Context

This line is spoken by Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones, in the film The Empire Strikes Back, directed by George Lucas (1980).

Darth Vader drops this bomb on Luke Skywalker at the climax of the movie—and by climax, we mean that the two have just had a killer lightsaber duel that peaked with Vader lightsabering off Luke's hand. (And if Darth intended for a fatherly slap on the wrist...we say he could use more practice.)

When audiences heard this line for the first time, it was a total shocker since Luke and nearly everyone else in the galaxy thought that Vader was the dude who killed Luke's dad. This is a major plot point, since Return of the Jedi and that whole (highly regrettable) prequel trilogy swirled around it. These days, the quote is synonymous with any melodramatic reveal, which is kinda too bad, since every real Star Wars fan knows Empire is the best (just sayin').

Where you've heard it

Along with almost every line of dialogue in the original Star Wars trilogy, this one's been parodied in a ton of other movies. Oh, let's see... what are some of our favorites? There's the part in Tommy Boy where the late, great Chris Farley delivers the line, while using an electric fan to give himself a Darth Vader voice. Farley actually does the famous misquote here, saying "Luke, I am your father." (Sorry, Chris, that's not how Vader said it.)

Another good one is in Meet the Fockers, when Ben Stiller's character Gaylord Focker gives it to us in Spanish, saying "Yo soy tu papá" as he drunkenly announces the existence of his Latino lovechild (watch the hilarity here). Rounding out our top three is Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, in which Dr. Evil quotes the line to tell Austin that he's Evil's son, but the doc immediately takes it back, because... well... it's not true.

Additional Notable References

• Toy Story 2
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
• Chicken Little
• Reign of Fire
• Strange Brew

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

It's not pretentious, but it might not be a great idea to break this one out at a party. The non-Star Wars fans will think you're a dork, and the Star Wars fans will think you're a poseur for using a non-obscure reference. Don't say you weren't warned, Shmoopers.