Transportation of Star Wars

Podcast Episode: 0248
What modes of Transport exist in the Star Wars Universe?

​      Join us as we navigate the Star Wars universe's most iconic and inventive modes of transportation. From the high-speed thrill of pod racing to the elegance of Imperial Shuttles, this episode promises to ignite your imagination and awaken your inner automotive 

​​enthusiast.  We'll be comparing these fantastic vehicles to our real-world counterparts, highlighting the futuristic blend of fantasy and innovation that makes them timelessly appealing.

​        Well, you all know where that sound comes from. And yes, if you didn't know this, Star Wars has a little piece of automotive in it. Well, being an automotive person, I can find it in just about anything you can think of. And yes, Star Wars, one of my favorite movies of all time has an automotive portion centered around it, and some of them are pretty cool. Being an automotive person, I remember watching episode four when I was a kid, and one of the great scenes that I loved watching is just Luke and his land speeder. It was cool, it was great. It's like oh, so that's the type of vehicles they use in the future. It's a personal mobility unit and in the future, we're going to still need to get around. Later on, when I saw episode six and they're on Endor and they wind up on the speeder bikes, I'm like whoa, motorcycles in the Star Wars world. Oh, this is so great. I thought it was just spaceships. No, there are all kinds of different parts of the automotive industry in Star Wars, and today AutoLooks is going to be taking a look at the transportation centered around the Star Wars universe.
 
       Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always. The doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all. Car companies from around the globe all centralized on one website at AutoLooks.net. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at [email protected]. 

​       So, like I said in the beginning, you know, kind of after the intro to the Imperial Death March from Star Wars, oh yeah, you know kind of after the intro to the Imperial Death March from Star Wars, oh yeah, we all remember that song. We all remember where we were the first time we ever heard that song and saw Darth Vader. Oh, my god, it's Star Wars. But, being a car fanatic like myself, when I was a kid, I essentially had three movies that I loved to watch all the time and naturally all three of them were taped off of television because you know that was a thing to do back in the 80s and 90s were taped off of television because you know that was a thing to do back in the 80s 90s. Now you can just go on YouTube and watch all this crap, but back in those days, back to the Future, Star Wars and Indiana Jones were all part of my take. Funny thing is two of those movies are from Lucas Arts. Like Indiana Jones, we had the Temple of Doom and the Last Crusade on tape.

​      Originally, we had the Raiders of the Lost Ark but we didn't have all of the movie. Somebody taped over the beginning of it. Really sucked and I hated it because I love that movie. Star Wars, we had Episode 4 on tape taped off of television the entire thing and I remember watching it as a kid. I was probably 4 years old the first time I ever watched it. I said wow, this is amazing. And then naturally Back to the Future. What love about that? Two things one kick-ass, black Tacoma. Two DeLorean fell in love with that car because of that movie.
 
      But with Star Wars, the Land Speeder showed me that there's some part of my universe in that universe. And Star Wars, between the movies and the shows, have all kinds of different forms of transportation. It isn't just about spaceships. There are other modes of transportation you can find in the Star Wars universe and how they apply to our world around us, from transports to buses to personalized vehicles and even motorcycles. The Star Wars universe has a variation of it, and whether you watch the movies and really pay attention, or if you just enjoy kicking back, putting your feet up and watching the wars, maybe after this podcast you might take a little bit more time and check out some of the cool things you can find in the Star Wars universe.
 
       The first part comes from our number one thing our cars, our trucks and our vans. Well, I can name four of them for you right here. For personal mobility units, it basically showcased the use of an automobile in the Star Wars universe. Luke's land speeder, the cloud car, the flash speeder and a gain speeder are all showcased. The land speeder comes in episode four. That's Luke’s personal vehicle. That's kind of neat because essentially, it's a two-seater convertible. And being the 80s, well, essentially when it was made in the 1970s, big two-doors were all around us. Gotta remember coupes and convertibles were still king and kids getting out of school all wanted one. Well, Luke Skywalker had one and he had his own land speeder. And when he finally sells it off, he's like oh, you know, not so much demand for it, because now the new model's out, ooh, so it showcases to us. There's a used speeder market. We just went from using the term automobile or car to speeder and that is where the transportation, the personal mobility units in the Star Wars universe come from. Most of them, you could find them very easily by having the name speeder in them. 

​      It's essentially just taking up the format of the automobile right from the automobile portion of the Star Wars movie. In the Empire Strikes Back, they gave witness to the Cloud Car, a dual pod helping them land in Cloud City. Now this dual pod, when you think about it, reminds us of a very famous pod vehicle. You got to remember pod vehicles like that were never big. And no, I'm not talking about the Homer, where Homer wanted a separate bubble dome unit to keep the kids out of his hair so he could just drive in peace. No, I'm talking about the most famous dual dome vehicle in existence that was built off of a concept, the original Batmobile. Yeah, it was there. It's essentially the formation of the cloud car Dual occupant separated. It's pretty neat, but they use it to get around. You got to remember you live up in the clouds. Essentially, the cloud car is like living in the Jetson world you just hop in your car and fly around. Now they never showed us if the cloud car can break down and become a briefcase for us to bring inside the building. That would have been cool. But then it showed us that Next to this comes Episode 2, when we get introduced to the Flash Speeder and the Gain Speeder.
 
        I don't know if you remember it, but Star Wars actually has a car chase in it. Now we all know about the motorcycle chase from Episode 6, where they get on the speeder bikes and they're going through, essentially, the redwood forest outside of San Francisco. I've actually been to not like all of it, but to some of the locations that that movie was filmed at. It's really cool. That was one of the first car chase scenes you ever see in a Star Wars movie. Unfortunately, it wasn't done with cars, it was done with the speeder bikes, and the speeder bikes are showcasing to us motorcycles in this universe.
 
         But when it comes to cars the Flash Speeder and the Gain Speeder in episode two do you remember when they have to chase the person that can change their appearance, basically hired by Boba Fett to track them down, and she or he or it, I don't know is trying to kill them and they hop in their two-seater sports car to try and take off. Now their speeder is faster than the other ones. And then Obi-Wan jumps out of the building, jumps on the pod that was sent to kill Padme and follows it to where it's going, for the sports car speeder is. And then he jumps off to try and get onto the speeder, gets onto it and we have this amazing car chase scene. Why? Because Anakin is following behind him in a two-seater convertible speeder. Because he wanted something that was cool. And like he says well, why did you take you so long? Well, I couldn't figure out what speeder I wanted to get, if I need something fast or something that looks good, kind of goes on. The whole thing about somebody trying to chase down their partner in a police movie nowadays, having to choose the right car from the parking lot, it's like well, I don't know, there was a Porsche there, there was a Camaro, there was an old pickup truck. I just I wanted to catch up to you, but I wanted to do it in style, so I stole the Porsche right. It's essentially where that scene is going from. It is an automotive chasing in Star Wars. Yes, speeders are Star Wars universes cars. 

​        Now, after that, like I said, motorcycles were a big part in episode three and episode six. Show us them. On top of that, we also get introduced to them in the Mandalorian series. Yeah, Mandalorian cruises, and one episode where he finds boba Fett’s outfit literally like cruising out, and they actually have these biker gangs on the planet that attack them. It's really neat. Like you're looking at it going, that's just a biker group.
 
       Those are hogs. Those speeder bikes are hogs. They are the equivalent of our kick-ass Harley Davidsons that we have in the world today, kind of like the speeder bikes in the bush. Those are dirt bikes. You go flying through Redwood Forest. You're not going to do that on a street bike, you're going to do it on a dirt bike. So, the clone army, all those stormtroopers, are literally just blasting through the bush on these kick-ass Star Wars universe dirt bikes. Okay, when the sedan market essentially had two-door options and two-seater options, these bikes have a multitude of them. We have the hog and we have the dirt bike.
 
       Later on in episode one we see another variation of the cruiser bike. Yes, Darth Maul, his little personal mobility unit. He hops on. After his droid tells him that he's found the boy and he's going to find him, he hops on his own cruiser and chases after. Oh yeah, we get a cruiser bike, but one of the coolest ones you ever see's something that actually existed all the way back in the 1920s and 30s.
 
     An invention a single wheel motorcycle. When Obi-Wan is trying to take down General Grievous, he tracks him down to the planet and when Grievous escapes him, obi-wan is on this giant lizard chasing after him. Now that's no automotive appeal. Essentially it would be like cruising around in an SUV, like he's chasing him down in a Jeep, but Grievous is on a single wheel motorcycle and when he fires it up it even sounds like a motorcycle. He's like literally like away and gone on this single wheel motorbike. It's essentially called the wheel bike, which showcases to us that General Grievous has some sort of taste in motorcycles. Like he's got this cool single wheel vehicle that's loud and obnoxious. He wants to make a statement when he goes cruising around and he does, and it becomes a memorable moment of that movie. Not as memorable, as you know episode two, where Natalie Portman's character, Padme, winds up in skin-tad outfit and you can see a lot. That's probably one of the most memorable moments, at least for me. 

​       After the motorcycles, we head into the race car world. The race car world episode one is fully about and how Star Wars has even had their own racing game. Back in the days of me playing Nintendo 64, I remember the pod racing game Pod racers. If you got a good ear for it and you watch it, you know where the sound of Anakin's pod racer comes from. That's an IndyCar. Like I'm not joking, that is the sound of an IndyCar, because I go to the Indy race every year and I hear that. I'm like when I watch the movie, I'm like you know Sabula’s pod racer and all the other weird ones, but Anakin Skywalker's is an IndyCar. But pod racers are open wheel race cars. They're essentially IndyCars of the Star Wars universe. You hop in this thing and you go your head's all out. You're fully exposed, but you don't need wheels in the future.
 
        And some of the people with the most fastest reaction times in the world are race car drivers. And on top of that, the fastest race car drivers belong to both open wheel races between IndyCar and Formula One because of how fast they go. The reaction time has to be quicker than anyone else. Like they said, Anakin is one of the only humans that could do pod racing. Why? Because he must use the force. Only the force would be able to help a human do pod racing.

      Because we don't have the reaction time to race those. It's like they say when they see somebody coming up through the ranks and they could tell who's got talent and who's got that reaction time.  I see that all the time. When I'm at the go-kart track with my son, I could tell which kids on that track have it and which ones don't. And it's very easy to figure out. And in one sense, when I say that to someone, I'm like well, you were using the force today, weren't you? Because your reaction time kicked ass. It's like your Anakin Skywalker and your pod racer, but thanks to episode one and their pod racing, they showcased a form of racing.

       This is also true in episode eight when, when they go to the gambling planet and there's actually horse racing done with a different species. Now, that's not part of the automotive aspect, but it's part of the racing aspect, as we actually get an animal-bred style racing. In the Star Wars universe, we also get exposed to gambling, but we all knew gambling was there since the beginning. 

​           Come on, after this you start getting into bigger units like transportation units. The Imperial Shuttles are essentially transportation units. They could be ships, they could be buses, they could be massive trains. An Imperial Shuttle is a transportation unit from one point to another point, moving people and goods around. Now it's not as big as some of the other ones, what you would consider a transport but in this universe it's there and we have dedicated town-to-town, city-to-city transportation unit. Sure, we have to go up in the sky and fly around and we call it a shuttle or a spaceship, but essentially, it's the same thing as the last-mile delivery vehicles. An Imperial shuttle is essentially just that it's bringing you from one place to another. It's essentially doing that last-mile delivery, just like some of my most favorite ones.
 
      So, spaceships in the future are not just spaceships. Some of them are full living quarters. It's a motorhome or a yacht of the future. Jabba's sail barge is exactly that. It's his giant yacht which floats over the sandy ocean, essentially to bring people to the Snarlak pit so you can be pushed off and have a horrible, horrible death as you're slowly digested over a thousand years. I think that's how 3PO put it. But the sail barge is his personal yacht. The Slave I from Boba Fett and the Razorcrest from the Mandalorian act as personal motorhomes because they can go from one place to another. See, the sail barge is a yacht because it can only go over top of the sand on a specific planet. You can't take it from planet to planet. Now that our mobility units have to be able to go from planet to planet, a motorhome is more like that. It could take us from place to place. Slave 1, Boba Fett can essentially live inside of it for a long duration. Same with the Razorcrest. It's a motorhome in the Star Wars universe.
 
         Our next one is transportation units. So, transports, this is how we get goods moved around. And the most famous transport or semi-transport of the Star Wars universe is the vehicle we're introduced to in the very first movie. You may think it's a cool spaceship, but essentially the Millennium Falcon is just a transportation unit because it's used to move cargo and it also has living quarters in it, so it kind of works as a long-haul transport. The Millennium Falcon it's cool, it's good and it gets you around.
 
       But they also have other transportation units. They're the personnel transports which you can see on episode two the Clone Wars, when Yoda's being dropped off. There's a personnel transport. That's military personnel transport. But they also have other ones on top of that. You also have the medical ships which bring people from place to plane. 

          ​After transports you have trains, a specific transportation unit If you've watched the Mandalorian series you'll understand this where they take out the Tatooine Repulsor train. It's a train that floats across the sand, kind of like Jaba's sail barge, but it's a multitude of different vehicles all pushed together, so it makes a long train on the surface. It really gives you some cool things. Now these trains can also be used for not just cargo but personnel transport as well. We don't really see that in their universes, but they're there, just like one of my favorites one’s watercrafts. Now, watercrafts in Star Wars really show up in the first movie, episode one, with the Bongo submarine. But you also get the Swamp Speeders as well. They're there, but more in the Clone Wars series than the actual movies. 

       The Bongo submarine is in episode one. What do you think? It always says the fastest way to the Naboo capital is through the planet's core, and you can have a Bongo to get there. Essentially, a Bongo is a submarine. It's a personal submarine unit. It allows them to go and traverse the entire Naboo planet from point to point. But unfortunately, you always have to worry about giant fish, because on that planet there are massive, massive fish. Look, I remember watching them with my friends. You're just looking up at it, going. Man, if you caught one of those things, you could not just feed yourself for a long time, you could feed an entire town. God, that thing's huge, it's bigger than Godzilla, but it exists. 

       On top of that, when they get to the capital, you also find speeder boats, ones dedicated for water surfaces, similar to that of the swamp speeders. They're dedicated only to go across water. Now, this is something you've got to think about, because is the special way that their vehicles float has the ability to cross every single type of surface, or does it only hover above solid ground? Once they showed us the swamp speeders and the bongos, we understood. Regular speeders like Luke Sand Speeder are only made for hard surface. There are personal mobility units. There are cars, where we have vehicles that will only traverse on water. Then we also have vehicles like airplanes and personal jets. That's when you start getting into things like the X-Wings and B-Wings. 

        ​They're essentially fighter jets. They're part of the military aspect and the military aspect is the biggest part of the transportation unit in the Star Wars universe, because Star Wars essentially is war and fighting. So there has to be a ton of military vehicles, AT-AT’s and AT-ST’s all-terrain armored transporter or all-terrain scout transport. They're essentially tanks in this universe, walking tanks, essentially mechs. I don't know if you ever played the game way back in the 90s Mech Warrior, where you literally walk around shooting each other. That's what the AT-ATs and AT-STs are. And what do they replace? They replace tanks in a futurized world.

​         We get TIE fighters, x-wings, Naboo fighters. They're fighter jets because they can fly across everything. They can fly through the skies, go into space and come really close to the ground, and then they have to land. You can't use them going home, but you can use them to go from your home to the next planet. They're fighter jets and fighter planes. It's essentially a lot of them because they can take off vertically. They're essentially Harrier jets of the Star Wars universe. Then you get things like the Snow Speeder or, as they call it, the T-47 Air Speeder. Now the T-47 Air Speeder or Snow Speeders are made to go across hard surfaces and they're dedicated only for snow. That's where things like snow machines and snow cats come into play. 

         ​Then you get into Episode 7, and we get the AAT, the Armored Assault Tank. They're very slow, kind of like original tanks, but they do tons and tons of damage. We have the Clone Turbo Tank, the Corporate Alliance Tank Droids, which are all part of the tank universe, which are all part of the tank universe, and then we get the HMP droid gum ships, the hail fire droid tanks and the MTTs, the multi-troop transport, the vehicle that drops off Yoda during the beginning of the Clone Wars. There's so much of the military factor of personal vehicles in the Star Wars universe. You might think that an AT-AT is literally just walking across the ground, but essentially, it's a massive tank unit of the future. All of these products could essentially be turned into personal vehicles of today, kind of like cargo ships.
 
          Cargo ships play a big part in the Star Wars universe. Essentially, a Star Destroyer or the Jaba's Sand crawler are giant cargo ships. Now, the Sand crawler is a land-based cargo unit. It's a massive transport that can bring people from place to place on land, where a Star Destroyer is like a 747 jumbo jet. Then you get Super Star Destroyers, which are like the A380s. They're huge and they can take everything. All part of this transportation universe.
 
        But the one thing you did not know well, unless you're an automotive fan like myself is that when you were watching the end of the original nine books, when episode nine came into play, tons of people wanted to get in on the action and they knew the transportation factor played a big role in all the movies. People go from planet to planet, they cross the planets, they go across oceans. They had boats in Episode 9 as well, but besides that, there's actually one car company that's in the Star Wars movie. If you're a true fan, you know who it is and if you think you're a true fan, you know everything about Star Wars. I'm about to scare the shit out of you because I know something that you don't know about the Star Wars universe. 

​           Inside the Star Wars universe for Episode 9, there is a spaceship during the battle scene at the end on Exagon. That was designed by Porsche. No joke, go to our website, find the picture or even go online and search for Porsche Star Wars spaceship. They designed a spaceship for the battle scene. Now trying to find it is really hard. Trust me. I've looked every single time I've watched Episode 9 to try and find it. I really want to see it, but I saw the original pictures of it, so I know what I'm looking for. But there's so many ships flying around that it makes it even harder to find. But Porsche is actually there Now. There's no branding from them on their vehicle, but Porsche is there in the future.
 
       Why did they do that? Because they understood in a futuristic world that some automotive companies will eventually change over. And I remember a few years back there was this movie with Matt Damon where all the rich people lived on this sphere. It was essentially a quick knockoff of video game Halo, because all the rich people lived on this halo that was above Earth, and all the rich people lived on this Halo that was above Earth, and all the poorest people lived on Earth. Well, the richest person who ran the factory and the guy that runs the factory is about to escape. He had to come down, deal with some shit, but now he's got to go back home and he goes to hop in his personalized space unit that's designed by Bugatti and even has a Bugatti logo on it.
 
        Porsche knows that in a futuristic world, people are going to buy their own personal mobility unit. We may not have wheels touching the ground. We may need to be able to fly through the air by ourselves. That is why they decided to get into the Star Wars universe. They wanted to showcase to the world that automotive companies can exist even in a futuristic world like Star Wars. So, in all reality, no matter how much you love Star Wars, there's tons of cars and tons of other parts that have to deal with this movie. It's great, it's amazing, and with that, the automotive universe is alive and well, even in a Star Wars universe. And if, by watching all the new shows, we start to realize that there's more of an automotive presence, hell, watch the Mandalorian or even Rogue One when they're in the personnel carriage units and there's actually wheels touching the ground. So even motorized or powered units running on wheels exist in a Star Wars universe. Cars are there. You just have to keep your eyes open to find out where they really are. So, in the end, is Star Wars really hiding itself away from the automotive industry? Or am I just a person that managed to piece together our love affair with cars and how the Star Wars universe can be a part of it.

​        So, what amazing things have you seen in the Star Wars universe that have to apply to the transportation unit? Send us an email, send us a link. Help click the bottom, like us, follow us and send a comment about this podcast. Ask your friends, your family, your coworkers about vehicles that they believe are part of the Star Wars universe. What do certain products in that universe signify? Are they transportation units? Are they transports? Are they trains? Are they yachts? Are they ships? Are they personal mobility units? Are they cars? Is it a wheelchair? Is it a scooter? Is it a wheelchair? Is it a scooter? Is it a skateboard? They all have to do with something that we have today, and, no matter how much we try and get away from the automobile industry, it always kind of creeps up into the universe that we are playing in, and Star Wars can't even escape that. That's one of the greatest things that I love about it can't escape what we all love.
 
       So, like I said, hit the like button at the bottom, like, follow and comment about any of the podcasts on the major social feeds or streaming sites that you've found the AutoLooks podcast on, and after that, stop by the website, read some of the reviews. Check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe, all existing on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at [email protected]. So, from myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm Entertainment Group and PodBean.com, strap yourself in for this one amazing ride that's going to take you a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, because even in that time period we had cars. 

Everett J.
​#autolooks