Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2013 2:55:02 GMT
The Death Star
[HASH]Star_Wars
A Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies and expanded universe created by George Lucas. It is capable of destroying an entire planet with its powerful superlaser.
Although details, such as the superlaser's location, shifted between different concept models during production of Star Wars, the notion of the Death Star being a large, spherical space station over 100 kilometers in diameter was consistent in all of them. The Death Star was created by the dean of special effects, John Stears. The buzzing sound counting down to the Death Star firing its superlaser comes from the Flash Gordon serials. Portraying an incomplete yet powerful space station posed a problem for Industrial Light & Magic's modelmakers for Return of the Jedi. Only the front side of the 137-centimeter model was completed, and the image was flipped horizontally for the final film. Both Death Stars were depicted by a combination of complete and sectional models and matte paintings.
The original Death Star's completed form appears in Star Wars. Commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), it is the Galactic Empire's "ultimate weapon", a huge spherical space station over 100 kilometers in diameter capable of destroying a planet with one shot of its superlaser. The film opens with Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) transporting the station's schematics to the Rebel Alliance to aid them in destroying the Death Star. Tarkin orders the Death Star to destroy Leia's home world of Alderaan in an attempt to pressure her into giving him the location of the secret Rebel base; she gives them the false location of Dantooine, but Tarkin has Alderaan destroyed anyway, as a demonstration of the Death Star's firepower and the Empire's resolve. Later, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO, and R2-D2 are pulled aboard the station by a tractor beam and rescue the Princess under harrowing circumstances. Darth Vader senses Obi-Wan's presence once the Millennium Falcon lands on the Death Star, and he seeks him out, setting up the iconic light saber duel between the two, but not before Obi-Wan deactivates the tractor beam controls to allow the others to escape. Later, Luke returns with a fighter squad to attack its weak point and manages to destroy it using his newfound powers of the force before it annihilates the rebel base on Yavin IV.
Links
Wikipedia
Wookieepedia: The Star Wars Wiki
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LucasFilm
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