for be alright ♪ ♪ got you kissing on the sun while you do it like that ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, banned from the olympics. the stunning decision blocking russia from competing in the upcoming winter games for a doping conspiracy. >> the integrity of the olympic games. >> we're with the amateur cyclist who accidentally stumbled on to the cheating scheme. and the russian team scientist turned whistle blower, still in hiding, fearing assassination. plus -- we're on the verge of the most anticipated night of the year. the premier of "star last jedi." we got to hang with the cast. and mark hamill sharing poignant

memories of his lost princess. >> i'm just as crazy as you. i just don't write books it. okay? >> first "nightline" five. >> good luck out there. >> i don't need luck. i have skill. >> i don't have my keys. >> all hands. we're looking for the captain's keys again. >> as long as people misplace their keys, you can count on geico saving people money. sorry. i can't make it. it's just my eczema again, but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you ok? eczema. it's fine. hey! hi! aren't you hot? eczema again? it's fine. i saw something the other day. eczema exposed.

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thank you for joining us. we begin with an historic decision to ban russia if the upcoming winter olympics, after investigators uncovered the country's history of doping. it a devastating verdict for a team that's typically favored to haul in the gold. tonight we'll hear from an amateur cyclist who accidentally stumbled on to this astonishing scandal. >> from beauty and grace to strength and speed. russian athletes have dominated the winter olympiads. >> to give russia the top three places. >> this year, the homes for bringing home the gold, all but melted. the russian team banned from the 2018 winter games in south korea because of prior systemic doping. >> the unprecedented attack on the integrity of the olympic games. >> the sanctions today, one of the harshest punishments in olympic history.

no flag, no anthem. >> among the findings, an outrageous scheme from the last winter olympics. >> russia had pulled off the single biggest fraud in the history of sport. >> sochi, 2014. a grand spectacle of russian glory. the host country taking home an impressive 13 gold medals, spiking national pride. boosting the stature of president vladimir putin. the ioc confirming today, russis home turf. >> dozens of russian athletes including final of the 33 russian medal winners were part of a state-run doping program. >> at the center of the cheating scheme, a russian scientist. >> big boss. show the best results. >> two people connected with the russian doping program are already dead. >> there was never anti-doping

in russia. ever. >> the story chronicles in the netflix documentary, icarus which became part of the ioc's case against russia. >> day after day. >> the film maker and amateur cyclist said he initially set out to understand how his hero, lance armstrong, had managed to get clean drug tests for years, despite his doping. dan harris sat down with fogel last summer. >> if lance had been able to do this and everybody else, forget about cycling. what did this mean for every sport planett earth? >> i'm going to do an injection. >> so he decided to make himself a guinea pig. he would take performance enhancing drugs, or peds, and then see if he could pass the drug test. filming every step along the way. >> i was very interested to see if it was still possible to evade detection. >> for help with his project, he

was referred to the doctor who ran the anti-doping lab. >> gregory agrees to help smuggle my urine into his moscow laboratory to figure out when i would test negatively. that in and of itself was pretty mind-boggling. because he should not have been doing that to begin with. >> this is my morning pill popping routine. and then i prepare the testosterone. why did he agree to help you? >> i came at him as an athlete. and i think the allure of being part of the movie. the other part is that he had just gotten out of the sochi olympics. >> months after he started working with the doctor -- >> 99% of russian athletes are guilty of doping. >> stunning revelations. >> it's worse than we thought.

>> at what point did you know, my story is way bigger? >> putin appears on state television. not only does he deny everything. he says there was no state sponsored doping in russia. and about 12 hours after that statement, gregory is on call to me. and he has two fsb agents, kgb agents, living in his home protecting him. and he tells me they're going to kill him. >> listen. joking, you know, like i'm -- i'm worried about you. >> yes, yes. >> and in that moment, i knew that the movie, the story that i thought that i was setting out to make was over. >> in any danger? >> yes. i need to escape. they're going to kill me. >> the biggest thing that happened was that i had this person's life in my hands. >> fogel said he immediately

bought him a flight out of moscow to the u.s. he said the doctor brought something with him. a hard drive filled with documents detailing russia's doning program. >> i realize that not only am i sitting on a nuclear bomb of information that shares all of sport history. he had come preparing to blow the lid off this. >> according to him, during the sochi games, russia intelligence agents posed as maintenance workers, entering the lab, then breaking into tamper proof bottles and swapping out dirty urine for clean samples. >> they controlled, you know, everything about those olympic games. that they had the lock. they had the key. they ran the bank. they operated the vault. they could essentially facilitate whatever they wanted. >> the scam he says, allowed russian athletes to continue doping throughout the olympic games. giving them an advantage over

other countries. >> what is unprecedented about this was the degree to which russians were cheating in assisting their athletes. this seems like covert operation greenlighted by the kremlin which is why the ioc's action is so unprecedented. >> in the film, a jaw dropping discussion about the russian doping. >> does russia have a statewide systematic method? >> were you the master mind of a statewide system that cheated the olympics? >> yes. >> tracee: russia would have been a total of 73 medals in the 2008 beijing olympics. how many of those athletes were dirty? >> 30. >> russia won 81 total medals in london. how many of those he were dirty? >> 50% for sure. let it be 50%. they used a special program.

state sponsored, of course. >> was putin aware of the existence of the russian doping system? >> yes. aware of my name. >> he was doping and anti-doping. he was the venom and the anti-venom. >> once safely in the u.s., he decided to go public and fogel was now deeply intertwined. >> "the new york times" is breaking tomorrow. >> fogel said the doctor was tired of hiding after the sochi games. >> instead of using the science, the science you developed to get around the system, you abandoned the science. >> yes. the most important yes. >> this was no longer science to him. this was you know, just outright fraud. and he realize that had this system was not going to last. >> so you think he saw you as a way to expose what he wanted to expose? >> inthat's what happened over time, yes.

>> he is now tunneled protection of american authorities. his lawyers say he has been cooperating. >> i do know that he is very, very pleased with the decision. i think for gregory, this was a huge moment of vindication for him. >> fogel said today's news was a long time coming. he stood up to tell the truth against kind of impossible odds. and the truth has prevailed today. >> putin has denied the doping allegations. >> and the ioc disciplinary commission said in the report that there wasn't any documented evidence confirming that the russian president was directly involved. individual athletes will be allowed to compete in south korea wearing neutral uniforms if they pass extensive drug tests. it is unclear how the kremlin

will respond to today's ban. >> if they don't take actual responsibility and accept these findings as truth, and come forward to the world and apologize, why should they ever be reinstated in any olympic game? >> but the impact of the whistle blowing is undeniable. even here in america. u.s. intelligence agency says it was one of russia's motivations for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. >> given your perspective on russia, having been through what you've been through, what would you say to those who doubt there? >> watch this film. and then tell me, or tell world that you doubt what russia is capable of. it's that clear and simple. up next, we've got inside information from the stars of star wars, the last jedi.

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awakened in 2014, fans have been counting the days until the premier of star wars, the last jedi. with so many cliffhangers and the last reveal of luke skywalker, we've been dying to know what comes next. so this is the story that won't end the way you think.

>> young heroes at the cross roads. galactic conflict amid cutting edge -- what? the plot lines of "star wars, the last jedi." the eighth in the franchise. the last to be filmed in carrie fisher's lifetime. but change is in the air. >> it's time for the jedi to end. >> what? >> the most optimistic, hopeful character in the entire trilogy is now this cynical, bitter, elderly recluse? >> it's a daunting switch for 66-year-old mark hamill. through four decades of star wars friends and fans. the embodyment of luke sky walker. >> it was very hard for me. as luke says, and i agree with --

>> this is not going to go the way you think. >> that was certainly true for me. >> each one of these characters is putting them through a really tough trial and seeing how they handled that. >> played by daisy ridley, last seen at the end of the force awakens, that means a tangled journey. >> she's looking for belonging. she found with it the resistance. she found it in han and then han was taken away and she had to go away. >> she has new powers dawning in her. >> yet long before such star wars identity crisis, the plain old teenage angst. since his teen tantrum line in a new hopeful. >> do or do not. there is no try. >> and the seismic revelations in the he wiempire strikes back. >> i am your father.

>> no one has better understood his place in the star wars universe than mark hamill. >> what were the characteristic that's you've arrested understood? >> he's a jedi. that represents a sort of virtue that is almost unattainable for a human. >> when i read this the first time, i said this isn't science fiction. this is a fairytale. there's a farm boy and a wizard. there is a princess. >> somebody has to save our skins. there is a space pirate. we rick our lives to save the princess. what does she do? she complains about the ship we came in. i thought it was hilarious. is this like mel brooks territory? >> but it was serious business. when the writer director presented hamill with the last jedi screenplay. >> i saw the script in his lap. i said there is no world in which he reads and it says, yes, ma'am, exactly what i was

thinking. >> ryan is a deeply gifted story teller and film maker and such a nice person. >> it had been decades since hamill had set foot on the millennial falcon. >> you can on to this thing and it is an exact duplication. i started getting welled up with emotion that i didn't anticipate. it just represented a really monumental memory of my career. >> look! >> that career inextricably linked to carrie fisher. whose death after the film had wrapped. >> we didn't know when we were shooting that this would be her last performance. it is so powerful. it obviously now has a really sad extra layer to it. >> even when she wasn't playing general leia, fisher had been a guide for those struggling with the sheer size of star wars celebrity.

>> it is very weird getting accustomed to being stopping you, going down the road. i felt lying i was put a hat on, glasses. on it was carrie lead bigg example who would never do that. all right. this is all good. she was just authentically her. there was no covering up. >> it is hard to sugar coat it. there is no real upside other than the fact that she would have wanted us to laugh. >> fortunately, fisher always made that possible. even on the last jedi. >> in many way, we were like real sibles. we loved each other but we drove each other crazy. i adored her but what a handful. and always funny. >> we would go back and forth. carrie, look, i'll just as crazy as you. i just ooze don't write books about it. >> it is johnson who represents change. part of a generation raised on

the franchise that gets to determine course and composition of the lucas film. like abc news, is owned by disney. >> to me star wars is a fun ride. if it doesn't make you want to go to the theater, get your star wars ships and run around in the backyard, it's not a star wars movie. >> treasure, the saga's past, ever eager for what lies ahead. >> not everybody loves star wars. it's been their thing. not everybody loves bananas. but if you do love bananas, we've got the best in the galaxy. >> for "nightline," los angeles. >> we'll be right back. he. >> abc news "nightline" brought to you by mucinex. ugh man, my sinuses. it's like my head's in a fog. i mean, could you be any more dramatic?

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