The Cult of Darth Vader

"I accomplished what I set out to accomplish," says George Lucas. After thirty years of immersion in a world of Wookies, droids, Jar Jars -- and one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Darth Vader -- he's finally completed the six-part Star Wars saga with Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. "I'm very happy that I reached the finish line," he says. Content with his movie and refreshed from a Hawaiian vacation, Lucas sits on a couch in his office at the main building of the Skywalker Ranch complex in Marin County, California, a room large and plush enough for Jabba the Hutt. Lucas turns sixty-one the week of his movie's release but still sports his low-key geek uniform: jeans, a plaid shirt and sneakers. He's suffering from a bad cough, but it seems like a badge of honor after the marathon rush to complete Sith. (Lucas' own cough was used as the sound effect for Sith's evil wheezing droid, General Grievous.) Between bronchial hacking and sips of Diet Coke, he reflects on the creation of Darth Vader.

Has Vader ever appeared in your dreams?

No, I don't dream about Star Wars, to be honest. I've had a lot of waking nightmares on the set, though, imagining the mask won't fit on, or the guy inside can't breathe and faints, or he can't sit down in the suit.

What was the greatest challenge with him?

I had to make Darth Vader scary without the audience ever seeing his face. Basically, it's just a black mask. I said, "How do I make that evil and scary?" I mean, he's big and black and he's got a cape and a samurai helmet, but that doesn't necessarily make people afraid of him. His character's got to go beyond that -- that's how we get his impersonal way of dealing with things. He's done a lot of horrible things in his life that he isn't particularly proud of. Ultimately, he's just a pathetic guy who's had a very sad life.

The first film, people didn't even know whether there was a person there. They thought he was a monster or some kind of a robot. In the second film, it's revealed that he's a human being, and in the third film you find out that, yes, he's a father and a regular person like the rest of us -- he's just got a bit of a complexion problem.

Even as you were building up this iconic villain, you knew the tragedy behind it.

He's so overwhelming in that first film, but you get to the point where you say, "Wait a minute, if he's so powerful, why doesn't he run the universe?" He even gets pushed around by the governors! They know the Emperor is the final word, so what happens is the same thing that happens in any corporation: Everybody worries about the top man, they don't worry about his goon. And by the time the Death Star is finished, it gives them the sense that they have a bigger, better suit than Darth Vader. In a standoff between the Death Star and Darth Vader, they have no question about who would win, and it's not this mumbo-jumbo Sith guy. So it's even more tragic, because he's not even an all-powerful bad guy, he's kind of a flunky.