The sometimes-spunky bot took out an enemy droid in “Revenge of the Sith” (2005). R2 throws it into reverse in a clearly passive-aggressive move to trip a droid.
A lot of things are going on in this scene with lightsabers swinging and sparks flying, but if you pay attention as it cuts to a closeup of the little white and blue bot, you’ll see it backing up to take down a tall, bipedal droid. It is a little blip of comic relief.
Is There an E.T. Easter Egg?
Yes. E.T. and two of his consorts appear briefly in the 1999 film. Three alien beings who look exactly like Steven Spielberg’s endearing E.T. are spotted in the Senate Chamber as representatives of the Asogian Brodo Asogi race.
Given that George Lucas and Spielberg are known to reference each other’s films, it’s not a surprise this happened. Any doubts of an intentional reference here come in the way of a couple of bars of the E.T. theme song playing over this snippet of “The Phantom Menace.” Plus, the creature’s name. It is Senator Grebleips, Spielberg spelled backward!
Can You Spot the Space Potato?
It is so unlikely, but it actually happened. A potato can be seen flinging through an asteroid field during one of the fight scenes in “The Empire Strikes Back.” If you look closely, you can spot the flying potato at the point when the Millennium Falcon tries to flee the Imperial fleet.
The visual effects crew stuck the spud in as a gag, secretly sniggering, ‘George Lucas will never find out about this.’ And he didn’t, for many years.
Samuel L. Jackson Has the Only Purple Lightsaber in the Galaxy
Many of the actors who play a character in the Star Wars franchise are childhood fans who bring that excitement with them. One of them is Samuel L. Jackson.
The action movie legend brought the topic of lightsaber colors up with George Lucas. In a YouTube video, Lucas explains the law of the lightsaber. He tells Jackson that red is for the bad guys and blue or green is for the good guys, “that’s just the way it works.” In response, Jackson intones, “No purple lightsaber?” Lucas caved immediately.
Three Easter Eggs in “Return of the Jedi”
We are talking about the creatures are part of the opening scene that takes place on Jabba the Hut’s barge. Far from being arbitrary, these three have names assigned by George Lucas, who was inspired by the classic sci-fi film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951).
In that movie, the line, “Klaatu Barada Nikto” is uttered by an Earthling who delivers it, as if chanting a spell, repeating it twice. The incantation is meant to stop the GORT (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) alien. Luke Skywalker slaughters Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto, leaving open whether or not Lucas is a fan of the old sci-fi movie.