Star Wars: 10 Obscure Movie Secrets That Took Years To Discover
Homer Simpson was a clone trooper?
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00:00 In this day and age, moviegoers have never been more on the ball when it comes to picking
00:03 up hidden messages, secrets or other references squirreled away in their favourite films.
00:09 With the ability to pause, rewind and zoom in on scenes, movie detectives have all the
00:13 tools required to uncover even the most subtle of hidden gags.
00:18 With that in mind then, although the amount of hidden Star Wars secrets is too long to
00:22 count at this point, these are the ones that took a surprisingly long time to be unearthed.
00:28 I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and this is Star Wars' 9 Obscure Movie Secrets That
00:33 Took Years To Discover.
00:35 Number 9.
00:36 Confirming E.T.'s Link to the Star Wars Galaxy
00:38 For many years, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have hidden references to one another's
00:43 movies in their own films.
00:45 Indiana Jones is famed for its many nods to Star Wars, but when Spielberg released E.T.
00:50 The Extra-Terrestrial, fans of Star Wars became ecstatic with the implications of one
00:55 particular scene.
00:57 See, in a moment that saw E.T. seemingly recognising Yoda, actually just a kid dressed up, E.T.
01:04 exclaims the word "home".
01:05 So did this mean E.T. was from the Star Wars Galaxy, or was it just a bit of fun?
01:11 Well in 1999, Lucas continued to fan the theory's flames.
01:15 During the Senate scene in The Phantom Menace, he actually included a group of aliens that
01:20 looked a little bit familiar.
01:22 Now in Legends, the alien senator that appeared in Coruscant was given the name "Gribleeps",
01:28 which if you spell out, is actually Spielberg spelled backwards.
01:32 Again, this could just be another inside joke between two of cinema's greats.
01:37 But the premise was expanded further when Holonet News was launched before the release
01:41 of The Attack of the Clones.
01:43 The website included a number of in-universe articles and press releases about the goings-on
01:48 in the galaxy.
01:49 Among them was a story that stated that the Azogians, E.T.'s species, had funded an
01:53 expedition to go to another galaxy, thus explaining how E.T. ended up on Earth, confirming the
01:59 link between the two films.
02:02 What was the Millennium Falcon doing in the prequels?
02:05 The Millennium Falcon is the most iconic spaceship in all of cinema, no doubt.
02:09 The scuffed-up hunk of Corellian junk might not look like much, but you better believe
02:14 that it's one of the fastest ships in the galaxy, and can even time travel if Han Solo's
02:18 Wessel Run boast is to be believed.
02:21 Now there were several nods to the Falcon during the prequels that were so brief it
02:24 would take several rewatches to catch them, and eagle-eyed viewers to pick up on.
02:29 Firstly, during The Attack of the Clones, two Corellian fighters of the same make as
02:33 the Falcon can be spotted at the space port of Naboo when Anakin arrives with Padme.
02:38 Now neither of these were the actual Falcon, it's just that the freighter model was fairly
02:42 common at the time.
02:43 However another appearance of the freighter in Revenge of the Sith can be spotted as well,
02:48 gliding into a space port on Coruscant, and this time it was confirmed to be the ship
02:53 that Solo would one day obtain.
02:56 So what was it doing at this time you ask?
02:58 Well, in the expanded universe it was revealed that during the Clone Wars, the ship was called
03:03 the Stellar Envoy.
03:04 It was used by the Republic Group, a covert organisation working against Palpatine, disguised
03:10 as a holding company.
03:11 7.
03:12 R2-D2 being a badass
03:15 R2-D2 is surely the most popular droid in all of history.
03:19 Sorry 3PO.
03:20 And that's more impressive because we never understand what he's saying.
03:23 But the reaction that characters have to his series of bloops and bleeps have made him
03:27 notorious as a lovable sassbot.
03:30 We've seen him get our main protagonists out of a number of tough situations.
03:34 Hell whenever there's a garbage chute that needs unlocking or a difficult flight manoeuvre
03:38 to perform, R2 is the one to save the day.
03:42 During the prequels though, the animators had a lot of fun adding other character nuances
03:46 to the R2 unit, many of which went unnoticed for quite some time.
03:50 I mean, when you've got Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen going all Samurai on a
03:54 bunch of droids, it's easy to not pay attention to the antics of a rather unassuming little
03:59 robot.
04:00 But if you do pay close attention to R2 in Revenge of the Sith, he is one feisty little
04:05 trash can.
04:07 For instance, during the rescue of Palpatine, General Grievous escapes, leaving Obi-Wan
04:11 and Anakin to dish out some lightsaber justice on the remaining droids.
04:15 If you watch closely though, you can actually see R2D2 lending a hand by tripping up an
04:20 unfortunate droid as he tries to flee.
04:23 6.
04:24 Who was the bearded rebel on Endor?
04:26 This is something of a controversial and hotly debated topic in the Star Wars fandom, and
04:32 it relates to a much-loved character from the animated shows Clone Wars and Rebels.
04:36 This whole thing started when Return of the Jedi came out back in 1983.
04:41 And that's because included in Han Solo's strike team to disable the Death Star's
04:45 shield was an older, gentleman rebel fighter with a very distinctive white beard.
04:50 Fans speculated over this character for a good while, and in 2002 he was officially
04:55 given the name Nick Sant.
04:57 But with the advent of Star Wars Rebels, which sees Captain Rex sporting a bushy white beard
05:02 as well, many began speculating that the characters were one and the same.
05:06 Even Rebels creator Dave Filoni believed that Rex and Nick Sant were likely to be connected.
05:12 Why else would a seemingly old man be included in an elite strike team?
05:16 Hell, Filoni even toyed with the idea of making a canon.
05:20 So when it came to wrapping up Rebels in 2018, Filoni did indeed confirm that Rex fought
05:25 on Endor, but left the link between him and Sant more ambiguous.
05:29 Maybe it was Rex, or maybe great big bushy beards just became a new fashion statement
05:33 in the galaxy.
05:35 How did the Millennium Falcon end up in Blade Runner?
05:39 Blade Runner changed the game when it came to special effects.
05:42 CGI was still in its infancy when Ridley Scott made his 1982 cinematic exploration of a dystopian
05:48 future, and therefore relied heavily on the use of practical effects.
05:52 The film is really one of the most sophisticated and creative examples of in-camera trickery
05:57 ever, combining matte paintings with live action footage and highly detailed scale models.
06:03 With all of these tools, Scott was able to create an aesthetic that became the gold standard
06:08 for dystopian sci-fi.
06:10 The director also famously went over budget making this movie and was forced to skimp
06:14 wherever possible.
06:16 The special effects department were forced to get highly creative then, which often meant
06:19 taking props and models from other movies and utilising them to create a futuristic
06:24 L.A.
06:25 Film as well as several other models from close encounters of the third kind, the prop
06:29 guys also raided the Star Wars set.
06:32 When Dangerous Days Making Blade Runner came out in 2007, it shed light on the fascinating
06:37 process of movie making, and it was revealed that a model of the Millennium Falcon wound
06:43 up being altered to resemble a futuristic building.
06:46 All they did was turn it frontside up, add a bunch of extra antennas, and then shoved
06:51 it into the background of a shot.
06:54 Richard Armitage is in The Phantom Menace
06:56 More than 10 years after the release of The Phantom Menace, Richard Armitage got his big
07:00 break in the Hobbit trilogy, starring as the Dwarf King Thorin Oakenshield.
07:05 It was around this time that people started noticing a certain background extra from the
07:10 Star Wars prequel trilogy.
07:12 When The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, no one would have thought to notice the nondescript
07:17 Naboo fighter pilot in the background of a scene.
07:20 After all, this was Armitage's first ever feature role.
07:24 Even the actor himself said he had trouble spotting himself in the movie after apparently
07:28 having his only line cut, and his part reduced significantly.
07:32 But the point is, he is there.
07:35 And his appearance at all is a little bit ironic in hindsight.
07:38 As the guy who made a name for himself playing a dwarf, the actor actually claimed he was
07:42 only hired here because he was quote "tall and lanky".
07:46 So after the actor became something of a household name, he revealed that he had briefly appeared
07:50 in Star Wars, and eagle-eyed fans began scouring the movie for him.
07:55 He can be hard to spot, but his distinctive features can be spotted peering over the soldier
07:59 of Padme's handmaiden during the Naboo-Gungan alliance talks.
08:04 The Ark of the Covenant is hidden on the Millennium Falcon
08:07 We're well aware of the many Star Wars references in Indiana Jones.
08:11 Temple of Doom opens up in a bar named Club Obi-Wan, and the plane at the start of Raiders
08:16 of the Lost Ark is labelled "OBCPO".
08:19 As an added bonus, the sound it makes when taken off is also the sound the Millennium
08:23 Falcon makes when the hyperdrive cuts out.
08:26 But there are also a number of Indiana Jones callbacks in Star Wars.
08:30 But bear with us for this one, because it does take some piecing together.
08:34 So in Raiders of the Lost Ark, C-3PO and R2-D2 can be spotted in the Well of Souls as hieroglyphs,
08:41 where Indy finds the Ark of the Covenant.
08:43 It was a fun little nod to this other movie, but it was only the start of the connection.
08:48 Because at the end of the film, the Ark is placed in a cargo box marked "9906753"
08:55 and wheeled off into a giant storage container.
08:58 In the book Star Wars The Force Awakens Incredible Cross Sections, a detailed plan of the Millennium
09:04 Falcon is shown, with an annotation stating that Han and Chewie had never been able to
09:09 open a particular cargo module.
09:12 The module in question was stamped, you guessed it, "9906753".
09:17 Seemingly this confirmed that the Indy Star Wars references weren't just a bit of fun,
09:22 but the universes were actually linked, and the Ark of the Covenant somehow came into
09:26 the possession of Han Solo.
09:28 2.
09:29 L337 is the Millennium Falcon
09:31 This one is the most obvious at a glance.
09:33 It's explained quite explicitly in Solo A Star Wars Story, but it's heritage does
09:38 go a little further back than that, so it's worth talking about here.
09:42 So sometimes a seemingly throwaway line of dialogue can allude to something far more
09:47 significant.
09:48 Way back in 1980 when The Empire Strikes Back first hit screens, everyone's favourite
09:53 droid punching bag C-3PO made a remark about Han Solo's ship.
09:57 As we all know, 3PO is fluent in over 6 million forms of communication.
10:01 However, he was taken aback when trying to communicate with the on-board computer that
10:06 runs through the Millennium Falcon.
10:08 The line "Sir, I don't know what your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar
10:12 dialect" has usually been interpreted by fans to mean that Solo's ship has so many
10:18 modifications that even the on-board computer has a bizarre nature to it.
10:23 However, roughly 40 years after that line was first heard, it was given an explanation.
10:29 During Solo A Star Wars Story, the witty proponent of droid rights L337 was damaged, and her
10:35 mind was uploaded into the Falcon as a way to preserve it.
10:39 3PO's bemusement in Empire then makes a lot more sense knowing that he was communicating
10:43 with Lando Calrissian's robot companion.
10:46 1.
10:47 Attack of the Donuts
10:49 Matt Groening loves Star Wars.
10:51 The amount of Star Wars references in The Simpsons is near uncountable.
10:55 So when George Lucas returned the favour by plastering Homer Simpson in the prequel trilogy,
11:01 no doubt the creator of Springfield was all too pleased.
11:04 But it took a hell of a long time for Homer's cameo to even be noticed in the first place.
11:10 After all, who would be looking for Springfield's most incompetent nuclear power plant employee
11:14 in a galaxy far, far away?
11:17 Well when Yoda arrives with the clone troopers at the end of Attack of the Clones, he's
11:21 also apparently recruited the help of everyone's favourite duff beer enthusiast.
11:26 And it seems that Homer made a better clone trooper than he did a safety inspector.
11:31 While the remaining Jedi are being rescued, a clone dropship swoops in to provide covering
11:36 fire.
11:37 But the pilot of said dropship looks a little different to your average clone trooper.
11:41 And when you see it, there's no mistaking the yellow bulbous head, complete with the
11:45 signature brown stubble, for anyone but Homer Simpson.
11:48 So that's our list!
11:49 I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
11:52 How many of these details did you pick up on already?
11:55 And did any of them surprise you as much as they did me?
11:58 Let us know and while you're down there as well could you please give us a like, share,
12:00 subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single
12:05 day.
12:06 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see