Homer Simpson was a clone trooper?
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00:00 In this day and age, moviegoers have never been more on the ball when it comes to picking up hidden messages,
00:05 secrets, or other references squirreled away in their favourite films.
00:09 With the ability to pause, rewind, and zoom in on scenes,
00:12 movie detectives have all the tools required to uncover even the most subtle of hidden gags.
00:18 With that in mind then, although the amount of hidden Star Wars secrets is too long to count at this point,
00:24 these are the ones that took a surprisingly long time to be unearthed.
00:28 I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and this is Star Wars' 9 Obscure Movie Secrets That Took Years To Discover.
00:35 Number 9 - Confirming E.T.'s Link to the Star Wars Galaxy
00:39 For many years, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have hidden references to one another's movies in their own films.
00:45 Indiana Jones is famed for its many nods to Star Wars,
00:49 but when Spielberg released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, fans of Star Wars became ecstatic
00:54 with the implications of one particular scene.
00:57 See, in a moment that saw E.T. seemingly recognising Yoda, actually just a kid dressed up,
01:03 E.T. exclaims the word "home".
01:05 So, did this mean that E.T. was from the Star Wars Galaxy, or was it just a bit of fun?
01:11 Well, in 1999, Lucas continued to fan the theory's flames.
01:15 During the Senate scene in The Phantom Menace, he actually included a group of aliens that looked a little bit familiar.
01:23 Now, in Legends, the alien senator that appeared in Coruscant was given the name "Gribleeps",
01:28 which, if you spell out, is actually Spielberg spelled backwards.
01:32 Again, this could just be another inside joke between two of cinema's greats,
01:37 but the premise was expanded further when Holonet News was launched before the release of The Attack of the Clones.
01:43 The website included a number of in-universe articles and press releases about the goings-on in the galaxy.
01:49 Among them was a story that stated that the Azogians, E.T.'s species, had funded an expedition to go to another galaxy,
01:56 thus explaining how E.T. ended up on Earth, confirming the link between the two films.
02:01 Number 8 - What was the Millennium Falcon doing in the prequels?
02:05 The Millennium Falcon is the most iconic spaceship in all of cinema, no doubt.
02:09 The scuffed-up hunk of Corellian junk might not look like much,
02:13 but you better believe that it's one of the fastest ships in the galaxy,
02:16 and can even time travel if Han Solo's Kessel Run boast is to be believed.
02:21 Now, there were several nods to the Falcon during the prequels that were so brief
02:24 it would take several rewatches to catch them, and eagle-eyed viewers to pick up on.
02:29 Firstly, during The Attack of the Clones, two Corellian fighters of the same make as the Falcon
02:34 can be spotted at the space port of Naboo when Anakin arrives with Padme.
02:38 Now, neither of these were the actual Falcon, it's just that the freighter model was fairly common at the time.
02:43 However, another appearance of the freighter in Revenge of the Sith can be spotted as well,
02:48 gliding into a space port on Coruscant, and this time it was confirmed to be the ship that Solo would one day obtain.
02:56 So, what was it doing at this time, you ask?
02:58 Well, in the expanded universe, it was revealed that during the Clone Wars,
03:02 the ship was called the Stellar Envoy.
03:04 It was used by the Republic Group, a covert organisation working against Palpatine,
03:09 disguised as a holding company.
03:11 Number 7 - R2-D2 being a badass
03:15 R2-D2 is surely the most popular droid in all of history, sorry 3PO.
03:20 And that's more impressive because we never understand what he's saying.
03:23 But the reaction that characters have to his series of bloops and bleeps
03:27 have made him notorious as a lovable sassbot.
03:30 We've seen him get our main protagonists out of a number of tough situations.
03:34 Hell, whenever there's a garbage chute that needs unlocking or a difficult flight manoeuvre to perform,
03:39 R2 is the one to save the day.
03:41 During the prequels though, the animators had a lot of fun
03:45 adding other character nuances to the R2 unit,
03:48 many of which went unnoticed for quite some time.
03:51 I mean, when you've got Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen going all samurai on a bunch of droids,
03:55 it's easy to not pay attention to the antics of a rather unassuming little robot.
04:00 But if you do pay close attention to R2 in Revenge of the Sith,
04:04 he is one feisty little trash can.
04:07 For instance, during the rescue of Palpatine, General Grievous escapes,
04:10 leaving Obi-Wan and Anakin to dish out some lightsaber justice on the remaining droids.
04:15 If you watch closely though, you can actually see R2-D2 lending a hand
04:19 by tripping up an unfortunate droid as he tries to flee.
04:23 Number 6 - Who was the bearded rebel on Endor?
04:26 This is something of a controversial and hotly debated topic in the Star Wars fandom,
04:31 and it relates to a much-loved character from the animated shows Clone Wars and Rebels.
04:36 Now this whole thing started when Return of the Jedi came out back in 1983.
04:41 And that's because included in Han Solo's strike team to disable the Death Star shield
04:45 was an older, gentleman rebel fighter with a very distinctive white beard.
04:50 Fans speculated over this character for a good while,
04:53 and in 2002 he was officially given the name Nick Sant.
04:57 But with the advent of Star Wars Rebels, which sees Captain Rex sporting a bushy white beard as well,
05:03 many began speculating that the characters were one and the same.
05:06 Even Rebels creator Dave Filoni believed that Rex and Nick Sant were likely to be connected.
05:11 I mean, why else would a seemingly old man be included in an elite strike team?
05:16 Hell, Filoni even toyed with the idea of making a canon.
05:20 So when it came to wrapping up Rebels in 2018, Filoni did indeed confirm that Rex fought on Endor,
05:26 but left the link between him and Sant more ambiguous.
05:29 Maybe it was Rex, or maybe great big bushy beards just became a new fashion statement in the galaxy.
05:35 Number 5 - How did the Millennium Falcon end up in Blade Runner?
05:39 Blade Runner changed the game when it came to special effects.
05:42 CGI was still in its infancy when Ridley Scott made his 1982 cinematic exploration of a dystopian future,
05:49 and therefore relied heavily on the use of practical effects.
05:52 The film is really one of the most sophisticated and creative examples of in-camera trickery ever,
05:58 combining matte paintings with live-action footage and highly detailed scale models.
06:03 With all of these tools, Scott was able to create an aesthetic
06:06 that became the gold standard for dystopian sci-fi.
06:10 The director also famously went over budget making this movie and was forced to skimp wherever possible.
06:16 The special effects department were forced to get highly creative then,
06:19 which often meant taking props and models from other movies and utilizing them to create a futuristic LA.
06:25 So as well as several other models from close encounters of the third kind,
06:29 the prop guys also raided the Star Wars set.
06:32 When Dangerous Days - Making Blade Runner came out in 2007,
06:36 it shed light on the fascinating process of movie making,
06:39 and it was revealed that a model of the Millennium Falcon wound up being altered
06:44 to resemble a futuristic building.
06:46 All they did was turn it front side up, add a bunch of extra antennas,
06:50 and then shoved it into the background of a shot.
06:53 Number 4 - Richard Armitage is in The Phantom Menace
06:56 More than 10 years after the release of The Phantom Menace,
06:59 Richard Armitage got his big break in the Hobbit trilogy,
07:02 starring as the Dwarf King Thorin Oakenshield.
07:05 It was around this time then that people started noticing a certain background extra
07:10 from the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
07:12 When The Phantom Menace was released in 1999,
07:15 no one would have thought to notice the nondescript Naboo fighter pilot in the background of a scene.
07:20 I mean, after all, this was Armitage's first ever feature role.
07:24 Even the actor himself said he had trouble spotting himself in the movie
07:27 after apparently having his only line cut and his part reduced significantly.
07:32 But the point is, he is there.
07:35 And his appearance at all is a little bit ironic in hindsight.
07:38 As the guy who made a name for himself playing a dwarf,
07:41 the actor actually claimed he was only hired here because he was quote "tall and lanky".
07:46 So after the actor became something of a household name,
07:48 he revealed that he had briefly appeared in Star Wars,
07:51 and eagle-eyed fans began scouring the movie for him.
07:55 He can be hard to spot, but his distinctive features can be spotted
07:58 peering over the soldier of Padme's handmaiden during the Naboo-Gungan alliance talks.
08:03 The Ark of the Covenant is hidden on the Millennium Falcon
08:07 We're well aware of the many Star Wars references in Indiana Jones.
08:11 Temple of Doom opens up in a bar named Club Obi-Wan,
08:14 and the plane at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark is labelled OBCPO.
08:19 As an added bonus as well, the sound that it makes when taken off
08:22 is also the sound the Millennium Falcon makes when the hyperdrive cuts out.
08:26 But there are also a number of Indiana Jones callbacks in Star Wars.
08:30 But bear with us for this one because it does take some piecing together.
08:34 So in Raiders of the Lost Ark, C-3PO and R2-D2 can be spotted
08:38 in the Well of Souls as hieroglyphs, where Indy finds the Ark of the Covenant.
08:43 It was a fun little nod to this other movie, but it was only the start of the connection.
08:48 As at the end of the film, the Ark is placed in a cargo box marked 99-06-753,
08:55 and wheeled off into a giant storage container.
08:58 In the book Star Wars The Force Awakens Incredible Cross Sections,
09:02 a detailed plan of the Millennium Falcon is shown,
09:05 with an annotation stating that Han and Chewie had never been able to open
09:09 a particular cargo module. The module in question was stamped, you guessed it, 99-06-753.
09:17 Seemingly, this confirmed that the Indy Star Wars references weren't just a bit of fun,
09:22 but the universes were actually linked,
09:24 and the Ark of the Covenant somehow came into the possession of Han Solo.
09:28 L337 is the Millennium Falcon. This one is the most obvious at a glance.
09:33 I mean, it's explained quite explicitly in Solo A Star Wars Story,
09:37 but it's heritage does go a little further back than that, so it's worth talking about here.
09:42 So, sometimes a seemingly throwaway line of dialogue can allude to something far more significant.
09:48 Way back in 1980 when The Empire Strikes Back first hit screens,
09:52 everyone's favourite droid punching bag C-3PO made a remark about Han Solo's ship.
09:57 As we all know, 3PO is fluent in over 6 million forms of communication.
10:02 However, he was taken aback when trying to communicate
10:05 with the onboard computer that runs through the Millennium Falcon.
10:08 The line "Sir, I don't know what your ship learned to communicate,
10:11 but it has the most peculiar dialect" has usually been interpreted by fans to mean
10:16 that Solo's ship has so many modifications that even the onboard computer has a bizarre nature to
10:22 it. However, roughly 40 years after that line was first heard, it was given an explanation.
10:28 During Solo A Star Wars Story, the witty proponent of droid rights L337 was damaged,
10:35 and her mind was uploaded into the Falcon as a way to preserve it. 3PO's bemusement in Empire
10:41 then makes a lot more sense knowing that he was communicating with Lando Calrissian's robot
10:46 companion.
10:46 Number 1 - Attack of the Donuts
10:49 Matt Groening loves Star Wars. The amount of Star Wars references in The Simpsons is
10:54 near uncountable. So when George Lucas returned the favour by plastering Homer Simpson in the
10:59 prequel trilogy, no doubt the creator of Springfield was all too pleased. But it took a
11:05 hell of a long time for Homer's cameo to even be noticed in the first place. After all, who would
11:11 be looking for Springfield's most incompetent nuclear power plant employee in a galaxy far,
11:16 far away? Well, when Yoda arrives with the clone troopers at the end of Attack of the Clones,
11:21 he's also apparently recruited the help of everyone's favourite Duff Beer enthusiast.
11:26 And it seems Homer made a better clone trooper than he did a safety inspector. While the
11:31 remaining Jedi are being rescued, a clone dropship swoops in to provide covering fire.
11:36 But the pilot of said dropship looks a little different to your average clone trooper.
11:41 And when you see it, there's no mistaking the yellow bulbous head,
11:44 complete with the signature brown stubble, for anyone but Homer Simpson.
11:49 So that's our list! I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below. How many of
11:52 these details did you pick up on already, and did any of them surprise you as much as they did me?
11:58 Let us know, and while you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share,
12:00 subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
12:05 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.