8. R2-D2 Was Inspired By The Hidden Fortress And Silent Running
George Lucas has admitted to being inspired by two films while thinking up R2-D2, the first being Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1958 feature film The Hidden Fortress. This Jidaigeki (which literally translates as period piece) is set during the Edo-period of Japan's history and follows the trials and tribulations of Tahei and Matashichi, two comically hapless peasants who get themselves caught up in a conflict much bigger than themselves. The duo's relationship is very much reminiscent of R2-D2 and C-3PO, from their endless bickering to how they split up, only to be forced back together again. Of course, they were still human. The inspiration for R2's robotic appearance came from Douglas Trumbull's 1972 post-apocalyptic sci-fi Silent Running. This environmentally themed movie takes place on an American Airlines space freighter full of plant life that can no longer grow on Earth. A young Bruce Dern is the man left in charge of the all-important foliage, though when orders come from Earth to destroy the cargo and return the freighter to commercial service, Dern and his three drones Huey, Dewey and Louie take their floating garden and high-tail it into space. The influence of these so-called drones on Star Wars is obvious, from their comic relief to their ability to portray human emotion - when one is injured in a buggy accident, the others refuse to leave his side. The similarities are so apparent that Universal Pictures used them in a counter-suit when 20th Century Fox were claiming that Battlestar Galactica plagiarised Star Wars.
