I just rewatched this clip from Pop Culture Quest and man – it’s such a cool moment. Mark Hamill gets handed this box during the show, no build-up, no heads-up. He opens it up, sees the lightsaber inside, and at first, he totally thinks it’s a replica. You can hear him go, “Oh, a replica of…,” and then the other guy’s like, “It’s not a replica. This is your original prop from the third film.” And Mark just freezes for a second. You can tell it hits him instantly.
The guy with him is Brandon Alinger, the COO of Prop Store, and he’s the one who brought it out for the show. Not as a gift or anything – just a reunion. And honestly, watching Mark hold that saber again after decades was kind of emotional, even from the outside. He goes, “I haven’t seen this thing in years,” and you can just feel how surreal it is for him.
Then they start talking about the saber itself, and it turns out this isn’t just Luke’s lightsaber from Return of the Jedi. It was actually first used by Alec Guinness in A New Hope – same exact prop. That little detail makes it even cooler. The emitter spins because it has a motor inside. Back then, the blades were coated with reflective movie screen material so they could catch and bounce light straight back at the camera. Super old-school stuff. No CGI, just clever practical effects.
Mark even talks about how they’d run wires through his costume, with a battery pack on his belt. Between takes, the crew would run in, hook the lit blade to the hilt, and run out again. Real physical movie-making, totally different from how they’d do it today.
But the best part wasn’t the tech – it was just watching Mark remember. Holding that lightsaber brought everything back for him. It wasn’t a display piece behind glass, it was the actual thing he swung around on set all those years ago. And for one short moment, he got to feel what it was like to be Luke Skywalker again.
It’s a short clip, but it says a lot. Sometimes it’s not the biggest reunion that hits the hardest. Just one lightsaber, and decades of memories come rushing back.
