The Phantom Menace: Difference between revisions

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{{quote| '''Amidala:''' ''I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die [[Call Forward|while you discuss this invasion in a COMMITTEE'''committee!''''']]}}

* [[Amusing Alien]]: Jar-Jar Binks and Boss Nass.

** The double-bladed lightsaber is in fact a [[Canon Immigrant]] from the [[Expanded Universe]], originally being used by Exar Kun (whose spirit is the villain of the ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy (Literature)|Jedi Academy Trilogy]]'').

* [[Big No]]: Obi-Wan witnessing Darth Maul land {{spoiler|a killing strike on Qui-Gon}}.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: When separated from Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon manages to hold his own against Darth Maul's lightsaber strikes. So what does Maul do to get the better of him? {{spoiler|He butts Qui-Gon in the face with the hilt of his lightsaber to catch him off guard and then impales him through the chest.}}.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: The Trade Federation, which is willing to sell itself out to [[The Dark Side|the Sith]] in return for [[Only in It For Thethe Money|profit]] (or in the EU backstory, settling a vendetta against Senator Palpatine).

* [[Crapsack World]]: Tatooine. For one thing, it's stated in the movie that it's ruled by the Hutts (whom according to Panaka are gangsters) and it's clear from the movie that slavery is considered acceptable there, including the use of ''children'' as slaves. There's also the [[Blood Sport|podracing]], which people also bet various things (including the fate of slaves) on. Even putting aside the nature of its society, there's also the weather; dangerous sandstorms can come up on short notice, which the Tatooine residents apparently predict through aching bones, and that doesn't give them much time to find shelter. <ref>And yes, Tatooine's a [[Crapsack World]] in other installments too, but it's probably taken further in this installment than it is in the other ones.</ref>

* [[Darkest Hour]]: Qui-Gon dies. The Gungans are defeated. Anakin is stranded inside an enemy ship. Amidala is caught by the federation. [[Two Lines, No Waiting|All at the same time.]]

* [[Doing inIn Thethe Wizard]]: Midichlorians. Even if it's just making [[The Force]] genetic, it's still considered taking much of the mysticism out.

** Since the midichlorians are explicitly described as not generating but ''translating'' the force (more akin to something like, say, [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy|a Babel Fish]]), one could make the argument that the wizard is in fact alive and well, and the act of estimating one's strength in the force by the amount of force-feeding bacteria drawn to you is a desperate attempt of a "civilized" republic to explain the unexplainable.

* [[Doomed Byby Canon]]: No, Qui-Gon. You are not going to train Anakin.

* [[EverythingsEverything's Better Withwith Spinning]]: Anakin tries this during the Droid Control Ship battle. "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick!"

* [[Exact Words]]: "Stay in that cockpit!" from Qui-Gon to Anakin. Never mind that Anakin accidentally activates the Naboo fighter craft in question, subsequently blasts a few Destroyer droids, and ultimately takes out the reactor core of the orbiting Trade Federation control ship....

* [[Final Battle]]: There are ''4four'' of them (a 3-way lightsaber duel, a massive ground battle, a big space battle and a smaller ground assault). Its been pointed out that the ''Star Wars'' movies had an increasing number of final battles per movie. At an early screening for execs and higher-ups the editor pointed out that because there was so much going on the audience's mood was being pulled from comedy to drama to excitement to sadness so much that it was losing its power. Lucas realized that he had gone overboard and that he couldn't fix it in the editing because [[Four Lines, All Waiting|all four scenes are intertwined]], and in the latter two movies he backed down on it significantly.

** For the people who had not yet seen the movies, the soundtrack makes a foreshadowing. When Yoda talks about Anakin at the end of the film stating that the boy's future is clouded, the Emperial March makes a brief yet meaningfullmeaningful appearance.

** When Anakin intended to inform Padme that he'll most likely end up not coming back with them due to possibly having to train as a Jedi, one of the handmaidens tells him that Padme is not present, which is also around the same time Amadala is talking to the Senate about the plight of Naboo. {{spoiler|Guess who Queen Amadala's true identity is?}}?

* [[Friends Rent Control]]: Shmi and Anakin live pretty well for slaves on a Third World-level planet. Also, their hovel seems to be [[Bigger Onon the Inside]]. And what's that area where Anakin was building his podracer? Was that, like, a ''backyard''? Possibly justified by their value to Watto as slaves.

* [[Half the Man He Used To Be]]: {{spoiler|Darth Maul.}}.

* [[Impaled Withwith Extreme Prejudice]]: {{spoiler|Qui-Gon.}}.

* [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]]: Amidala's wardrobe. Also a plot point, her makeup and clothing was designed specifically to make it impossible to see who was Amidala and who was her decoy. [[Keira Knightley]] played her decoy, who does somewhat [[Identical Stranger|resemble]] [[Natalie Portman]], played her decoy.

** Similarly, the {{spoiler|Gungan}} army turns and runs as soon as their shield generator is knocked out. Justified, because while the shield was up, the only thing that could get through was the Trade Federation's infantry. After the shield is down their heavy firepower could move in.

* [[Kill 'Em All]]: Darth Sidious orders to Lord Maul and the Federation: "Wipe them out. All of them."

* [[Large Ham]]: Jar -Jar Binks, Watto and Boss Nass.

** Boss Nass is after all voiced by [[Brian Blessed|BRIAN BLESSED]].

* [[Lethal Klutz]]: Jar -Jar Binks destroys quite a few combat droids accidentally during the final battle for Naboo. In one scene, he accidentally unlatches the door to a stash of grenade-like devices, sending them into the enemy ranks; in another, his foot gets caught in one droid, and trying to escape causes the droid's blaster to fire, taking out another droid.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Despite the page quote up top there, children and funny-talking aliens play a large part in the plot, [[Darker and Edgier|which is jarring compared to its]] [[Attack of the Clones|two]] [[Revenge of the Sith|sequels]]. More obviously, the [[Used Future]] aesthetic of the original trilogy was done away with in order to help demonstrate that this is the "more civilized age" that Obi-Wan mentioned in ''[[A New Hope]].''.

* [[Meditation Powerup]]: When Qui-Gon fought Maul on Naboo. {{spoiler|It helped, but not enough.}}.

* [[Mole in Charge]]: Palpatine / Sidious.

* [[Mook Horror Show]]: Invoked by the creators with the Trade Federation members hiding from the Jedi whichwhom nothing could stop. The DVD commentary specifically states this was an inversion of the typical "humans cowering in fear of the unstoppable alien" dynamic from old horror movies.

* [[The Mothership]]: The Federation command ship {{spoiler|which Anakin destroys.}}.

* [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name]]: The manner in which the Trade Federation marched into Theed mirrored the Nazis' march under the Arc de Triomphe. In addition, the Trade Federation, after occupying Naboo, also held the various indigenous people (Nabooian and Gungan) in camps that were implied to be death camps/concentration camps. In addition, it is implied that Palpatine orchestrated the Naboo blockade invasion to gain more power, similar to how Adolf Hitler had some of his army pose as Polish people and attack their own key buildings so he'd have the excuse to invade Poland. It might also reference Hitler invading his native land of Austria, seeing how Palpatine was the senator of the same planet that he orchestrated the Trade Federation's invasion of.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Aside from the trouble [[The Scrappy|Jar-Jar]] causes in this movie, there is also the time when Qui-Gon {{spoiler|made it his dying wish for Obi-Wan to train Anakin}}. Those familiar enough with the series' overall story would know that {{spoiler|this didn't exactly work out all that well}}.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: A ''[[Star Wars]]'' staple, which probably reaches its highest point in the area where Qui-Gon and Obi Wan fight Maul -- Aa series of catwalks with no railings over bottomless pits.

* [[Not -So -Innocent Whistle]]: Jar -Jar does that a few times.

* [[Off -the -Shelf FX]]: Qui-Gon's communicator is [http://www.moviemistakes.com/picture5903?&mode=picture a redecoed woman's razor].

** The Neimodians when they seal off the bridge and realize the Jedi are ''still getting through.''.

** The pilot and co-pilot of the Republic cruiser in the docking bay of the Trade Federation Battleship. [[Killed Mid -Sentence|They don't even get a chance to finish saying]] [[Oh Crap]].

* [[Oh, No, Not Again]]: "Yousa in big dudu this time!" Also, Obi-Wan's scene with Qui-Gon at the Jedi Temple. ("Do not defy the Council, Master, not again.")

* [[One -Scene Wonder]]: Darth Maul is in around a tenth of the film but manages to steal the entire movie.

* [[Parental Substitute]]: Rather sadly, Watto is the closest thing young Anakin has to a father figuefigure. Though he STILL''still'' does occasionally discipline him and Shmi like any average slave owner would, from what we get to see he is genuinely fond of the mother and son, treats them well, and was ''genuinely'' sad to see Anakin go. On top of all that, he would not sell Shmi until he was ''certain'' that her new master was a kind man that give her a good and happy life. [[Word of God]] does state that Watto generally treats his slaves ''much'' better than most other masters.

* [[Pimped -Out Cape]]: About every other queen outfit Amidala wore had one.

* [[Pimped -Out Dress|Pimped Out Dresses]]es: Every one of Amidala's queen outfits.

* [[Re CutRecut]]: The DVD release included a few additional moments, mostly ideas they had for the podrace. But a fan made recutre-cut of this film inspired a slew of fan made cuts of various films, largely toning down Jar -Jar's antics and Anakin's "yipeeyippee's.".

** The Blu-Ray also makes changes -- most notably trading a much -contested puppet Yoda for a digital one similar to the one seen in later prequels.

* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: {{spoiler|Qui-Gon Jinn.}}. Probably to make sure audience attitude towards Darth Maul went from "[[Evil Is Cool|whoa, he's badass!]]" to "somebody kill that bastard!" just in time for his [[Karmic Death]].

* [[Shell Game]]: One of Padmé's handmaidens turns up in full [[Pimped -Out Dress|regalia]], even [[Action Girl|shooting several battle droids]] on the spot, fooling the Trade Federation into thinking she's the queen and leaving Padmé relatively unguarded at a key moment.

* [[Shout -Out]]:

** The podrace is a [[Recycled in Space|space-age]] [[Chariot Race]], complete with giant engines in place of horses, and the whole sequence is a huge reference to ''[[Ben -Hur]]''.

** Some of Jar-Jar's antics are taken almost directly from the films of [[Buster Keaton]].

** Also as a likely [[Take That]], the leader of the Trade Federation is Nute Gunray after former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as well as a reversal of Ronald Reagan, to get back at "Project Star Wars,"; and the Neimoidian senator is named Lott Dodd after U.S. Senators Trent Lott and Chris Dodd.

* [[Skyscraper City]]: Large swaths of the planet Coruscant are encrusted with giant skyscrapers... built on top of older skyscrapers... built on top of even older skyscrapers. It's uncertain if the planet even has actual ground anymore. It's said to host ''one trillion inhabitants''. A few of the skyscrapers are the construction droids that build more skyscrapers.

* [[Start of Darkness]]: Not only for Darth Vader, but even more so for [[Good Republic, Evil Empire|the Empire]].

* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: A frequent issue with [[The Scrappy|Jar-Jar Binks]].

{{quote| '''Jar-Jar''': Mesa your humble servant!<br />

'''Qui-Gon''': That won't be necessary. }}

{{quote| '''Viceroy''': As you know, our blockade is perfectly legal.}}

* [[You Are a Credit Toto Your Race]]: Watto says this of Anakin.