Indy's
Idealistic Ending for Episode III
by forumer Indy500. |
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| Part
Three |
| Where
some would contend that George Lucas never gave the missing Luke
and Biggs footage a second thought after it hit the cutting room
floor over 26 years ago, I submit that its content has indeed been
taken into consideration by him since then - not only during the
ANH SE endeavor, but also during the creation of the Prequels, since
Episodes 1 and 2 both contain subtle connections to the vintage
cut scenes. I'll begin this segment with a George quote taken from
the TPM commentary :
| "I purposefully develop themes and ideas, and then repeat
them. It's very, very clear in the two trilogies that I'm
putting the characters in pretty much the same situations,
sometimes even using the same dialogue, so that the father
and the son go through pretty much the same experience. Obviously,
Anakin takes a different road than his son takes, so that
at some of these turning points they go the 'other' way. But
that's been set up for you to almost expect that Luke will
follow in his father's footsteps, because in a lot of these
episodes they do follow each other, which leads to a subtle
influence which gives the audience a little expectation." |
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| In
the cut Tatooine footage, we see Luke (a.k.a. "Wormie") with his
group of friends. Fixer and Camie mock and ridicule him for his
delusions of grandeur, laughing at him and then walking away. Later,
Luke enthusiastically relates his account of a very dangerous high-speed
skyhopper race to Biggs (the oldest in his group of friends) who
replies :
"You oughtta take it a little easy, Luke. You may be the
hottest bush pilot this side of Mos Eisley, but those little skyhoppers
are dangerous! Keep it up, one day : WHAMMO! You're gonna end
up a dark spot on the downside of a canyon wall!"
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| This
scenario reverberates with one of the new sequences that George
has given us in "The Phantom Menace." Anakin (a.k.a. "Ani"), the
hottest human pod pilot on Tatooine, is enthusiastically preparing
for the very dangerous high-speed Boonta Eve Classic race when his
friends stop by. Wald and Amee tease and mock Ani for his delusions
of grandeur, laughing at him and then walking away. |
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| Before
they do, however, a boy named Seek (the oldest in his group of friends)
says :
"Come on, let's go play ball. Keep racing Ani, and you're
gonna be bug squash."
Incidentally, instead of "Keep racing," in his script for TPM
Lucas originally has Seek saying, "Keep it up," which even more
closely mirrors what Biggs says to Luke.
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| Just
as George Lucas took this opportunity with Episode 1 to make a connection
to the cut footage through the use of similar situations and dialogue,
he continued in Episode 2 to connect to the footage by foreshadowing
the fate of the Treadwell droid. Remember, in the cut scenes the
faltering robot can't seem to "get it in gear" when he's with Luke
out at the vaporator, and then he finally overheats in a burst of
smoke. It should be noted that the robot appearing in AOTC is indeed
the very same robot that appears in the cut ANH scene, as confirmed
by the Official SW website's databank :
| "The Lars family has had a stubborn dim-witted treadwell
droid in their possession for over 20 years. It suffered a
final meltdown in the days preceding Luke Skywalker's departure
from Tatooine." |
|
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Interestingly,
the very first thing Lucas decided to show us upon Anakin's arrival
at the Lars farmstead is an aerial shot in which we see C3PO working
on the Treadwell, establishing Treadwell's faulty nature. |
| Threepio
stops what he's doing as Anakin and Padme approach, but in the brief
following shot wherein Anakin interrupts him and asks, "Threepio?"
we see that ILM has added little wisps of smoke rising from the
black coupling ring on Treadwell's neck! Now, if the malfunctioning
Treadwell's sly cameo appearance in Episode 2 was only done as a
whimsical in-joke, I would think that somebody on the DVD commentary
(or elsewhere) would have made mention of it (much the same way
the in-joke of Jango hitting his head was explained). However, nobody
called any attention to the droid's presence in the film, let alone
any of the mechanical problems he was having on screen. If we are
never to witness Treadwell's eventual meltdown, then George's attentive
efforts to foreshadow it seem curiously strange to me. |
| However,
if we are to eventually see the meltdown of Treadwell on
the big screen as AOTC's foreshadowing suggests, then some may wonder
about the fact that the cut footage never shows us exactly what
happens to the smoldering robot after the impatient Luke abandons
him. Well, the ANH novelization ghost written by Alan Dean Foster
implies that the Jawas swoop in on him :
"Luke gunned the engine, which whined in protest, and sand
erupted behind the floater as [Luke] aimed the craft toward the
distant town of Anchorhead. Behind him, a pitiful beacon of black
smoke from the burning robot continued to rise into the clear
desert air. It wouldn't be there when Luke returned. There were
scavengers of metal as well as flesh in the wide wastes of Tatooine."
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| An
article by David West Reynolds in SW Insider issue #68 explores
the making of the book, "Star Wars-Incredible Cross-Sections," presenting
(along with some of the book's final illustrations) a few of the
original thumbnail sketches that Reynolds drew to help illustrators
Jenssen & Chasemore. One such line drawing, depicting the sandcrawler's
ramp, has a text block next to it that reads :
"Reynold's sandcrawler ramp sketch shows Jawas leading out
the droids for sale, including the binocular Treadwell droid they've
just stolen from the Lars farm."
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| The
cartoon-like doodle shows the Treadwell at the top of the ramp,
a caption near his head saying, "Can I come out?" A Jawa is blocking
Treadwell's path, waving his hands and exclaiming, "No, no! Go back
in!" Jenssen and Chasemore have faithfully transferred this humorous
scenario into the final book illustration, and notably, the article
says :
"These books would represent the most thorough research ever
done on these vehicles and would receive Lucasfilm's formal imprimatur
as canon."
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| George's
stamp of approval makes it official that the Jawas did steal
the Treadwell. As it turns out, the film version of "A New Hope"
actually supports this notion, as we do see that there is
a Treadwell letting out a few plaintive beeps in the belly of the
Jawa sandcrawler - so it seems that when it comes to the missing
footage, the abandoned robot's fate has quite conveniently been
resolved for us on screen since 1977, and now with the ANH SE, so
has the friendship story-arc between Luke and Biggs. We are now
at a point in the saga where events witnessed in the missing footage
have been both resolved in ANH, and foreshadowed in the Prequels.
The only thing left for George to do is to tie it all together by
actually showing the missing footage. |
| Keep
in mind that the old footage would (and should) receive a MAJOR
face-lift before appearing in theatres. What is seen on the Star
Wars-Behind the Magic CDROM should be considered the rough version.
The final version will be digitally cleaned up. Scratches,
film grain, and other glitches will be eliminated. The color may
even be enhanced, and in some cases (one segment on the disk is
in black & white) color will need to be completely added in from
scratch. The first establishing shot, as well as some connecting
"pick-up" shots may have to be created, to better solidify the three
separate segments. For instance, short clips of Luke travelling
in the speeder might be needed to transition us from the moisture
vaporator to Toshe Station. Also, as was done for Mos Espa and "the
new" Mos Eisley, Anchorhead may get filled-out with more buildings,
structures, and activity to make it a bit livelier. Foley sound
may get a makeover, and musical scoring could be added as well,
courtesy of John Williams. |
| There's
also the possibility that it may be decided to digitally tweak the
actors in some way. In the silent footage segment, for example,
Luke's mouth may need to be altered to accommodate dialogue that
differs slightly from what was originally filmed. Some of Mark Hamill's
lines from the radio drama could be utilized as a convenient resource
for this voiceover undertaking without George having to tell anyone
on the "outside," since negotiations with actors tend to give things
away. Other digital "fix-its" may occur as well. George could get
all Disney on us and decide to delete the offending black cans of
"the juice" (a type of space beer) from the hands of our heroes,
Luke and Biggs. The point is that it is no longer necessary to be
constrained by the limits of what is captured on a length of celluloid.
The footage provides a basic working framework that could yield
a spectacular coup de grace for Lucas in the finishing of
his saga, and it certainly appears that he's been preparing to use
it. |
| Next,
I'll explore whether or not an Episode 3 epilogue consisting of
the missing footage would pose any problems with continuity, create
any "breaks in formula," or otherwise be any more different than
some of the other surprises that George has already pulled out of
his sleeve. |
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