_.-----------------[ The Journal of the Bloopers ]------------------._ / .----------------------------------------------------------------. \ | | _______ ____________ ___ _________ | | | | / _____|____ ____| / \ | ____ \ | | | | ( (____ | | / \ | |____) ) | | | | \____ \ | | / ^ \ | __ / | | | |________________) ) | | / /~~~\ \ | | \ \____________| | | __________________/ |__|__/__/ __\__\|__| \______________ | | ___________ \ / / \ | ____ \ / _____________ | | | \ \ __ / / \ | |____) ) ( (____ | | | | \ \ / \ / / ^ \ | __ / \____ \ | | | | \ ` /\ ' / /~~~\ \ | | \ \________) ) | | | | \__/ \__/__/ \__\|__| \____________/ | | | | | | \ `----------------------------------------------------------------' / `--------------------------------------------------------------------' The Journal of the Bloopers Collected by Juan C. Walls Version 2.7 [10-Apr-96] Find the last version at: http://www.csi.ull.es/alumnado/alu756/walls/starwars.html The following list is a quick guide to help you find the various bloopers, goofs, inconsistencies and screw ups found in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The main difference with this blooper guide and the others i have seen is that the bloopers are listed in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, so you can read the listing and watch the movies at the same time without having to rewind or change the tape constantly. Abreviations: ANH refers to A New Hope, also known as Star Wars, the first movie. TESB refers to The Empire Strikes Back ROTJ refers to Return of the Jedi I'd like to thank all those who contributed to this list: Brandon Gillespie who created the Bad Guide to Star Wars. Kevin Cox who created the first Journal of the Bloopers (I think so) David Kemper (Gallandro) who created the "Hey! Isn't that a blooper?" document. David C. Fein & Ryan Silva who created the Star Wars compendium of lost footage. Jeremy Kennedy who created the Star Wars Trilogy Blooper Viewers Guide. Jason Leblanc Aaron Romanowsky Andy Hofle Bryan Carolan Dunne Cleavy McKnight Dan Uslan Daniel Goldman Daniel S. Highlands Darryll Hobson Dax Shifrel Joe Stremick Jacob Skovborg Steve Talmage John Haller Paul Richards David Van Langeveld Daywin Patel Lukas Kendall Neil Ed Hirsh ? Jeffrey Gold Eric Hartwell Ernie Oporto Mark Swartz Brian Sebby Geoff Weiss Ben Ragunton Andy DS Ayrton Barry Marshall Juha Terho Tony Case This Journal has all the material included in The Bad Guide 5.3 and Journal of the Bloopers previous edition as well as information found in the Internet Movie Database and some of the material from "Hey! Isn't that a blooper?" 1.0 by Gallandro. Each entry has an aclaration in parenthesis specifiying what kind of entry is: BLOOPER: Something that we should not see but is still there. (a bad matte, an actor's mistake, a reversed scene, etc) BLOOPER?: Something that is not a blooper but people thinks it is. CURIOSITY: An interesting detail about something. UNRELEASED: Scenes filmed or writen but not included in the final release. The following bloopers are mine (not seen reported before) or enhanced by me: C3PO'S LEG IS SILVER SILVER PROTOCOL DROID THE LOST LUKE SCENE THE LOST BIGGS SCENES (1,2 & 3) DEWBACK? WHAT IS THAT? LATEEN OR HEBREW? THE TWO LEGGED JABBA LOOK, HE IS THE TWO LEGGED JABBA! DEWBACK? WHAT IS THAT? LIGHT BULB SABER THE NOT LOST BIGGS SCENES THE STOLEN PLANES OF THE DEATH STAR ARE FALSE! THE WINDOWS OF THE TIE FIGHTERS ARE SPINNING! WEDGE: I'M NOT DEAD! TAUNTAUN DEAD BY WAMPA ATTACK BACK TO TATOOINE THE INVISIBLE SANDSTORM YES, VADER IS YOUR FATHER... AND YOUR UNCLE IS MY BROTHER! STAR WARS ON SPACEBALLS? The other bloopers are provided "as is", so if you watch the movie and see that they are false, don't blame me because i didn't wrote them. After watching ANH again, i can guarantee almost all the ANH bloopers except for the following: MILLENNIUM FALCON: STOWAWAYS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT, SHELLS FOR LASER AMMUNITION?, C3PO: FALLING APART & THE DEATH STAR WAS COMMITTEE BUILT I will guarantee more when i watch TESB and ROTJ again ;-) All bloopers still not guarantied by me will carry a "no warranties sign" (*) this doesn't mean i don't believe in them being true but i still have to see them by myself to remove the (*) sign. Please send any updates, new finds, comments or anything to Juan C. Walls at E-mail address alu339@csi.ull.es HISTORY: 2.7 by Juan C. Walls. Eliminated some entries that were mere curiosities behind the scenes so they can't be seen in a certain moment of the movies but i have put them at the end of the document. Maybe one day, when they increase their number i will put them on a separate document. Added IN SPACE EVERYBODY CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM, PRECISION GROUND CREW, PEOPLE IN 3PO'S HEAD, CATCH THAT SHADOW, BAD SYNC, AUNT BERU THE VENTRILOQUIST, SO MAYBE GREEDO DIDN'T DIE!, PLEASE, THINK ABOUT POOR DROIDS!, WE ARE NOT READY TO TAKE OFF YET, SHADOW CASTER, SAY CHEESE!, DIMINISHING STORMTROOPER?, WHO DRESSED YOU VADER?, I'M JUST ADJUSTING MYSELF, DARTH VADER'S YELLOW SABER, THE CONSISTENCY OF THE HYPERSPACE, MIRRORED ARTOO, REVERSED MIC, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, GOLD WHAT?, AUTOMATIC DOORS, TRANSPARENT X-WINGS, TOO SOON STUPID ASTEROID!, STEALTH LIGHTSABER, ARTOO'S "SLUGS", SOLIDARY GUN, HA! YOU DIDN'T HIT ME, LANDO'S SPEAR TRICK, POOR QUALITY, REPULSOR FIELDS, BAD BRIEFING, LOOK THAT GLOVE, HOLD ME TIGHT, A BIG STEP FOR THE EMPIRE, DARK PAINTED FORCES, JEDI COSTUMES, DON'T FLY DRUNK, MORE REVEALING EYES, CONVERSE-WING FIGHTER, I THOUGHT VADER LOST THAT HAND and FASTER THAN LIGHT bloopers. Corrected LATEEN OR HEBREW?, SHELLS FOR LASER AMMUNITION?, LUKE: "CARRIE! ER, LEIA!", OOLA: OOPS, WATCH THE COSTUME, POTATO SALAD, WHAT A CHILLY TAUNTAUN!, DISSAPEARING TIE FIGHTERS, THE DEATH STAR WAS COMMITTEE BUILT and SWEDISH CAVE-EWOKS. 2.6 by Juan C. Walls. Just changed my e-mail adress (i was using a shared account and now i'm using my own account :-) 2.5 by Juan C. Walls. Added EXPLODE THAT BAD MATE! and NEW STRONG METALS FROM THE SPACE AGE bloopers. Corrected TIE FIGHTER PILOT ON FIRE, DEWBACK? WHAT IS THAT?, THAT WASN'T GREEDO, WAS IT?, SAN FRANCISCO DEATH STAR, YODA'S FLOATING CANE. Answered WHERE DID VADER GET LUKE'S LIGHT SABER? 2.4 by Juan C. Walls. Corrected the position of some entries in ANH (film seen again :). Added LATEEN OR HEBREW? blooper, LOOK, HE IS THE TWO LEGGED JABBA! curiosity, LIGHT BULB SABER blooper and WEDGE: I'M NOT DEAD! blooper. Corrected a few entries. 2.3 by Juan C. Walls. Added some corrections sugested by Gallandro (thanx). 2.2 by Juan C. Walls. Added material from "Hey! Isn't that a blooper?" 1.0 2.1a by Juan C. Walls. Added some new bloopers 2.0a by Juan C. Walls. Added all material from "Bad Guide to Star Wars" 5.3 2.1 to 0.0 by Kevin Cox (I think so) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... ** A NEW HOPE ** ---------------- IN SPACE EVERYBODY CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM (curiosity) Did you know that there is no sound in space because there is no air to propagate it? well, in the Star Wars universe, there IS sound in space. This is not a blooper because Lucas wanted his universe to have sound. If you want to "hear" a true space without sound, try watching "2001, A Space Odyssey" (1968) by S. Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke C3PO'S LEG IS SILVER (curiosity) This can be seen in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back: the right foreleg and foot of C3PO are silver instead of golden like the rest of his body. In Return of the Jedi, C3PO has a completely golden body. NOTE: The only draw where i have seen C3PO with a silver leg was in a cover from a DROIDS special published by Dark Horse Comics. SILVER PROTOCOL DROID (curiosity) The first time we see C3PO and R2D2, there is a silver protocol droid like C3PO after him but he takes a different way and dissapears from the scene. Other silver protocol droids can be seen at different scenes on the three movies. C3PO: PRINCESS? WHAT PRINCESS? (blooper?) At the very opening of Star Wars, C3PO utters "There'll be no escape for the Princess this time." Later, when Luke asks who is in the hologram R2 plays, 3PO says "I'm not quite sure." NOTES: This is what Lucas has to say: As a protocol robot, C3PO is programmed not to reveal classified information, which explains his apparent ignorance of Princess Leia's hologram message. This idea is echoed in the Star Wars radio drama (episode 3), where Captain Antilles specifically instructs C3PO and R2D2 to "restrict and protect all references to Leia Organa's identity and presence aboard this vessel." THE LOST LUKE SCENE (unreleased) After the Princess' ship is captured by the Star Destroyer, there is a scene that was filmed but when the final cut came around for the Star Wars films, this scene was left on the cutting room floor. Luke is working on a vaporator tower with a robot and sees a spark in the sky, he takes his macrobinoculars and watches the battle between the Star Destroyer an the Corellian Frigate. NOTE: This scene appears on the novel and the Marvel comic. R2-D2'S BAD GUIADANCE SENSORS (blooper) After Leia gives R2-D2 the message for Obi-Wan, R2 starts to roll away. If the scene would have continued on, he would have rolled into the wall. VADER'S MASK (blooper) In some scenes we can see David Prowse's face through the Vader mask NOTE: Lucas wanted to make it completely dark, but could not do it in the first film, it was fixed in the later films (I suppose the material used nowadays to make sunglasses lenses was not been discovered yet in 1976). THE LOST BIGGS SCENES (1) (unreleased) In the Script for Star Wars there are several Scenes which includes Biggs Darklighter, a friend of Luke. These Scenes were filmed, but when the final cut came around for Star Wars, these scenes were left on the cutting room floor. The first was after the droids scape on the pod. Luke comes to Fixer's garage on his speeder, meets Biggs and tells him about the battle he saw that mornig with the macroprismatics. NOTE: This scenes appear on the novel, the Marvel comic and the Making of Star Wars. C3PO GREASE HERE, GREASE THERE (blooper) When C3PO kicks R2D2 on Tattooine, C3PO has a large grease stain down the left side of his chest. A few minutes later, when he finds the jawa sandcrawler, this stain is on the right side. THE LOST BIGGS SCENES (2) (unreleased) The second was after jawas capture 3PO. Luke is with Biggs on the outside of Fixer's garage and Biggs tells luke his intention to join the rebellion. R2-D2 IS REALLY HUMAN! (blooper) When Artoo first gets put into the Jawa's sandcrawler and he looks around at all the creatures in there. You see R5-D4, and then right after the SECOND time he looks at the red R2, when they cut back to Artoo, he turns his head around and you can see the face of Kenny Baker inside through the bubble on Artoo's head. DEWBACK? WHAT IS THAT? (curiosity) The Dewback appears in two places on Tatooine. First: The scene where the Stormtroopers discover the escape pod used by C3PO and R2D2. At the beginning of this scene, you can see it with stormtroopers, in the distance. The second time you see it, is the scene when Luke and Ben have reached the city, after they have parked the Landspeeder. It is rather hard to find, as it is in the background. But, if you look closely, you can see it next to cantina door. NOTE: The Dewback is a Giant Green lizard used for transportation. You can see a good photo (B&W) of one of them on the roleplaying game "StarWars Sourcebook" from West End Games. Steve Talmage tells me that dewbacks can be seen much more clearly in the THX Letterboxed set. (I'm still waiting that xmas present :( SORRY, I DON'T DO WINDOWS... (curiosity) Has anybody noticed in ANH that the Jawa that tells 3PO to leave the crawler as they approach Luke's home says, "Here comes the window cleaner"? Listen, it is rather funny. NOTE: This could be just a psychological effect (you hear what you expect to hear). R5-D4, BAD R5, BAD R5, YOU STAY... GOOD BOY (blooper) After Owen buys R5-D4 it explodes. He points to R2-D2 and as R2's head turns, you see the previous shot of the Jawas prepping R5-D4 BEFORE they take him away. C3PO IS NOT VERY GOOD TELLING STORIES (blooper?) In the garage scene, C3PO claims he's "not very good at telling stories." In ROTJ, on Endor, however, he certainly seems like quite a good storyteller, when he tells the story of the Rebellion to the Ewoks. NOTES: If you listen carefully to the story he tells the Ewoks, you can pick out enough English words and sound effects to follow it, and you'll discover that he sums up everything that happened between the beginning of Star Wars until the end of TESB in less than thirty seconds. By most standards this would hardly be considered good storytelling. Sure, the Ewoks were fascinated, but then again most people on earth probably would be too if a robot came down and began telling stories of a galactic-scale conflict. 3PO was pretty much forced into the role of storyteller by virtue of the fact that no one else spoke the language, not because he had in skill in telling stories. Some people still believe that this is a blooper. Still others offer alternative explanations: 1) 3PO downplayed his storytelling ability to Luke because he didn't want to tell a bunch of stories. 2) 3PO was not aware of his storytelling ability until he was actually required to use it. 3) His storytelling ability improved between when he first spoke with Luke and when he addressed the Ewoks. C3PO ROBOT 'SELF PLEASURE' (curiosity) When Luke is trying to clean up Artoo in his home on Tatooine, you can see Threepio behind him; watch what he's doing with that rag. C3PO LOOSE FOOTING (blooper?) On Tatooine, when Luke is cleaning R2. Just after the line, "Well, my little friend, you've got something jammed in here real good....." Right as the hologram appears, C3PO falls off the step he is on. NOTE: This could simply be surprise on C3PO's behalf. BAD SYNC (blooper?) (*) When Luke discovers Leia's hologram message, her line "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope" doesn't sync with the picture when it first appears. NOTE: You could argue that this was R2's fault as he is restricted by the device Jawas put on him to avoid escape. THE DISAPPEARING RAG (blooper) Right after R2-D2 shows Luke the "Leia hologram". Near the end of this segment, watch 3PO's sleight of hand. In one shot, he's holding a rag, in the next shot he isn't, and in then next shot ("I'm sorry sir, but he appears to have picked up a slight flutter") he has the rag again, and in the next shot he doesn't. AUNT BERU THE VENTRILOQUIST (blooper) If you watch Aunt Beru's lips whenever she speaks, you can notice that sometimes her lips are not moving exactly with her speach. This is because after the original theatrical release of the movie, Lucas had all of Beru's lines dubbed over. This is reportedly because Lucas felt that the real Beru's voice was too low and felt it needed to be changed. LUKE'S MAGIC CUP TRICK (blooper) When Luke is eating with Owen and Beru, at the beginning part of this sequence, his cup is in his left hand. Later on, it appears in his right hand. NOTE: This happens twice, and is probably a result of the film being reversed, which happened several times throughout the film. THE DANCE OF THE SUNS (blooper) Consecutive shots of the twin stars of Tatooine (Tatoo I and Tatoo II) clearly show them at different distances apart. LUKE: I CAN SEE ONE OF THEM NOW BUT YOU CAN'T (blooper?) Looking through the macrobinoculars, Luke comments "They're sand people, all right. I can see one of them now." But no sand person is visible at the time he says that. NOTE: You're watching the Pan&Scan version of the film. This means that the right and left sides of the picture were cut off in order to make it fit onto the television screen. What you need (and me too:) is a letterbox edition of the film. This means that the entire picture is shown (black bands are put at the top and bottom of the screen to preserve the aspect ratio of the picture). NOTE: My copy (spanish doubbed) is Pan&Scan but i can see him! THE DISAPPEARING MACRAME THINGY (blooper) Just after Ben gets out Anakin's light saber There is a "shawl" which temporarily disappears, and then re-appears in Kenobi's house. It looks like a medium-brown "macrame" blanket. it is hanging on the left side of the plaster "arch" in the house. Notice it casts a shadow which sticks out to the left of the shadow cast by the arch. Right after Kenobi finishes speaking "This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight...", the shawl disappears. After Luke turns off his saber it is back. MOVING TABLE PIECES (blooper) When Ben watches Leia's holographic message, the items placed on the table change from scene to scene. THE "FLOATING" INTERROGATION DROID (blooper) In Leia's cell, you can see the crane that they used to make the interrogation droid float. This is between the droid and the right edge of the door. REVEALING EYE (blooper) In the cantina, you can see through the eyes of the little mouse alien who is getting a drink from the barman. CANTINA CHARACTERS (blooper) When Luke is sitting at the bar in the Cantina, he takes a glance around the cantina. The camera then gives us shots of various aliens. After the shot that shows a big alien apparently laughing, they cut to two aliens (I checked the sourcebooks and they're known as Duros) enganging in a conversation. One is holding up his hands like he doesn't understand what the other one's saying. Anyway, if you look at their hands, the one on the right has big, purple, very alien hands. The one on the left (same species) is wearing white gloves over human hands. SO, CAN YOU RUN THE MILE IN LESS THAN 100 YARDS, HAN? (blooper?) Han Solo claims that the Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs" when asked how fast the ship is. Parsecs are a measure of distance, not time (equal to about 3.26 light years). NOTE: This is what Lucas answered: he says he wrote that line for the movie on purpose, partly as an in-joke and partly to show that Han Solo was something of a bull artist who didn't always know precisely what he was talking about. Some choose not to believe this explanation, feeling instead that Lucas screwed up and came up with that explanation later to cover it up. While this doesn't sound like something he would be likely to do, only Lucas himself knows for sure. If you want an explanation that makes sense in context of the movie, one is offered by the _Star Wars Technical Journal #1_, published by Starlog magazine. Daywin Patel provides a summary: The Kessel Run is a race against time and distance. The ships making the run are loaded with specific cargos to be delivered to specific ships, which are moving from free trade lanes into Imperial Space. Speed is important because the smuggler ships must cover the distance between the ships, deliver the cargo and go on to the next ship and deliver its cargo. All cargos must be delivered before the recipient ships cross over into Imperial Space. Thus, when Han says "It the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.", he means that he made all of the deliveries before the recipient ships could travel a distance of 12 parsecs. The novel _Jedi Academy_, by Kevin Anderson, offers yet another interpretation of this statement, but i will not reveal it, better read the book yourself. Also note that the novelization uses "standard timeparts" instead of "parsecs". THAT WASN'T GREEDO, WAS IT? (blooper) Erik Pittock says: IMHO, my vote for some of the worst effects in the trilogy goes to the scene with Han Solo and Greedo in the Cantina on Tatooine. I watched this on a video a few times and everytime I went past this scene, something didn't seem normal. Sure enough, when I ran the tape really slow right before Han blasts Greedo, you see the actor Greedo replaced by a really bad dummy that explodes. Obviously with Screen Actors Guild regulations being what they are, they couldn't explode the actor, but the dummy doesn't come close to matching the actor (much thinner, I think slightly taller, and a different jacket too, if I remember correctly!). Not only that but the background is quite different. I guess this is classed "bad editing". Steve Talmage tells me that again, the THX Letterbox has improvements other than remastered sound. This scene was re-edited to remove several frames of film. You can no longer notice the switching out of the Greedos. SO MAYBE GREEDO DIDN'T DIE! (curiosity) While Ben, Luke and the droids head to docking bay 94 to board the Falcon, the scene cuts to a hooded alien with big round eyes and a long snout called Garindan the spy. As the camera pauses on the spy watching our heros, various humans and aliens pass by in the background, one of which bears an incredible resemblance to Greedo, Jabba's henchman who just got shot. It is possible that it is another member of the Rodian race, but rather unlikely that he'd be wearing the exact same clothing as the late Greedo. THE TWO LEGGED JABBA (unreleased) Jabba and henchmen confront Han at Docking Bay 94 just before Luke and Co. arrive. The original budget (and, to be honest, the technology of the time) didn't allow for a scene that fit Lucas' vision, so all that exists of the "first" Jabba on film is a large man dressed in furs saying the dialogue. NOTE: This scene is still on the novel, the comic, and the radio dramatization and is said to be included in the 1997 special edition with the real Jabba matted over with computer F/X. Shots of this can be found on "Star Wars to Jedi, the making of a saga". LOOK, HE IS THE TWO LEGGED JABBA! (curiosity) When Luke and Ben meet Chewie at the hangar, you can see an alien dressed like an imperial commander but in red and with long red beards. This is the character Howard Chaykin inspired in to represent Jabba in the Marvel comic. PLEASE, THINK ABOUT POOR DROIDS! (curiosity) When our heroes enter the docking bay, watch at R2 as he goes downstairs. He has a very good balancing, don't you think? It seems like droid designers don't care about steps or step designers don't care about droids. WE ARE NOT READY TO TAKE OFF YET (blooper) The first time we see the Falcon, the camera pans from the left of the screen where our heroes enter, to the right, where the Falcon is parked. Take note of the top right of the screen. The Falcon is missing it's trademark radar dish. MILLENNIUM FALCON: FUZZY RACING DICE (curiosity) When Chewie runs to the cockpit to fly the Falcon out of Mos Eisley, his head hits 2 small objects that look very much like small dice. MILLENNIUM FALCON: STOWAWAYS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT (blooper) (*) As Han flies the Falcon from Docking Bay 94, behind Han and Chewie, there is a person with a green shirt standing in the corridor. A few seconds later he moves out of the shot. NOTE: This is just in the Letterbox version. THE MILLENNIUM FALCON'S COCKPIT WINDOWS (blooper) Lukas Kendall writes: There is an inconsistency in the number of "window frames" in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit. The cockpit features a single circular window facing front, with a rim of windows immediately arround that, surrounded by more windows. It is the first rim of windows that has the inconsistency. When we see from inside the cockpit, there are only three windows, with window frames as so: _\ /_ However, when we see an exterior shot of the Falcon, this rim is divided into quarters, as so: _\|/_ In the Empire Strikes Back, the interior of the Falcon is corrected to match with the outside (with the rim divided into four windows). SHADOW CASTER (1) (blooper) Luke's lightsaber casts a shadow on him as he practices aboard the Millennium Falcon. THE DEATH STAR WAS COMMITTEE BUILT (blooper) (*) Jeffrey Gold writes: Watch the stage panels, in the background behind Grand Moff Tarkin, and Darth Vader. They are constanly swinging back and forth. One of the more noticeable scenes is later in the movie, just after the Millenium Falcon is brought aboard the Death Star. A voice over on the comlink briefs Vader and Tarkin on the situation. You will notice a vertical brace-like beam between Vader and Tarkin that sways from left to right. Remember, the Death Star was designed by committee, and funded by a government... DON'T KILL THEM, THERE ARE CHILDREN IN THE THEATRE (blooper?) When the Falcon is aboard the Death Star, a scanning crew goes aboard, then someone calls down to the two stormtrooper guards for help. The troopers board the Falcon, and we hear blaster fire. Later we see Han and Luke wearing the stolen stormtrooper uniforms, but they are undamaged. NOTES: There are a couple of possibilities here: 1) Han or Luke may have merely fired stun blasts at the troopers, which would leave the armor undamaged. They didn't sound much like the one stun shot we've heard in the trilogy, but different weapons may make different sounds. Also, they also didn't really sound like regular blaster shots either (though it sounded closer to those than the stun shot that took out Leia), but that might simply have been acoustics. 2) The shots heard may have been the troopers firing at (and missing) the Falcon's crew. VADER PLAYS CHARADES (blooper) During the conversation where Vader and Tarkin learn that the Dantooine Rebel base has been abandoned, Vader says "I told you she would never consciously betray the Rebellion". He then stops talking, but keeps gesticulating as though he is saying something. Tarkin doesn't respond to his comment until after he stops gesticulating. Obviously, they had some difficulty timing the voice over with Prowses' movements in this scene. NOTE: In the spanish version, this timing failure is corrected. SAY CHEESE! (blooper) Just after Han shoots the comlink at the detention block and yells to Luke, look over his shoulder on the left of the screen. You will notice two racks of security cameras hanging from the ceiling, untouched, even after our heroic trio very thoroughly destroyed them all. LUKE: WHAT? I CANNOT HEAR YOU! (blooper) Neil writes: After you here the roar of the Dia noga Luke turns his head and moves his mouth, but nothing comes out. You do not have to be a professional lip-reader to know he says, "What's that?". A moment later you see him do it again but you can only catch the end of what he said and therefore cannot decipher it. This is definately in the VHS version, but I am not sure about any other. STORM TROOPER'S LOW CLEARANCE (blooper) When Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are inside the trash compactor, in the Death Star. After the compactor has started up and Luke is yelling into the comlink. The camera cuts to C3PO's comlink sitting on the table, then to the security door. The door opens and Stormtroopers walk in. The trooper behind and on the right of the lead trooper hits his head. NOTE:There was a bit of debate about whether this was supposed to happen, or was an accident, however, Ed Hirsh wrote: The scene where the stormtrooper hits his head as he enters the communications room is not in the script. Here is the scene as it is written by George Lucas (Reprinted w/o permission): ---------begin Star Wars Script: INTERIOR: DEATH STAR -- MAIN GANTRY -- COMMAND OFFICE. A soft buzzer and the muted voice of Luke calling out for C3PO can be heard on Threepio's hand comlink, which is sitting on the deserted computer console. Artoo and Threepio are nowhere in sight. Suddenly there is a great explosion and the door of the control tower flies across the floor. Four armed stormtroopers enter the chamber. FIRST TROOPER: Take over! (pointing to the dead officer) See to him! Look there! ----------end Star Wars Script So the first trooper was supposed to say "See to him!" But it was directed toward the previously killed officer. DIMINISHING STORMTROOPER? (blooper) When R2 and 3PO are found in the control room by the stormtroopers, the trooper standing guard stops next to the door, which is low enough for him to hit his head on (which doesn't happen here). The next shot of him shows the door above his head. NEW STRONG METALS FROM THE SPACE AGE (blooper) Paul Richards says: In the trash compactor scene we see Leia on top of the garbage and her left hand is on the "pole" they tried to stop the walls with. If you watch closely, she will squeeze the pole and it will crunch under her hand for a second. It returns to being cilindrical an instant later. Some strong pole, eh?. It happens just after 3PO says: "Use the comlink? oh my! I forgot..." TIMEWARP CHEWIE (blooper) When the trash compactor walls are closing in on our heroes, aboard the Deathstar watch Chewie. His position changes in three cuts. First he is holding the wall, next he is putting up his crossbow, then he is again holding the wall. I'M JUST ADJUSTING MYSELF (curiosity) At the scene where everyone is getting out of the Trash Compactor and cleaning themselves off, from the camera angle used, it looks like Leia is "adjusting herself". LATEEN OR HEBREW? (blooper) When Kenobi disconnects the tractor beam, you can see the words "tractor beam" but in TESB and ROTJ the alphabet has changed to an alien one similar to the hebrew characters. Even Vader's chest plate has these hebrew-like characters (but not in ANH). Curiously, arabic numbers did appear on the three movies. SHELLS FOR LASER AMMUNITION? (blooper?) (*) Virtually in any battle, the best is after Luke and Leia swing across the chasm on the rope and the stormtroopers lay on the ground shooting at them, you can clearly see an empty case falling on the floor from the gun of the stormtrooper on the left. TESB has the same problem (but apparently, ROTJ doesn't). The laser rifles are actually modified Sterling 9mm submachine guns, and when filming the shoot-outs they used blank bullets (so they would know when they were shot, and they would simulate "kick-back") which ejected spent cases as if they were real bullets. NOTE: I know it is highly unlikely but i think this cases could be energy cells that are used on the blasters to obtain the energy for the shot (a sort of super-alkaline batteries :-) SHADOW CASTER (2) (blooper) (*) When Ben activates his saber at the beginning of the battle between him and Vader, the saber casts a shadow on him. WHO DRESSED YOU VADER? (blooper) During the lightsaber battle, Vader's chestplate is backwards as he says "You should not have come back." LIGHT BULB SABER (blooper) When Ben and Vader are in his saber duel, Ben's saber isn't colored in several frames. In this frames, you can see the saber is really a white bar covered with 3M's Scotchlite with a light bulb on the extreme. THE SHADOWS... (blooper) When Chewie and Han arrive first in the hallway leading to the Millennium Falcon ("Didn't we just leave this party?"), you can see the shadows of Luke and Leia, who are waiting to run in on cue. DARTH VADER'S YELLOW SABER (blooper) When Vader kills Ben, the point of his lightsaber is yellow instead of red and also passes through Ben's cloack without cutting it. DARTH VADER'S LIGHT SABER ISN'T COLORED (blooper) Just after Darth Vader Kills Obi Wan Kenobi, on board the Death Star. His light saber is white, instead of red. This is because the coloring was added after the film was made, and the optical effects crews forgot to add color to this one scene. The white is the actual color of the saber. MAGICAL SPACE SHIPS (blooper) There are quite a few scenes which includes poor mattes, and bad editing for the ships (primarily the multitudes of Tie fighters). The matte used on the ships, is very noticeable specially when the Millennium Falcon scapes from Death Star and is prosecuted by some TIE fighters. THE CONSISTENCY OF THE HYPERSPACE (blooper) (*) The Millenium Falcon has just escaped from the Death Star and succesfully fought off the four tie fighters. The movie cuts back to the Death Star where we see Tarkin and Vader who says: "They've just made the jump into hyperspace.". But after this scene, the movie cuts back to the Falcon where we see a dialogue between Han and Leia, and there is one shot where we see them talking while looking out the cockpit at the same time, and they are in normal space, not hyperspace like Vader said! MIRRORED ARTOO (blooper) When our heroes just arrive at the Yavin 4 Base and are departing a transport, after Leia speaks the line "We have no time for sorrows Commander" the camera cuts to Artoo being unloaded from a transport. Artoo is backwards due to another film flip. THE STOLEN PLANES OF THE DEATH STAR ARE FALSE! (blooper) After the Millennium Falcon scapes from Death Star and reaches Yavin-4, in the scene when a computer operator connects R2D2 to a computer we can see a computer monitor that begins to show the stolen information. We can se a green dot image of the Death Star but, watch the position of the superlaser parabolic antenna (known as The Eye). It is placed on the ecuatorial trench of the station but we all know the superlaser is located on the north hemisphere of the Death Star. So, we can conclude that the stolen data was false or was an outdated design. I suposse the true could be the second one because i can't imagine somebody making a false document that includes a true design failure :) (the thermal exaust port) PRECISION GROUND CREW (blooper) In the rebel hanger on Yavin before the battle, as Luke prepares to board his X-Wing before the battle, there is a shot that consists of a matte with two ranks of X-Wings superimposed on top, one shot small the other large. If one watches the movements of ground crew closely, the large frame action is repeated a few seconds later in the smaller superimposition. The most noticeable is the man near the front leg of the X-Wing. THE LOST BIGGS SCENES (3) (unreleased) The third was at the hangar on Yavin 4. Biggs finds Luke after Han wishes good luck to Luke. They talk and then appears Red Leader who tells Luke that he fought besides Anakyn Skywalker at the Clone Wars. had this to add: Just as Luke is climbing into his X-wing, you can catch a few seconds of a pilot walking off to the lower right hand corner of the screen wearing his helmet. The helmet design matches that of Biggs! And since Biggs was the only one shown who flew at the battle of Yavin in that particular helmet design, this must be him, just after he talks with Luke and Red Leader. REVERSED MIC (1) (blooper) Red Leader's mike is on his right side during his line, "All wings, report in" THE NOT LOST BIGGS SCENES (curiosity) Biggs appears later on the film. in the attack to the Death Star he is the X-Wing pilot with the black mustache (Red 3). Almost at the end, when Vader gets into battle on his own fighter, there are only three rebels in the trench: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter who is killed by Darth Vader. PORKINS RETURNS FROM THE AFTER LIFE (blooper) As the rebels begin to attack the Death Star, Porkins (RED 6) is killed. Later on as Luke is flying down the trench, a TIE hits part of Luke's ship. He tells R2 to see if he can fix it. Right after that scene, someone on the intercom system asks, "...RED 6, have you seen RED 5?" The blooper is...how could RED 6 answer? He's dead! Watch and listen, you'll hear it. REVERSED MIC (2) (blooper) Luke's mike is on his right side as Red Leader says, "Watch it, there's a lot of fire coming from the right side of that deflections tower" THE WINDOWS OF THE TIE FIGHTERS ARE SPINNING! (blooper) When we see a take of a TIE fighter we can see the window is composed of an octogonal central window and eight square windows surrounding this one. When we see the windows from the outside (the miniature models) we can see that the square windows have the following position: | \ | / \,^./ / \ ---< >---- \ / /`v'\ / | \ | But when we see the windows from the inside (presumably real size) we can see that the position changes: \ / -_ \__/ _- - / \ - | | _- \__/ -_ - / \ - / \ WEDGE: I'M NOT DEAD! (blooper) When Red Leader shouts: "Watch out Red 2, after you!" (I don't know the exact words because i'm watching the spanish version and the scrip that i have is different from the final script) we can see a pilot with a red helmet is killed but he can't be Red 2 because he wears a grey helmet and what's more: Red 2 is Wedge Antilles!. GOLD FIVE, WHO ARE YOU? (blooper) When Gold Five is going down on during the fight on the Death Star. He calls out, "Gold Five to Red Leader." Red Leader's response is "I copy, Gold Leader." Not only he was refering to the wrong person but Gold Leader was just dead at this time. NOTE: In the spanish version, Red Leader's response is "Recibido, Oro cinco" ("I copy, Gold five") REVERSED MIC (3) (blooper) Just before Red Leader is killed ("I just lost my starboard engine!") his mike is on the wrong side. 3PO'S MOVING DENT (blooper) C3PO gets a dent on the left side of his head when he falls and breaks off his arm; he still has this dent throughout the movie, but in one shot at the end, when he's next to Leia in the Rebel Control Room, the film has been reversed -- his dent is on his right side, and Leia is now on the other side of him. MISTAKEN IDENTITY (blooper) After Luke kills the TIE pursuing Biggs, Luke now has a TIE following him. Wedge says "I'm on him, Luke! Hold On!" After a few tense moments, Luke says "Blast it! Biggs, where are you?" Didn't Wedge say he was taking care of the TIE fighter? Perhaps you could argue that Luke was getting scared and wished his boyhood hero to help him since Wedge was taking so long, but even in the script Luke says "Blast it! Wedge, where are you?", shooting down that argument. REVERSED MIC (4) (blooper) When Luke announces that he is all right in the Battle of Yavin sequence and you get a shot of one of the controllers. The controller's headset is on his left ear one minute and then in the next pan is on the right ear. GOLD WHAT? (curiosity) After Luke shoots the photon torpedoes into the exhaust port, we see the Falcon, two X-Wings and a Y-Wing flying away from the Death Star. The X-Wings were piloted by Luke and Wedge, but who was in the Y-Wing? Wasn't Luke and Wedge the only ones that survived the Battle of Yavin? LUKE: "CARRIE! ER, LEIA!" (blooper?) (*) Right after the Death Star is destroyed, as Luke is getting out of his X-Wing and is reunited with Han and Leia, Leia comes running up to him just as he descends the ladder from his X-Wing. He calls the character, Leia, by the actor's name, as he yells out "Carrie!" NOTES: I have recently watched the spanish doubed version of StarWars and i supposed that if the blooper was true, i could hear Luke yelling "LEIA!" instead of "CARRIE!" (i supposed that the doubing crew would use the script as a guide to make the translation) but the fact is that Luke not only doesn't yells "CARRIE!", he not even yells "LEIA!". In fact, all he says is "HEY, HEY, HEY!" or something like. So, we can conclude that this is not a blooper but, as Gallandro said, is only another example of people hearing what they believe they're going to hear. As i only had seen the doubbed version, i can't judge it but i have seen a confirmation by Mark Hammill saying this is false and remember to have read about confirmation by George Lucas on the opposite saying that they laughed a lot when this happened. PAPER AUDIENCE (blooper) When the heroes receive their medallions at the end of Star Wars, nearly all of the crowd are cardboard cutouts. C3PO: FALLING APART (blooper) (*) Neil writes: Just as C3PO enters the area and lifts his arm to tap Han's shoulder. The "hydrolic mechanism" attached to his elbow and upper arm becomes detached. I'm not sure but I remember catching a glimpse of something falling to the floor. Then you can clearly see this "mechanism" protruding out of C3PO's upper arm, it is not attached to his elbow any more. NOTE: I can't find the exact scene (need more info). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ** ----------------------------- A WHITE PROTOCOL DROID? (curiosity) There is actually three scenes that this is seen in. The first is in the command post on Hoth. The white droid is standing to the left behind one of the glass monitors. It is in the shadows, so it could easily be mistaken for C3PO. The second time is in the scene that starts with the line "We can't protect two transports at the same time". At the end of the scene you see the droid standing to the right, in the background between two people. It is definitely NOT C3PO, as he is standing in the foreground at the same time. Last of all, the droid is seen sitting in one of the chairs to the left of the command post, obviously non-functional at this time. WASN'T THAT CLIFF FROM CHEERS? (curiosity) In the base on Hoth, there's a scene where a rebel soldier (character name of Major Derlin) talks to Leia about having to close the doors on the base despite Luke not being back, saying, "Your Highness, there is nothing more we can do tonight. The shield doors must be closed." The actor is none other than Cliff Claven from TV's "Cheers" (real name: John Ratzenberger). AUTOMATIC DOORS (blooper) (*) After Major Derlin inform Leia that the shield doors must be closed. The officer barely has time to give the order when you can see the doors begin to close over Chewie's shoulder on the right of the screen, but the doors make no sound. We cut to a wider shot of Chewie and the doors, but the doors are motionless. Then, the doors begin to close for a second time, but at least this time, they make the appropriate sound. WHAT A CHILLY TAUNTAUN! (blooper?) Han's tauntaun froze to death in the Hoth night. Tauntauns would have to be able to survive the night temperatures on Hoth, though, if they were native to the planet. And it is unreasonable to think the Rebels brought them there. But it's quite possible that the tauntauns were native to Hoth, but normally found shelter or clustered together at night to survive the cold. After all, even in our Arctic regions, you don't find polar bears out in the open at night. It's also been suggested that perhaps wild tauntauns lived in a different, warmer region of Hoth. David Van Langeveld adds: Another possiblitity is provided in the novelization of ESB. Donald F. Glut, the author of the novelization, implies that Han was pushing his tauntaun to the limits of its endurance during his search for Luke. Also, in the film, you can see Han's tauntaun gasping for air when he dismounts temporarilly to scan the area. His tauntaun is also wheezing heavily when he finds Luke. Both of these facts support Mr. Glut's assertion. TAUNTAUN DEAD BY WAMPA ATTACK (unreleased) Before the filmation of Empire, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) had a car accident and was hurt on his face. The script of the movie was changed to justify the potential scars on his face. The Wampa ice creatures were included in the film but they had a bigger role than the one we saw on the theatre. The wampa ice creatures were supposed to enter the base and attack the tauntauns (the sheep looking mounts). After Han and Chewie leave Luke at the sickbay, we can see two rebels trying to calm down a terrified tauntaun and a 2-1B medical droid inspecting a tauntaun's body on the floor. TRANSPARENT X-WINGS (blooper) (*) When the first rebel transport leaves Hoth, you can see through the X-Wings that escort it. EXPLODE THAT BAD MATE! (corrected blooper) (*) Steve Talmage writes: In the new THX video, when the lead AT-AT walker destroys the shield generator, an additional explosion looks to have been added to cover up the bad matt of the exploding generator. POTATO SALAD (curiosity) (*) One of the asteroids with the falcon flying through them is actually a potato. Anybody know which one it is? But here is where Craig Mackinnon thinks the potato is: Chewie and Han come up to the cockpit right after the line, "That was no laser blast, something hit us". Han sits down, and then it shows out the window of the Falcon and you see asteroids. Two asteroids come across the front of the window, from (I think) top left to bottom right. David Van Langeveld adds: Inmediately after Han states, "I'm going to get closer to one of the big ones", the Falcon dodges a huge asteroid that resembles a potato. After dodging that asteroid, he takes his ship down to the asteroid where he later docks. EXPLOSIVE ASTEROIDS (blooper?) In the asteroid battle scene, there's a part where the camera angle cuts to a wide shot of all the asteroids, and on one of the asteroids there is something clearly exploding (it even makes a sound), but nothing actually hits the asteroid. (There are two TIE's chasing the Falcon at this point, but both are visible during this part, and neither of them is the cause of the explosion.) The anti-blooperization is provided by Joe Stremick : Watch carefully; a very tiny asteroid impacts on the larger asteroid (inside a crater) and there is a small explosion (not much more than a flare) and a barely audible "whumph." I do not know if this is scientifically possible, but that's what happens on film. This scene puzzled me for awhile before I saw the tiny asteroid. TIE FIGHTER PILOT ON FIRE (curiosity) (*) In one of the asteroid sequences, there is a TIE Fighter blown up, and while it is blowing up, off the lower left side you can actually see the pilot being shreaded in space... (if I remember correctly, this is not easy to see in the actual movie but it is easier to find in the Trailor for the movie). Jacob has this to add: Tie fighter pilot on fire can be seen only on the letterbox edition. It is when the first TIE is smashed by an asteroid. Another reason to buy the letterbox edition. TOO SOON, STUPID ASTEROID! (blooper) (*) When one of the Star Destroyers blows up asteroids in the asteroid field, the first one starts to explode one frame before the laser actually hits it. HAN THE VENTRILOQUIST (blooper) (*) Han and Leia in cockpit of MF while they were in the belly of the space slug. Leia says, "Captain being held by you is hardly enough to get me excited". If you look closely at Han's lips you'll see that he's saying it with her in unison. PEOPLE ON 3PO'S HEAD (*) When Chewbacca enters the 'junk' room to collect the remains of C3PO, in the closeup scene of Threepio's head on the conveyor belt, you can see a reflection of the camera and several of the crew. HOW DOES LANDO DO THAT? (blooper) (*) When Lando is escorting the gang to dinner, Lando and Han switch sides from one shot to the next. In one shot, Han is on Leia's right with Lando and her left and in the next shot, as they head down the last bit of corridor to the dining room, Han is on Leia's left with Lando on her right. Han stays on the left for the rest of the scene and pulls out his blaster to shoot Vader in that position. WATCH MY NOSE, STUPID FURRBALL! (blooper) (*) When Chewie is putting Threepio back together, you can see Anthony Daniel's nose. HAN'S CHANGE OF CLOTHES (blooper) (*) Before Han is lowered into the carbonite, he has a strap around the upper part of is arms, which holds them to his body. However, in ROTJ, when he is unfrozen, he no longer has them on his arms. Second, in one scene Han is not wearing his vest, you see his torso as completely white (his shirt is white). Those are the medium close up shots of Han. When the camera cuts to long shots, Han is wearing his vest. It was also noted that Han's shirt is un-tucked when he gets frozen, but tucked-in when he is thawed out. Furthermore, upon closer inspection we find that Han is wearing a double breasted shirt upon getting thawed, but when he is frozen it is a tunic style shirt. CHEWIE'S BOOTS (blooper) (*) On Cloud City when Chewie is running away from the camera (specific scene unknown), the angle is such that you see the bottoms of Chewie's feet, and you see heel and sole of the boots that make up the feet of Peter Mayhew's costume. VADER'S UNCOLORED SABER (AGAIN:) (blooper) (*) Before Vader ignites his saber for the first time in Cloud City, you can clearly see the actual uncolored rod. However, it isn't white like in the first film but dark gray which blends in against Vader's costume. The best way to see it is to wait until he ignites his saber, then rewind the film with your eye on where the lightsaber was and you'll see it clear as day. It is worthy to taking note how the rod of the lightsaber is aimed almost directly at the camera so that the least possible surface area of the rod is shown to the camera. This also helps show the effect of the actor tilting the lightsaber away from himself to simulate extension. PLEASE, CHANGE MY SABER! (blooper) (*) when Luke knocks Vader off the deck, he walks around a large machine and doesn't shut his saber off, you can see him reach back and trade for a hilt with a hidden stagehand. TRAMPOLINES ABOARD CLOUD CITY? (blooper) (*) When Luke is fighting Vader. After he knocks Vader off the edge, he jumps down behind him. If you look closely, you can see his head magically reappears at the bottom of the screen, for a brief moment. USES LUKE A "STAGE HAND"? (blooper?) (*) When Luke and Vader are fighting on Cloud City. As Vader is mentally hurling boxes and objects at Luke, who is deflecting them with his light saber (and his head). After one of the pieces breaks the window into the huge shaft, and Luke is sucked through. The next scene shows him hanging from a catwalk with BOTH hands. He should have lost his light-saber, while hanging on for dear life. However, in the next scene, he's holding his saber in his hand again! Did Luke take the time to put his saber back into his belt as he was being sucked into a void? NOTE: This is actually a result of the conversion from film to Pan&Scan (See what you're missing by not getting a letterboxed version?). In the letterboxed version the saber is near the edge of the screen, lying on the catwalk. You can decide whether it was guided there by luck or by the Force. STEALTH LIGHTSABER (blooper) (*) Luke and Vader are on the catwalk over the air shaft on Bespin, just after Vader says "don't make me destroy you." and before the line "you do not yet realize your importance", Vader's lightsaber has been ignited up until this point. As the scene changes between a shot of Vader from the torso up, to a shot of Luke from over Vader's shoulder, Vader's saber has been mysteriously turned off. It does not make the characteristic sound of a lightsaber being retracted. In fact, you could even hear the hum of his saber until the camera angle changes, and then the sound abruptly disappears. OVER ZEALOUS SECURITY MEASURES (curiosity) (*) In the catwalk scene when Luke learns that Darth Vader is his father. Lucas was concerned about preventing leaks with his next Star Wars Film, The Empire Strikes Back. Infact, he had an elaborate security system set up which included logs of reports about leaks from actors. Lucas was especially concerned about the catwalk scene where Vader tells Luke he is his father. The lines Prowse actually spoke were actually 'Obi Wan Kenobi is your father' not, 'I am your father'. The lines we hear were added later, with the rest of Darth Vader's dialogue. I THOUGHT LUKE LOST THAT HAND (blooper) (*) When Luke is tumbling in the air shaft, there is a very short scene (before he gets dropped out the bottom of Cloud City) where you can see his right hand, which should have been sliced off by Vader. PIETT'S CHANGING RANK (blooper) (*) In the scene where Darth Vader asks, "Did your men disable the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive?", (just before R2D2 fixes the hyperdrive) Piett's rank insignia switches from the left side to the right side. After Piette is promoted from Captain to Admiral his rank insignia is upgraded (from 3 or 4 red and blue bars to six bars), and remains consistent throughout the rest of the film. However, throughout Return of the Jedi, his insignia is three red and blue bars, even though he is still an Admiral. IS THAT THE FAR, FAR AWAY GALAXY? (blooper?) At the end of TESB, Luke looks out of a window in the Rebels' medical center, and he sees what appears to be a galaxy. This could not be the galaxy in which Star Wars takes place, because they could not have reasonably traveled that distance outside of it, yet it is too close to be a neighboring galaxy. Astronomy major Eric Hartwell theorizes: Might be a sister galaxy such as Andromeda's companion galaxy. Also, galaxies have been known to collide. I tend to believe my first sentence. The Star Wars galaxy might be a companion galaxy. Perhaps the most aesthetically satisfying explanation is given by Ernie Oporto , who says: It looks like a new star to me. The end of the movie seemed to be a new beginning, a new hope if you will, for our heroes. The alliance must renew its battle against the Empire, instead of running away from them. C3PO and R2D2 are shiny, Luke has his new hand. So why not look at the serene image of a newborn star? I doubt that is a galaxy. It certainly could be, but I like the idea of something new, as in a new star, to go along with the ending of the movie. The actual script for TESB, however, is not so accommodating. It says: Together they stand at the large window of the medical center looking out on the Rebel Star Cruiser and a dense, luminous galaxy swirling in space. One could easily argue, then, that since the intent was for it to be a galaxy, that this is indeed a blooper. However, it is not completely out of the question that it could be their own galaxy. Recall, earlier in the movie, when the Falcon latched onto the side of the Avenger. Captain Needa was told "The ship no longer appears on our scopes." Later, Admiral Piett makes the comment "If the Millennium Falcon went into light-speed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now." If we take this comment literally, it implies that ships can travel the length of the galaxy in a matter of hours. It would therefore be possible that they were looking at their own galaxy. They could have travelled that distance outside of it in a matter of days. The novelization sidesteps the issue altogether in its closing sentence: "Slowly he put his arm around Leia and together with Threepio and Artoo, they faced the heavens bravely, each of them gazing at the same crimson star." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** RETURN OF THE JEDI ** ------------------------ BACK TO TATOOINE (unreleased) (*) There is a lost scene in Return of the Jedi that was filmed and completed including sound mix and even John Williams composed a piece for that but was left on the cutting room floor. The scene shows Luke at Kenobi's house hiding his light saber into R2 and having a telepathic conversation with ¨Vader? (Maybe with Ben, I don't know). ARTOO'S "SLUGS" (blooper) (*) Artoo's slugs can be found on his main photoreceptor "eye" during the opening shots of the movie. It is believed that you could see through the eye and see the actor inside much like you could during the sandcrawler scene in ANH. If you look closely, you'll see that during some angles and shots it is coloured a colour that just doesn't look quite right and resembles the slugs found on the Emperor later on in the movie. I KNOW I'VE HEARD THAT BEFORE (curiosity) (*) When the droids first enter Jabba's throne room, you hear a lot of alien voices murmuring... if you listen closely, one of them is Greedo's voice speaking the EXACT same dialogue he said to Han in Star Wars. JABBA ON REWIND (blooper?) (*) In one of the Jabba's Palace sequences, when Jabba is speaking, the film is actually running backwards. If you look closely, you can see the smoke from his pipe moving downwards, and the same with the bubbles in his bong. NOTE:This may be intentional to create an eerie effect. OOLA: OOPS, WATCH THE COSTUME (blooper) Oola, the green dancing Twi'lek girl in Jabba's palace, accidentally "falls out of her costume" when Jabba is trying to drag her towards him. Her breast can be seen for 1 or 2 frames. NOTE: The close up scene has been deleted from the VHS Letterboxed version (BUUU!), but a shot from further away is till in this version of the movie. BOBA'S NEAT HELMET TRICK (blooper) (*) In Jabba's palace, as Boba Fett nods to Boushh (Leia), his antenna is on the left hand side of his head, normally it would be on the right. LANDO'S CONCUSSION (blooper) (*) Just after Chewie is taken away by guards in Jabba's Palace, we get our first view of Lando in his skiff outfit. He bumps his head on the ceiling just before he pulls his mask down the show the audience who he is. Its a very noticeable bump on the head because the mask cranks backwards for a second. STAR WARS-VII: BLUE HARVEST, HORROR BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION (curiosity) Jabba's sail barge was filmed in Yuma, Arizona. The film crew had problems avoiding the 35,000 dune buggy enthusiasts in the area. To preserve secrecy, the producers claimed to be making a horror film called "Blue Harvest (Horror beyond your imagination)", and even had caps and t-shirts made up for the crew. A chain-link fence and a 24-hour security service could not prevent die-hard fans from entering the set and sneaking some photographs. "KLAATU BARADA NIKTO!" (curiosity) Among the aliens in Jabba the Hutt's entourage are ones named "Klaatu", "Barada" and "Nikto", after the command given to the robot Gort in "The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)". The aliens are not referred to by name in the film, nor do they have any lines. Klaatu is the character who tries to push Luke into Sarlacc. CHEWIE'S MOVING BANDOLIER (blooper) (*) When Leia looks out of the barge at our 3 heros on the skiff the view changes to a close up of Chewie, Han, and Luke (left to right). Notice Chewie's bandolier, it hangs from his right shoulder to his left hip. Next, right as Han says, "3PO, you tell that slimy piece..." Notice that Chewie's bandolier is hanging from his LEFT shoulder to his RIGHT hip. LANDO'S VANISHING TRICK (blooper) (*) Luke is just about to jump into the Sarlaac's mouth. He nods at Lando to his RIGHT. The camera goes to other shots (such a R2 standing on the deck of the sail barge, etc.). The camera comes back to the skiff guard prodding Luke with his axe, so that Luke will jump. At this shot, check out who's in the background (which is Luke's LEFT side). Yep, it's Lando. Next shot shows Luke jumping in with Han and Chewie at the same position Lando was at. SOLIDARY GUN (blooper) When Luke cuts Boba Fett's gun with his lightsaber, the gun starts to explode one frame before the laser actually hits it. HANGING HAN (blooper) (*) When Luke, Han, etc. were to be thrown into the Sarlaac's Pit on Tatooine, Han and Lando are standing on the levitating platform and one of Jabba's men fires a shot, hitting the vehicle, causing it to tilt at a precarious angle. As everybody scrambles to balance themselves, you see Han grab the edge of the ship with his hands, and is hanging over the edge. But, a few seconds later, they show him hanging by his feet! Mark Swartz follows up: It says that Han falls of the skiff and grabs on by his hands, but later he is hanging by his feet. If you watch carefully, when he goes out of view, you can see his shadow, and he pulls himself up, and flips around to hang by his feet! HA! YOU DIDN'T HIT ME (blooper) (*) When Han accidentally hits Boba Fett's jetpack with the spear and causes Fett to fly across the Sarlacc pit, Luke can be seen kicking one of Jabba's thugs in the face. But if you look, you'll see that Luke actually misses the thug by a mile. This is probably due to bad camera angle selection. LANDO'S SPEAR TRICK (blooper) (*) After the first skiff has been hit, Lando tries to grab the spear Han is holding. When the Sarlacc tries to pull Lando in the pit with its tentacles, Lando is holding onto the spear with his left hand, then his right hand, then not at all etc. WATCH THAT GLOVE (*) When Lando is hanging on to the skiff to keep from falling into the Sarlacc pit, on all the close up shots, he does not have gloves on, but in the far shots, he has black gloves on. POOR QUALITY REPULSOR FIELDS (blooper) (*) The skiff magically changes its position as Chewie pulls Han and Lando up. LEIA'S BIRTHMARK (curiosity) (*) Carrie Fisher's birthmark (near the small of her back) is visible in the desert scene where she turns her back to the camera to swing around a mounted laser gun. LUKES BUM HAND (blooper) (*) Luke is on the deck of the sail barge. His hand gets shot. At this point the makeup people did a pretty good job on his hand. The next time we see his hand is when he is running to get the fallen rope so that he and Leia could swing to safety. Well, I guess the makeup people were on their break when they were shooting this scene because his hand looks perfectly fine. About a second later, when he actually grabs the rope, we see a damaged hand again. THEN, when they are actually swinging, his hand is fine again. And, then finally we see that his hand looks really bad when he is leaving Tatooine in his X-Wing. HOLD ME TIGHT (blooper) As Luke and Leia swing to safety from Jabba's barge, the position of Leia's arms around Luke changes notably for one shot. THE INVISIBLE SANDSTORM (unreleased) (*) There was a scene after the destruction of the sail barge where our heros meet a sandstorm before they can reach their spaceships. Again, it was left on the cutting room floor. This scene is found in the novelization of the movie and it was the only one in ROTJ that featured the full-size Falcon prop. DISSAPEARING TIE FIGHTERS (blooper) (*) Jeffrey Gold writes: In the scene where the streams of TIE fighters are girdling the Death Star when the Emperor arrives, three enter from the right of the screen to join the group girdling the Death Star, except for they disappear before the scene is finished. A BIG STEP FOR THE EMPIRE (blooper) At the end of the Emperor's conversation with Vader in the Death Star's main docking bay, they walk past lines of officers wearing grey uniforms. Then a wide shot shows them between stormtroopers and explorers and the officers are about ten meters back. DARK PAINTED FORCES (blooper) At this very same scene, if you look closely you will notice that only the two first rows of explorers and officers are real men. The rest are part of a painting. JEDI COSTUMES (blooper) When Yoda dies, his costume disappears with him. But in ANH, when Ben was killed, his cloak was left behind. YODA'S FLOATING CANE (blooper?) (*) Luke and Yoda are talking in Yoda's house. As Yoda says "Twilight is upon me, and soon night must fall." pay very close attention to Yoda's cane. It floats across the screen for a split second! John Haller deblooperizes this one: If you watch the letterbox version you can see Yoda hand the cane to Luke and he is putting it on the floor when it appears to float across the screen. So this is not a blooper. YES, VADER IS YOUR FATHER... AND YOUR UNCLE IS MY BROTHER! (unreleased) The scene where Ben talks to Luke at Daghobah was longer than we saw at the theatre. Ben talked about Leia being put on safe at Bail Organa's house of Alderaan and Luke put on safe at Ben's brother farm at Tatooine (Owen Lars). This scene is found in the novelization of the movie. BAD BRIEFING (blooper) (*) During Mon Mothma's briefing regarding the Death Star in orbit of the moon of Endor, the lights darken and a hologram of the moon and the Death Star erupt in the middle of the room. When the hologram begins, the Death Star orbits the moon of endor from the left of the screen to the right. During all subsequent shots of the hologram, the Death Star orbits from right to left. LANDO'S MOVING BANDOLIER (blooper) (*) When Han and Lando are talking in the rebel hanger right before the strike team departs in the stolen Imperial shuttle. Watch Lando, the gun belt strap across his chest changes sides between different cuts during the same scene. LANDO RECOVERED FROM THE DEADS (unreleased) Lando Calrissian and The Millennium Falcon originally scripted to perish in the Death Star explosion, but this was changed after a poor preview audience reception. Note Han's line when Calrissian leaves in the Falcon: "...like I'm not going to see her again" DON'T FLY DRUNK (blooper) (*) The location of the stolen Imperial shuttle relative to the Super Star Destroyer changes inconsistently when the Rebel assault team arrives at Endor: some shots show the shuttle advancing past the bridge of the SSD, then reappearing next to it. ENDOR PLANETARY PARK (blooper) (*) Right after the Rebels have exited the shuttle Tyderium at Endor, you can see a redwood fence in the background, of the variety commonly found in earthly national parks. MORE REVEALING EYES (blooper) (*) During the speeder bike chase, Leia chases one of the stormtroopers, then rises out of sight. Before she returns, attacking the trooper from behind, you can see the forest through the trooper's eyes - at the end of the shot, the speeder is coming out of the forest into a clearing. When we cut to a wide shot, they're in the middle of the forest again. LUKE ISN'T SECURE ABOUT HIS HAND (blooper) (*) Before Luke jumps off his speeder bike just before it is about to crash, you can clearly see that in three different shots, Luke's glove changes hands. OVERSIZED EWOK AND ESCAPED R2 (blooper) (*) In the scene where Threepio is 'king' of the Ewoks, while Luke & Co. are tied up, Peter Mayhew dressed as Chewie, sticks his head from the left side of the screen behind one of the Ewok huts. Also, there's a shot of Artoo untied when he hasn't been cut loose yet. NOTE: Again, these are only visible on the letterboxed version. Actually, this is a juxtaposition of footage to cover the removal of a scene. Originally 3PO is able to get R2 untied immediately upon arrival at the village. So, since the scene was cut, they just placed the R2 release scene with everyone elses release. EWOKS SPEAK ENGLISH (curiosity) (*) Just after C3PO sits up and the Ewoks start to praise him, if you listen carefully, one of the Ewoks looks at Threepio and says, 'That guy's wise.", and then the one next to him says, "More than I am short." NOTE: This could be just a psychological effect (you hear what you expect to hear). VADER DEFIES LOW CLEARANCE (blooper) (*) When Darth Vader is leaving the Imperial Shuttle Craft, on Endor, while walking down the ramp, his head somehow manages to go through the front of the shuttle Craft, unscathed. ELEPHANTS,NEIN NUMB AND FEET (curiosity) (*) Lucas used several linguists to create languages for the aliens. The one which Nein Numb speaks is based off a Kenyan dialect. By accident or design, one of his lines ends up sounding like, "One thousand herds of elephants are standing on my foot" in this language. MAGICAL SPACE SHIPS (blooper) (*) Right after the rebels arrive at the Death Star, and they figure out that the shields are still up, right after Admiral Akbar says "It's a Trap!" followed by Lando saying, "Enemy fighters coming in." As the Millennium Falcon flies directly at the audience, and leaves the screen (upper right), pause the picture. You will see 2 little white "H" shapes on the Falcon's underside, where space was reserved for 2 TIE fighters, that never made it into the film. Per Alan Yates: The two ships in question ARE in fact in the film. You can see for yourself by placing two fingers (or any other markers) on the screen at the exact spot where the two "H" shapes appear on the Falcon's belly. Then go backwards frame by frame (this is, of course easier if you have a good Laserdisc player) or rewind a little bit and play the scene again, frame by frame. You will see that the two TIE's DO appear in the film. They are in the deep background of the scene and are pretty much motionless, right where you have marked your screen. The fact that they appear on the FX element of the Falcon is a result of a forgotten black "blocking" matte in the optical printing stage. What had happened was that the Falcon had been exposed into an area of the film where the TIE's had already been exposed (or vice-versa) resulting in an overexposure the shape of the TIE elements. This is why the area on the Falcon's belly is WHITE. If the area had been left for two fighters to be matted in, the "H" shapes would have appeared BLACK. CONVERSE 1 TO CONVERSE SQUADRON WHERE ARE YOU ALL? (curiosity) (*) SFX crew claim to have included a sneaker in the rebel fleet. No one seems to have found the shoe in any of the scenes of the movie, and it's very possible that the scene with the shoe may have been cut and never saw the silver screen. THE EMPEROR'S "SLUGS" (blooper) These can be seen is a few scenes, however the most prominent is when Luke is watching the Rebel fleet being led into a trap. Small black spots on the Emperors head, one notable one is on the left side. NOTES: These are known as the "Emperor's slugs", due to their sluglike appearance. Daniel Goldman makes an educated guess as to the reason of their existence: You will notice that the Emperor's eyes are lit by a soft sickly-green spotlight in that scene. The problem with normal spots, is that when you try to get them that tight, there is always a little spillover, which gets even worse if the subject is moving. Probably, the green light was light-ing things that should not have been lit, like the back of the hood, or a part of his fact that had not been made up (ears or hair, perhaps). The optics crew then manually blacked out the `overflowing' area's. DARTH VADER'S CAPE (blooper) (*) Brian Sebby writes: Before Darth Vader and Luke have their lightsaber battle in the Emperor's throne room, if you look carefully at Vader's costume right before the battle, you will see that his cape is draped behind his right shoulder... yet, a few minutes into the battle, the cape has been draped over the shoulder. Do you think Vader would take the time in the middle of a battle to adjust his cape? WATCH THE HAIR (blooper) (*) Geoff writes: In the Emperor's Throne Room during the duel between Luke and Vader, there is a scene where luke does a sumersault jump to a floor above where he originally was. If you look at the hair of Luke jumping, you will notice that the stunt double's hair is much more blonde than Mark Hamill's. WHERE DID VADER GET LUKE'S LIGHT SABER? (blooper) (*) Did you ever notice that when Vader is talking about... "A sister... so, you have a twin sister... your feelings have now betrayed her too...", that he is holding Luke's lightsaber in his left hand? David Van Langeveld has this to add: The novelization of ROTJ provides the answer (This could be based on a scene that didn't make it into the final cut): As Vader is searching for Luke's hiding place, he states "You can not hide forever, Luke." Luke responds emphatically, "I will not fight you". Vader then (in the book) mentions that Luke has the advantage because Luke still has his lightsaber. To relinquish his advantage and to prove that he doesn't want to fight, Luke tosses his lightsaber to Vader. Luke then retrieves his lightsaber via The Force when Vader announces his intention to turn Luke's sister to the Dark Side. SHADOW CASTER (3) (blooper) (*) You can see a shadow of the light saber, just after Luke knocks Vader down the stairs and Vader gets up. Vader's lightsaber is casting a shadow on the ground. HAN THE PERVERT (curiosity) (*) When Leia gets shot, Han grabs her and pulls her back to safety...watch his hand...he grabs her breast! FASTER THAN LIGHT (blooper) (*) After the Imperials are fooled out of the control bunker and surrounded by Ewoks and Rebels, Han runs between them and the bunker door, quickly glancing to his right. Then we see a close-up, where Han is suddenly looking forward at the Imperials. NOTED 'EXTRA' (curiosity) (*) In Return of the Jedi, there is a scene where Chewie climbs on an AT-ST (Chicken Walker) and tosses out the occupants. One of these men is really the (late) Richard Marquand, the film's director, and the other is another notable, but his identity has not been verified. CATCH THAT SHADOW (*) As the bunker on Endor is about to blow and everyone is running away from it, Han calls out "Move! Move!". Watch closely as he runs away from the building. The second time he calls out "MOVE!", you can see his reflection behind him running in the opposite direction. Seems they had a sheet of plexiglass between him and the explosion. The same thing was used in the snake pit in Raiders of the Lost Ark. SHADOW CASTER (4) (blooper) (*) Moments before Luke forces Vader to the ground during the final battle, the sabers cast shadows on the floor. I THOUGHT VADER LOST THAT HAND (blooper) (*) After Vader throws the Emperor down the shaft, his "severed" right hand is bent in a way that reveals that the end of the limb is actually a mock-up that David Prowse is wearing on his hand. YUO ARE DEAD, BLOW AWAY (curiosity) Why doesn't Vader disappear when he dies like Ben and Yoda did? Isn't he a Jedi recovered for the Light Side? SWEDISH CAVE-EWOKS (curiosity) (*) One of the songs that the Ewoks sing sounds like: "Det luktar flingor har", which is Swedish for "It smells of cereal here". No-one who knows any Finnish can deny that the Ewoks sing "pullat, isot pullat" during the final celebration scene in ROTJ. That translates to "buns, big buns". ("Buns" as in "cinnamon buns", that is, NOT the other variety.) Another song sounds identical to a song sung in "Caveman (1981)". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** STAR WARS CURIOSITIES *** ------------------------------ 3PO WHEELIN' AND DEALIN' C3PO was originally scripted as a "used car salesman" type DON'T TRY SPELLING BEE, GEORGE... Gallandro says: If you read George Lucas's biography _Skywalking_, it talks about how his secretaries would type his notes, and he would have the same name spelled different ways at different places in the manuscript. The secretaries just used their own consistent spellings which they then checked with George. However, it is an acknowledged error that Wookiee is spelled with one E in the original novel. TIE is generally capitalized because it is an acronym; my assumption is that Alan Dean Foster (who ghost-wrote the novel) didn't know this and spelled in a way that appeared to him to be more logical. Also of possible interest is the fact that at least one spelling changed over the course of the trilogy. In any reference printed before 1983, Jabba the Hutt is spelled with one T. With the premier of Jedi, for some reason, the "official" spelling changed to include 2 T's, perhaps to more clearly indicate that it was Jabba's race (avoiding confusion with the English word "hut") but that is pure speculation on my part. GEORGE LUCAS, JEDI MASTER Lucas talked to many masters of Aikido, because he had heard of the energy that is involved with Aikido. He ended up using a lot of these ideas in designing the Force. Aikido is a form of martial arts. STAR WARS IS NUMBER ONE! It seems George Lucas had trouble getting funding for this movie because most studios thought people wouldn't go to see it. Recently, after looking at a top ten list of movies *ever* (inflation calculated in), Star Wars IV, "A New Hope" was in the #1 slot. DARTH "FRANKENSTEIN" VADER Darth Vader's body was played by David Prowse, his voice by James Earl Jones, and his face by Sebastian Shaw. NOTE: The new trilogy, based 40 years before A New Hope, surely will add a new piece to this puzzle. STAR WARS ON SPACEBALLS? In Mel Brook's SPACEBALLS (1987), almost at the end of the film, in the parking of the Drive Inn, if you look closely, you can see the Millennium Falcon. NAKED WING FIGHTER In NAKED GUN 33 1/3, At the credits sequence, we can see the roof of a police car that goes everywhere. One of this places is the trench of the Death Star. It's very funny! STAR WARS ON STAR TREK? In STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episode, "All Good Things..." Would you guys believe that Star Wars received recognition on the last Star Trek: The Next Generation episode? Beverly Crusher has command of a medical ship, the USS Pasteur. Anyway there is a dedication plaque on the bridge that reads: USS PASTEUR Hope Class Star Fleet Registry NCC 59929 Marin County, Star Fleet Yards, Skywalker Division United Federation of Planets THE SPECIAL F/X OF THE LIGHT SABER The following is a conversation between Matt Bradshaw and Bill Warren and DK (whoever that is!): DK: First of all from the standpoint that reflecting something back at a higher intensity that the original light source is a physical impossibility. Second of all, it is widely known that the lightsabers were done with rotoscoping, they had a reflective surface on the "beams" so that the rotoscopers would have something to follow as far as length and to make sure the beams were straight. BW: You're both right and wrong. In the initial film, the rods were covered with Scotchlite , the reflective stuff made by 3M that's used for road signs, and in front-screen projection setups. And that stuff DOES, in essence, reflect back more light than it is getting, in that it's lenticular, so it focusses the light, and thereby amplifies it. However, it did not produce enough light to get the effect Lucas wanted, and so he had the lightsabers rotoscoped in. For the second two films, I believe the Scotchlight was dropped. VIDEO WATCHDOG did an article on the light sabre effects not too long ago. The Scotchlight was indeed dropped after the first film. For the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK a simple metal rod was inserted into the light sabre handle to give the animators a guide by which to rotoscope in the sabre blade. For RETURN OF THE JEDI there was nothing attached to the light sabre handle, making it much more difficult to rotoscope. Also, sinch the Scotchlight blade was rotating it threw light onto the actors faces. You'll notice that this particular effect (or side effect) is absent in the second and third films. VISTAVISION CAMERAS ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) has become renouned for their high quality, sharp, special effects. The following is reproduced without permission from the book, Industrial Light & Magic, the Art of Special Effect (by Thomas G. Smith): Special effects rely on rephotography in order to manipulate images. If the intermediate film format is larger than than a standard 35mm film frame, the final special effects shot will have greater clarity. Many effects have been done using 70mm film, but it has the disadvantage of a limited variety of film stock. So what was needed was a significantly larger image size that still used the standard 35mm film format. We started looking for a solution to this problem in the history of film technology. Since its beginning, the motion picture industry agreed that 35mm film with a certain type of perforation should be the international standard [...] there is a space for the picture and next to it a strip reserved for the sound track. ([...] 4 sprocket holes per frame). Surprisingly enough the picture area is about the size of an average postage stamp. [...][During the 50's there was two alternate types of film projection, based off the 35mm standard] 20th Century Fox introduced widescreen Cinemascope, and Paramount Pictures introduced VistaVision. [Cinemascope was the most popular. Cinemascope optically squeezes a wider picture on the film, and when it is projected it `unsqueezes' it (refer to nifty ascii drawing). Cinemascope only required a new projector lens, when VistaVision required a whole new projector. Cinemascope is still in use today] VistaVision put the 35mm film on its side, and rather than the normal four perforations between pictures, VistaVision doubled the size of each picture, and measured eight perforations per frame. [this means more film area per frame, better clarity] [...] What does this all have to do with ILM and special efects? While most of the VistaVision projectors were junked and many of the cameras with the famous eight-perf hearth were torn apart and discarded [after VistaVision fell from popularity] there were still some perfectionists who felt that this larger negative had its merits. A quarter of a century later the VistaVision format was resurrected, and put to use filming special effects for Star Wars. Regular Film Projection: Cinemascope: . | o |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| o | | o ||||||||||||||||| o | F | o _________________ o | | o _________________ o | I | o | | | | | | | | | o | | o ||||||||||||||||| o | L | o | | | / \ | | | o | | o |||||||/ \||||||| o | M | o | | | \ / | | | o | | o |||||||\ /||||||| o | | o |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| o | | o ||||||||||||||||| o | | o _________________ o | | o _________________ o | . S _________________ _________________________________ C | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | R | | | / \ | | | | | | | | | | / \ | | | | | | | E | | | \ / | | | | | | | | | | \ / | | | | | | | E |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| N . VistaVision: . Film Screen ------------------------------------- o o o o o o o o o o | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | / \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | / \ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | \ / | | | | | | | | | | | | | | \ / | | | | | | | |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_| o o o o o o o o o o ------------------------------------- Basically, what ended up hapenning is ILM grabbed all of the old vintage VistaVision camera's, made Star Wars, and resurrected the format. Soon after Star Wars was released Camera's which ILM had bought for pennies and dimes before were being valued as royal crown jewels by camera shops. A LONG TIME AGO, IN A HIDDEN FORTRESS FAR, FAR AWAY Among other movies, Star Wars was influenced by Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress". The Imperial general that Vader chokes mentions "the Rebels' hidden fortress" just as Vader cuts him off. NUMBERS AND NUMBERS The cell where Luke and Han are "transporting" Chewie is number 1138, referring to Lucas' 1967 short film, THX-1138:4EB and his first feature from 1970, THX-1138. Princess Leia's cell number is 2187, which was the name of an abstract Canadian short film that Lucas loved. SAN FRANCISCO DEATH STAR Portions of the partially completed Death Star model resemble the San Francisco skyline. NOTE: Steve Talmage tells me that he can confirm this. Last year (1995) in San Francisco there was an exhibit called "The Art of Star Wars". Many of the original props, costumes, models, and matt paintings were there, including the matt of the ROJ death star docking bay. It was quite large and at the far left (if you were looking straight at it) was the TransAmerica tower (the big piramid). This can be seen in a book called "The Lucas Archives, From Star Wars to Indiana Jones" (something like this). NOT SO DEAD TONGUE Experiments with a computer to generate a random but logical language for some creatures produced a dialect of Greek. REVENGE OF THE JEDI The title "Revenge of the Jedi" was leaked early in production, so that pirated merchandise could be easily spotted when the film was released. The official reason for the change was that "a Jedi would not take revenge". Some authentic pre-release movie posters actually had "Revenge" and are worth a lot of money today. REVENGE OF THE... EWOKS! The Endor shots were filmed near Crescent City, California. Forest work was specially hard on the Ewok actors. Production Assistant Ian Bryce arrived on the set one day to find a note from the Ewok actors saying that they had all had enough and they were on their way to the airport. Bryce tried to drive to the airport, but got a flat tire not far from the set. He found another car and was about to leave when the Ewok's bus pulled up, and all the Ewok actors got off wearing "Revenge of the Ewok" t-shirts.