    Commented Jan 6, 2022 at 17:23
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There were no published or publicly-acknowledged SFX remixes made to RotJ hyperspace effects.

However, you could be associating it’s apparent differences to the hyperspace effects of other films’ SFX remixes, as well as general color-correcting and color tinkering which has been performed on multiple occasions to various releases of all three of the original trilogy films, particularly to correct what LFL has generally described as “excessive blueness” of the initial ESB and RotJ releases.

The 1981 re-release of Star Wars (1977) which added the “Episode IV: A New Hope” title also tinkered with the Millennium Falcon’s hyperspace effects; this was probably the most significant modification of hyperspace SFX in any OT film. When the Millennium Falcon comes out of hyperspace, there waa a pronounced deceleration or winding down sound effect added.

Beyond this, the colors of the ANH, ESB, and RotJ prints have been altered by LFL on multiple releases. So much so, one’s basis of comparison of the particular release might matter to the perceived “differences” in effects. RotJ originally included a “blue” tunnel, but “how blue is blue” has been changing ever since LFL has done something major with the film.

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    edit: disregard my previous comment. I misread your answer as "there were no publicly acknowledged SFX remixes [in general]" instead of "of the hyperspace effects". My previous comment was a challenge of something you didn't say ;) My bad!
    – Andres F.
    Commented Jan 3, 2022 at 19:14

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