Here we see some exciting space action as the Naboo craft fights through the Trade Federation blockade.
Script copyright George Lucas
Excerpted from this site:
http://www.supershadow.com/star_wars/episode_1/the_phantom_menace/script.html
EXT. SPACE (FX)
The sleek spacecraft speeds away from the planet of Naboo
and heads for the deadly Federation blockade.
INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - COCKPIT
The PILOT, RIC OLIE, navigates toward the massive battleship,
QUI-GON and Capt. Panaka watch.
RIC OLIE
...our communications are still
jammed.
INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - DROID HOLD
JAR JAR is led into a low, cramped doorway by OBI-WAN.
OBI-WAN
Now stay here, and keep out of
trouble.
OBI-WAN closes the door. JAR JAR looks around and sees a
long row of five short, dome-topped ASTRO DROIDS (R-2 units).
The all look alike, except for thier paint color, and they
all seem to be shut down.
JAR JAR
Ello, boyos.
(no response)
Disa wanna longo trip...hey?
JAR JAR taps a bright red R-2 UNIT on the head, and its head
pops up a bit. He lets out a gasp as he lifts the head.
JAR JAR
Tis opens?...Oooops!
Many springs and things come flying out.
JAR JAR quickly closes it again, very embarrassed.
JAR JAR
Yoi! Just yoken!
EXT. SPACE BATTLE
The Naboo Spacecraft, surrounded by explosions, head even
closer to the massive Federation battle ships.
INT.NABOO SPACECRAFT - COCKPIT
RIC OLIE
There's the blockade, hang on.
Alarm sounds fill the Cockpit as Obi-Wan enters.
RIC OLIE
The shield generator's been hit. Our
deflector shields can't withstand
this. Power down... Hopefully the
repair droids can fix it.
INT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - DROID HOLD
The lights go on, and all the Droids are activated. Droids
rush to an exterior air lock, except for the red one, who
runs into a wall. JAR JAR holds on for dear life.
One Little blue Astro Droid, who is especially dedicated,
lets out a loud screech as he passes JAR JAR, causing the
Gungan to jump.
The little Droid enters an air lock and is ejected onto the
exterior of the ship.
CAPT. PANAKA
Stay on course!
QUI-GON
Do you have a cloaking device?
CAPT. PANAKA
No, this is not a warship, we have
no weapons. We're a non- violent
people, that is why the Federation
was brave enough to attack us.
RIC OLIE
We won't make it. The shields are
gone.
EXT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - FEDERATION BATTLESHIP
The Droids pop onto the exterior of the Naboo Spacecraft;
the ship races across the surface of the massive Federation
Battleship, as its guns blast two Astro Droids to pieces.
OBI-WAN
We're losing droids fast.
CAPT. PANAKA
If they can't get those shield
generators fixed we will be sitting
ducks.
RIC OLIE
The shields are gone.
EXT. NABOO SPACECRAFT - ENGINES
The Federation Battleship blows away one more Atro Droid.
The blue Droid connects some wires, causing sparks to fly.
RIC OLIE
Powers back! That little droid did
it. He bypassed the main power drive.
Deflector shield up, at maximum.
The lone BLUE DROID finishes his repairs and goes back into
the ship. The Naboo spacecraft races away from the Federation
battleship.
RIC OLIE
There's not enough power to get us
to Coruscant...the hyperdrive is
leaking.
QUI-GON
We'll have to land somewhere to refuel
and repair the ship.
QUI-GON studies a star chart on a monitor.
OBI-WAN
Here, Master. Tatooine... It's small,
out of the way, poor... The Trade
Federation has no presence there.
CAPT. PANAKA
How can you be sure?
QUI-GON
It's controlled by the Hutts...
CAPT. PANAKA
The Hutts??
OBI-WAN
It's risky... but there's no
alternative.
CAPT. PANAKA
You can't take Her Royal Highness
there! The Hutts are gangsters... If
they discovered her...
QUI-GON
...It would be no different than if
we landed on a system controlled by
the Federation... except the Hutts
aren't looking for her, which gives
us an advantage.
CPATAIN PANAKA takes a deep breath in frustration.
EXT. SPACE - NABOO SPACECRAFT (FX)
The Naboo spacecraft races away.
INT. FEDERATION BATTLESHIP - CONFERENCE ROOM
NUTE and RUNE sit around a conference table with a hologram
of DARTH SIDIOUS.
NUTE
We control all the cities in the
North and are searching for any other
settlements...
DARTH SIDIOUS
Destroy all high-ranking officials,
Viceroy... slowly... quietly. And
Queen Amidala, has she signed the
treaty?
NUTE
She has disappeared, My Lord. One
Naboo cruiser got pat the blockade.
DARTH SIDIOUS
Viceroy, find her! I want that treaty
signed.
NUTE
My Lord, it's impossible to locate
the ship. It's out of our range.
DARTH SIDIOUS
...not for a Sith...
A second SITH LORD appears behind DARTH SIDIOUS.
DARTH SIDIOUS
...Viceroy, this is my apprentice.
Lord Maul. He will find your lost
ship.
NUTE
Yes, My Lord.
The hologram fades off.
NUTE
This is getting out of hand...now
there are two of them.
RUNE
We should not have made this bargain.
What will happen when the Jedi become
aware of these Sith Lords?
Huh. I actually vaguely remember the R2 units going out in to space and getting all blowed up and thinking this was a really bad idea. Glad they gave them their own seats by Ep 4. But I don't actually recall this first appearance of Darth Maul. Which is strange, since (as you said for the last scene) he's one of the bright points of this movie.
ReplyDeleteThis READS pretty well! I don't think I have any major new objections. But I'm digging for our copies of the movie as I type this.
I don't have much problem with these two little scenes. I do object to the "blue R2" unit being R2D2, but at this point we don't know that.
ReplyDeleteI like how the Traders are surprised by the second Sith, and begin to realize they've made a bad deal. Of course, in episode III these guys are still around and chilling with the Sith, so I'm not sure what their deal really is. Would've been more interesting if they had been conveniently destroyed by Palpatine at some point in a later movie.
I got distracted by dinner and didn't find the movie. Now, are you objecting to having R2 being the unifying theme in the movies? How would you handle this? We've agreed that we'd rather have comedy through the droids than through Jar Jar. Would you do it with different droids?
ReplyDeleteI'm actually perfectly fine with it being R2 and 3PO, so long as we aren't forced to swallow the bullshit that NOBODY is aware of the fact that these two droids have been in on this shit from the beginning.
I think that the Traders need to be more evil or less evil. And yes, a little comeuppance would have been nice.
I have objected from the beginning of 1996 or whenever over the fact that the droids would unify the movies. I don't think you need to artificially unify the movies when you have freaking Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi and the Emperor and Yoda. It's united.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the comedy necessarily has to come from the droids. It could come from a toned-down Jar Jar, whatever. I'd be okay with that.
Now, I'm okay with the droids getting their memories wiped in the end of III, but I seem to recall that only 3PO gets wiped. That's dumb, because R2 can communicate with 3PO and I feel his whole connection with all these people would have come up in IV-VI if he actually remembered it. And as you say, it makes no sense that no one remembers them. It's STUPID. And it's cute. Different droids could work, though, in which case it might even be okay for one of them to be capable of flight.
I love the idea of the Traders being *less* evil. They could have been totally manipulated by the Emperor, AND have valid reasons for their blockade of Naboo. They could have sympathetic characters. You could have had complex emotions when the Palpatine conveniently kills them off (in our new version) at the end of Phantom Menace, rather than just being bored when you see them sitting around the table in III with all the other Separatists.
And back on topic: Cut that little Jar Jar and the droids scene. Feels more like Airplane than Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteYep, ok. I agree all around. I feel like Vader and Obi-wan is plenty of unifying, all leading up to "Darth Vader killed your father... kind of".
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, unless we're going to re-re-release 4-6, you can't have these same droids be there. Different droids would work. We could even establish that astromechs and protocol droids work together, for whatever bullshit reason. Or, hell, have the humanoid one NOT be a protocol droid. And you know, it makes SENSE for astromechs to be able to fly. But R2D2 cannot, quite clearly. So let's expand on why R2D1 CAN. Instead of giving Jar Jar another chance to piss me off.
I'm all for having grey-shaded Traders. Make it so.
excellent commentary guys. No droid connection, it is stupid with no one remembering that in 4 ESPECIALLY OBIWAN!!!!
ReplyDeleteMaul's introduction is somewhat lame. AS I said earlier, his role needs to be 5 times as large. This is one more chance to have him eat a live kitten or something to establish villainhood.
I do have one more major bitch - continuing from the last scene - Hollywood escapes suck. They ask me to believe that some lame ass civilian ship is going to head straight at a gigantic warship, take all kinds of shots, and then escape? and how about "bypassed the main power drive"? What?, they have bypassed the main power drive and they can still outrun the federation? Really? If we are supposed to swallow this, can we have some background dialogue to make this plausible?
(as they escape previous scene)
- This is a bad ass ship, we are hauling ass, what have you got in this thing?
- Well, we had this ole' 454 out in the barn and Uncle billy stuck it in here with a blower and it makes about 700 hp when you hit it with the nitrous. Uncle Billy always has a back up plan too, He was an old smuggler and believed in a back up plan, so he's got a Ferrari V12 that he can switch too if there's any problems with the first engine. Uncle Billy didn't have all the Ferrari parts he needed, so he used a few Yugo parts. It should get us by in pinch if we need it, but we can't cross the galaxy on it.
There you go - 30 seconds and we have plausibility.
Well that's brilliant. Although Lucas would change "Uncle Billy" to "Uncle Owen" and then make up some story about how Uncle Owen moved to Tatooine later on to smuggle for the Hutts, only to settle down and get married to a slave named Shmi Skywalker.
ReplyDeleteActually, maybe that's not so bad, to have the Jedi and/or Naboo have a previous connection to Owen or Shmi or some ancestor thereof. That could play well both in the abduction of Anakin from his mom (my new pet re-write, as of just now) and/or the hiding of baby Luke.
Although really the whole hiding of baby Luke with his dad's step brother has got to be one of the stupidest things a Jedi has ever done. "Oh, they'll never look inside his own family!"
I like it - some reason for Uncle Owen- better if he is not a real Uncle.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to ignore the baby Luke - must focus on Episode I.