Speeder bike

A speeder bike from Return of the Jedi on display at Star Wars Launch Bay at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Speeder bikes, also known as "jumpspeeders" or "hover bikes", and swoop bikes (or just "swoops") are small, fast transports that use repulsorlift engines in the fictional Star Wars universe. Return of the Jedi includes a prominent speeder bike chase; speeders and swoops also appear in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars, and the Star Wars expanded universe's books, comics, and games.

Origin and design

Various concept sketches came from producer George Lucas' call for a "rocket-powered scooter" in Return of the Jedi.[1] While Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Nilo Rodis-Jamero designed a blocky vehicle with a large engine, Ralph McQuarrie's designs were more fanciful but with less of a sense of the vehicle's power source.[1] The final designs resulted in full-scale Imperial speeder bikes used by the actors for film against a bluescreen, along with miniatures mounted by articulated puppets.[1] ILM used a steadicam recording at 1 frame per second to record the speeder bikes' path through the forest moon of Endor—in reality, a California forest.[2] Playing the footage at the standard rate of 24 frames per second caused a blurring effect, which ILM used to simulate the vehicles' high speed; what was shot at 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) looked like 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).[2]

The BARC speeder in Revenge of the Sith was designed to appear like a predecessor to the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi.[3] ILM's Doug Chiang designed Darth Maul's (Ray Park) speeder in The Phantom Menace to resemble a scythe, and Chiang's initial designs for the droid army's STAP vehicle resembled the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi.[4][5] An all-CGI swoop appearing in A New Hope stems from a design created for Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, and the swoop also appears briefly in The Phantom Menace.[6]

Depiction

Return of the Jedi features a speeder bike chase in which Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) pilot a pair of Imperial speeders to chase down scout troopers who might reveal the Rebel Alliance's presence on Endor. Darth Maul uses his speeder to chase down Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) in The Phantom Menace. A pair of speeder-mounted clone troopers shoot down a speeder-riding Stass Allie when Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) initiates Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith. Film and Expanded Universe depictions of speeder bikes and swoops consistently portray the vehicles as fast and maneuverable: Expanded Universe material describes the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi as being able to travel 500 kilometres per hour (310 mph).[7][8] Speeders and swoops achieve high speed and maneuverability, however, at the expense of size and protection for their riders.[7] "Swoop racing" is described in the Expanded Universe texts and portrayed in LucasArts games as a dangerous, fast-paced competition between skilled pilots.[9][10]

Merchandise

Since their inception, speeder bikes have been included in several Star Wars product lines, including Lego models and Hasbro miniatures.[11][12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Imperial speeder bike (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  2. 1 2 Burns, Kevin and Edith Becker (2004). Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (Documentary).
  3. ↑ "BARC speeder (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  4. ↑ "Sith speeder (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  5. ↑ "STAP (Single Trooper Aerial Platform) (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  6. ↑ "Flare-S swoop (Behind the Scenes)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  7. 1 2 Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Second Edition, Expanded & Revised ed.). West End Games. 1996. ISBN 0-87431-435-6.
  8. ↑ "Imperial speeder bike (The Movies)". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  9. ↑ "Star Wars Sporting Events". Star Wars Kids. Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  10. ↑ BioWare. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Personal computer. LucasArts.
  11. ↑ Bartholomew, Peter. "Review: 75090 Ezra's Speeder Bike". Brickset.com. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  12. ↑ Bartholomew, Peter. "Bandai: Star Wars Speeder Bike w/ Biker Scout 1:12 Model Kit Review". The Fwoosh. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
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