After our heroes' daring escape from Jabba the Hutt and the vile Sarlacc monster, the group confronts a nasty sandstorm that comes up out of nowhere. They leave the stolen skiff and make their way to their hidden ships on foot. When they get to the ships, they exchange a few words and are on their way.

David Oghia, writer for the Star Wars Insider wrote a nice piece on the sandstorm in Issue #35 that included some never before seen photo stills you can see down below. The dialogue is a little different depending on if you read an old draft of the script or the RETURN OF THE JEDI Novelization. Here's an excerpt from an alleged third draft of the script by Kasdan and Lucas (unconfirmed):

EXT DUNE SEA - LANDING AREA
A ferocious sandstorm blocks our view. Then, through the ROAR, we HEAR THE VOICES of our heroes. They emerge slowly from the veil of sand, pressing on against the wind. First come Artoo and Threepio, followed by Leia guiding Han, then Luke and Lando come into view, each supporting one side of the towering Chewbacca, who hobbles from his wound. Soon, they can make out some large vague shapes in the blowing sand. It is the Millennium Falcon and, parked beside it, Luke's trusty X-wing and a two-seated Y-wing. They must shout to be heard.

HAN
I don't know. All I can
see is a lot of blowing sand!

LEIA
That's all any of us can see.

HAN (blinking)
Then I guess I'm getting better.

As soon as the group huddles under the bulk of the Falcon, the wind dies down to something more describable as a severe weather condition. Threepio hits a switch, and the gang-plank lowers with a HUM.

HAN (turning to Luke)
I've got to hand it to you, kid,
you were pretty good out there.

LUKE (shrugging it off)
I had a lot of help.
Think nothing of it.

HAN
No, I'm thinking a lot about it.
That carbon freeze was the closest thing
to dead there is. And it wasn't just sleepin'.
It was a big wide awake nothing!

Luke nods, as Chewie growls affectionately at the young Jedi warrior, mussing his hair like a proud uncle. And Leia warmly hugs him.

LUKE (moving to his ship)
I'll see you back at the fleet.

HAN
Why don't you leave that
crate and come with us?

LUKE
I have a promise I have to keep
first... to an old friend.

Luke and Artoo take off in their spacecraft.

HAN
(looking dubiously at Lando, obviously
remembering his friend's betrayal
and subsequent aid)
Guess I owe you some thanks, too, Lando.

LANDO
Figured if I left you frozen like that
you'd just give me bad luck the rest of
my life, so I might as well get you
unfrozen sooner or later.

LEIA
He means "You're welcome."

LANDO
Come on, let's get off
this miserable dust ball.

There are many different versions of this dialogue depending on which draft of the script or novel you read but the idea is pretty much the same. The reason this scene was cut was because George Lucas felt that the audience needed a break from the action. There was an incredible action sequence just a minute ago with the destruction of Jabba's barge and to follow it up with another action scene would be too much on the audience so it was removed and some of the dialogue was inserted into the pickup scene (shot later with Mark Hamill) where the ships are going their separate ways. Re-inserting the sandstorm scene into the RETURN OF THE JEDI Special Edition would have been a problem due to the redundant dialogue so one can speculate that is was left out yet again for that reason, although that's entirely fixable. Hey, if they can make Han shoot first [cringe] then they could have put this back in.

Mark Hamill treated PREVUE MAGAZINE to an interview in October, 1983 where he discussed some of the trials and tribulations of filming the sandstorm scene. Here's the quote:

PREVUE: What happened during the aborted sandstorm on the first day of shooting [of JEDI]?

HAMILL: It was one of the most uncomfortable situations I've ever been in. Instead of sand, Fuller's Earth was used - a sort of chalky, dusty theatrical product for creating everything from slime to dirtying the set. They threw the stuff in front of the wind machines, and it got in our lungs, into every orifice in our bodies. You wouldn't believe it - take a shower, and torrents of brown water spirals down the drain. It got in our eyes, ears, noses. We couldn't see; it was hard to breathe, really bad. I'm not exactly sure why they decided to take the scene out, either. In EMPIRE, act one ended with the snow battle. Maybe they thought the sandstorm was too tense for the same purpose.

PREVUE: Was that sand worse than the show in EMPIRE?

HAMILL: Oh, yeah. Between takes in the snow we could bundle up or go into a survival hut. That was pretty awful, too.

The black and white shots way down below with the text between them are scans from The Making of Return of the Jedi edited by John Phillip Peecher. These pictures show the Millennium Falcon's construction and some of the crew. They're nice to look at but not too revealing. With all the press and attention the Sandstorm footage gets, I'd say it's a sure thing that when they release a complete Star Wars Saga DVD set, this will be one of the deleted scenes they include with the bonus features. Well, my fingers are crossed anyhow.

The sandstorm was the first sequence shot for RETURN OF THE JEDI so there must have been much preparation well in advance. Undoubtedly, that preparation included concept art and costumes.

In The Art of Return of the Jedi on page 50, there is a great sketch by Nilo Rodis-Jamero of Lando Calrissian simply described as "Lando - Skiff Guard" but it's pretty obvious that it's Lando from the sandstorm sequence. Check out the pictures from the deleted sandstorm scene and you'll see that many of the characters are all wearing the same type of goggles and flowing capes.

There's also a sketch of Leia in the book From Star Wars to Indiana Jones by Mark Cotta Vaz and Shinji Hata. You can find this sketch on page 99 but I have scanned the picture for you and it's included below. Check out the protective garment she's wearing. It's pretty similar to the one from the actual scene.

Until there's a DVD or some other miracle, we don't have any good moving footage from the sandstorm. However there's a really fast snippet in one of the early trailers which I have for you below. The second clip is was created by my good friend, Robert Scott. He put together an interesting little movie file that acts like a moving storyboard but uses the images we currently have from the sandstorm sequence. I thought it was interesting to watch and he made it especially for this site so here it is for your pleasure. Thanks to Robert Scott for taking the time to make it.

Starwars.com Hyperspace: Photoreceptor - "The Reminder"

At Starwars.com, you'll find another image of Luke from the sandstorm. After everyone gets inside the Falcon, Luke heads to his ship but looks at his damaged hand first. He then puts on the black glove and departs. In the re-edited scene we all know, he puts the glove on inside his ship while talking to Han in the Falcon. [click here for picture]

	Description: A very brief clip of the Sandstorm sequence from one of the early JEDI trailers.
	Description: Fan-made compilation of images and dialogue depicting the sandstorm sequence, courtesy of Robert Scott.

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