In honor of Star Wars Month, I volunteered to painstakingly watch all six Star Wars movies and compile a list of gadget-like devices I spot in each one. I can promise you I will miss a few and I won’t know what some of them are supposed to be called, but I’ll be damned if I don’t watch all six episodes of one of the greatest film franchises of all time in the name of “work.”
And so we dance.
09:10 – Comlink
Originally spotted in Qui-Gon’s hand during Episode I, we now see Obi-Wan with the same Nextel-style device. This suggests a family plan though, sadly, Qui-Gon isn’t around to share minutes with Obi-Wan any more.
16:44 – Grappling Hook
Always handy if you ever find yourself free-falling inside an elevator shaft while trying to save a chancellor. Also works great for fetching a remote control on the loveseat while you’re sitting across the room on the big couch.
29:42 – Bionic Hand
Probably should have caught this at the end of the last movie, but here’s a much better look at Anakin’s cool replacement hand. I wish they’d go into more detail about this hand. If I were to design my ideal bionic hand, each finger would do something different; one for warming up coffee, one that’s a screwdriver, one that’s a laser pointer, and I’d just build my phone right into the pinky and thumb as the mouthpiece and earpiece, respectively.
33:22 – 3D Holographic Map
I bet kids in the Star Wars era think these things are boring like how we think globes are boring. That’s sad. I’d at least look at this thing for a good 15 minutes before going, “Hmm. I don’t know where any of these places are.”
35:28 – 3D Holographic Chair
We’re looking at the next big thing in conferencing technology. “Cut down on unnecessary travel with GoToMeeting.com—GoToMeeting.com, may the Force be with you even when you can’t be with the rest of the Jedi council.”