Shout Out / Star Wars

• The Prequel Trilogy:
  • The Phantom Menace:
    • The podrace is a space-age Chariot Race, complete with giant engines in place of horses, and the whole sequence is a huge reference to Ben-Hur (1959).
    • The podrace scene does also owe a lot to the racing car sequence from Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (a fact that made all Norwegian viewers go "huh", as every Norwegian alive have seen that move at least five times).
    • Some of Jar Jar's antics are taken almost directly from the films of Buster Keaton.
    • Also as a likely Take That!, the leader of the Trade Federation is Nute Gunray after former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as well as a reversal of Ronald Reagan, to get back at Project Star Wars (and possibly the public media funding cuts that forced a lengthy delay of the radio adaptation of Return of the Jedi), and the Neimoidian senator is named Lott Dodd after U.S. Senators Trent Lott and Chris Dodd.
    • The Neimoidians are named after Leonard Nimoy. Even more amusingly, they were called Shatnerians in the earliest drafts of the script.
    • The title itself is a reference to the Universal serial "The Phantom Creeps" and its first episode, "The Menacing Power".
    • One of the Discovery's EVA pods from 2001: A Space Odyssey can be seen in Watto's junkyard. The reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations identifies it as "a repair and maintenance pod of unknown origin."
    • One of the members of Captian Panaka's squad is named Cid. This was done in response to Square Enix having recurring characters named Biggs and Wedge.
    • The design of the Trade Federation's troop-landing ships are nearly identical to the Torumekian armored corvettes in the Manga of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
    • In the Galactic Senate, some aliens of E.T.'s species can be seen. This calls back to a scene in the film featuring a kid in a Yoda Halloween costume.
  • Revenge of the Sith:
    • Given how much Lucas' imagination owes to old adventure serials, Commander Cody is likely named after the character Commando Cody of Radar Men from the Moon.
    • The scene where the 501st Legion march up the stairs into the Jedi Temple is a direct allusion to The Battleship Potemkin.
    • The scene of Palpatine declaring the formation of the Galactic Empire in the name of peace and security interspersed with scenes of his apprentice Vader killing the Separatist leaders is very similar to Michael Corleone attending the baptism of his nephew whilst his allies eliminate rival Mafia dons (and Moe Greene) on his command.
    • Yoda's departure from Kashyyyk looks much like E.T.'s departure from Earth, right down to the music and the egg-shaped spacecraft.
    • Padmé's "You're tearing me apart!" is delivered exactly like James Dean delivered the same line in Rebel Without a Cause.
    • Polis Massa Base is established through a shot that references Floyd's landing to the Clavius moonbase from 2001: A Space Odyssey, with astronauts in the foreground. Even the landing site of the base, which opens allowing Padmé's star skiff to an underground bay, harkens back to the one Clavius Base has.
    • Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader is reminiscent of Frankenstein (1931), particularly his first steps off the operating table, and the rainy, thundering weather outside the building.
    • The plot of the film is very similar to Othello with Anakin in the role of Othello himself, Padmé as Desdemona, Obi-Wan as Cassio and obviously Palpatine as Iago. Fittingly, Ian McDiarmid has likened Palpatine to Iago. The similarities between the two stories are enhanced by the possibility that on Mustafar, Anakin thinks that Padmé and Obi-Wan are having an affair ("You're with him!"). Ironically, the Othello character ends up killing the Cassio character, but twenty years after the events of the film.
    • Anakin's desperation to stop Padmé dying in childbirth, resulting in her actually doing so, is reminiscent of Macbeth's desperation to avoid prophecies coming true, only to make them do so. Anakin and Obi-Wan are also former friends who end up fighting to the death after Anakin commits a horrific atrocity, calling to mind Macbeth and Macduff.
• The Original Trilogy:
  • A New Hope:
    • An imperial officer almost refers to the Rebel base as a "hidden fortress", though he's interrupted by Vader Force-choking him in the middle of the second word. The Hidden Fortress is a film which had a massive influence on A New Hope and successive Star Wars pictures.
    • In Alan Dean Foster's novelization, Stormtrooper TK-421 is identified as THX 1138. In the film itself, a disguised Luke claims he's transferring Chewie from Cell Block 1138.
    • The multiple references to an unspecified (but apparently quite valuable) "spice" is likely one to Dune. Later media in both the Legends and Disney continuities would reinforce this by establishing spice is a drug, similar to that of Dune. Tatooine is a desert planet like Arrakis (but with two suns instead of two moons), and the "Jedi mind trick" is a lot like the Voice.
  • The Empire Strikes Back:
    • Cloud City's design is ripped directly from one of the old Flash Gordon serials.
    • To The Aeneid. Chewbacca carrying C-3PO on his back during their escape from cloud city is a clear reference to Aeneas carrying his father out of Troy.
    • The Walkers' attack on Hoth is handled like the Romans' battles with Carthaginian war elephants during the First Punic War.
    • The Official Encyclopedia states that the shot of Chewbacca holding C-3PO's head is a Shout-Out to the Alas, Poor Yorick moment of Hamlet. Intentional on director Irvin Kershner's part.
    • Han & Leia's pose in the movie's first release poster (as seen in this page's image) is a reference to Rhett & Scarlett's pose from the Gone with the Wind re-release poster.
  • Return of the Jedi:
    • Lucas stated that the scene depicting Palpatine's arrival is based on the May Day military marches in Soviet Russia.
    • The Ewoks blow their horns similar to the scene where the Hebrews blow their horns after the Pharaoh frees them in The Ten Commandments. A horn sound from that film was even recycled.
    • Chewbacca does a Vine Swing with the obligatory Tarzan yell.
• The Sequel Trilogy:
  • The Force Awakens:
    • Enough for its sub-page.
  • The Last Jedi:
    • Vice-Admiral Holdo is an acting commanding officer whose crew mutinies against her, and who ends up ramming her ship into the enemy, similarly to Commodore Decker in Star Trek's "The Doomsday Machine".
    • Kylo Ren's tactic of destroying the launch bays so the Resistance fighters can't launch is similar to Baltar's own strategy in Battlestar Galactica's "Return of the Legend." Poe and Holdo's animosity also echoes the conflict between Adama and Cain in the episodes.
    • The device the First Order uses to track down the Resistance ships even during hyperspace flight kind of looks like a gigantic flux capacitor.
    • In the audio commentary, Johnson has stated that Finn raising up with the elevator platform at the end of his fight with Phasma is meant to be a nod to Back to the Future Part II when Marty rises up on top of the DeLorean in front of Biff after seemingly falling to his death.
    • The busybody who directs the police to Finn and Rose is called Slowen Lo, a nod to the Beastie Boys song, "Slow and Low".
    • During Finn and Rose's escape from Canto Bight, there's a quiet scene where a lone cup of water on a table ripples from vibrations due to the fathiers rampaging.
    • The sight gag involving First Order uniforms getting ironed is a reference to Hardware Wars, a Star Wars parody film where starships and droids are all represented by household appliances.
    • At the end of the movie, the stableboy on Canto Bight casually Force-pulls a broom into his hand, like the Stalker's daughter does with a glass of water at the end of Stalker (1979).
    • When Finn and Rose get thrown into jail on Canto Bight for parking illegally, the police claim that they've violated "Parking Law 27-B-stroke-6". In Terry Gilliam's Brazil, "27-B-stroke-6" was a government form that was frequently mentioned as a Running Gag.
    • This article runs down a host of Shout Outs to classic movies in The Last Jedi. Among them are the scene where Rey sees her reflections, which is a Shout Out to Citizen Kane, and a dolly shot across casino tables at Canto Bight, which is a Shout Out going all the way back to 1927 and the first film to win Best Picture, Wings.
    • Phasma's mask gets struck and cracked, leaving a hole from which one eye is revealed and peering out at her opponent, similar to a scene in RoboCop (1987).
  • The Rise of Skywalker:
    • Albrekh, the chimpanzee-like Sith alchemist who reforges Kylo Ren's broken helmet, is named after Alberich, the dwarf who created The Ring of the Nibelung. Some have also taken his appearance as an esoteric allusion to the Emperor's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, which was created by superimposing a monkey's eyes over a woman in heavy makeup and prosthetics.
    • Kylo's new quarters, which are stark white and clean unlike his prior dark and moody ones, are a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
    • Dark Rey hissing and taking on a monstrous appearance with sharp teeth for a split second is likely a reference to Bilbo Baggins's own infamous Jump Scare from the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
    • The heroes take down the Final Order Star Destroyers by targeting their superlaser cannons, followed by a montage of First Order Star Destroyers being taken down across the galaxy, which is just like the ending of Independence Day.
    • The superlaser cannons being built underneath the Star Destroyers — instead of within the ships and with the muzzle protruding out from the bow (like Palpatine's Eclipse dreadnaughts in Dark Empire) — is like the positioning of the planet bombardment gun on the Comet Empire dreadnaught in Space Battleship Yamato.
    • Palpatine's death in the movie heavily evokes Toth melting away in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
    • The scene where John Williams appears has references to each of his Oscar-nominated scores. Among the objects are yellow barrels, a Hook, an electric iron, a bullwhip, E.T.'s spaceship, dogtags and a book representing The Book Thief.
• The Anthologies:
  • Rogue One:
    • Enough for its sub-page.
  • Solo:
    • Dryden Vos's collection includes quite a few references to Indiana Jones, as does the movie at large:
    • A crystal skull from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
    • The idol from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark
    • One of Dryden's guards is named Toht-Ra. "Toht" was the name of the Nazi Gestapo agent in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He went after Indiana Jones to acquire the headpiece to the Staff of Ra.
    • L3 starts a slave uprising in the mines, with shots of the prisoners throwing off their chains that are almost identical to the rescue of the slave children in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
    • Beckett warns Han not to trust anyone, this becomes an Ironic Echo when he tells him this after betraying him to Dryden. This is similar to the way how Donovan betrayed Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
    • The shot of Chewie nearly being hit by a rock during the conveyex heist is shot very similarly to the same thing happening to Indy during the tank chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
    • Han pulls a maneuver inspired by one pulled by an old friend of his on Corellia named Needles, who was a street racer, referring to the character from Back to the Future.
    • The Corellian hounds were a tribute to the Death Dogs from Ron Howard's own Willow.
    • Han over powers a Kessel guard with a Groin Attack at one point. This type of move is used in Star Wars: The Old Republic as the standard interrupt for the Scoundrel class, and can be made available to the other classes through the Legacy system.
    • The art book reveals that the chrome visor on Enfys Nest's mask was inspired by The Boss's Cool Shades from Cool Hand Luke, and Weazel's fur-covered jacket by a similar one worn by Adam Ant. Additionally, the red flags on the Cloud-Riders' swoop-bikes were modeled after the Sashimono banners from classic Jidaigeki films, particularly Ran.
    • It is nearly impossible not to watch the Imperial sergeant attempting to rally the men to Zerg Rush the objective on Mimban and not get flashes of the Imperial Guard propaganda pictures in the artwork of that game. The color schemes even match exactly.
    • The Maw black hole having the appearance of a swirling red whirlpool nods to Disney's visualization in The Black Hole. As both appear more red than black, Han refers to it as a gravity well and doesn't use the term black hole.
    • Teräs Käsi is reintegrated into the new canon when Qi'ra mentions having trained in it. "Teräs Käsi" is the Finnish translation for "steel hands", a reference to the Fighting Game series Tekken ("Tekken" means "Iron Fist" in Japanese). Obviously, this carries over from the work that originally introduced it.