Mark Hamill talks about his emotional return to the Millennium Falcon

We can expect a lot of things from the new STAR WARS movie, like lightsaber battles and Neil DeGrasse Tyson explaining after it comes out why none of what we saw in the movie is scientifically possible. But the one moment that is sure to get all us nerds choked up is when Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) boards the Millennium Falcon for the first time in decades – a moment the actor revealed actual gave him a serious case of the feels.

The actor spoke with EW for a new feature on the upcoming mega-hit, and Hamill recalls coming onto the set one day to climb aboard the legendary ship and described how all of sudden he was overcome with a so much emotion that he had to have a little alone time:

I’m telling you, I didn’t expect to have the reaction I had. I was there with my family, with [my children] Nathan and Griffin and Chelsea and my wife Marilou, and [Lucasfilm] asked if the documentary crew could be there when I came back on the Millennium Falcon. I mean, this was not on the shooting day. I was just street clothes and going to visit that set. And I said, “Sure.” It was sort of like visiting an old house that you lived in when you were a kid. I mean, I just welled up with emotion and I said, “I need to be by myself.”

Hamill went on it say that the detail of the ship was immaculate, and the designers got it down to “the oil drips, the hanging pipes, just everything. The dice in the cockpit.” Director Rian Johnson made sure to capture the magical moment for the real scene with Luke boarding the Falcon, saying it was something the whole crew gathered around the cramped space to witness:

God, I remember so vividly getting that shot of him turning on the lights in the Falcon cockpit. And we all kind of looked at each other, just like, “Oh my God.”

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI hits theaters December 15.