Empire Minute 80: Persistent Wind

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Kids meal toys from Taco Bell are canon, right?

Date

May 2nd, 2014

Summary

Lando moves threateningly toward Han. Suddenly, he throws his arms around his startled, long-lost friend and embraces him.

Guests

Joe Dator

Notes

Film

• Minute 80 starts with the gang exiting the Millennium Falcon via the ramp onto platform 327; ends with Lando hugging Han and welcoming him after some tension and punking - but everything looks like it's going to be OK.
• Lando is introduced.
  • He is the first character that is new in this movie and has a lasting impact and presence.
• Lando uses the word slimy as an insult. Second use of the word in the movie - Luke says it about Dagobah.

Podcast

• There are some nice visual details in this minute - steam jets off the Falcon; gentle but persistent wind on the platform (what with all the farts).
• There are no safety rails on the Cloud City. This seems very dangerous.
  • Also, the city is floating and could sink at any moment - like a large boat in the water
  • Taco Bell released toy for this movie which was a magnetized floating cloud city and even that had problems staying upright.
  • If cloud city fell there would be a lot of injuries.
• What does it smell like? Cloud City:
  • Alex - a casino; sickly sweet cocoa butter (run by a charismatic Pit Boss in Lando).
  • Pete:
    • Outside - a town that has a paper mill; industrial.
    • Inside - air-conditioners are on so lots of recirculated air (only the tourists ever go outside because it stinks out there).
  • Joe - like travel; the inside of an airplane (Joe likes travelling and wanted to live in Cloud City),
• Other cities on Bespin.
• Ugnaughts and where they are from.
  • Do Ugnaughts know that the first part of their name is short for ugly?
• The color palette of this movie is stunning - shout out to whoever is responsible for this (maybe Ralph McQuarrie, production design and the Director of Photography).

Pete had the Ralph McQuarrie concept art (see left) as a sticker.

• Real alchemy was performed in the production of this movie. Joe is squarely in the camp that this was the best movie.
  • Pete says that this is a good movie and they did a great job. (Note - Star Wars is always the original and best for Pete.)
• What do the hosts think of Lando?
  • Alex - didn't care for him as a kid but Lando has gone up in his estimation over time.
  • Pete - there are two subsets of people:
    • Younger people that experienced the original trilogy movies all at the same time. They generally like Lando.
    • Older people that saw the movies one at a time and years apart. They generally hang on to his double-cross and forgive but don't forget.
  • Joe - Never had much of an opinion of Lando other than he was a cool character that was important to the story, Joe also liked that Han had more than one friend (i.e. Chewbacca) at some point.
• "The Adventures of Han, Chewie and Lando" movie needs to happen.
  • Pete - it would be great to see these characters as younger guys doing things completely unrelated to the Star Wars movies.
  • Alex - <Sarcastically> disagrees, he would want these adventures to explain every unexplained thing in the Star Wars universe. It could include Jabba the Hutt and be called "Smugglers"; it would be like the TV show "Taxi".
• Han Solo's reaction to Lando's rebuke is a cool acting moment in the movie.
  • Han Solo has a look of genuine fear so he definitely did do something bad to Lando.
  • This is also a good foreshadowing that something could go wrong which is reinforced by Han saying to the crew that everything will be fine but then telling Chewbacca to keep his eyes open.
• Han and Leia are now a bickering married couple.
• What would the crew have done if Lando started beating up Han? Chewbacca would have waited a few minutes and then done something about it.
• Leia says "I don't like this" instead of "I have a bad feeling about this".
  • George Lucas' ideal movie would:
    • Have three characters and two lines of dialogue.
    • Ensure that everyone was related.
    • Occur on only one planet.
  • Alex waivers on whether everyone being connected in Star Wars is good or not. The hosts discuss this aspect of the Star Wars saga.
  • There are definitely too many coincidences in Star Wars, or The Force is responsible for these.

Expand

About Lobot

• (Lobot will be discussed more in future podcast episodes.)

• Joe always thought his name was due to him being like a robot but via his lobes - "Lobot".
• How Lobot got the job (from Wookiepedia):
  • His father was a slaver. The tables turned and Lobot was enslaved but then escaped.
  • He was living on Cloud City as a homeless teen and was arrested for various crimes.
  • The administrator thought Lobot seemed smart and told him that we need someone as robot liaison. The administrator asked Lobot to do it and he said yes (at fifteen years old).
  • At a later time he could have left Cloud City but chose to stay.
• Lobot's headpiece looks like hair on a balding man.
• He could wear the headpiece in different ways - like as a beard or Mohawk.
  • Perhaps he changes the way he wears it from time-to-time. When he does this he is called:
  • Lohawk.
  • Mobot.
  • Lotee.
  • Frobot.
• When he was younger he had a full head of hair and was definitely called Frobot.

 Joe saw the Lobot headpiece in person once - in a museum as part of an exhibit of Star Wars props.
 He could see all the wires in it.
 There was a tag attached to it that said "Landau's Assistant" (spelled like Martin Landau).
 Was this a mistake or is it what Lando was supposed to be called?
 The headpiece was actually used by Martin Landau's assistant.

• Will items like Lobot's headpiece ever be sold / used in real life?
  • Not drilled into your head but definitely like a Google Glass kind of thing.
  • People already use neckband headphones with Bluetooth.
  • This is one step closer to Lobot although it does not a) require a hole drilled into your head or b) connect to the mainframe of your house.
  • Lobot controls everything with his thoughts and doesn't need to touch his phone or talk to Siri.
  • The device would be good for getting out of awkward social situations in a variety of ways; however is Lobot ever in awkward social situations? He may be very popular in Cloud City.
  • In the real world if this device was a thing then everyone would have one within weeks.
  • In nEpisode VII, all of the characters will have these devices attached to their heads.

Other Notes

• The Bespin Guards on Cloud City are ethnically diverse and Lando is the first non-white human that we see in Star Wars.
  • There was a still photograph of an alien Bespin Guard but this character did not make it into the movie.
  • Joe built an army of Bespin Guards (of both types) and had 30 of them.
  • We never see the Bespin Guards ever shoot or do anything substantial; they do pull out their guns in a future minute but don't do anything beyond that.
• Of all the places that we've seen Cloud City is the best place to live. It has an art-deco style and looks like the Emerald City.
• From the Leigh Brackett draft script:
  • The crew pretend that Leia is not Leia (this is knowing as "pulling a Padmé").
  • She is introduced as "my associate Ethania Eredith".
  • The crew keep forgetting this name and get it wrong a few times - it's a good little bit of comedy in the movie.
  • The should have called her Leia Jo-Jo Jones Shabadoo.
• Lando calls Han a pirate which is a very cool thing to say.
  • Has "pirate" been said before in Star Wars?
  • Pirate is colorful Star Wars language which would not be used today.
  • George Lucas should review the Episode VII script to add older / out-dated colloquialisms.
• How does Lando finish the "so good to s..." line?
• Joe is looking forward to the rest of the movie and a satisfying finish in which everything is resolved.
• Joe asks - will the hosts be waiting three years to do the ROTJ podcast series?
  • Yes, they're slowly extending the length of time between each series so eventually it will be 20 years between each one.
  • Or they could talk about every minute of waiting in the three years between each movie in the original trilogy.

Meta Minute

• 33:32 podcast episode length.
• Cold-open: 8-DAY-GREEDO call - Matt from Brooklyn What does it smell like? - Cloud City? Sheets just out of the clothes dryer.
• Joe got minutes 77 and 80 which are important Star Wars numbers / years (1977 release of Star wars - 1980 release of ESB). The TV shows "Good Times" and "What's Happening" were also released around this time.
• The alien Bespin guard is named Utris M'Toc. He was supposed to appear, but his scenes were cut.
• Although the scripts for Star Wars and Empire refer to pirates and as the Falcon as a "pirateship", this is the first time "pirate" is used in the dialog.
• Thanks to and from Joe for the week.
• Joe says it was a thrill to be on the podcast for a third time.
• Support the Show - Twitter; Facebook; 8-DAY-GREEDO.

Quotes

• Joe: ...and I've got a lot of guts coming back here. Pete: After what you pulled.
• Joe: I remember the Taco Bell thing and hundreds died.
• Joe: <As a Cloud City resident> Statistically it's the safest way to live in a city.
• Joe: They're like astronauts but are really ugly - ug-nauts! Pete: They're plumbing the depths of ugly; they're going where no ugly has gone before.
• Alex: Don't steal this idea from us. Pete: Please steal this idea from us.
• Alex: Bespin is the best place to live Pete: The best-spin; its best and it spins.
• Pete: Often if I meet a parrot for the first time I'll say "how you doing you old parrot?".

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/05/02/empire-minute-80-persistent-wind/

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