• Is this the same kid whose dad filmed him after the dentist? <a href="http://www.the-canvas-art-shop.co.uk/">canvas print</a>

• It's staged. Anyone who has kids knows the look of half-nervous, rehearsed coordination. As usual, parents think their kids are "more spay-shul" than others' kids, so they try to put them all over the Internet, even through trickery if they have to. Yawn. As if the 'Net having turned into a big brochure weren't bad enough.

• Sadly, I knew the big twists before seeing the movies. Vader is Luke's father, yes, no shock. (Does hurt the movie to know, I'm sure.) Leia is Luke's sister, okay, but at least no "I can't believe I shipped them" choke on my own vomit.

• Hermaphrocardia is now the word of the week.

• By being five.

• The selling point to me that he was lying was that he started in on the whole let’s go kill the emperor because you can and I can’t. I felt that obviously that was why he was lying to Luke. He wanted to take over and it made sense. And the kids are faking. I don't have children but I sit for enough friends to know that kids today do not emote while watching tv. I did an experiment with Old Yeller and went 4 for 4 that they started crying only after they stopped watching at the credits. Kids today are freaking scary.

• "now dad????"

• True story: I had a couple of young girls for cousins, who absolutely insisted on playing through FFVII, or rather having me play through it while reading them the dialogue (toned down a bit for Barrett's lines {g}), largely because they loved watching the combat. Then Aeris died. Neither of them ever played a video game with me afterward, ever. (...um, no, of course I didn't encourage them to put lots of cash into building up her character. {g})

• And actively fought against its inclusion in the movie.

• Yeah, or he could just be noticing that someone is holding a camera.  Seriously, try holding a camera up to a friend of yours and see who doesn't turn to look at it once. Got to love how 'jaded' people love to be.

• Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

• On the new BluRay version I hear that Jar Jar Binks is Luke's father.

• I had the same reaction as that little girl.

• Thanks. I've been that kid plenty of times (I think we all have) :D 

• This may be the best funny-yet-insightful post ever on this site.

• And ten seconds later the little boy says, "Daddy, why didn't Luke scream like a terrified idiot when he voluntarily threw himself off the platform?"

• This reminds me of the time I made my movie-sheltered best friend watch Fight Club for the first time in college. I completely ignored the movie and watched only her during the reveal in the hotel room. I couldn't stop laughing at the expression on her face.

• That's silly. I've seen what genuine emotion looks like on my aged 6 and 7 nephews; they didn't have to "learn how to use their face" for it.

• I wish I had that kind of reaction when I first saw those movies, too bad some 3rd grade douchebag in my class already spoiled it for me by screaming it out to everyone and god I wish that I would have just assaulted him right there with my little third grade fists, goddamn that is just something that you do not rob from a nerd child.

• Happened to me with The Matrix. Right after Neo takes the pill.  We were confused at first, it seemed to fit with the movie. 

• As someone who watched the Star Wars trilogy well after it's original releases.. I already knew that Darth Vader was Luke's father prior to watching.. everyone parodied it from Muppet Babies to the Simpsons..  how the hell do you not know!?

• In the 70s there was no Dolby Surround. Edit: 1980.

• The Dark Side is in middle school now a days right?

• Then her path to the Dark Side will be complete.

• To steal a notion from Plinkett's reviews, this scene is so perfect, you get the impression that Lucas had absolutely nothing to do with it.

• Man, that warms the cockles of my nerdy little heart.

• This moment was ruined for me because I had watched New Hope and due to lack of people not having the movies, I jumped straight into Return of the Jedi. So there was that discussion with Luke and Obi Wan about Vader being his father and I was like, "What?" So I asked my mom and she told me the basic plot of Empire. Still, when I saw this moment for the first time, I did think how badass it was, not that it blew my mind like that kid. However,  the first time she and I watched New Hope together she told me that the awards ceremony at the end was Luke and Leia's wedding to which I replied, "Uh, No!" I think that was the first nerd argument I had with someone. And I shut down my own mother. :)

• KHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!

• This looked pretty staged, also the kid clearly looks at the dad filming before becoming surprised. 

• The internet ruined Harry Potter for me.

• Dude... I wasnt the one who woke up with a bunch of guys in speedos massaging me. :D

• lies! Everyone knows you went with Barret on the gondola instead.

• Pretty much had the same reaction.  I mean what was one more little lie? He DID want luke alive no? just watched it again yesterday, still brings a maniac grin and a tear to the eye.

• ^ Real, but I wish he was fake.

• Fake, but I want it to be real.

• All this nerd debate has been dredging up the memories of my hallowed "first viewing". I was 5 years old. Back in those days my world revolved around the Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and Batman. While my uncles approved of the latter, they thought the PR ridiculous and sought any means to turn me away from me. Their solution was clear: forced marathon of Star Wars. I cannot say how I was led to this junction (probably with the promise of candy and toys), but ultimately I found myself locked in a dark room with only a small bedside TV and VCR for amusement. On the screen of the TV a movie was playing. Trumpets were blaring. Then I was hit with a wall of text that I could not read, and SPACE SHIPS SHOOTING LASERS! Star Wars! Six hours passed. My child's brain experienced information overload and gasped for relief. It was granted, ROTJ saved for another day. But I was left with questions, burning questions that would transform me into an unholy keeper of Star Wars knowledge and eventual roleplayer. Despite having heard the line, "I am your father", I had no idea of its full significance. Why? My attention drifted whenever action came to a halt, or the shiny robots and the furry alien were off-screen. I missed whole scenes of dialogue for this reason, including Obi-wan's explanation of the Force, and the "dissolution of the Senate" (only brought back to my attention by Vader's force choke). Only after my uncle said, "Darth Vader is Luke's father" did the revelation hit me. O, to return to that world of constant discovery...

• TRAAAAAAAAAAAAVIIIIIIIS!!!!!!!

• I hope it's real, but the thing is I just don't know if kids that young would appreciate the importance of that revelation. Actually to be perfectly honest, even today I don't find it that big of a deal, since Darth Vader up to that point hasn't really been super-duper evil with a long history of rivalry with Luke. Finding out that Sauron is Gandalph's brother or son, now that would be a major surprise!

• The kid should get used to this situation in his future as well. Sitting next to a girl, seeing something nerdy and epic. His response? Awesome. Her response? Meh. Welcome to dating little man!

• I love that Simpsons where Homer walks out of the Empire Strikes Back "Wow, I can't believe Darth Vader was Luke's father."

• And if they ever managed to get a copy of FFVII, do resist the temptation to tell them that Aeris dies. XD

• Huh, are you sure about that logic? My dad tried to kill me, but he still seemed like a pretty cool guy

• And that is what makes you a wonderful father AND mad scientist, Herr Doktor. XD

• I knew your optimism would be higher now that we have vaporized 50% of the world's chocolate deposits, Herr Doktor! HEIL SMASHY! -clicks heels, salutes-

• As someone who has been around many children when they first saw this scene, I have found that EVERY time the kids will do the same thing immediately.  "Daddy Daddy!  Is he Luke's father?  Why's he hurting him if he's his dad?  Who's his mom?  I have to pee.  Can I have a cookie?"  Kids don't usually know to sit back and let the movie explain itself.  They ask questions of whoever the closest person is. But in any case, all kids are different.  Maybe this parent threatens beatings to anyone who talks during movies.  Maybe the kids are camera shy.  Maybe they have bark collars on and every time they vocalize, a stream of electricity shoots through their tiny twitching bodies.  Hard to say.

• KAAAANEEEEDAAAAAAA!!!

• At this point, I don't even WANT to know. DX

• Had the same reaction, only there was a nagging voice in my small nerdling brain at that time that went, "You know, this KINDA makes sense on how he failed to stop Luke to blow up the Death Star in the last movie: he did it on purpose! Fuck, it's brilliant!" What? I think of saying "fuck" as a nerdling. Happens all the time! XD

• There you go. THERE'S the skepticism that I've come to expect from a fellow adult nerd.

• Hey, come on. The theater screens with the Dolby surround sound wasn't all that bad. XD

• Aah, the innocence of being a nerdling. Where life is so full of surprises, hope and promises of something better, instead of more Starfire tits and mindless sex. It's seeing little innocent nerdlings like these that makes me firmly believe we should kill Michael Bay and all of his ilk before they can poison the little ones' minds with crap, and allow them to experience real nerdy properties with stories worth telling. Something like the Nolan-verse Batman movies.  As a side note, LOVE how the lil nerdling is all shocked and stuff while his nerdette friend was all, "Heh! I KNEW it!" XD

• Wait yer up in the Seattle area right? I remember a Sakura Con ref. Kids are expensive too...flew em up here from AZ for the last SC...I spent that much???

• Making kids is easy...growing them..errr not so much }:>

• Kid - "Oh well, at least I know that in the previous movie, Greedo has always shot first.  I don't know what I'd do if I ever found out that Han shoots Greedo before Greedo even has a chance to fire!"

• NOOOOO! We went on a date on the roller coaster! 

• also the I gotta poop or am pooping look on his face.

• I wish I could've seen this in sweet-ass HD the first time I saw it

• He's CG, Lucas added him in later

• Also, Aeris dies

•  Can't recall how I felt about this revelation, but I swore for the longest time that the Death Star in ROTJ was the Death Star from ANH in the process of being repaired.

• Kids know him from Dr. Strangelove

• Sorry. I just don't believe those kids we not coached by their dad. @ the moment of the reveal they both look over to the camera (for a cue I guess) and then they start making faces. The girl does but he wants to capture the little kid over acting the part because the dad knows the girl won't do anything else beyond what she just did. It would've been better if he could've captured their real reaction; which like most kids would've been no reaction until after the movie. 

• This would be one of the few consolations of getting Alzheimer's.

• Yeah, I refused as well. I was dead certain that it was a trick. My logic was that Darth Vader tried to kill Luke, and a father wouldn't try to kill his son.

• Brilliant! You've completely blown the lid off of this conspiracy theory! Congratulations! You are a remarkable detective! Pray tell, how did you achieve this remarkable feat? Oh, I get it. You must have grilled the father for hours of intense interrogation, until he tearfully confessed that the incident was meticulously pre-planned! Oh.. wait, you didn't do that? OH I SEE, You must have actually talked to the little girl and got HER testimony... Oh. That wasn't your method, either? Hmm.. Well, I guess it only makes sense that you would actually ask the boy himself if anyone put him up to.... oh......... Hold on, you mean you don't actually know any of these people in this video, in any kind of reasonable first-hand capacity? ....I see. So..... basically....... you're just completely spit-balling and taking a wild, random guess based entirely on the notion that the boy's expression was a vaguely indeterminable exact reaction, and you, in fact, have absolutely no reasonable basis of any kind behind the leaping assumptions you've made, aside from your own unshakable confidence in masterfully reading the subtle details on the face of a 5-year old child, eh? ..... MY WORD HOLMES. YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN. P.S: I think i'll help you go one step further, and even helpfully suggest that the boy isn't actually a real human, either. He is clearly a robot child, constructed for the specific purpose of producing a Youtube video that will attract a mild amount of attention for several days at the most. Think about it. It's a theory, so it's automatically true!

• I refused to believe it until ROTJ. I would argue with my friends "Darth Vader is EVIL. Evil people lie. Darth Vader is lying. Obi Wan is Good, and good people tell the truth." Then ROTJ came out and my journey towards cynicism began. I remember rolling my eyes and saying "Oh for fuck's sake." 

• I haven't really listened to that dialogue in a long time.  You know what?  It's crap.  "It is your destiny"?  Actually, it's Luke's destiny to lie on the floor screaming like a bitch until his daddy flings the bad man down a hole.  If the emperor foresaw that, he probably went through with it all just to shame the Very Last Jedi harder than any Jedi had ever been shamed before.  Because: evil, y'know.

• She's got that whole poker face thing down pat.  "Uh, yeaaah?!  I totally knew that all along."  She'll do well in middle school.

• Just checked, and Drew put it up today: http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/film-nerd-2-0-we-finally-reach-the-moment-with-empire-strikes-back-on-blu-ray This isn't Drew's kid Toshi (and Allen), but he directly refs the video.

• Dispute authenticity of video. Week later, learn it's viral marketing for the Blu Ray release.

• I have nieces about that old, and I think that's real. He's staring too hard before and after--that's a look to his dad like WTH!!? Now, he may have been mugging for the camera afterward; but if that was true, he would have been looking at it more. He looks only once at the moment of revelation. Otherwise he's totally engaged. In fact he looks desolated once his face unlocks. Aww. {g}

• The daughter's expressions are an even stronger indicator, methinks.  

• Wait, does you heart have cockles, how is that possible? Dou you have some kind of hermaphrocardia or something?

• I could see it either way. I like to play Devil's Advocate when the opportunity arises :P  

•  How did they know his voice was black? Had they seen other movies with James Earl Jones? Conan The Barbarian perhaps, or Coming To America,maybe?

• I was sure this was going to be popular internet reviewer/interview Moriarty's kid, until I saw the little sister. (Toshi has a little brother.) I know he's slated to watch ESB sometime soon; Drew is doing the order SW, ESB, PM, AotC, RotS and then RotJ.

• Yesss!!!! (From the "Yes Man" Star Wars parody a few weeks back.)

• This warms the cockles of my bitter nerd heart.

• I couldn't wait for the movie and read the novelization before it came out. I was laying in bed reading that part, and about that time my mom stopped by my doorway to inform me on dinner, when I looked up and blurted out the big reveal. She had a momentarily surprised look that turned into a scowl that read, "Thanks a lot asshole." I immediately felt like a jerk, and deservedly so. Still, at least I wasn't the film critic in the San Diego Union that spilled the beans in her review. Pissed off a lot more people than I did. 

• sorry, not cynicism - just too much experience with pre-schoolers, they turn to adult and confirm they understood what the dialog said and then ask for an alternative explanation if the information is upsetting.  Basically this age group responds to action - simplistic action... the kids were coached.

• Man you guys are seriously jaded. My guess is that dad told him something cool was coming up and I'm going to videotape you watching it" Kid agrees, shit goes down, blows his mind and he shot his dad the "WAIT WHAT?!" face.

• awwww...this makes me want kids, I'll have to get working on that :p

• I was young when I saw it in the theater and the whole family went.  I really didn't understand the impact of this until Return of the Jedi when I was older.  I'm glad to see this wasn't lost on these kids.  

• Nah, he's looking at dad because he knows he's in the room. Let's not let our cynicism cloud what's actually happening. That leads to the dark side...

• The littel girl (I'm assuming she's the big sister) seemed to get over it pretty quick

• I took it more as a 'HOLY SHIT DAD WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME DID YOU HEAR WHAT HE JUST SAID FUCKING HELL' glance rather than a 'Now? Do I look surprised now?' glance. But that's optimism for ya! *strolls into the sunset whistling* 

• Nah, he's a kid. They're just learning how to use their faces. His expression got stuck or something. 'Twas fucking adorable! :D

• Noooooooo!!!!!! (There I made it better.)

•  Now that you mention it, the glance at the camera is a little too suspicious :/

• I remember the 1st time I saw Empire, the film stopped in the middle of the opening scrawl and burned.........it was AWESOME!!

• I kinda think that kid is faking it.

• yeesh!  That's some mighty bad acting! Honestly, the kid looks at the camera so his Dad can prompt him that it's time to put on the "reaction show". I'd really like to see a 5 or 6-year-old honestly react to the same scene - - although I'm extremely dubious that dialog has ever made that kind of impact on a child of that age, especially a boy.  I've never seen it...

• A reason to be grateful no Internet back then to spoil it for everyone.

• I had a similar reaction from my 8 year old daughter when she watched RotS and had her suspicions confirmed about Senator Palpatine, but biggest and best when she saw who Anakin Skywalker turned in to... Its what being a parent is all about :) (Now I have work hard at keeping her from telling her 5 year old brother all the spoilers.)

• I know a guy who showed his kids the movies starting with Phantom Menace, but they were pretty young and didn't really think about it, I guess, because even with the twins being born at the end of Revenge of the Sith, they didn't realise that those babies grew up to be Luke and Leia, and the dad didn't bother telling them, so they were still taken by surprise and thought Vader had had some other babies at some point. Apparently they did point out how dumb it was that Anakin's voice turns black once he becomes Darth Vader though, but then one of them was terrified of Yoda. Good kids, not too bright. 

• I remember the first time I watched Empire when I was a kid.  It was one of those holiday movie marathon things they used to do on television in the early 90's where they would show the entire trilogy every day the whole holiday weekend. The thing I remember most is that I saw it coming.  I remember sitting there as the scene unfolded and then thinking 'wait a minute, is Darth Vader going to turn out to be Luke's father?' And then the line was said and my reaction was more along the lines of 'holy crap I was right' instead of the usual shock and awe.

• Sadly I was one of the kids who saw Empire already knowing the twist. It was kind of general knowledge by the time I saw it, and I'm sure I'd heard the "I am your father" line long before I even knew why it was important. Still, I aim to do everything in my power to keep my kids from finding anything out before showing them the movie. 

• Clearly Mr. Dad had the good sense to show them the original trilogy first. And yes, I know I'm not first.  This is actually what I wanted to say.

• That was joyful enough for my whole week.

• I made that same face at the theater in 1980.

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