Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

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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.

04:43 – Diskette

diskette

Princess Leia, seen here, inserts a super thin diskette-type object into R2D2’s built-in floppy drive. In 1977 when the movie was filmed, no ordinary diskette would have been able to hold Leia’s entire video message.

11:45 – High Voltage Stun Gun

stun

stun2
Used to incapacitate meddlesome droids, this highly-charged apparatus creates cool blue squiggly lines around its target and fits into a holster that appears to double as a power supply.

18:08 – Motivator, Bad

motivator

Luke is right. This R2 unit does indeed have a bad motivator. It can be seen jutting out of its head once all that pesky fire dies down.

20:17 – R2D2’s Built-in Holographic Pico Projector

pico

Used, used, and overused in the first three episodes, here’s the famous holographic projection scene that set the pico projection craze in motion.

25:37 – Digital Binoculars

binocs

Used by Luke to try to spot the runaway R2D2. Shouldn’t have removed that restraining bolt, Luke. He tricked you. Tricked you good.

39:45 – Mind Probe

syringe

As syringe-equipped medical devices go, this one’s a bit over the top. And assuming it’s prohibitively expensive like most medical devices, it’ll do nothing to keep insurance premiums low. As a bonus, though, it looks like it doubles as some sort of torture weapon for the Empire. And it flies!

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