Here’s the thing, though: The carbon freezing chamber in Cloud City didn’t utilize any sort of cryoprotectants because, unlike in other cinematic depictions of cryogenic sleep, it wasn’t made to preserve humans. Cryonics companies avoid freezing by replacing a patient’s blood with a cryoprotectant, a liquid that will become viscous as it cools but won’t form crystals that could damage the tender cells and tissues of the human body. To put it crudely, think of freezer burn but inside of you.

This process of vitrification is key to cryonics, allowing the human body to cool without experiencing the cell damage that can accompany crystallization.

“The water in their body is actually replaced with a vitrification solution to prevent ice formation so that the tissues harden like glass rather than freeze.” “The patient is cooled down, and their blood is replaced,” he explains. In fact, Best doesn’t even like to use the word “freeze” to describe cryonics. Unlike carbonite freezing, though, cryopreservation is a gradual process, involving some very specific precautions meant to help protect the sensitive tissues of the human body against the harm that can occur during freezing. Much like carbonite freezing, cryopreservation involves cooling a body from the outside. “That sounds very similar to what is actually being done in practice by cryonics organizations,” Best, the former president and CEO of the Cryonics Institute, tells Inverse. He hasn’t seen Empire, but he says carbonite freezing seems similar in principle to cryonic preservation, in which human bodies are preserved at extremely low temperatures. And while the feelings we feel during that famous scene are real, carbonite freezing is (currently) not.īut what if it were? Could our hero survive the freezing process? And if so, could he be successfully thawed? We spoke to cryonics expert Ben Best to find out. The carbonite chamber fills with clouds of thick, white vapor as Han Solo, his face scrunched up in anxious anticipation, disappears in the carbonite gas. Crumb.In one of the most iconically frustrating scenes in all of modern cinema, Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite at the end of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Note: Pairs nicely with the insidiously laughing Lifesize Salacious B. Unfortunately, Han Solo cannot be melted out and freed from the Carbonite in this version. This massive 7.5 foot tall statue is expertly recreated in high quality fiberglass with stunning, highly detailed realism and even features film-accurate light effects in the base, side panels, and rear power canisters. It may look like you actually hired a bounty hunter to track down this infamous Rebel smuggler and hand him off to the Ugnaughts of Cloud City to imprison inside a frozen block of Carbonite, in perfect hibernation, but it's just a highly realistic replica.

The ultimate trophy in the universe from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away can now be yours when you place the cool new Lifesize Star Wars Han Solo Frozen In Carbonite Statue in your den, home theater, living room, office, or other wretched hive of scum and villainy. I like Captain Solo where he is.' - Jabba the Hutt 'I will not give up my favorite decoration.

Frozen in carbonite