How did Boba Fett know to hide in the Star Destroyer "Avenger"'s garbage?

Question

When Vader instructed the bounty hunters to all go after the Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett hid in the trash compartment of Vader's Star Destroyer; this allowed him to follow the Falcon undetected to its location after it detached from the Star Destroyer (which it had attached to in order to evade their radar).

But how could he possibly have known about Han Solo's plans? Had Han Solo tried this gambit and succeeded against Boba Fett before? Or was there some other way he, and no other bounty hunter, figured it out?

Answer 1

How did Boba Fett know where Solo was hiding? A mix of cold calculation and experience.

Calculation

Boba Fett had already assured the capture of Solo before he even left the Executor. He guessed that Solo would have jumped into hyperspace as soon as possible if the hyperdrive worked. Solo's ship was disabled, and that limited the Corellian's options. As far as Fett was concerned, this was all too easy.

Fett's suspicions were confirmed by a simple glance out of the Executor's observation ports at the conning tower of the nearby Avenger. Upon leaving the Executor, he placed Slave 1 near Avenger's waste chutes and blended into the foul mixture when Avenger dumped its' garbage. Sure enough, Fett noticed a powered-down Falcon drifting off into the garbage flow. After the Avenger departed, the Falcon set its course, and Fett was able to determine where the Falcon was headed: Bespin.

Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back 2nd Ed., West End Games p66

Experience

Solo had hidden the Falcon among the Imperial's garbage, released immediately before the jump to hyperspace, and so escaped from the Imperials at Hoth. A good trick, and one that might have worked against most Hunters; it had worked against Fett's competition.

But Boba Fett had been fooled by this trick before, once. By now he had been in his line of work longer than most, and there were few enough ploys he hadn't seen, once or twice or a dozen times.

The Last Man Standing: Boba Fett's Tale, Tales of the Bounty Hunters p293.

Answer 2

According to the Junior novelisation for Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett simply "calculated" that the Millennium Falcon couldn't have escape and therefore must still be in the immediate vicinity:

Fett had correctly calculated that the Millennium Falcon had never actually escaped from the Avenger, and had only avoided detection. Now, as he accelerated after Han Solo’s ship, it seemed his calculations would pay off.

This is backed up by the factbook "Star Wars in 100 Scenes" which states...

...It is standard procedure for the Avenger to dump her garbage before entering hyperspace, letting the Falcon detach and drift away. But Boba Fett knows this trick - and, unknown to Han, is on the Falcon's tail

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In the Legends book "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" (text here) there's a short snippet that suggests that Fett has seen a similar trick before although there isn't any supporting information where he's seen it. The same paragraph also covers how he knew to head to Cloud City and how the Empire got there before the Falcon.

It was a crowded time, and in Fett’s memory the events blurred into one another. Solo had hidden the Falcon among the Imperials’ garbage, released immediately before the jump into hyperspace, and so escaped from the Imperials at Hoth. A good trick, and one that might have worked against most Hunters; it had worked against Fett’s competition.

But Boba Fett had been fooled by that trick before, once. By now he had been in his line of work longer than most, and there were few enough ploys he hadn’t seen, once or twice or a dozen times. There was only one place they could be going, one place close enough for them to reach with their main hyperdrive disabled; Fett jumped for Cloud City, and there Lando Calrissian made the deal that delivered Solo to Fett.

Answer 3

Note- This is conjecture, as I am unable to find canon sources to back it up.

Han was originally a member of the Imperial Academy, which explains why he knows that it is standard procedure for fleets to dump garbage before leaving. Boba Fett would most likely know this, and reason that wherever Han disappeared to, he would wait until the fleet broke up and left before appearing/leaving.

If he simply hangs around in his ship, it is unlikely that Han would emerge/leave, so he gets jettisoned with the garbage to disguise Slave I, and waits. Worst case scenario, he drifts aimlessly for a while alone before departing.

Answer 4

CANON: Because he had seen that move before.

The audio commentary on the Attack of the Clones DVD includes this quote from visual effects supervisor John Knoll:

We also have this quote from Lucas:

According to George Lucas, Obi-Wan's hiding in Geonosis' asteroid field teaches young Boba Fett a lesson that he uses to his advantage during adulthood. Having learned how Obi-Wan hid from him and his father, Boba Fett knows the trick Han Solo is using to hide in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and is able to find him. _{- source}

Obi-Wan hid from Jango and Boba by attaching his ship to an asteroid in Episode II. In the Attack of the Clones DVD bonus features, George Lucas states that this is how Boba knew that the Falcon must have attached itself to something (rather than thinking it cloaked or something), because Boba had seen that move before.

The video below also seems to be going off of the same quote from the DVD bonus features:

LEGENDS: Boba Fett uses the same move to track Galen Marek at the end of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

Answer 5

Again, conjecture, blah blah.

Boba Fett arrived on the Star Destroyer at the same time as all the others but unlike the others, he had the skills to hack into the ships logs and review the incident that had occurred. He saw the Millenium Falcon maneuver towards the Star Destroyer and then just .. disappear. Being a very good smuggler and bounty hunter himself, it wouldn't be out of the question to imagine him saying to himself, "If I were being pursued by this big ship and couldn't get into hyperspace, what would I do?"

He probably already knew where Han was during the whole briefing with the other bounty hunters and thus it was no surprise he was prepared.

The bigger question that arises is: How did Boba Fett get his ship into the trash compartment of the Star Destroyer without Han seeing him do it? And if he went through the internal systems of the Star Destroyer, that would have required serious clearance and would have tipped his hand early.

Answer 6

Logical reasoning. The question should not be why Fett did it, but why none of the other bounty hunters did it, too.

The Falcon had to have a dysfunct hyperdrive, this must have been obvious to the Imperial forces. There was no other explanation why Solo would perform a stunt involving an asteroid field rather than pulling The Lever and waving goodbye (you wouldn't even fly through an asteroid field for impressing a woman, heh!). Everyone else jumped, only one ship didn't.

The Falcon then instantly disappeared in direct neighborhood and in plain sight of a star destroyer (well, apart from everyone ducking and closing their eyes anticipating a crash) and well within sight of other star destroyers and smaller vessels). How did that happen?

• It clearly didn't do a hasty-entry hyperjump in close proximity to a star destroyer and an asteroid field (even if the hyperdrive had been functional), but even if that had happened, the star destroyer's scanners would have shown it.
• It clearly did not teleport or disappear by magic, or by a Jedi mind trick.
• It didn't collide with the Avenger's bridge (Needa would most certainly have noticed that happening!).
• It didn't otherwise collide and/or explode. No such thing on the scanners, no shockwave, no debris.
• It wasn't brought up and didn't surrender.

So the only reasonable conclusion was: It is still there. It must be. Hidden or cloaked (however unlikely for a ship of that size), whatever... it is still there.

Fett did not need to know where the Falcon was hidden or what Solo's plan was, or how he had done his vanishing trick. All that mattered was what the captain of a ship that is unable to perform a hyperjump and being pursued by star destroyers can do. There are not a lot of options.
He can only wait until everybody else is gone. Then, he'll come out of his hiding place, and, using sublight drives, try to reach a nearby star system -- praying that none of his pursuers come back and nobody crosses his path.

Fett therefore needed to do a little "vanishing trick" of his own, so he could wait and see what happens without being noticed himself. No matter where Solo was hiding within the system, the moment he turned on his ion engines, he would be the single bright spot on the EM scanner.
Hiding in the trash was an obvious manueuver for someone intimely familiar with Imperial standard procedure, and safer to perform than to fly to a nearby asteroid (doing so he would likely have been spotted), so that is what Fett did.

Answer 7

My contention is that he didn't know. It was purely by accident that he happened to see the Falcon drifting off.

To support this contention, we need to look at Fett's motivations.

• Firstly, he had a potential of substantial bounty from Jabba for Han.
• Secondly, he had a second reward coming to him from Vader.

There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations.

And:

VADER: (to Fett) You may take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt after I have Skywalker.

Han's screams filter through the torture room door.

BOBA FETT: He's no good to me dead.

By the time Fett finds and follows the Falcon, the Star Destroyer had already gone to hyperspace.

• If Fett had known where the Falcon was hidden, he could have captured it before the Star Destroyer jumped.
• If Fett could have reasonably guessed where the Falcon was likely to be hidden, he could have gone looking before the Star Destroyer jumped.
• In both cases it seems that there is a better likelihood of capturing the Falcon with less effort required.
• Therefore Fett didn't know.

Answer 8

Assuming Fett is as good as people say he is, he would obviously be well versed in evasion tactics. With large ships a sensor blind spot would be common, and the most reasonable explanation is that Solo utilized such a spot.

I remember when I first saw this movie as a child my first thought was "He's hiding right behind them." I'd be surprised if Fett wasn't at least that smart.

Answer 9

Is it too far a stretch to assume that Fett himself may have been forced to use a tactic similar to Solo's at points in his career when trying to hide from the Empire or other entities? If that can't be imagined, why is it improbable to think that Fett simply used a quick inductive reasoning to assume that if the Falcon hadn't warped into hyperspace before being lost on radar by the Empire that it must be within such proximity to the Destroyer that it would no longer trip the radar as 'ships don't just disappear'. As mentioned above by another user, Fett and Solo would have both known that fleets jettison their garbage before departing thus making it the most clearly logical time for an escape if you wanted to remain undetected. How did Fett manage to get his ship into the trash compartment? Easily, all he would have had to do was commission a ride to the next docking stating his ship was no longer functional, thus decommissioning it and sending it to the trash compartment which he later visited, boarding his ship and awaiting departure. Fett is a quintessential bounty hunter, the best in the business..

Answer 10

He is a bounty hunter after all, and in the book it says that he's got sensors that detected the falcon's hyperdrive, so why not detect where he is?

Answer 11

At risk of being overly pragmatic, it's probably because if Fett hadn't done that the plot would be different. As other answers point out, there is very little if any actual explanation provided by Lucas.

Or it could just be that Boba Fett is the most capable bounty hunter around.