Overanalyzing Star Wars: A New Hope Part 5 

You killed me with Vader saying "what the f*ck just happened" after the Death Star exploded lmao

It amazes me that after nearly fifty years of watching this movie I still see new things. I have never noticed the three white ballpoint pens on Lukes upper arm. 2:34 The x-wing pilot uniform is so cool. Also, regarding the scene of the rebels getting ready without any dialogue or music, I always loved that moment. It felt so real, like a documentary.

0:35 A lore reason I can give would be how long it takes for the Death Star to recharge after firing. In Rogue One and ANH, we only see it shot once per event. Jedha, Scarif, Alderaan, and Yavin 4 were not next to each other, and there was a lot of time between each firing. If the Empire destroyed Yavin first before the moon the Rebels were on, there likely would been time for the Death Star to recharge and give the Rebels time to destroy the station. Now, before you comment on the second Death Star rapidly destroying Rebel cruisors in ROTJ, remember that it was a new station with a few changes and cruisors weren't a big as planets and wouldn't need as much power.

I like bigs scene. In the original cut we dont see luke meet him but we see lukes reaction to his death, so adding this scene give it more emotion.

0:07 - Holy shit, I'm just now noticing that, too!

Interesting point about the countdown timer - it probably is relatively accurate. As you said, we are told the Death Star will be in range within 30 minutes. But we don’t see the Rebels fly from Yavin-4 to the Death Star because that would be long, tedious and pointless. We cut to when they’re arriving at the Death Star. So we can just assume that it was a several-minute flight and that, prior to the journey-skip, we were following events in real-time and then post-journey-skip we are back in real-timr again.

Wow I loved this overanalyzed series! Great work. A New Hope will always be my favorite SW movie cause besides of having great characters, story and effects its not afraid of being kinda campy. Thats why I also love The Mandalorian. Star Wars is great when its pholosophical or serious but its also great when its kinda silly. Note: When I watched this movie with a friend when we were 16, we recognized Vader screwing his TIE Fighter controls. Kinda cracked us up everytime cause it looked like he just took a sip of water before the edit xD

I'm thoroughly enjoying these videos. Thanks!!!

When the crew came out of the trash compactor, Mark Hamill insisted his hair be wet for continuity. Harrison Ford famously commented, "it's not that kind of movie. If they're looking at your hair we're all in trouble." Similarly, erratic countdowns are just an accepted part of film-making because editors weren't running online programs; they were physically cutting film and track. It was much harder and more time consuming. Take a stopwatch to ALIEN's ten minute self-destruct countdown. In both cases the dramatic tension was so high, no one in the audience noticed or cared. Stories are life with all the boring bits cut out.

Can’t wait for Empire strikes back!

Luke’s poncho is now the biggest plot hole in Star Wars. Screw Palpatine returning.

These are great :)

Not shooting Yavin isn't a plot hole. Shooting it at a gas planet would likely not have the same results, and the Death Star is so close that if it does destroy the planet they would be within the wreckage. As far as getting around the planet, Hyperspace lanes are still a thing. You still have to fly around the planet, which is something we see when the Falcon arrives at the Yavin system. Luke has had the poncho since being on Tatooine, a case of under-analyzing instead of overanalyzing. Logic is still important in a movie to keep it grounded. If it isn't grounded, it is harder to have stakes. Look at the Sequel Trilogy. Luke flying an X-Wing is not a Mary Sue moment, unlike Rey. Luke flew a T-16 Skyhopper, which is a training vehicle for the X-Wing (check the novelization for ANH), his father was "The best starpilot in the galaxy" so there's a bit of that which is passed down, exceptionally strong in the Force, and Beggars Canyon is a great way to practice the tight flying required for the trench run. "What good is a reward if you ain't around to use it?" This isn't selfish. Han is just being pragmatic. The pilots getting into their starfighters work, and it should not be removed. Not only do we see a lot of the preparation of the ships which is great world-building, it is the calm before the storm. They are silent *because* they know they are going on a suicide mission. This is a show don't tell situation. If they evacuate Yavin 4 they are abandoning ground support for their pilots. That kind of a moral hit could ruin the mission. The Death Star is quite a bit larger and has to take a longer route because of it. You don't want to lose your space station due to it being sucked into the gravitation field of the planet. X-Wings have an ejection pod where it launches the whole cockpit into space. Some flight suits are built for ejection as well. Check out the X-Wing novels. Movie time does not have to equal real life time, even with a countdown. It is possible the women and children were evacuated from Yavin 4 prior to the attack.

You wondered about how the scene of the rebel pilots approaching the DS looked and what it was comparable to for the OG viewers in 1977. I’m 61 y.o. and was there. There was nothing comparable.

I remember having this book when I was a kid that said the first Death Star took 24 hours to recharge, while the second Death Star only took a few minutes. That said, this is never established in the movie(s), so I think it's still a valid criticism.

You touched on Leia having Han’s medal in a deleted TROS scene and said we can assume she gives Maz the medal to give to Chewie. In the movie, we see she actually dies holding Han’s medal. So we can assume Maz looted her corpse and gave Chewie the medal as a flirting tactic. Obviously I’m kidding. I assume Maz knew Leia would want Chewie to have the medal.

can’t wait for Empire strikes back overanalysed!

It's been established decades ago that the first Death Star could only fire once every day, whilst the second one at Endor could fire several times. Not only that, but the first Death Star could only target planet sized objects, whilst the second one's targeting system had been improved so it could target capital ships. That's what made it "more powerful" and more of a threat. Also, it's been long established that Luke could instantly fly the X-Wing because its controls were the same as a Skyhopper, due to them being made by the same company.

1) Luke's wearing the same poncho he left Tatooine with - he sheds it at some point before all their Death Star shenanigans, obviously leaving it on the Falcon, then Leia finds it and uses it like a blanket to cover him when he's grieving Obi-Wan, and now he's wearing it again. Actually not a continuity error, lol. 2) IMO blowing up a gas giant would've been a terrible idea because that would've been too close proximity to the Death Star, and that's the space equivalent of blowing up a gas station - you're combusting a huge planet consisting entirely of likely very flammable or reactive gases. I always assumed Tarkin was smart enough to realize that and going around Yavin was a necessity. One could argue instead that it was stupid of them to pop out of hyperspace in an area where they had to clear Yavin to reach the 4th moon, but that can also be explained as just the luck of the draw in terms of where you exit hyperspace; they may not have control over that and it just so happened that's where they emerged and had to hoof it around Yavin. If they DID want to blow up the gas giant to destroy the moon by proxy, and their hyperspace exit point wasn't safely far enough away, they were still going to waste a lot of time retreating to a safer distance in the solar system via sublight speed. Thus they probably calculated this compromise to be the most efficient use of their time and resources. 3) I think the way funnier and more underrated aspect of Luke's "bullseyeing womp rats" line is the fact that TATOOINE HAS 2-METER LONG RATS. JUST. THINK ABOUT THAT. RATS ALMOST AS BIG AS DARTH VADER IS TALL. And he's so blasé about it. Tatooine is Space Australia and Luke grew up sniping Space Rodents of Unusual Size. Luke Skywalker is my favorite space redneck of all time. Honestly, that's why I can buy him being the savior of the Rebellion lmao.

Caring about the countdown vs real life time is crazy

this has been an awesome series!! Can't wait for the empire strikes back!!

Oh yes!! 🎉 Finally

The real kicker is the fact that the Deathstar didn't even need to wait for the rebel base to come into view. Can't it blow up the entire planet?

One thing you didn't mention that I would have: When Han saves Luke at the end, we see Vader shoot lasers before his wingman gets blown up, and that was after Vader had locked on to Luke ("I have you now"). What happened to those laser bolts? Did they just miss somehow? Even back when I was a kid I thought that was weird

Luke had the poncho when he and Ben Kenobi sold the speeder. I used to think Luke sold the speeder for the poncho.

I didn't realise Biggs being formally introduced in the Special Edition. I always thought it was weird that he just kinda showed up

I also think Han wasn't just taking his reward out of self greed. He was taking it to pay his debt to Jabba. Is it really selfish to fulfill a debt someone is drowning in?

The Targeting computer is counting down distance

When the Death Star was finally in range to fire on rebel base. What were those things on screen. They looked like sharp objects or knives pointing at the rebel base moon

9:22 I didn’t think it was a timer but a “distance from target” counter

4:40 - It's to create the illusion that the hangar set is bigger than it really is. Otherwise people might over analyze the film and realize most ships were flat boards.

cant wait for the next movies 🫡

Luke had the poncho on in the Tatooine docking bay before they took off..."What a piece of junk!"

Finally😍

Leia is all the Woman I need, I wouldn't have noticed others anyway. But I am not obsessed with Gender and Race. It was a great movie

0:35 Yavin is a gas planet. Now I'm not a physicist or anything, but I would assume shooting a laser beam into a gas planet wouldn't do very much, unless you hit the tiny core. Come to think of it, wouldn't the laser just pass through it? In that case, they could have blasted Yavin IV right then and there when they arrive. Just aim the laser slightely to the side of the small core and shoot right through the gas cloud. There is your plot hole ^^

I’m making a video like this but for the first spider man

Dear professor Goldman, your issue with Luke's ability to fly an X-Wing is frankly dumb. Luke mentions bulls eyeing wamp rats in his T-16 and you can clearly see Luke's T-16 in the Background as well as a model Luke plays with in the Homestead. Since you are clearly able to use Wookiepedia to search for the casualties of the Deathstar you should also know that the T-16 and the T-65 X-Wing were both produced by Incom corporation and had a similar control layout; so it would have been similar to switching from a Honda Accord to a Honda Civic, yeah it would be a little weird at first but you would adapt.

Nitpicking the time is silly. Do you think the whole adventure occurred from start to finish in 2h15m?

Can you really “blow up” a gas giant, though?

Turn up movie volume next time, hard to hear with the loud contrast between the movie and ur mic

On the death star, there is a read haired guy standing to the left at 10:12 , who is that? It looks a bit like Donald Trump :-)

Hey Goldman, How are you doing? Are there any plans for another QnA video?

Luke Skywalker is a mass murderer

Star Wars doesn’t need many women. They look out of place. Kathleen should realise this

These videos are a total joy to watch. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I really do find myself looking forward to every new upload! Keep up the great work