Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) on Netflix
PG19772h 1mActionAdventureFantasy
Princess Leia Organa is captured and the stolen Death Star plans are missing from her ship. Two droids reach Tatooine with them and are sold to Luke Skywalker's family.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb8.6/101,588,930 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
A civil war divides a galaxy ruled by the Galactic Empire, and Rebel Alliance spies have taken the blueprints for the Death Star, a battle station built to destroy whole planets. Princess Leia Organa, an Imperial senator who leads the rebellion in secret, holds the schematics. When her ship is boarded, she is taken prisoner, and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO get away with the plans to Tatooine. Jawa traders sell the droids to the family of Luke Skywalker. Cleaning R2-D2, Luke finds a recording of Leia asking Obi-Wan Kenobi for help. R2-D2 wanders off, and Luke meets the hermit Ben Kenobi, who speaks of the Jedi and the Force and gives him his father's lightsaber. When stormtroopers destroy his home, Luke and Obi-Wan hire the smuggler Han Solo and Chewbacca to carry the plans to Alderaan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Before Alec Guinness was cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Akira Kurosawa's frequent star Toshiro Mifune was considered for both Obi-Wan and Darth Vader; his daughter said he refused both parts out of 'samurai pride,' fearing weak special effects would cheapen the image of samurai.
- Jodie Foster was offered the role of Princess Leia but had to turn it down because she was still under contract with Disney.
- Al Pacino was among the many actors considered for Han Solo, but he turned the part down simply because he did not understand the script.
- George Lucas based Chewbacca on his own Alaskan Malamute dog, Indiana, who used to ride in his car's passenger seat as his 'co-pilot'; the dog's name was later reused for the character Indiana Jones.
- Sound designer Ben Burtt built Chewbacca's voice by blending recordings of four bears, a badger, a lion, a seal, and a walrus, and created Darth Vader's breathing by recording himself breathing through a scuba regulator mask, which gave him the idea that Vader was a burn victim.
SPOILER
While filming in Tunisia, George Lucas rewrote the script to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi so the Death Star would feel dangerous; Alec Guinness later claimed in 1999 that he himself talked Lucas into killing the character because he disliked the 'awful' dialogue.
