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.
08:40 – R2D2’s Projector
I can’t shake the feeling that the projector industry contributed some major funding to all six feature-length Star Wars films. It’s probably nothing. I really need a projector, though. The more I think about it, the more I need one.
13:06 – Floating Microphone
If our society follows a similar path, this floating microphone is bad news for any company that makes mic stands. Sure, we’ll all engage in the "mic stand versus no mic stand" debate for a while, but eventually we’ll all go to the floating microphones while all the mic stands end up at flea markets.
31:53 – Boba Fett’s Jetpack
Try not to think about all the situations in your life where a jetpack would have come in handy. You’ll just drive yourself crazy. And don’t think about future uses for one while you’re trying to fall asleep. You’ll wake up agitated and the subsequent drive to work will make you more enraged than usual since, you know, if you had a jetpack you could skip all that traffic.
32:03 – Boba Fett’s Rope Shooter
So aside from the jetpack, Boba Fett shoots a rope out of his arm and wraps Luke up in one fell swoop. It’s probably best not to think about any of the cool stuff Boba Fett has, lest you drive yourself crazy as mentioned above.
34:18 – R2D2’s Chain Cutter
Chained to a big, fat worm? Chain cutter. Misplaced the key to your bike lock? Chain cutter. Want your neighbor’s bike? Don’t be a jerk.
47:14 – 3D Holographic Map
I bet people would use globes a lot more often if they looked like this. Maybe not. It’s probably hard to spin a holographic globe around and stop it with your finger to figure out where to live when you grow up.
1:06:31 – R2D2’s Rope Cutter
Looks like that chain cutter doesn’t double as a rope cutter. You can never really have too many cutters, though.
1:35:42 – C1 Personal Comlink
Leia, seen here, uses a C1 to either order a pizza or request R2D2 to come and figure out the code so the Rebels can get inside to turn off the deflector shield. It’s probably not the pizza thing. They don’t even eat pizza.
Wow, that’s it. Weird. The last movie in the saga is the one with the fewest gadgets in it. Maybe the message is that there’s more to life than gadgets.
You probably should ignore that last part.
More on Techland:
Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Spot the Gadgets in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back