Whether you’ve managed to force yourself through the prequels on a chronological journey or you’re giving Star Wars a shot from its first released episode, you’re certainly in for a treat. This is the film that started it all, a brave battle with brilliant characters and locations filling the screen non-stop.
However, that doesn’t mean the film is perfect. There are a fair few errors in continuity that take you out of the moment or make you question the logic behind the writing. After all, George Lucas did front this one alone.
The Stormtrooper Hits His Head
Arguably the most well-known and well-loved movie mistake of all time comes directly from the first moments of the 1977 classic. It can be seen when R2-D2 and C-3PO are in the Death Star control room and storm troopers suddenly enter the room and starts off as an intimidating and very well shot scene, but things take a slightly less serious turn if you move your focus to the back right. One of the stormtroopers hits his head pretty hard on the door as they come through, causing him to recoil in shock and pain. The mistake became so famous that the remastered version added in a sound effect to highlight the gaff.
Luke Makes C-3PO Jump
This one is a little similar but hasn’t received quite the same level of global attention as the above. When Leia’s holographic message shoots out from R2-D2 while Luke cleans him, Luke recoils as it makes him jump. If you’re paying attention to the background where C-3PO is minding his own business, you can see that this makes him jump, causing him to slip slightly off of the steps. Anthony Daniels manages to recover himself, but it’s pretty funny to think about the actor having a bit of a fright while in his golden suit.
Obi-Wan Doesn’t Know Anything About Shooting
One of Obi Wan’s gravest errors shows him off to be slightly less than the wise man everyone seems to think he is. Everyone in the galaxy knows that the Imperial Stormtroopers are notoriously bad with their blasters, missing basically every target they’ve ever shot at.
In the prequels (which, technically means the prequels are at fault for creating an issue that wasn’t there before), the Tusken Raiders are shown to be very accurate with their rifles. As such, it doesn’t make much sense when Obi-Wan explains “and these blast points, too accurate for Sand People, only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.”
Why Did Luke Think Obi-Wan Knew His Father?
This is more of a plot hole than a continuity error. Uncle Owen is the one who attempts to cover up the connection between Obi-Wan and Luke’s father Anakin by claiming that both are dead, and died around the same time as each other (even though neither are dead). Weirdly, when Owen explains this, Luke immediately asks whether Obi-Wan knew his father, despite there not really being any reason why this would be the case. Also, this means Luke thinks Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead, but immediately recognizes him when he is rescued by ‘Ben’ Kenobi and doesn’t make any connection.
What About C-3PO’s Dent?
During the attack on R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Tusken Raiders, C-3PO ends up with a big dent in his shiny golden head. Throughout the rest of the film, its presence is completely inconsistent, suggesting that the filmmakers either forgot to keep including the dent in C-3PO’s costume when filming, or that this scene was shot after the scenes in which his dent isn’t there. Despite disappearing and reappearing many times, it also switches sides a fair few times.
Han Shot First
The age-old question. Who shot first? Well, it was Han Solo. Sorry to those who insist it was Greedo, it just wasn’t. In the original version of the film, Han pulls his trigger to kill the bounty hunter and he does it before any response hits him.
For some crazy reason, George Lucas decided that he needed to change this, and thus retroactively change one of the most important parts of Han’s character building. The 1997 version flips everything and makes Greedo shoot first (which seems to be an attempt to make Han seem nicer) and the 2004 version changes it so they basically shoot together. Honestly, what is the point?
If You Look Closely, You Can See Kenny Baker
One of the purest and most wholesome things about the original Star Wars films is that R2-D2 was consistently played by Kenny Baker, who would sit inside the droid and create all of his trademark wobbles and reactions. The sequels kept this to an extent but had a little too much remote control action, while the prequels way too frequently resorted to animating the droid. Either way, thanks to this approach, there is a brief moment in the Sandcrawler in which you can see a little bit of Baker’s face peeping through R2-D2’s eyehole.
If You Listen Closely, You Can Hear Anthony Daniels
Similarly, Anthony Daniels spent his time sitting within the suit of C-3PO during every film. The brilliant thing about this is that he is the only actor to have made his way into every Star Wars film (and voices 3PO in The Clone Wars).
Obviously, in each of these appearances, his voice is heavily edited so that he has the dulcet robotic tones of his protocol droid counterpart. Luckily for us, we get to hear a quiet, unprocessed line of Daniels’ normal voice as he says “Oh my, R2” just a few seconds before the same line, now processed, is heard again.
The Perspective Of Hologram Leia Makes No Sense
When Leia’s hologram is seen and coupled with the lines “help me, Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope”, it builds one of the most iconic images from the entire Star Wars franchise. However, if you really think about the way this scene is shot, it actually makes almost no sense whatsoever. If we’re seeing the hologram from a side shot, that would suggest that the droid was recording Leia from the side; but the start of the message is her pressing a button on the droid in order to start the recording, suggesting she’s talking into some sort of camera that is inside the droid. It really doesn’t add up at all.
Where Did They Get Those Clothes?
Luke and Han end up in Stormtrooper outfits when they need a convincing disguise. Firstly, these fit weirdly perfectly despite the two characters being different heights yet all stormtroopers seemingly being the same height.
More to the point, they change and disregard their clothes. However, once they get out of the trash compactor, the stormtrooper suits are gone and they’re back in the regular clothes we hadn’t seen for ages. Where did they hide these clothes and how on earth did they have enough time to change back?
