8 Things Everybody Missed In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

7. The Obscure Cantina Alien Reference After The First Scene

It would have been incredibly tempting (and easy) for The Force Awakens to have doubled-down on overt fan service and referenced just about every single element of the Star Wars universe: Han bursting into a room and shooting a bunch of bad guys as they fumbled for their blasters before gruffly proclaiming "I always shoot first"; Maz Kanata trying to explain the Force with midi-chlorians and giving up because it was needlessly complicated; Finn revealing there's no target practice in the First Order. But thankfully, even if some people found the recurring story elements a bit too much (although as George Lucas said, the movies are "like poetry, they rhyme"), for the most part the little nods to the old films were pitched just right, never pulling you out of the action. In fact, some were so subtle you may not have even realised they were there. The one that seems to have passed most people by is the little alien who pops up out of the sand when BB-8's rolling away from the First Order at the start of the movie. It could be assumed to to be a reference to the creatures outside of Jabba's Palace at sunset or a general show of the film's practical effects, but is in fact a nod to Hem Dazon, the grey-alien-esque creature who's the first monster to appear in the Mos Eisley Cantina; along with the similar shaped head, the pop-up and head tilt are exactly the same. Given that Dazon was played by makeup legend Rick Baker, it's likely doubling as a little tribute to him too.