Explanation to Star Wars' Most Infuriating Plot Hole Was Cut From A New Hope
Or was it? Let's take a look.
To this day many people are incensed by what they see as a plot hole in A New Hope – the band of heroes infiltrating the highest-security Imperial battle station, crewed by whole armies of soldiers, getting a prisoner out, and escaping unscathed (save for Obi-Wan).
Somehow this still manages to infuriate people, and makes them regret, than a certain explanation for that was not included in the final version of the movie.
By the explanation we mean a line from Luke that was cut from ANH.
After the heroes discover that Alderan was destroyed, and Han expresses the same desire to get out of there he voiced a little bit later in the released movie, Luke was supposed to say something that would have made said plot hole cease to exist.
"But we can't turn back, fear is their greatest defense! I doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae or Sullust, and what there is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault."
Nowadays fans even compare that phrase with Cassian's explanation on how he infiltrated an Imperial installation in Andor, by relying on overconfidence and conceit of its personnel. And well, it certainly does explain things.
Only, in the final cut of ANH it was extraneous (besides possibly creating a plot hole on its own, as the heroes really had no reason to infiltrate the Death Star until the Millenium Falcon got dragged in and they were forced to deal with the security whether they wanted or not).
The movie already had a perfect explanation as to why escaping the Death Star was so easy (suspiciously so, as Leia noted immediately), even despite Darth Vader sensing Obi-Wan's presence as soon as the latter was on board.
There is a whole small scene with Vader and Tarkin discussing that they've planted a tracking beacon on the Millenium Falcon, while it was in the hangar, and then allowed the heroes to escape, in hopes that Leia would lead them straight to the secret Rebel base which the Empire wanted to discover throughout the movie.
As Tarkin said, "I'm taking an awful risk Vader. This had better work." While Tarkin and Vader could not conceivably orchestrate every encounter that the heroes had while on the Death Star, they surely could weaken their own security.
Which, of course, raises the question as to why Leia obliged the enemy, if she truly believed that the Imperials let them go, instead of just gainsaying Han's boast, but insofar as the fact of escape itself is concerned, ANH had a pretty good explanation.