# The Empire Strikes Back

7 Hacker News commenters recommended The Empire Strikes Back and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its writing, which they call among the best of any film and still affecting, and for holding up as stronger than the original Star Wars.

## Why people recommend it

- Widely seen as best-written film (2 comments): "ESB is generally recognized as the best written film" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196414)) "Beautiful writing, still gives me goosebumps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811383))
- Holds up and is not overrated (2 comments): "Star Wars (1977) and Empire strikes back are not overrated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162786)) "the fact that Empire is so good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49885913))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Blade Runner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blade-runner.md): 54 recommend
- [Colossus: The Forbin Project](https://hackerapproved.com/p/colossus-the-forbin-project.md): 35 recommend
- [Jurassic Park (1993 film)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jurassic-park.md): 32 recommend
- [The Fifth Element](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fifth-element.md): 24 recommend
- [Terminator 2: Judgment Day](https://hackerapproved.com/p/terminator-2-judgment-day.md): 21 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Empire Strikes Back", https://hackerapproved.com/p/empire-strikes-back/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).