Empire Minute 66: Space Killers

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Date

April 14th, 2014

Summary

Vader stands in the back control area of his ship’s bridge with a motley group of men and creatures. Admiral Piett and two controllers stand at the front of the bridge and watch the group with scorn.

Guests

Chris Radtke

Notes

Film

• Starts with Luke being afraid as Yoda prophesises; ends with Admiral Piett about to relay the message from the Star Destroyer Avenger to Vader.

Podcast

• We are executing Minute 66 of the movie and podcast.
• Yoda is very smug and basically says "I told you so".
• Piett is about to tell Vader a) that he resigns b) to jive turkey.
• Does Yoda know what Luke saw in the cave?
  • Yoda set the whole thing up as a prank the night before; like an advanced Halloween presentation or pop-up display in the mall.
  • Yoda should therefore be excited by the result but he wanted Luke to be more scared than he was.
  • If you turn the lights on in the cave then the whole thing looks really fake.
  • This is why he told Luke not to take any weapons into the cave with him; Yoda didn't want his display ruined.
  • Also, there were more things for Luke to experience in the cave - such as teenagers wearing scary Tusken Raider masks.
• R2-D2 is covered in filth by this point.
  • Luke should have hosed him down and taken a chamois to him.
  • R2 is a hundred years old by this point. Robots should always be taken care of. This is a lesson to kids - always keep your robots clean.

The Bounty Hunters

• The bounty hunter scene is the Cantina of ESB.
  • It is the coolest scene in all of Star Wars.
  • Never have so many separate stories been launched from one scene
  • The cantina is just a room full of messy aliens getting drunk on Ackmen's (Bea Arthur) special brew.
  • However these characters are awesome space killers.
  • The term bounty hunter was not in the public consciousness before this scene.
    • The Star Wars universe overuses the term "bounty hunter". They generally mean "mercenary".
    • A Star Wars trait is to heavy handedly use anything that connects with the audience.
• Why wasn't Aurra Sing in the line up?
  • She should have been added in the special edition.
  • She was probably too old - although she is an alien and can be any age they want.
  • Aurra probably built R2-D2 a hundred years ago.
• Chris thanks Pete and Alex for having him on for this minute of the movie.
• There a lots of new things in Star Wars but this is not the case in ESB.
  • This is why the scene made such an impact.
    • Also, they needed more characters for action figures.
    • The movie-makers should have added three hundred bounty hunters and had the camera pan along the line for twenty minutes.
• Vader is personally supervising the hiring of the bounty hunters.
  • Did did he ask for these ones specifically? Or did he call an agency?
• The bounty hunters looked like a bunch of bad-asses to kids at the time.

Robots

• For Chris, the IG-88 action figure was the coolest robot he had ever seen.
• Also, IG-88 was the first Star Wars robot tha definitely did not have a person inside.
• There is an actor listed as playing IG-88. Its not Anthony Daniels and is probably the "puppeteer".
• ESB upped the anti with cool robots. There was:
  • IG-88.
  • FX-7.
  • 2-1B.
  • Probot.
• These are all bad-ass robots.
• Chris would watch a movie with these four robots in it.
  • Something like "Robot Bachelor Party".
  • Somebody make that.
  • The robots would want to invite R2-D2 but not C-3PO and that would be awkward.
  • And then TC-14 woulds show up.
• The IG-88 action figure came with two long, big, giant guns that he held in his claw pincher hands.
  • Six months after having IG-88 Chris realised that it was a cruddy action figure that was not a good "bad guy" stand in.
  • IG-88 is no Boba Fett.

<Start at 7:47 and add links. Yikes - still 33 minutes to go!>

Meta Minute

• 40:30 podcast episode length.
• Cold-open - 8-DAY-GREEDO call - IG-88 is a robot. So who owns him? Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, some guy in a Starbucks waiting for his robot to bring him the bounty? Or, does IG-88 have his own free will. This aspect of the story should be explored.
• Chris is a three-peater on the podcast. He is the Star Wars trilogy of the Star Wars Minute.

Quotes

• Chris: If I was George Lucas then I'd make my own landspeeder.
• Chris: <As the bounty hunter recruiter> You want Jodo Kast? <As Vader> No, he's terrible.

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/04/14/empire-minute-66-space-killers/

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