“You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc. In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.”
―C-3PO describing the Sarlaac
The Sarlacc is a semi-sentient plant-like omnivorous creature that lived on Tatooine and other planets in the galaxy. It is located at the Pit of Carkoon in the Dune Sea. It catches its prey like an antlion whenever any lifeform slides down into the pit, such as when it swallowed Boba Fett (the only person known to escape from a sarlacc's stomach). A Sarlacc's only predator was the Greater Krayt Dragon.
The Sarlacc first appears in this film. After Luke Skywalker kills Jabba the Hutt's pet Rancor and Han Solo and Chewbacca are imprisoned, Jabba orders for Luke, Han, and Chewbacca to be executed by being fed to the Sarlacc, a colossal creature that lives in the Great Pit of Carkoon, where they are to be digested over the course of a thousand years. Lando Calrissian, Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2 stage a rescue that results in the deaths of Jabba and most of his posse, many of whom are eaten by the Sarlacc. After destroying Jabba's sail barge, the group flees the site of the battle to regroup with the Rebellion.
The Sarlacc makes a brief cameo in the opening song of "Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars", where Phineas and Ferb where sand-boarding down a hill and jumped over the Sarlacc. It was also listed that Phineas and Ferb taught the Sarlacc to brush his teeth. Lastly, the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars song "I'm Feelin' So Low" has a line mentioning the Sarlacc pit.
In "Stranger in A Strange Land", after being thrown into the Sarlacc pit, during the rescue of Han Solo, Boba managed to survive by breathing into a supply of oxygen from the corpse of a stormtrooper he found in the Sarlacc's stomach. Boba was then able to escape the Sarlacc by burning its stomach with his flamethrower, only for his skin to be burned by the toxic chemicals that were inside the Sarlacc. He makes it out alive, but weak and tired, only to become unconscious. Meanwhile, some Jawas come by in their Sandcrawler, and thinking he is dead, remove every part of his armor and take it all away. Then, some Tusken Raiders save Boba and take him to be part of their tribe.
In "The Gathering Storm", Boba thinking his armor is still in the Sarlacc, flies his ship, Slave I with Fennec Shand to the pit. Not knowing the Sarlacc is still alive, they hover right above it, turning on the ship's light to see inside, causing it to wake up and grab the ship with its tentacles in an attempt to devour them. They try to escape, but the Sarlacc's grip is too strong for them. Boba fires the laser cannons at it, but to no avail, so Fennec drops a Seismic Charge into the Sarlacc's mouth, causing an explosion to kill it. Fennec then lowers Boba with a cable into the dead Sarlacc to search for his armor, but no luck.
The Sarlacc makes an appearance in both the Twilight of the Republic and Rise Against the Empire play sets and as a Toy Box set piece.
Trivia[]
In the original release, the Sarlacc was just a hole with teeth. In the special edition, tentacles and a large squawking beak with a tongue were added. It was because George Lucas felt that it didn't look alive enough.
Sarlacc on Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki
Sarlacc on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
