- 5 minutes ago
Homer Simpson was a clone trooper?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00In this day and age, moviegoers have never been more on the ball when it comes to picking up
00:04hidden messages, secrets, or other references squirreled away in their favourite films.
00:09With the ability to pause, rewind, and zoom in on scenes, movie detectives have all the tools
00:14required to uncover even the most subtle of hidden gags. With that in mind then,
00:19although the amount of hidden Star Wars secrets is too long to count at this point,
00:24these are the ones that took a surprisingly long time to be unearthed. I'm Josh from
00:29WhatCulture.com and this is Star Wars' 9 Obscure Movie Secrets That Took Years to Discover.
00:35Number 9. Confirming E.T.'s Link to the Star Wars Galaxy
00:38For many years, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have hidden references to one another's movies
00:44in their own films. Indiana Jones is famed for its many nods to Star Wars, but when Spielberg released
00:50E.T. the Extraterrestrial, fans of Star Wars became ecstatic with the implications of one particular
00:56scene. See, in a moment that saw E.T. seemingly recognising Yoda, actually just a kid dressed up,
01:03E.T. exclaims the word home. So, did this mean that E.T. was from the Star Wars Galaxy,
01:09or was it just a bit of fun? Well, in 1999, Lucas continued to fan the theory's flames.
01:15During the Senate scene in The Phantom Menace, he actually included a group of aliens that looked a
01:21little bit familiar. Now, in Legends, the alien senator that appeared in Coruscant was given the
01:27name Gribleeps, which if you spell out is actually Spielberg spelt backwards. Again, this could just
01:33be another inside joke between two of cinema's greats, but the premise was expanded further when
01:39Holonet News was launched before the release of The Attack of the Clones. The website included a number
01:44of in-universe articles and press releases about the goings-on in the galaxy. Among them was a story
01:50that stated that the Ezocians, E.T.'s species, had funded an expedition to go to another galaxy,
01:56thus explaining how E.T. ended up on Earth, confirming the link between the two films.
02:01Number 8. What was the Millennium Falcon doing in the prequels?
02:05The Millennium Falcon is the most iconic spaceship in all of cinema, no doubt. The scuffed-up hunk of
02:10Corellian junk might not look like much, but you better believe that it's one of the fastest ships
02:15in the galaxy and can even time travel if Han Solo's Kessel Run boast is to be believed.
02:21Now, there were several nods to the Falcon during the prequels that were so brief it would take
02:25several rewatches to catch them, and eagle-eyed viewers to pick up on. Firstly, during The Attack
02:30of the Clones, two Corellian fighters of the same make as the Falcon can be spotted at the space port
02:35of
02:36Naboo when Anakin arrives with Padme. Now, neither of these were the actual Falcon, it's just that
02:41the freighter model was fairly common at the time. However, another appearance of the freighter in
02:46Revenge of the Sith can be spotted as well, gliding into a space port in Coruscant, and this time it
02:52was confirmed to be the ship that Solo would one day obtain. So, what was it doing at this time
02:57you
02:57ask? Well, in the expanded universe, it was revealed that during the Clone Wars, the ship was
03:02called the Stellar Envoy. It was used by the Republic Group, a covert organization working
03:08against Palpatine disguised as a holding company. Number 7, R2-D2 being a badass. R2-D2 is surely the
03:16most popular droid in all of history. Sorry, 3PO. And that's more impressive because we never
03:22understand what he's saying, but the reaction that characters have to his series of bloops and bleeps
03:27have made him notorious as a lovable sassbot. We've seen him get our main protagonists out of a
03:32number of tough situations. Hell, whenever there's a garbage chute that needs unlocking or a difficult
03:37flight maneuver to perform, R2 is the one to save the day. During the prequels though,
03:43the animators had a lot of fun adding other character nuances to the R2 unit, many of which
03:49went unnoticed for quite some time. I mean, when you've got Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen
03:53going all samurai on a bunch of droids, it's easy to not pay attention to the antics of a rather
03:58unassuming little robot. But if you do pay close attention to R2 in Revenge of the Sith,
04:04he is one feisty little trash can. For instance, during the rescue of Palpatine, General Grievous
04:10escapes, leaving Obi-Wan and Anakin to dish out some lightsaber justice on the remaining droids.
04:16If you watch closely though, you can actually see R2-D2 lending a hand by tripping up an unfortunate
04:21droid as he tries to flee. Number six, who was the bearded rebel on Endor? This is something of a
04:28controversial and hotly debated topic in the Star Wars fandom, and it relates to a much loved character
04:33from the animated shows Clone Wars and Rebels. Now this whole thing started when Return of the Jedi
04:38came out back in 1983, and that's because included in Han Solo's strike team to disable the Death Star
04:45shield was an older gentleman rebel fighter with a very distinctive white beard. Fans speculated
04:51over this character for a good while, and in 2002, he was officially given the name Nick Sant.
04:57But with the advent of Star Wars Rebels, which sees Captain Rex sporting a bushy white beard as well,
05:03many began speculating that the characters were one and the same. Even Rebels creator Dave Filoni
05:08believed that Rex and Nick Sant were likely to be connected. I mean, why else would a seemingly old
05:13man be included in an elite strike team? Hell, Filoni even toyed with the idea of making a canon.
05:20So when it came to wrapping up Rebels in 2018, Filoni did indeed confirm that Rex fought on Endor,
05:26but left the link between him and Sant more ambiguous. Maybe it was Rex, or maybe great big
05:31bushy beards just became a new fashion statement in the galaxy.
05:35Number 5, how did the Millennium Falcon end up in Blade Runner? Blade Runner changed the game when it
05:40came to special effects. CGI was still in its infancy when Ridley Scott made his 1982 cinematic exploration
05:47of a dystopian future, and therefore relied heavily on the use of practical effects.
05:52The film is really one of the most sophisticated and creative examples of in-camera trickery ever,
05:58combining matte paintings with live-action footage and highly detailed scale models.
06:03With all of these tools, Scott was able to create an aesthetic that became the gold standard
06:08for dystopian sci-fi. The director also famously went over budget making this movie,
06:13and was forced to skimp wherever possible. The special effects department were forced to get
06:18highly creative then, which often meant taking props and models from other movies and utilising
06:23them to create a futuristic LA. So as well as several other models from Close Encounters of the
06:28Third Kind, the prop guys also raided the Star Wars set. When Dangerous Days making Blade Runner came
06:34out in 2007, it shed light on the fascinating process of moviemaking, and it was revealed that
06:41a model of the Millennium Falcon wound up being altered to resemble a futuristic building.
06:46All they did was turn it frontside up, add a bunch of extra antennas, and then shoved it into the
06:52background of a shot.
06:53Number 4. Richard Armitage is in The Phantom Menace
06:56More than 10 years after the release of The Phantom Menace, Richard Armitage got his big break in the
07:01Hobbit trilogy, starring as the Dwarf King Thorin Orkenshield. It was around this time then that
07:07people started noticing a certain background extra from the Star Wars prequel trilogy. When The
07:12Phantom Menace was released in 1999, no one would have thought to notice the nondescript Naboo fighter
07:18pilot in the background of a scene. I mean, after all, this was Armitage's first ever feature role.
07:23Even the actor himself said he had trouble spotting himself in the movie after apparently having his
07:29only line cut, and his part reduced significantly. But the point is, he is there. And his appearance
07:35at all is a little bit ironic in hindsight. As the guy who made a name for himself playing a
07:40dwarf,
07:41the actor actually claimed he was only hired here because he was quote, tall and lanky. So after the
07:46actor became something of a household name, he revealed that he had briefly appeared in Star Wars,
07:51and eagle-eyed fans began scouring the movie for him. He can be hard to spot, but his distinctive
07:57features can be spotted peering over the soldier of Padme's handmaiden during the Naboo-Gungan
08:02alliance talks. Number three, the Ark of the Covenant is hidden on the Millennium Falcon.
08:07We're well aware of the many Star Wars references in Indiana Jones. Temple of Doom opens up in a bar
08:13named Club Obi-Wan, and the plane at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark is labelled O.B
08:18.C.P.O.
08:19As an added bonus as well, the sound that it makes when taken off is also the sound the Millennium
08:23Falcon
08:24makes when the hyperdrive cuts out. But there are also a number of Indiana Jones callbacks in Star
08:30Wars. But bear with us for this one, because it does take some piecing together. So in Raiders of
08:35the Lost Ark, C-3PO and R2-D2 can be spotted in the Well of Souls as Hieroglyphs, where Indy
08:42finds the
08:42Ark of the Covenant. It was a fun little nod to this other movie, but it was only the start
08:47of the
08:47connection. As at the end of the film, the Ark is placed in a cargo box marked 9906753 and wheeled
08:56off into a giant storage container. In the book, Star Wars The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections,
09:02a detailed plan of the Millennium Falcon is shown, with an annotation stating that Han and Chewie had
09:08never been able to open a particular cargo module. The module in question was stamped,
09:13you guessed it, 9906753. Seemingly, this confirmed that the indie Star Wars references weren't just a
09:21bit of fun, but the universes were actually linked, and the Ark of the Covenant somehow
09:25came into the possession of Han Solo. Number 2, L337 is the Millennium Falcon. Now this one is the
09:32most obvious at a glance. I mean, it's explained quite explicitly in Solo A Star Wars Story, but
09:37its heritage does go a little further back than that, so it's worth talking about here. So, sometimes
09:43a seemingly throwaway line of dialogue can allude to something far more significant. Way back in
09:491980, when the Empire Strikes Back first hit screens, everyone's favorite droid punching bag,
09:54C-3PO, made a remark about Han Solo's ship. As we all know, 3PO is fluent in over 6 million
10:00forms of
10:01communication. However, he was taken aback when trying to communicate with the on-board computer
10:06that runs through the Millennium Falcon. The line, Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to
10:10communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect, has usually been interpreted by fans to mean that
10:17Solo's ship has so many modifications that even the on-board computer has a bizarre nature to it.
10:23However, roughly 40 years after that line was first heard, it was given an explanation. During Solo
10:29A Star Wars Story, the witty proponent of droid rights, L337, was damaged, and her mind was
10:36uploaded into the Falcon as a way to preserve it. 3PO's bemusement in Empire then makes a lot more
10:41sense knowing that he was communicating with Lando Calrissian's robot companion.
10:47Number 1. Attack of the Donuts
10:49Matt Groening loves Star Wars. The amount of Star Wars references in The Simpsons is near
10:54uncountable. So, when George Lucas returned the favor by plastering Homer Simpson in the prequel
11:00trilogy, no doubt the creator of Springfield was all too pleased. But it took a hell of a long time
11:06for Homer's cameo to even be noticed in the first place. After all, who would be looking for Springfield's
11:12most incompetent nuclear power plant employee in a galaxy far, far away? Well, when Yoda arrives with
11:18the clone troopers at the end of Attack of the Clones, he's also apparently recruited the help of
11:23everyone's favorite duff beer enthusiast. And it seems that Homer made a better clone trooper than
11:29he did a safety inspector. While the remaining Jedi are being rescued, a clone dropship swoops in
11:35to provide covering fire. But the pilot of said dropship looks a little bit different to your
11:40average clone trooper. And when you see it, there's no mistaking the yellow bulbous head complete with
11:45the signature brown stubble for anyone but Homer Simpson. So that's our list. I want to know you guys
11:50think down in the comments below. How many of these details did you pick up on already? And did any
11:55of them surprise you as much as they did me? Let us know. And while you're down there as well,
11:59could you please give us a like, share, subscribe, and head over to whatculture.com for more lists
12:03and news like this every single day. Even if you don't though, I've been Josh. Thanks so much for
12:08watching, and I'll see you soon.
Comments