? Did You Know ?
- David Prowse, who played Darth Vader, is 6'9" and a professional weight-lifter.
- Actors could only be in the original Darth Vader costume armor (thick fiberglass) for 20 minutes at a time while promoting the THX remastered movies because of the weight of the suit.
- R2-D2 is named after a piece of film editor's jargon- it means "Reel 2, Dialog 2"
- The spaceship models used in Star Wars were made from everything from model airplane parts to those egg-shaped panty hose containers.
- A scuba regulator was used to achieve the sound of Darth Vader's labored breathing.
- The scene in which a swamp creature grabs R2-D2 in the Empire Strikes Back was filmed in George Lucas' unfinished swimming pool.
- The Ewoks home of Endor was created and filmed amidst redwood forests near Crescent City, California.
- A New Hope used less than 50 models, Empire used over 100, and Return used over 150.
- A full-scale model of the Millenium Falcon measured 60 feet long and 16 feet high.
- It took as many as 10 puppeteers using both hands to operate Jabba the Hutt.
- The bottom of Luke's landspeeder was covered with mirrors, reflecting the ground giving the impression it was floating.
- It took Star Wars sound technician Ben Burtt a full year to collect and mix different sounds and noises to be used for the vehicles and creatures in the film.
- Next time you enjoy Star Wars: A New Hope, watch the scene in which stormtroopers enter the Death Star control room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding. One of the stormtroopers accidentally bumps his head on the door.
- In Star Wars: A New Hope, cutouts were used to represent some of the starfighters "parked" in the background of the Rebel hangar bay.
- In Star Wars: A New Hope, the mysterious writing surrounding Darth Vader's control panels is actually jumbled Hebrew symbols.
- In the hangar bay scene featured in Return of the Jedi, look closely and you'll see that one of the stormtroopers has a "smiley face" painted on his helmet.
- James Earl Jones, the now famous voice of Darth Vader, asked that he not be credited in the original Star Wars: A New Hope, as he didn't feel he had done enough work to deserve it.
- A local hardware store near Industrial Light and Magic kept a table full of spare parts handy for ILM model makers who would drop by seeking inspiration for props and models.
- The Empire Strikes Back animators studied the walking patterns of elephants in order to give realistic motion and movements to the film's monstrous AT-ATs.
- In Return of the Jedi, when Han and Leia are trying to destroy the shield generator on the planet Endor, the power-source shown appears to be a series of plastic cups turned upside-down.
- During the Cloud City evacuation scene in The Empire Strikes Back, on actor can be seen running around with what looks to be an ice-cream maker.
- It took three different actors to portray Darth Vader: David Prowse (body), James Earl Jones (voice) and Sebastian Shaw (face).
- In Star Wars, a small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the Millennium Falcon's cockpit as Chewbacca prepares to depart from Mos Eisley. The dice do not appear in subsequent scenes.
- In the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy escapes with the golden idol in a sea plane with the registration numbers OB-3PO. This of course refers to Obi-wan and C-3PO from Star Wars.
- Sections of the under-construction Death Star are said to resemble the San Francisco skyline, the silhouette of a favorite city of creator George Lucas.
- Return of the Jedi was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi - but later underwent a title change, due to the fact that according to creator George Lucas, a Jedi would never take revenge.
- The Millennium Falcon was originally inspired by the shape of a hamburger with an olive on the side.
- During The Empire Strikes Back's famous asteroid scene: one of the deadly, hurling asteroids is actually...a potato!
- Star Wars episode number IV, entitled "A New Hope," did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added in the later re-release, in order to be consistent with The Empire Strikes Back.
- In The Empire Strikes Back, ILM designers sought a "radical" design shape for Boba Fett's ship - and ended up using a street lamp plucked off a post outside the ILM building.