Samuel L. Jackson brought his usual badassery to the role of Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels and helped make those movies worth watching. Looking back on the part now, Jackson has revealed that he has one crazy idea about his character that you might not believe.
During a Twitter Q&A with fans a few days ago, Samuel L. Jackson brought up the fact that he's always believed that Mace Windu actually survived what appeared to be a fatal fall during Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. When Entertainment Weekly caught up with him on Wednesday for their SiriusXM radio show, EW Morning Live, he was asked to go into more detail on his theory. The basis of Jackson's living-Mace Windu belief is that, since the man was a very powerful Jedi, a fall of at least 20 stories (like the one he took in the last prequel movie) simply wouldn't have been enough to kill Mace. Jackson noted that many Jedi seem to be able to fall a long way without dying, as Anakin did when he fell through the sky on Coruscant in Attack of The Clones and was able to land just fine on some vehicles moving through the air.
Samuel L. Jackson's idea isn't completely crazy. Jedi in complete control of their power would easily be able to either slow their fall enough that they could land safely, or be able to pull a nearby object into their path in order for them to stop themselves from falling to their death, and it is possible that Mace could have done either thing on the way down to save himself. The problem is that Mace didn't simply fall. He had most of his lightsaber arm cut off by Anakin and then gets a major force blast from Palpatine/Darth Sidious that causes him to fall from that massive broken window in the Coruscant Senate Building.
Why is that important? Well, usually when we have Jedi falling from the sky they haven't been subjected to the full force of...you know, the Force, before they take a tumble. While it's possible Mace's Jedi powers kept him alive after the fall, it's also possible that the Darth Sidious Force lighting blast was so strong that it incapacitated Mace enough that he simply wasn't able recover in time to break his fall. So, if that Force blast was big enough to knock him out of the window, it could have been strong enough to keep Mace unconscious until he fell to his absolute Jedi death.
Samuel L. Jackson also noted in the interview that he thinks the coolest dude of all the Jedi is just hiding out somewhere living his life in peace. I have no problem believing that Mace Windu survived his fall, especially since Jackson says he told George Lucas about his thoughts and that Lucas didn't seem to mind the idea that Mace lived on somewhere in the Star Wars world. What do you think, did Mace live to tell the tale after it appeared he fell to his death? Let us know in the comments.
