jeffkjoe

OK, so the Millenium Falcon finally escapes the Death Star's tractor beam.

But unbenownst to our band of heroes, Gov. Tarkin has placed a homing beacon aboard their ship to help him locate the hidden rebel base.

But at the same time, a fleet of FOUR TIE-Fighters is deployed to shoot down the ship and blast them out of the stars.



So how do you explain the dogflight that happens right after the escape from the Death Star between the Falcon and the 4 TIE's if Tarkin wanted the ship to reach its destination in the first place?

jaeufraser

Eh, maybe he was just covering all his bases. I mean, it's not like he KNOWS that' they'll go to a rebel base. But if they do get away, maybe they will.

Terrell

Does anyone actually just enjoy the films anymore? Obviously not. We're either too busy trying to find consistencies or too busy bitching about them.

By the way, it was Vader's plan to put the homing beacon on the ship. That's why Tarkin says, "you'd better be right Vader. I'm taking an awful risk." Something to that effect.

Forum Troll

It was meant to be taht way. Tarkin sent those TIE fighters to make the escape appear legitimate to everyone aboard the Falcon. He most likely instructed the TIE pilots to give chase and attack them, but not destroy them. The Death Star could simply have turned its turbo lasers on the Falcon and destroyed it in one shot, but instead, they intentionally let them go to discover the true location of the Rebel base, since Dantooine had been abandoned for some time.

Jackskeleton

Forum has it right.

It would rise some questions for Han, a very experienced smuggler, if they just let them get away without a fight.

No plot hole there. Very well planned. Not every attack is to destroy.

shaggy

He sent the four Tie's so it wouldn't be so obvious they were letting them get away with it. Leia tells Han this, and he of course replies "easy"?

Eplicon

Also, the TIE fighter attack apparently was to buy the Imperials some time before the Falcon jumped into hyperspace.

Shannon Nutt

Exactly...if they don't send any fighters, they are going to wonder why.

nodeerforamonth

If he wanted to, Tarkin could've sent 1,000 TIE Fighters after the Falcon. Instead he sent something like 5 just to make it look like "they were trying".

jeffkjoe

Ah, very good points there, my friends....

Can you imagine being a TIE pilot assigned to that mission?


"OK, men, now just fly around the Falcon so that we can buy time before they jump to hyperspace."

It's like turkeys volunteering for a turkey shoot.

Mike Lowrey

The biggest plot hole in that whole sequence is why did the Falcon just fly straight and level? I realize they copied a B-17 sequence, but later on in the trilogy, they got the Falcon flying loop-de-loops around TIEs and stuff.

Josh H

It's also the only time in the trilogy they use the gunner bays, maybe that has something to do with flying straight. It would be tough to manually aim while doing loop-de-loops and what not.

Of course, the real reason is they probably couldn't get the effects down for that yet in ANH.

headrippa

and you see the last tie fighter that Han shoots, is just flying dead straight at the falcon...pretty lame attempt at attack unless he's a kamikazee

RoboDad

I always assumed that Tarkin hand-picked the worst slacker pilots available to pilot those fighters. You know, the expendable ones. I mean, they weren't exactly doing a terrific job of engaging the Falcon, now were they? And I'm sure he knew they wouldn't be coming back alive.

Oh, and to support the idea that the TIE fighters were just a ruse that Leia could see right through, she even makes the comment "they're tracking us." To which Han replies, "Not this ship, sister!"

jeffkjoe

And speaking of the gunner bays...


How are those things lined up?

Is Han Solo facing directly up and Luke facing directly down? If so, how the hell do they stay in the seats?


What, is there some sort of gravitational pull that prevents them from being completely disoriented?

dvduser6

SOT: I thought about this one too while watching ANH last week. Don't you think the name Skywalker would be kind of famous around both the Rebellion and the Empire? Are we to assume that after Anakin falls to the darkside that everybody in the SW universe completely forgets or elects to never speak the Skywalker name?

Eplicon

I thought those gunner bays had their own individual gravity units?

Presumably, just about everyone thought Anakin had died at the end of Episode III in his duel with Obi-Wan. Only a handful knew he became Vader, so hearing the Skywalker name again didn't mean much until TESB when the Empire discovered the identity of the person who destroyed the Death Star.

dvduser6

Eplicon, thanks. I had forgotten about Obi-Wan's explanation to Luke. That helps smooth that one over for me. I guess freinds and relatives didn't stop by Uncle Owen's place very much since I'm sure he wanted to hear nothing about Skywalker-this and Skywalker that.

Fok

Guess Tarkin wanted to get his last digs in......other wise it was a good scene.

jaeufraser

Perhaps in the Star Wars universe Skywalker is akin to Smith in our world. And it doesn't really seem to be common knowledge that Darth Vadar is Anakin Skywalker, so it's a bit of a moot point for most people.

Mr. Cornell

This is actually addressed in a strange place. A series of 3 books were written by Brian Daley before ESB came out; they are now referred to as the "Han Solo Adventures" (not to be confused with the recent "Han Solo Trilogy" which is completely unrelated!). Anyways, in one of these books, I'm thinking Han Solo's Revenge but I don't have them with me so I can't verify it, it says that the gunner bays each have individual gravity fields. The gunners sit so they are facing "up" and "down" relative to the Falcon's plane. So, Han was looking straight up and Luke was looking straight down. From that perspective, each of then has virtually an entire view of their side of the Falcon's space and can fire anywhere in that space. So, that's why Han and Luke look straight back at each other when talking, because from their perspective they are back-to-back from each other.

No, I have no idea how they get from the ladder, which has normal gravity, to their seats, without falling sideways and looking extremely stupid while trying to get on.

jeffkjoe

Ahhhhh, yes. If I recall, Mr Cornell, one of the titles was: "Han Solo and the Lost Legacy"?

I remember now...

And let's not forget the classic Kenner toy of the Millenium Falcon, where you would indeed position the Han Solo figure upside down in the gunner bay.


(I could never get Han to remain still in that seat!)

bumperfish

It's not such a stretch to assume tha the gunner bays have individual artificial gravity fields in them...I mean the ships all have to have SOME sort of artificial gravity in the first place, right, or the people would all be floating around. So maybe at the end of the ladder there's a "pocket" of microgravity (nerdspeak for zero-g, since there's NEVER actually NO gravity, anywhere) at the entrance to the gunner bay, between the gravity fields. When you reach the top or bottom of the ladder, you float the last few feet instead of climb. Then you climb sideways into your chair, even though you're still moving the same direction as a few seconds ago when you were going up or down.

bumperfish

As for the name "Skywalker", sure it could be common, and therefore not raise any flags with anyone who knew Anakin (does Vader even KNOW that he was Anakin? I mean I know he knows by the end of Jedi, but did he know before the Emperor said anything?) in the past. Sure we have names like Organa and Solo and Calrissian, but then we also have Biggs whose last name is Darklighter. The GFFA could be populated with Darklighters and Skywalkers and Starkillers all over the place, and it's the names like Tarkin and Fett and Piett that are thought of as unique.