10 Unbelievable Origins Of Iconic Star Wars Sound Effects
2. Death Star Controls - Flash Gordon Effects
The Sound Effect: The Death Star is a sound designer's dream. A completely man-made structure with vast caverns, small prison cells, murky trash compactors and one bloody big gun. Some of the most memorable sounds from Star Wars come from inside this small-moon-sized weapon; just the mention of Obi-Wan shutting down the tractor beam will set that m-doooooo sound off in any Star Wars fans head. One of the most interesting areas is the planet-destroying super-laser; not just the big explosion, the film shows a full technical run down of the station gearing up the weapon. Sure, there's no real logic to how it works (at the time of writing George Lucas hasnt developed a world-levelling weapon), but boy what show. The Crazy Origin: Weve already looked at the base sound of the big gun itself (hammer meets wire on holiday), but theres plenty of stuff going on before its fired; there's buttons being pressed, switches pulled and light blasting past. And here Burtt pulls his best sound-tribute (that isnt the Wilhelm scream). Everyone knows Star Wars was Lucas homage to the Flash Gordon serials of the thirties, with the opening crawl directly lifted from them. Burtts little nod was a little more subtle; all the sounds of the consoles and levels that control the super-weapon are from those serials.
