History Film / Starcrash

* MechaMooks: Zarth's "Golems," which are consicuously very different-looking from Elle.

* MechaMooks: Zarth's "Golems".

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Watch Stella when she has no lines. It's clear Carolyn Munro had no direction from the director beyond "pout and look like you are paying attention."

* UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents: The robot Elle speaks with a Texan accent.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ZarthArn.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"By sunset I'll be the new emperor. And I'll be the master of the whole universe!" -- Count Zarth Arn posing in his fist-shaped space fortress]]

* GreyAndBlackMorality: The Emperor's regime sees nothing wrong with sentencing people to a lifetime of slave labour in radioactive conditions with no protective clothing... and not even hardened super-criminals, but simple smugglers like Stella and Akton who are presented as not really being all that bad. Still, the film portrays them as the good guys because Zarth Arn is pretty much literally a pantomime villain. Their mooks even wear identical uniforms in different colors (which are actually grey with brown and black.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: At one point the characters have to go to a planet that is "thousands of degrees below zero". In reality absolute zero (459 F, 273 C) is by definition the coldest temperature possible.

* ObiWanMoment: Fittingly for a ''Film/StarWars'' rip-off, Akton gets one.

* {{Expy}}: Par for the course for a ''Film/StarWars'' ripoff, but actually [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] a lot.

* NeverTellMeTheOdds: Akton spends the trip through hyperspace enumerating the probabilities of all the different ways he and Stella could be killed. No {{Determinator}} here, but neither of them seem to find it particularly interesting.

* BondVillainStupidity: Zarth Arn corners the heroes with an army of armed robot guards... and proceeds to leave them on a planet set to explode.

* SameLanguageDub: Caroline Munro's English voice is replaced by American actress Candy Clark's for the English dub (she was married to co-star Marjoe Gortner at the time).

* LargeHam: Zarth Arn

In the late '70s, Italian director Luigi Cozzi attempted to capitalize on the success of ''Franchise/StarWars'' by [[FollowTheLeader creating a space movie]] with B-movie faves Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner, plus Creator/ChristopherPlummer and a then-unknown David Hasselhoff. The result? ''STARCRASH!''

In the late '70s, Italian director Luigi Cozzi attempted to capitalize of the success of ''Franchise/StarWars'' by [[FollowTheLeader creating a space movie]] with B-movie faves Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner, plus Creator/ChristopherPlummer and a then-unknown David Hasselhoff. The result? ''STARCRASH!''

** The Imperial warship at the beginning is named ''Creator/MurrayLeinster''. Two of her officers are named [[Creator/ArthurCClarke Clarke]] and [[Creatore/RayBradbury Bradbury]].

* GenderBlenderName: "Elle" is not usually a name for a male character, let alone a male robot.

In the late '70s, Italian director Luigi Cozzi attempted to capitalize of the success of ''Franchise/StarWars'' by [[FollowTheLeader creating a space movie]] with B-movie faves Caroline Munro and Marjoe Gortner, plus Creator/ChristopherPlummer and even David Hasselhoff. The result? ''STARCRASH!''

** Zarth Arn's superweapon is played up like an expy of the Death Star, but is actually pretty lame. It doesn't blow up planets, it projects psychic waves towards ships to make the crash... and it only works on ships that are passing directly by the planet it's on.

* DeusExMachina: Stuck on a planet only 48 seconds before it explodes? [[spoiler: Good thing your battleship can stop time long enough for you to get off the planet]]

* EvilOverlord: Zarth Arn the evil Count. He's said to rule half of the galaxy and be the Emperor's sole rival.

* {{Fanfare}}: The score by Main/JohnBarry isn't as bombastic as other ''Star Wars'' homages, but still has plenty of brass and grandeur.

* UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents: The robot L speaks with a Texan accent.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Many of the posters make L look like a looming DarthVaderClone, when he's actually one of the heroes.
* CowardlyLion: L is always saying how various things make him "nervous." It doesn't stop him from being a badass.

* DeathIsCheap: At least if you're a robot. L is smashed and fixed twice. The first time he's shot in the chest by space amazons, but turns out to be NotQuiteDead. The second time he's literally smashed into pieces by cavemen before bursting into a shower of sparks and smoke and yet there's somehow enough of him left for the Emperor to rebuild him.

** L the robot ''looks'' a lot like a low-rent Darth Vader but his personality is basically the complete opposite. He's basically a somewhat less obnoxious [=C3PO=].

* HarmlessFreezing: Stella gets buried under a snowdrift and makes a complete recovery through a combination of holding L's hand before being buried (so that he could use his systems to regulate her body temperature) and Akton demonstrating yet another unexplained superpower.

* SpacePolice: L and Thor were members of this before being assigned to help Stella and Akton, though Thor was apparently a DirtyCop.

* WorthyOpponent: Before the movie began, L was a member of the SpacePolice assigned to tracking down the smugglers Stella and Akton. Stella admits later on that while she found L's determination infuriating at the time it's also his best trait.