Zahlen, bitte! 1138: The not-so-random Star Wars number
The number 1138 is omnipresent in the Star Wars universe. It is reminiscent of "THX 1138", George Lucas' groundbreaking directorial debut from 1971.
For the per-hitchhiker-through-the-galaxy fan, 42 is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe and all the rest. For the Star Trek fan, 47 is like 42, but adjusted for inflation. And the Star Wars fan? They are constantly accompanied by 1138, whether in movies, series or computer games. But the number seems so incidental that it can be overlooked.
Whether it's a stormtrooper unit, cell number or robot recognition –, the number appears again and again in a wide variety of contexts. You don't even have to puzzle over the origin of the number, as 42, for example, made the nerd ponder.
The number refers to George Lucas' first work "THX 1138". The film also anticipated the name of a certain alien creature.
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Dystopian debut from director George Lucas
'THX 1138' was released in 1971 and was the Star Wars creator's first feature film. It is based on the short film "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB", which Lucas made as a student at the University of Southern California in 1967. The film deals with a dystopian future in which humanity is monitored around the clock in a totalitarian technocracy and its individual feelings are suppressed with drugs.
Love and sexual intercourse are strictly forbidden. Person THX 1138, played by Robert Duvall, rebels against this, falls in love with his roommate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) and wants to escape with her.
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The visual aesthetic, together with the soundtrack, anticipates the Star Wars atmosphere a little. The stern robot police look somewhat like the Stormtroopers omnipresent in Star Wars, while the Stormtroopers largely lose their individuality under their uniforms and, like the inhabitants in the original film, wear a combination of letters and numbers.
The escape perspective is reminiscent of later Star Wars chases and a large evening sun also makes a grand appearance, but here without a companion – It's not Tatooine, after all. It wasn't well received in theaters, but over time it developed into a cult film, even if mostly only among fans.
Wookie origins in the first movie
The term "Wookie" was also used for the first time in "THX 1138". In a radio dialog you can hear "I think I just ran over a Wookie" – Narrator Terry McGovern came up with the spontaneous idea. Sound designer Walter Murch recalled, "Later, after recording, I asked Terry, "Who's the Wookie?" and he said, "Oh, that's a friend of mine who lives in Texas, Ralph Wooky, and I just threw his name in there because I always wanted to tease him and thought it would be fun for him to hear his name in a movie."
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Neither of them had any idea that the spontaneous joke would later become the namesake of an important alien race – With Han Solo's shaggy co-pilot Chewbacca, the Wookies became an integral part of the Star Wars canon.
Many 1138 easter eggs in Star Wars films
The fact that George Lucas was very fond of his debut can be seen most clearly in the name references that appear as Easter eggs in many Star Wars productions. The cult around the Star Wars number 1138 already began in the Star Wars novel: the stormtrooper who involuntarily surrenders his uniform to Luke Skywalker does not report, so the control post asks: "THX-1138, why aren't you at your post?" In the movie, however, they ask for TK-421.
What remains in the movie, however, is when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, disguised as stormtroopers with Chewbacca as an apparent prisoner, enter the prison level to free Princess Leia. They enter during the "prisoner transport from cell block 1138". THX 1138" can also be seen on a control monitor in the control room where R2D2 and C3PO are staying.
In "The Empire Strikes Back", General Rieeken gives the order by radio "Send Renegade 10 and 11 to Station 3-8." The AT-ST fighter captured by Chewbacca in "Return of the Jedi" had the identifier 1138. That was just the beginning.
Easter eggs in various productions
In "Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace", a stylized 1138 can be seen on the back armor of a B1 battle droid in the first battle of Naboo. In countless other examples of subsequent productions, the number appears as a seemingly random identifier. It can even be seen in current productions: In Star Wars Andor, one of the red and white tram-like planetary flying shuttles bears the identifier THX-1138.
(Image:Â Warner Bros Television Animation)
As a running gag, it resembles Star Trek's fundamentally random number 47 or the identifier A113, which often appears in animated films to remind us of a certain door. In the meantime, the cult identifier is no longer limited to Star Wars productions, but has arrived in nerd culture altogether. For example, in the series "Pinky and the Brain", in which two mice want to achieve world domination, THX 1138 can be seen in the intro.
As for the movie THX 1138, it went through a similar fate as the original Star Wars parts. It was released in 2004 digitally remastered and with new special effects, which didn't go down well with everyone and, above all, have aged worse than the original effects, so that some cinemas refused the remastering. If the term THX sounds familiar from the cinema, you're on the right track: George Lucas founded the certification body of the same name in 1983 to create a seal of quality for high-quality sound. Whether the term is really reminiscent of the movie or has a different origin is not certain. However, the similarity in name is not entirely coincidental.
That's why our numbers, please! will not appear at 11:38, but exceptionally at 13:38.
(mawi)
