Star Wars: 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Cloud City

The Cloud City above the planet of Bespin is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Star Wars universe. First introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, the city is shown as a self-sustaining unit under the reign of Lando Calrissian. It also proved to be the location of one of cinema’s greatest reveals, as Luke also discovered that Darth Vader was his father.

The fictional aspects aside, Cloud City has even fascinated scientists in real life, some of whom have even gone on to suggest possibilities of real-life Cloud Cities. But what other facts about the city’s architecture and history might the film’s fans might not know.

9 392 Levels In Total

According to the mobile game Star Wars: Uprising, Cloud City is revealed to have 392 levels in total. The first 50 levels were the central highlight of the City as they accommodated various luxury resorts and casinos, like Pair O’ Dice and Yarith Bespin. That’s why it shouldn’t be surprising for fans to find Cloud City as one of the coolest Star Wars locations.

The levels directly below were inhabited by the workers and were also use to mine and process the tibanna gas. This gas was integral to the existence of Cloud City as the city’s generators down below mine tibanna from Bespin’s lower atmosphere.

8 The Ugnaught Tribes Built The City

Reference books, such as Star Wars Character Encylopedia, have detailed the origin of Cloud City while mentioning the contributions of the Ugnaught tribe in its creation and maintenance.

Legend has it that the explorer, Lord Ecclessis Figg, offered three enslaved Ugnaught tribes to have full freedom over a city if they volunteered to build it. So, even if they came from Gentes, many Ugnaughts preferred living in Cloud City thereafter.

7 Lando, Leia, And Luke’s Return To Cloud City

Marvel’s recent Star Wars series delved into the trauma of the characters in The Empire Strikes Back. Towards the film’s third act, Lando, Leia, and Luke went through major losses in Cloud City. While Lando lost his status as a Baron Administrator, Leia found her partner, Han Solo, to be frozen in Carbonite while Luke’s lost his hand in combat.

In Star Wars #3, the trio return to Cloud City as Lando is hell-bent on winning back his powers. Luke also aims to find his lightsaber and Leia attempts to figure out the process behind de-carbonization to help out Han. In the same comic, Leia, unfortunately, gets abducted by the Imperial forces and is carbonized herself.

6 The Presence Of Gas Prospectors

The main sources of revenue for Cloud City are gambling and mining tibanna, most of which comes from Bespin’s core. But as Star Wars: Complete Locations revealed, the inhabitants of the City even try to mine the gas through other sources. This is where the Gas Prospectors step in.

A dangerous business, the work of a Gas Prospector involved exploring the skies around Cloud City to extract tibanna and other rare gases. However, the job’s major risk was the presence of cloud storms.

5 The City’s Design Was Inspired By Alderaan

Based on Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art for the original trilogy, his earliest sketches of Cloud City were actually geared towards the planet of Alderaan. As per George Lucas’ original draft of 1977’s Star Wars, there was a floating city on Alderaan that served as the capital of the New Galactic Empire.

McQuarrie’s artwork on the same resembled the scale and design of what became Cloud City in the sequel The Empire Strikes Back. As opposed to the bluish skies the city is paired with, the art mostly reimagined the city in the backdrop of reddish skies during sundown.

4 Located In The Life Zone And The Anoat Sector

Cloud City is located in what is known as the Life Zone. This is the official term given to those parts of the planet Bespin’s atmosphere that support life for Star Wars species, like humans and Ugnaughts. The Life Zone was first identified as such in the reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything That You Need To Know.

Given its location on Bespin, the City falls in the Anoat Sector that also includes other iconic planets, such as the ice-covered Hoth and the chromium-rich Burnin Konn. Just like the case with Bespin’s tibanna mining, Burnin Konn was also important to the Empire for the mining of chromium and other ores.

3 A Sports Stadium Nicknamed As Cloud City

The Minnesota-based soccer stadium Allianz Field is popularly known as Cloud City by observers and media publications for its exterior resembling the Star Wars location.

Opened in 2019, Allianz serves as the home stadium for Minnesota United FC and can accommodate up to 19,400 people. The 360-degree canopy is one of the stadium’s most distinguishable features. The wavy design around the bowl along with an LED-lit circumference is what makes it seem like Cloud City from a distance.

2 Built From The Minerals Of Miser

For building Cloud City, the Ugnaughts mostly relied on the minerals from Miser, one of the Star Wars planets in Bespin’s planetary system. Not much is known about this planet as it was introduced in the Star Wars mythos only recently with Star Wars: Uprising.

During the conflict, known as the Iron Blockade, Miser faced an infestation of the flying creatures known as the Mynocks. To battle this attack, Miser’s Ugnaught inhabitants offered bounties for every dead Mynock. Eventually, Cloud City easily proved to be a better place to stay for the Ugnaughts.

1 The Possibility Of A Real-Life Cloud City On Venus

Back in 2008, as reported by Space, NASA scientist Geoffrey Landis suggested the possibility of creating an actual Cloud City on Earth’s neighbor Venus. Of course, it is a hypothetical concept at this point buy Landis’ reasoning might raise the hopes of many Star Wars fans.

Even though Venus’s surface temperatures make it an inhospitable planet, Landis suggests that a city could still be built 50 kilometers above its ground. With air pressure of 1 bar and the temperature in the 31-122 degree range, Landis is of the belief that humans can spend time on this part of the planet’s atmosphere with adequate breathing apparatus.

About The Author

Shaurya Thapa
(725 Articles Published)

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Shaurya Thapa is an Indian freelance journalist who mostly dabbles in writings on cinema, music, and human interest features. When it comes to Screen Rant, he writes lists on a wide array of subjects ranging from international films to mainstream Netflix series and comic book trivia. He also hosts a podcast called ‘BhindiWire’, an Indian parody of IndieWire.

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