Web Video / Star Wars Downunder

"No bull, mate! I'm a fair dinkum Jedi. And a bloody thirsty one, too!"

Having run out of beer, Jedi Knight Merve Bushwacker decides to return to his home planet of Oradongia for a nice cold one. Unfortunately he discovers the evil Darth Drongo has destroyed every pub on the planet, hoarding all the amber fluid at his fortified brewery. Merve contacts his old mate Nugget, who hooks him up with some rebel blokes who are planning to stick it to this beer-hogging wowser!

A short Star Wars Fan Film created by Australian fans, its ten year production meant by the time Star Wars Downunder was finished the Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards no longer existed, so the film has instead been released online. You can watch it here, though you might want to check out Australian Slang first for some useful notes.

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Star Wars Downunder provides examples of:

• Alien Sky: Oradongia has two moons.
• As Himself: X4-VB, according to the credits.
• Awesome Aussie: Merve Bushwacker and his rebel mates.
• Bad Vibrations: Caused by Darth Drongo's hopping kangaroo-bot.
• Battle-Interrupting Shout: After Drongo dies, Merve gets both sides to stop fighting each other by reminding them of the delights of drinking beer.
  Merve: (brandishing a tinnie of beer) Look! Look at it! It's cold! It's frosty! It's beautiful! And you're all about to kill each other for it! Stop this madness now, ya boofheads! There is enough for everyone!
• Berserk Button: Drongo makes Merve spill his beer (and incidentally has just popped off Bluey's head using the Force).
  Merve: Bloody Drongo! [hurls down beer can and draws lightsaber] I have had... a bloody... gutful!
• BBC Quarry: Rather than drive 1500 km into the Outback to find a desert wasteland, the producers decided to film in a gravel quarry outside Ipswich. Some background shots for the bluescreen were eventually filmed in Sturt Stony Desert.
• BFG: The Buggeriser. When it works.
• Brand X: Amber Fluid
• Can't Hold His Liquor: In The Stinger, Merve declares his love for his Robot Buddy, then passes out. Burko is dumbfounded because he's only had one beer.
  Nugget: Mate, two words: One-pot screamer.
• Cool Starship: Merve's boomership, the "Thirsty Bastard". According to the website, in an emergency all its power can be diverted to cool the beer fridge.
• Cowardly Sidekick: Burko
• Decapitated Army: Subversion - Drongo doesn't seem to be leading his own army at all in the final battle, which ends when the beer is made available to everyone.
• Dissonant Serenity: The laconic Oradongias never get excited about anything. Except beer.
• Do-Anything Robot: On arrival on Oradongia, X4-VB deploys a device that bears an unusual resemblance to a cork hat to drive away the ubiquitous flies. Later it produces more useful dual laser cannons.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?
  Merve: G'day. Merve Bushwacker. I'm a Jedi.
  Burko: Get your hand off it, mate!
• Epic Hail: Averted. "Stuff the signal!"
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Merv’s is revealed during a Full-Name Ultimatum.
  Drongo: Mervin Percival Archibald Bushwacker. You no-hoper!
• Evil Plan: Averted; we never find out why Drongo is trying to hog all the beer for himself. The website suggests several possibilities; either Drongo's unique alien metabolism requires a constant supply, he's shipping it offworld to pay his gambling debts, or he's just a wowser who doesn't want anyone else to have a good time.
• Faceless Goons: The Sith Troopers wear helmets that make them look like Ned Kelly. Until they take their helmets off for the post-battle piss-up, where they turn out to be decent blokes.
• Fainting: Nugget on seeing the Big Freezer where Drongo keeps all his beer.
• Fan Disservice: Bev, a female talking cane toad in a pink dress. Nugget still thinks she's a “dead-set spunk“, though.
• Flying Car: The utespeeder ("ute" is an Australian nickname for a pickup truck, eg. "utility").
• Foreboding Fleeing Flock: Fleeing fruit bats herald Drongo's attack on the Brown Mullet pub.
• Fun with Subtitles: In an inversion of Spice Up the Subtitles, the subs are extremely bland and thus highly accessible to non-Aussies. (Which is exactly why you leave them ON - they contrast so much with the actual dialogue that they provide a whole extra level of humor.)
• Hair of the Dog: Bluey tries a beer to get rid of the headache after his head was knocked off by Darth Drongo. His head falls off again.
• Hologram: Knobulon and the Spheroids.
• Hopping Machine / Mini-Mecha: Darth Drongo's AT-BT (All Terrain Bouncing Transport, or "Roo-Bot"). Awesome, but Impractical, as it's difficult to shoot someone when you're jumping up and down like a kangaroo.
• Humanoid Alien: Nugget and Bev are humanoid cane toads.
• If I Do Not Return
  Nugget: Bev, if I don't come back... I want you to know that I think you're a dead-set spunk!
  Bev: Oh get away with ya, you old root rat!
• Immune to Bullets: Drongo catches laser blasts in his hand, but gets blasted by the Buggeriser.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Bloody oath, mate!
• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: ESK-1 Esky Droid (which keeps the beer cold as well as having handy legs to carry it to you when you're legless), the W.B.R Barbie Droid (a barbeque on caterpillar tracks), and the LG-0 Bouncer Bot (used to defend pubs from attacking Sith Troopers).
• Indy Ploy
  General Bear: Guess we'll have to suck it and see.
• Just Between You and Me: Averted
  Drongo: I suppose you wonder why I went and pawned all this Amber Fluid, eh?
  Merve: Nope! I don't give a stuff, mate!
  Drongo: Oh well! Then in that case, mate... [pulls out twin lightsabers] it's time for you to go to buggery!
• Land Down Under: If Australia was a Planet of Hats.
• Laser Blade:
  • Drongo and Merve have lightsabers. (In fact, Drongo uses two.)
  • The Sith Troopers use light-boomerangs.
• Nonindicative Name: The android Bluey is painted red (from the Aussie habit of nicknaming redheads "Blue").
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Merve's desire to down a nice cold one drives the entire plot.
• Off-the-Shelf FX: A rebel is clearly using a repainted Super Scope in one shot. This is actually a subversion since a) the Super Scope looks convincingly like the bazooka it's supposed to be, and b) the visual FX cover for it makes it less noticable.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner
  Drongo: Merve Bushwacker, I'm inviting you to bite your bum!
  [Drongo's eyes glow red; door opens behind him]
  Nugget: Hey Drongo. Cop this, ya mug!
• Punny Name:
  • X4-VB — "VB" is a lager (for Victoria Bitter), and XXXX is a brand of beer brewed in Brisbane.
  • Drongo is Aussie slang for a foolish person.
  • Burko means crazy.
• Refusal of the Call: Merve is reluctant to hook up with a bunch of yahoo rebels, until it's pointed out they might have beer that Drongo hasn't got his hands on yet.
• Serious Business: Beer!
• Scenery Porn: South-east Queensland, and the Sturt Stony Desert.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Just because they're going to attack Drongo's base tomorrow is no excuse not to lift a cold one.
• Shoulder Cannon: Bluey has twin pop-up laser cannons.
• Shur Fine Guns: The Buggeriser only works on the third go, when Nugget hooks it up to X4.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • On seeing Burko lying in front of his destroyed pub, Merve exclaims, "Oh no!" then steps over his body to pick up an empty beer can. "A bloody tragedy." This becomes a Running Gag as Merve is motivated more by his need for a cold one than his desire to fight Drongo's tyranny.
  • On a related note, his ship can divert all power to the fridge "in case of emergency".
• Soda Can Shakeup: Caught without his lightsaber, Merve summons a tinnie using the Force, shakes it up and squirts the contents at a charging Unyip.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Imagine going back to your home town and finding your mates can't even crack open a beer in celebration!
• Supervillain Lair: Dunny's Deep, Darth Drongo's fortified brewery by the sea.
• Take Off Every Zig: "All units, she's a go-er. I repeat: She. Is. A. Go-er!"
• Trojan Horse: Merve and Bluey hide inside barrels of Amber Fluid at the destroyed rebel base, knowing that Drongo's mooks will take them back to Dunny's Deep.
• Robot Buddy: X4-VB
• Unfortunate Names
  Merve: So, Burko, is it? What, some sort of nickname?
  Burko: [turning to stare at him] Nah.
  Merve: Fair enough...
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Done in larconic Aussie style.
  Merve: So that's the plan, eh?
  Bear: My oath it is. So whaddya reckon?
  Merve: [shrugs] Aw yeah.
  Bear: Good. Go get yourself some tucker.
• Visual Gag: When traveling in the back of the utespeeder, Merve snaps a dog ute lead onto X4.
• Visual Innuendo: When the Sith Troopers activate their light-boomerangs, they're being held at groin level. The downward curve of the boomerang makes them appear somewhat… droopy.
• Was It Really Worth It?: At the end of the film Merve isn't joining the party, instead pondering whether all the death and destruction was worth it. Burko is stuffed if he knows. Merve then takes a swig of beer and decides that it was.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Burko wakes up in front of the devastated pub.
  Burko: Ohhh crikey, last night must have been a real blinder...
• You Will Be Assimilated: Merve is introduced driving off a fleet of infested ships. They're never seen again.
• Yowies and Bunyips and Drop Bears, Oh My: Unyips — genetically engineered bunyips that Drongo uses to track down supplies of the amber fluid. According to his backstory, General Bear got his name after taking on a sleuth of drop bears.

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