Handlung

Han Solo's friends are engaged in a mission to rescue the smuggler from Jabba the Hutt and that the Galactic Empire is building a new armored space station which is even larger and more powerful than the first Death Star.

Near the forest moon of Endor the new Death Star is being constructed in orbit, and a command star destroyer arrives and launches a shuttle with a fighter escort, a shuttle bearing the Dark Lord of the Sith. Fearing his arrival, the commander of the new Death Star informs Darth Vader that the station will be operational on schedule, but when Vader challenges this "optimistic" appraisal of the situation, the commander admits that he needs more men to accelerate construction. Darth Vader, however, informs the commander that the Emperor will be arriving soon, and that he is most displeased with the commander's progress.

A year after Han Solo's (Harrison Ford) capture and imprisonment in Carbonite, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) enter the palace of the crime lord Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. They were sent as a goodwill gift by Luke Skywalker, (Mark Hamill) who hopes to negotiate with Jabba(Larry Ward) for Han's release. Luke sends C-3PO and R2-D2 to Jabba's desert palace to deliver a message: In a hologram projected by R2, Luke offers to bargain with Jabba for Solo himself, if Jabba does not, he will be destroyed. Jabba laughs at the message and refuses to give up Han. Han, frozen in Carbonite, hangs on a wall in Jabba's court.

Disguised as a bounty hunter, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) infiltrates the palace under the pretense of having captured Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). After Leia dickers with Jabba over the amount and threatens him with a small thermal detonator, Jabba happily agrees to pay, impressed with the bounty hunter's nerve, and Chewbacca is imprisoned.

That night, Leia sneaks into Jabba's court and releases Han from the Carbonite but is caught by Jabba and enslaved. Luke arrives to bargain for the release of his friends, but Jabba drops him through a trapdoor to be eaten by a rancor a fearsome beast that Jabba keeps for executions. As Leia watches in horror, she sees Lando Calrissian disguised as a palace guard. After Luke kills the beast, Jabba decrees that he, Han, and Chewbacca will be fed to a Sarlacc, a huge, shark-toothed, tentacled Maw at the bottom of the Great Pit of Carkoon.

The group is taken to the pit on Jabba's sail barge fleet. Luke retrieves his new green light-saber from R2-D2, and the group of friends battle Jabba's thugs aboard his sail barge. During the battle, Leia strangles Jabba with the chain around her neck and with R2-D2's help escapes from her bonds. During the chaos, Boba Fett falls into the Sarlacc's pit and Leia strangles Jabba to death with her chains. Lando is also thrown off one of the skiffs, hanging by a few cables until he's rescued from the Sarlacc itself by Han and Chewbacca. The group escapes as Jabba's sail barge is destroyed. Luke flies off Tatooine in his X-Wing fighter and the rest of the band fly away in the Millennium Falcon to rendezvous with the Rebel fleet near Sullust.

As the others rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance, Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training with Yoda (Frank Oz), who is dying when he arrives. He tells Luke that no further training is required and all that remains to be done is to confront Darth Vader. Before Yoda dies, he confirms that Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) is Luke's father, the former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, and that there is another Skywalker. He criticizes Luke for having faced Vader prematurely, with nearly disastrous consequences. He reminds Luke of the true nature of the Force, and of the soul-corrupting nature of the dark side. Yoda then issues a dark warning, telling Luke how his father fell to the shadow: he was corrupted by the powers and influence of the Emperor. If Luke allows himself to be manipulated by this dark mind, then he too shall become what he most fears. Obi-Wan Kenobi's (Alec Guinness) Force spirit tells Luke that Leia is his twin sister, and that he must face Vader again to finish his training and defeat the Empire. Obi-Wan confesses to Luke that he made mistakes in Anakin's training, especially by not deferring to Yoda, and takes responsibility for indirectly creating the evil Darth Vader. Luke counters that even now, all is not lost, that some part of Anakin remains, if only someone can reach it.

The Alliance learns that the Empire has been constructing a second Death Star under the supervision of the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid). The station is protected by an energy shield generated on the forest moon of Endor. The team, led by Han, will use a stolen Imperial shuttle and confirmation code to infiltrate the heavy security measures protecting the construction site before the rest of the Rebel fleet arrives. Luke arrives at the meeting and tells Han and Leia that he'll join them on the dangerous commando mission. The fleet's assault on the Death Star will be led by Lando Calrissian, piloting the Millennium Falcon, which will fly into the core of the space station and destroy the main power generator.

To destroy its generator, Han leads a strike team which includes Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca. Once on the moon, Leia and Luke jump on speeder bikes and pursue two more scouts through the forest at high speed. They overtake them both but are separated; Leia's bike crashes into a tree after she jumps off and she falls unconscious. Luke jumps off his own bike and battles with the the scout he'd been pursuing, forcing him to crash using his light-saber. When Luke rejoins the team, he finds that Leia hasn't returned. The team looks for her but is captured by indigenous creatures called Ewoks, short, furry, intelligent forest dwellers.

The team gains the trust of a tribe of Ewoks after an initial conflict. Ewoks had captured the rest of the Rebel party and decide to sacrifice them to C-3P0, who they believe is a god. Luke, having mastered the Force, levitates C-3P0 to impress the Ewoks with the droid's power and scare them into giving up the sacrifice. With the help of C-3PO, Luke and his party form an alliance with the Ewoks, whose stone-age technology has unexpectedly effective military applications.

Later, Luke tells Leia that she is his sister, and that Vader is their father. Luke surrenders to Imperial troops and is brought before Vader but fails to convince him to reject the dark side of the Force.

Luke is brought to the Emperor, who intends to turn him to the dark side. He also reveals that Luke's friends on Endor and the rebel fleet are heading into a trap. On the forest moon, Han's team is captured by Imperial forces, but the Ewoks counterattack, allowing the rebels to infiltrate the shield generator. Meanwhile, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) and Admiral Ackbar (Tim Rose) lead the rebel assault on the Death Star, finding its shield still active and the Imperial fleet waiting for them.

The Emperor reveals his plan: the information that Rebel spies had stolen was part of an elaborate plan to draw out the Rebel fleet and command so they could be eliminated in one battle. As Luke's anger builds he attacks the Emperor with his light-saber, only to be stopped by Vader's crimson blade.

The Rebel fleet emerges from hyperspace for the battle over Endor, only to discover that the shield of the Death Star is still functioning. An intense space battle takes place as the Imperial fleet, in the second phase of the Emperor's plan, appears and attacks the Rebel fleet. During the battle, the Death Star is revealed to be operational; its super laser, revealed to be relatively rapid-fire on a low setting compared to its predecessor, is fired at the Rebel fleet and obliterates a Rebel star cruiser.

Luke and Darth Vader two engage in a light-saber duel. Vader senses that Luke has a sister and threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke does not join him. Enraged, Luke defeats Vader and severs his prosthetic hand. Despite the Emperor's goading Luke refuses to kill his father, realizing that he is traveling down his father's path towards the dark side, and declares himself a Jedi.

In response, the Emperor tortures Luke with Force lightning. Unwilling to let his son die, Vader throws the Emperor down a shaft to his demise. Vader is fatally wounded and asks Luke to remove his mask in a moment of reconciliation. Luke removes the helmet, revealing the pale and scarred face of his father (Sebastian Shaw). Anakin says that Luke was right about him and asks Luke to tell his sister. With those final words, Anakin dies.

The Rebel fleet seizes the opportunity to launch a final assault on the Death Star in space. Meanwhile to by the attackers more time, Admiral Ackbar orders a concentrated attack on the Imperial fleet's flagship, the Executor. With a crashing rebel pilot ramming into the ship's bridge, not only is Admiral Piett killed, but the ship goes out of control and collides with the Death Star.

After the rebel strike team destroys the shield generator, Lando leads fighter ships into the Death Star's core. While the rebel fleet destroys the Imperial command ship, Lando and X-wing pilot Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) destroy the Death Star's main reactor and escape before the station explodes. Luke, with the body and armor of Anakin, escapes the Death Star in an Imperial shuttle.

Guessing Leia's feelings for Luke, Han offers to step aside for him to court her. However, Leia reassures Han Solo of her love and reveals to him that Luke is actually her brother, who obviously will support their own romance to Han's astonished relief. Luke cremates Vader's body on Endor before reuniting with his friends. As the rebels celebrate their victory, Luke sees the Force Spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin standing nearby.