Star Wars (1977)
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Quotes from Star
Wars:
A
large-eyed creature gives Luke a rough shove.
Human: He doesn't like you.
Luke: I'm sorry.
Human: I don't like you either. You just watch yourself. We're
wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve systems.
Luke: I'll be careful.
Human: You'll be dead!
Luke: Listen, I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's
not that I like the Empire; I hate it! But there's nothing I can do about it
right now. It's all such a long way from here.
Obi-Wan
Kenobi: That's your uncle talking.
Obi-Wan
Kenobi: The Force is what gives a Jedi his
power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and
penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.
Han
Solo: Hokey religions and ancient weapons
are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Grand
Moff Tarkin: The Imperial Senate will no
longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has
dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have
been swept away.
Commander: But that's impossible. How will the emperor maintain
control without the bureaucracy?
Grand
Moff Tarkin: The regional governors now
have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in
line. Fear of this battle station.
Luke
Skywalker: I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to
rescue you.
C-3PO: We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life.
Princess
Leia Organa: Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi.
You're my only hope.
Obi-Wan: For more than a thousand generations the Jedi were the
guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. Before the dark times. Before the
Empire.
Luke: How did my father die?
Obi-Wan: A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine
until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi
knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.
Obi-wan: Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched
hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
Obi-wan: The Force can have a strong influence on a weak mind.
Han
Solo: Han Solo. I'm captain of the
Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells me you're lookin' for passage to the
Alderaan system?
Obi-wan: Yes indeed, if it's a fast ship.
Han
Solo: Fast ship? You've never heard of the
Millennium Falcon?
Luke
Skywalker: What a piece of junk!
Han
Solo: She'll make point five past
lightspeed. She may not look like much but she's got it where it counts, kid.
I've made a lot of special modifications myself.
Han
Solo: Watch your mouth, kid, you're gonna
find yourself floating home.
Darth
Vader: I find your lack of faith
disturbing.
Darth
Vader: Don't be too proud of this
technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is
insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Princess
Leia: The more you tighten your grip,
Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
C-3PO: Listen to them, they're dying, R2! Curse my metal body! I
wasn't fast enough! It's all my fault! My poor master!
Referring
to Ben Kenobi.
Grand
Moff Tarkin: If you're right, he must not
be allowed to escape.
Darth
Vader: Escape is not his plan. I must face
him. Alone.
Two
stormtroopers are posted near the tractor beam power terminal.
Stormtrooper: Do you know what's going on?
Other
stormtrooper: Maybe it's another drill.
Darth
Vader: I sense something. A presence I've
not felt since...
Obi-wan
Kenobi: You must learn the ways of the
Force if you are to come with me to Alderaan.
C-3PO: Don't call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob
of grease!
C-3PO: We're doomed!
Han
Solo: Wonderful girl! Either I'm going to
kill her or I'm beginning to like her.
Han
Solo: Damn fool, I knew you were going to
say that.
Obi-wan: Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows
him?
Han
Solo: Traveling through hyperspace ain't
like dusting crops, boy.
Leia: Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
Han
Solo: Get in there you big furry oaf! I
don't care what you smell!
Han
Solo: This is not going to work.
Luke
Skywalker: Why didn't you say so before?
Han
Solo: I did say so before!
Han
Solo: Look, Your Worshipfulness, let's get
one thing straight: I take orders from just one person--me!
Pushing
past Chewbacca.
Han
Solo: No reward is worth this!
Princess
Leia gets her first look at the Millennium Falcon.
Princess
Leia: You came in that thing? You're
braver than I thought!
Luke
blows up his first TIE fighter.
Luke
Skywalker: Got 'im! I got 'im!
Han
Solo: Great, kid! Don't get cocky!
Princess
Leia Organa: If money is all you love,
then that's what you'll receive.
After
a successful rescue of Princess Leia.
Luke
Skywalker: So, what do you think of her,
Han?
Han
Solo: I'm tryin' not to, kid.
Luke
Skywalker: So... you got your reward and
you're just leaving then?
Han
Solo: That's right, yeah! I got some old
debts I've got to pay off with this stuff. Even if I didn't, you don't think
I'd be fool enough to stick around here, do you? Why don't you come with us?
You're pretty good in a fight. We could use you.
Luke
Skywalker: Come on! Why don't you take a
look around? You know what's about to happen, what they're up against. They
could use a good pilot like you. You're turning your back on them.
Han
Solo: What good's a reward if you ain't
around to use it? Besides, attacking that battle station ain't my idea of
courage. It's more like suicide.
Luke: All right. Well, take care of yourself, Han. I guess
that's what you're best at, isn't it?
Luke
exits. Chewie growls.
Darth
Vader: The Force is strong with this one.
Darth
Vader: Commander, tear this ship apart
until you've found those plans. And bring me the passengers, I want them alive!
Princess
Leia: Darth Vader. Only you could be so
bold.
R2-D2 and Chewbacca are playing the holographic
chess game aboard the Millennium Falcon.
Chewbacca: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh
C-3PO: He made a fair move. Screaming about it can't help you.
Han
Solo: Let him have it. It's not wise to
upset a Wookiee.
C-3PO: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.
Han
Solo: That's 'cause droids don't pull
people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do
that.
Chewbacca: Grrf.
C-3PO: I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, R2: let
the Wookiee win.
Darth
Vader: When I left you, I was but the
learner. Now I am the master.
Han
Solo: Not a bad bit of rescuing, huh? You
know, sometimes I amaze even myself.
Princess
Leia Organa: That doesn't sound too hard.
Darth
Vader: Your powers are weak, old man.
Obi-wan: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall
become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Obi-wan: The Force will be with you, always.
Luke
Skywalker: I used to bullseye womp rats in
my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.
X-wings are approaching Death Star.
Wedge
Antilles (Red 2): Look at the size of that
thing.
Red
Leader: Cut the chatter, Red 2.
Officer: We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger.
Should I have your ship standing by?
Grand
Moff Tarkin: Evacuate? In our moment of
triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.
Obi-wan: Use the Force, Luke!
Trivia about Star
Wars:
- Han
Solo's blaster was manufactured from a “broomhandle” Mauser pistol.
- “Vader”
is Dutch for “father.”
- The
name Wookiee came about as a result of an accident. When San Francisco DJ
Terry McGovern was doing voice-over work on THX 1138 (1970) for George
Lucas, he made a blunder and exclaimed, “I think I ran over a wookiee back
there.” Lucas, confused, asked what he meant by the term. McGovern
admitted that he didn't know and added that he simply made it up. Lucas
never forgot the cute word and used it years later in Star Wars.
- R2-D2
is renamed C1-P8 for all the Italian versions of the Star Wars trilogy.
- According
to the exhibit at the Smithsonian, the sound of a TIE fighter is created
by combining the squeal of a young elephant with the sound of a car
driving by on a rain-slicked highway.
- Twentieth
Century Fox was so sure Star Wars was going to be a disaster that they
came within a matter of days of selling off their stake in the film as a
tax shelter. Positive feedback from an advanced screening made them change
their minds, and the profits from the film ended up saving the studio from
bankruptcy.
- Denis
Lawson who played Wedge Antilles, is the uncle of Ewan McGregor, the
Scottish actor slated to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming prequels.
- Lucas
had trouble getting funding for this movie, most studios thinking that
people wouldn't go to see it.
- The
Director's Guild of America (DGA) didn't like the fact that there were no
specific credits at the beginning of the film. They “ordered” Lucas to
re-cut the film and put some credits at the beginning. Lucas refused,
claiming that this would destroy the opening of the film. The DGA fined
Lucas, who paid up, and promptly quit the DGA.
- The
Millennium Falcon was originally modeled after a hamburger with an olive
next to it.
- Two
different basic designs were created for the Millennium Falcon. The
rejected one became the Rebel Blockade Runner seen at the start of the
film.
- Derived
from (among other things) a Japanese movie called Kakushi toride no san
akunin (1958). Obi-Wan Kenobi was modeled after a Samurai warrior, and
C-3PO and R2-D2 are derived from a couple of petty crooks he conscripted
to help rescue a princess.
- The
word “Jedi” is derived from the Japanese words “Jidai Geki” which
translates as "period drama." A period drama is a Japanese TV
soap opera program set in the samurai days. Lucas mentioned in an
interview that he saw a “Jidai Geki” program on TV while in Japan a year
or so before the movie was made and liked the word.
- Jodie
Foster was Lucas's second option for Princess Leia. Christopher Walken and
Nick Nolte were considered for the role of Han Solo.
- Burt
Reynolds was originally cast as Han Solo, but he dropped out.
- A
great deal of the film was shot by vintage 1950's VistaVision cameras,
because they were of higher quality than any others available. After the
film was released, the prices of these cameras skyrocketed.
- The
episode number and subtitle “A New Hope” did not originally appear in the
film's opening crawl. These were added in a later re-release to be
consistent with those seen in The Empire
Strikes Back (1980).
- Scene
of escape pod leaving Leia's ship was the first ever done by ILM.
- C-3PO
originally scripted as a "used car salesman" type, and designed
after the robot from Metropolis (1926).
- The
Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia. There is a town in Tunisia called
“Tatahouine.” Some of the interiors of Luke's house were filmed in a hotel
in Tunisia, but the exterior is an actual home in the village of Matmata,
where caves and craters have been inhabited for a long time.
- After
the sets were constructed, Lucas went through them and had every single
one of them “dirtied up.” The R2-D2s were all rolled in the dirt, nicked
with a saw, and kicked around a bit.
- The
sounds of the lasers were made by striking one of the guy wires of a power
pylon.
- There
is a rumor that Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) was having trouble timing his
conversations with R2-D2, as R2-D2's dialogue was to be dubbed in later.
Supposedly, Daniels asked Lucas to make some kind of noise to help him,
but when Lucas forgot, the matter was dropped.
- Chewbacca
was modeled after Lucas' dog, Indiana. See also Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade (1989).
- A
scene where Jabba the Hutt confronts Han Solo in front of the Millennium
Falcon was filmed human stand-in Declan Mulholland, but cut when Lucas
decided that technology couldn't convincingly superimpose what he wanted
Jabba to look like. Due to great advances in computer technology, Lucas
was able to include the scene in the 1997 special edition.
- A
small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the
Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos
Eisley. They don't appear in subsequent scenes.
- The
piece of equipment used to fire the Death Star's weapon is actually a
Grass Valley Group 1600-7K television production switcher.
- The
targeting grid used for the Millennium Falcon's canon is based on a
paperweight Lucas saw on Arthur C. Clarke's desk
- Han
and Luke “transfer” Chewbacca from cellblock 1138: Lucas directed a film
called THX 1138 (1970). THX-1138 was going to be the serial number of the
guard with the faulty transmitter on the Death Star, but this was changed.
- Harrison
Ford deliberately didn't learn his lines for the intercom conversation in
the cellblock, so it would sound spontaneous.
- When
the stormtroopers enter the room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, one of
them “accidentally” bumps his head on the door, complete with sound
effects.
- The
Chewbacca suit retained a bad smell for the duration of filming after the
trash-compactor scene.
- Scenes
featuring Luke and his Tatooine friend “Biggs” were cut from the film.
Biggs was a young pilot who left the Imperial Academy to join the
Rebellion. Luke mentions him to his aunt and uncle during the breakfast
scene, and the character later shows up as a Rebel pilot who accompanies
Luke down the final run on the Death Star trench (and is killed by Darth
Vader).
- James
Earl Jones supplied the voice of Darth Vader, but specifically requested
that he not be credited, as he felt he had not done enough work to get the
billing. He receives billing in the Special Edition. David Prowse was
supposedly extremely annoyed at not being told that his voice would be
dubbed.
- Cardboard
cutouts are used for some of the background star fighters in the Rebel
hanger bay.
- Mark
Hamill held his breath for so long during the trash compactor scene that
he broke a blood vessel in his face. Subsequent shots are from one side
only.
- Denis
Lawson plays Wedge Antilles, despite his name being misspelt in the
credits as “Dennis Lawson.”
- The
final battle has been described as borrowed from The Dam Busters (1954),
but much more closely resembles one in 633 Squadron (1964).
- Most
of the crowd watching the heroes receive their medallions are cardboard
cutouts.
- At
one point when the prospects for the movie's release seemed bleakest, the
idea came up that perhaps the effects could be removed from the movie and
recycled into a TV show.
- The
final medal scene parallels shot-for-shot a sequence in Triumph des
Willens (German for “Triumph of the Will,” 1934).
- In
the original plot synopsis (May 1973), entitled “The Adventures of the
Starkiller” and set in the 33rd century, Luke Skywalker was a general of
an unnamed “rebel princess.” The plot had many similarities to Dune, the
filming of which had been canceled the previous year. The plot was heavily
rewritten in 1974, and a farm boy named Anakin Starkiller was introduced.
It also featured Anakin's father and younger brother, named Kane and Deak.
Kane was a Jedi Master and Deak was a learner. Anakin became Luke
Starkiller in a later draft of the screenplay, and changed to Luke
Skywalker in the final draft. In the penultimate draft of the screenplay,
the Empire destroyed Organa Major (Leia's home) with the Death Star,
although this is not shown. Leia was taken to Alderaan, the Empire's seat
of power. The Death Star is seen for the first time when the rebels attack
it. In one draft of the screenplay, there were three Sith Lords who drew
their power from a “Kiber Crystal.” Obi-Wan survived the light saber duel
with Darth Vader, and stole the crystal. He gave it to Luke to take with
him during the attack on the Death Star.
Cast
overview, first billed only:
Mark
Hamill .... Luke Skywalker
Harrison
Ford .... Han Solo
Carrie
Fisher .... Princess Leia Organa
Peter
Cushing .... Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin
Alec
Guinness .... Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi
Anthony
Daniels .... C-3PO
Kenny
Baker .... R2-D2
Peter
Mayhew .... Chewbacca
David
Prowse .... Darth Vader
Phil
Brown .... Uncle Owen Lars
Shelagh
Fraser .... Aunt Beru Lars
Jack
Purvis .... Nebit/Kitik Keed'kak/Gonk
Alex
McCrindle .... General Jan Dodonna
Eddie
Byrne .... Commander Vanden Willard
Drewe
Henley .... Garven 'Dave' Dreis (Red Leader)