Hey guys, it's Jan here.
If you've seen my review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you'll know I really enjoyed
the movie.
And, of course, there's a wealth of call-backs and easter eggs throughout the film, so I've
put together as many of those eggs and references as I could find in this video.
I know you'll have spotted other cool ones too, so do share them in the comments below!
Just a quick reminder there will be spoilers ahead, so if you're not ready for that, check
out my non-spoiler review of the movie here!
The franchise's description of the Millennium Falcon as junk continues in The Force Awakens,
when Rey twice refers to it as garbage.
Of course, Luke called it a "piece of junk" in A New Hope, Lando said "she's the fastest
hunk of junk in the galaxy" in The Empire Strikes Back, and Han Solo himself called
it a "piece of junk" in Return of the Jedi.
But when Rey says to Han about the Falcon, "It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in
fourteen parsecs" and he corrects her, it's a nice nod to when Han boasted to Obi Wan
and Luke that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
The Falcon's circular sensor dish has been replaced with a rectangular one for The Force
Awakens as the original was lost when Lando flew the ship in Return of the Jedi.
And there's a nice little call-back with a twist to that incident when Rey clips the
underneath of the Falcon as it flies off Jakku into space.
As for motivators, well they're a recurring problem in the world of Star Wars, for example,
when Rey examines the fault on the Millennium Falcon she exclaims "it's the motivator";
in The Empire Strikes Back, C-3PO says he noticed the hyperdrive motivator was damaged;
and in A New Hope, Luke says "This R2 unit has a bad motivator".
And the classic Star Wars line, 'I got a bad feeling about this', which has appeared in
all the previous Star Wars movies, is delivered by Han Solo when he hears a rathtar roar after
Rey accidentally releases the beasts.
When the Rathtar's eye suddenly appears at the window looking at Han, Finn and Rey, it
feels like a little nod to Jurassic Park, which seems apt given that Jurassic World
director Colin Trevorrow is directing Star Wars Episode 9.
Later, when they're trying to escape, Finn picks up the Jedi Remote Training Ball we
see Luke Skywalker training with in A New Hope.
And after they've escaped, Finn accidentally turns on the holochess table from A New Hope.
And the number in Finn's Stormtrooper designation FN-2187 is a reference to Cell 2187 where
Leia was held captive.
Oh, and by the way, when Finn tells Han that his job as a Stormtrooper was sanitation,
it's an easter egg to super-fan Kevin Smith's movie Clerks, where one of the characters
wonders if the 'average Stormtrooper knows how to install a toilet main'.
Speaking of easter eggs to other movies, there's a great visual of TIE fighters silhouetted
against the sun which is reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppolla's Apocalypse Now.
And when Han Solo says that he used to think the Force and the Jedi were 'mumbo jumbo',
it's is a funny little easter egg as that was a phrase actor Alec Guinness, who played
Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi, used to describe the Star Wars script.
After the opening crawl, there's an instant call-back to Star Wars: A New Hope, with the
camera panning down to a similar shot of two moons or planets with the smaller one to the
upper right of the larger one.
And the way the huge Star Destroyer completely eclipsed the moons at the start of The Force
Awakens is an interesting nod to the script for A New Hope which says "The awesome yellow
planet of Tatooine emerges from a total eclipse."
Back on Jakku, Poe Dameron hiding the map to Luke Skywalker's location inside BB-8 after
he's tracked down by The First Order recalls how Leia hid the schematics for the Death
Star in R2-D2 after her ship was captured by The Empire.
And after BB-8 flees the village razed by the First Order, a pair of glowing eyes pop
up out of a sand dune.
The way the eyes pop up are a call back to when R2-D2's periscope emerged from the sand
dunes after he fell off Jabba The Hutt's sail barge.
And they also look kind of like Hem Dazon from the Mos Eisley cantina scene in A New
Hope.
They may even be a be a little nod to director JJ Abrams' production company Bad Robot.
When BB-8 is caught by Teedo, it's a call-back to A New Hope when R2-D2 is captured by Jawas.
BB-8's response to Rey that his mission is classified feels a lot like when Luke asked
R2-D2 to play back Leia's entire message and R2-D2 says it's a private message for Obi-Wan
Kenobi.
When Rey gives BB-8 directions, she advises him to stay off Kelvin Ridge.
The name Kelvin is a regular easter egg in JJ Abrams' productions and is an homage to
his grandfather Harry Kelvin.
BB-8 actually wants to go with Rey, and although she refuses, BB-8 eventually gets his own
way.
Which is a nice nod to when R2-D2 wants to go with Luke and C-3PO in A New Hope, but
is initially stopped by one of the Jawa traders.
Rey's home on Jakku is in the wreck of an AT-AT walker and inside is a straw doll which
looks like it's wearing an X-Wing pilot's uniform.
Outside when Rey puts on a beaten-up helmet, on the side you can make out 3 Aurebesh letters
which translate to R-A-EH, or Rey.
And the glasses she wears while scavenging look like they're made with lenses from a
Stormtrooper helmet.
Later when Rey and BB-8 are interrogating Finn about why he has Poe's jacket, BB-8 gives
Finn a quick zap, like how R2-D2 zaps C-3PO while he's repairing him at the end of The
Empire Strikes Back.
And the design of the gate at the junk-yard on Jakku was taken from unused concept art
by Ralph McQuarrie for Jabba The Hutt's palace in the original trilogy.
In 2013, on the Conan O'Brien show, JJ Abrams agreed to include one of Conan's favourite
phrases "Jub Jub" into The Force Awakens.
It sounds like you can hear "jub jub" said by one of the aliens on Jakku when Finn and
Rey are being chased by the Stormtroopers.
The scene at Maz Kanata's place with an assortment of crazy-looking aliens being entertained
by a reggae-style band was definitely reminiscent of the Mos Eisley cantina scene in A New Hope.
And hanging outside her bar there are a stack of banners, many of which appear as Podracer
flags in The Phantom Menace.
The most noticeable one perhaps is the Mandalorian banner seen on fan-favourite Boba Fett's armour.
The crying Rey hears in Maz's basement and the vision she experiences with Kylo Ren after
finding Luke's lost lightsaber is reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back scene where Luke
descends into a cave full of strange noises and has a vision where he fights Darth Vader.
And Darth Vader's presence is felt in many of Kylo Ren's scenes.
For example, when Kylo goes before Supreme Leader Snoke, Snoke says to him "There has
been an awakening.
Have you felt it?", an echo of the Emperor's words in The Empire Strikes Back: "There is
a great disturbance in the Force" and Darth Vader's response "I have felt it."
And Kylo's words to Snoke that "By the grace of your training, I will not be seduced",
the implication being "to the light side", are a call-back with a twist to Obi-Wan's
explanation to Luke in A New Hope and again in Return of the Jedi that his father Anakin
Skywalker "was seduced by the dark side of the Force".
And Snoke's words to Kylo that "The droid we seek is aboard the Millennium Falcon" is
an echo of Obi Wan's words "These aren't the droids you're looking for" in A New Hope.
The deformed mask Kylo talks to is Darth Vader's mask from the funeral pyre Luke built for
his father on Endor at the end of Return of the Jedi.
When Han Solo tells Leia, 'there's too much Vader in him' about Kylo, it's a call-back
to A New Hope when Luke's Aunt says to Owen that Luke "has too much of his father in him".
Leia's reply to Han that "there's still light in him" echoes Luke's words about Darth Vader
that "there's still good in him."
And the connection between Darth Vader and Kylo Ren is further emphasised when Han tells
Finn and Rey that Luke was training a new Jedi generation and one boy, an apprentice,
turned against him and destroyed it all, which echoes what happened when Anakin turned against
the Jedi Order in Revenge of the Sith.
Kylo Ren's real name, Ben Solo, might be a nod to Obi Wan Kenobi's alias of "Ben Kenobi"
that Obi Wan used after exiling himself to Tatooine.
By the way the character of Ben Solo seems to also draw inspiration from the character
of Jacen Solo who is Han and Leia's son in The Legacy of the Force book series and who,
like Kylo, turned to the dark side to become Darth Caedus.
We didn't get any exact Vader-esque Force Chokes, but Kylo did something similar when
he pulled an officer towards him through the air and started choking him directly with
his gloved hand.
And on board the Star Destroyer, a mouse-droid scoots by while Poe Dameron's being marched
along as a prisoner, which is a nice call-back to when Chewbacca yells at a mouse-droid in
A New Hope while he's being escorted as a prisoner by Han and Luke dressed as stormtroopers.
There are some great moments with C-3PO such as when he pops up suddenly just after Han
and Leia reunite for the first time, which is a sweet call-back to when C-3PO interrupts
Han and Leia's kiss in The Empire Strikes Back.
And After R2-D2 reactivates and starts talking to C-3PO, the protocol droid exclaims "how
dare you call me that!"
a fun call-back to the numerous insults they've traded and arguments they've had all over
the series.
C-3PO gets to deliver one of his favourite phrases "we're doomed!"
when Starkiller Base starts to prepare its weapon to fire on the Resistance base.
And when C-3PO exclaims "Thank the maker" when the shields come down on Starkiller Base,
it's a nice call-back to the same phrase in A New Hope when C-3PO takes an oil bath.
The name Starkiller is a reference to "Luke Starkiller", which was the name for Luke Skywalker
in early drafts of the first Star Wars movie.
And on Starkiller Base, there's a great line when Han Solo asks what they should do with
the captured Captain Phasma, and he wonders if there's a garbage chute or trash compactor.
It's a lovely reference to the scene in a New Hope where Han, Leia, Luke and Chewbacca
escape down a chute only to end up in a Garbage Compactor.
By the way, Captain Phasma's name was inspired by the 1979 horror film, Phantasm, in which
the villain attacks his victims with a silver sphere.
Hangar 718 where the First Order searches for the escaped Rey could be a nod to the
AT-AT walker Unit 718-A which appears in the Star Wars short story Easy Credits.
And the charges Han and Chewie set up to disable the shield in Starkiller Base are a call-back
to when they both used explosive charges to destroy the shield generator on Endor in Return
of the Jedi.
And the shiny round design of the explosives they use is reminiscent of the silver sphere
in the 70s movie Phantasm, which JJ Abrams' company Bad Robot is restoring.
The X-Wing attack on Starkiller which first begins along a trench and then dives into
the core of the superweapon is a nod to the way the Rebel fighters destroyed the Death
Stars in both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
The name of X-Wing fighter "Ello Asty", who dies during the attack, is a reference to
the Beastie Boys album "Hello Nasty".
In Rey and Kylo's final face-off when she uses the Force to pull the lightsaber that's
wedged in the snow, it's a call-back to how Luke summons the lightsaber that's stuck in
the snow while he's trapped in the Wampa's cave on Hoth.
And Kylo's words "You need a teacher, I can show you the ways of the Force" to Rey during
the duel echoes The Empire Strikes Back when Vader tells Luke to join him and he will complete
Luke's training.
And when Rey injures Kylo on the shoulder, it's a call-back to Luke wounding Darth Vader
in their lightsaber battle at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
And there's some Star Wars limb loss when the Rathtar which is dragging Finn off loses
2 of its tentacles when Rey closes one of the blast doors on the creature.
Later in the final battle between Rey and Kylo Ren it almost looks like she slices his
arm or hand off but if you look closely when Kylo sits up you can see his arm and hand
still attached and moving.
And, of course, C-3PO refers to the fact that he previously lost his arm and had it replaced
with a red one.
Also, in the novelisation of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster there's a scene where
Unkar Plutt has tracked down Rey to Maz Kanata's cantina.
In the ensuing confrontation Chewbacca rips off one of Unkar Plutt's arm.
JJ Abrams has confirmed there's around a dozen deleted scenes so I wonder if that will be
among them?
Another Star Wars regular, the scum insult returns when Rey tries to mind-trick the stormtrooper
guarding her and he responds, "I'll tighten those restraints, scavenger scum".
The "scum" insult's appeared in most of the movies, for example, "Freeze!
You rebel scum" in Return of the Jedi.
By the way, Bond himself, Daniel Craig actually cameoed as the Stormtrooper who's mind-tricked
by Rey.
And there's tons of other cameos in the movie.
Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd makes an appearance as Lieutenant Connix, and her
character also sports some Princess Leia-esque buns in her hair.
Thomas Brodie-Sangster, aka Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones or Newt from The Maze Runner
movies, cameos as a First Order officer who reports an unsanctioned departure from Bay
2 as Finn and Poe Dameron try to escape.
Michael Giacchino, who composed the music for many of JJ Abram's productions, cameos
as Stormtrooper FN-3181.
And his Stormtrooper number 3181 could be rearranged as 1138, a hidden nod to George
Lucas' 1971 film THX 1138.
Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich is also credited as Stormtrooper FN-9330.
Simon Pegg plays junk-yard trader Unkar Plutt.
While Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, plays the role
of Wollivan, and appears in Maz Kanata's bar.
And comedian Judah Friedlander, who plays Frank in 30 Rock, is another of the bar patrons.
Miltos Yerolemou, aka Syrio Forel in Game of Thrones, is another bar patron who you
can see just to the right of Han Solo outside the bar as they all look up at the sky at
the destruction caused by the Starkiller superweapon.
JJ Abrams' assistant Morgan Dameron is humorously credited in the movie as Commodore Meta, with
Meta probably being a little joke about the fact that Poe Dameron's surname was inspired
by her.
Abrams also cast his father Gerry Abrams as Captain Cypress.
Gerry Abrams is a TV producer and founder of the production company Cypress Point Productions.
JJ Abrams also cast his lucky charm regular and former Lost actor Greg Grunberg as X-Wing
pilot Snap Wexley.
Lost actor Ken Leung also appears in The Force Awakens as Resistance Admiral Statura.
And it wouldn't be a JJ Abrams' film without at least one of his signature lens flares.
More cameos include Game of Thrones Sand Snake, actor Jessica Henwick who plays an X-wing
fighter.
Mark Stanley, aka Grenn from Game of Thrones, appears briefly in Rey's vision as one of
the Knights of Ren.
And The Raid's Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian appear as members of the Kanjiclub Gang who
are after Han Solo who owes them money.
Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb also return from the original trilogy with cameos.
And comedians Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz both contributed to the voice of BB-8.
The name of Resistance commander Colonel Kaplan is a nod to Michael Kaplan, the movie's costume
designer.
And the final words spoken in the movie are "May The Force Be With You", which Leia says
to Rey before she leaves to find Luke.
It's also the final phrase in The Empire Strikes Back and is said by Luke to Lando and Chewbacca
who are leaving to rescue Han Solo from Jabba The Hutt.
Ok, guys, what other references and easter eggs did you spot in Star Wars: The Force
Awakens?
And what would you like to see happen in Star Wars: Episode 8?
I can't wait to read your comments below!
If you want to check out more of my Force Awakens videos, I've got links to my playlist
here, including 15 Things You Didn't Know About The Force Awakens and my review of the
movie.
And, as always, do please like, leave your comments and share this video, and hit that
subscribe button for more videos like this!
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!