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Okay, tell the truth: when you first watched Star Wars, did you carefully scrutinize the area underneath the landspeeder? It looked distorted, like heat waves on a hot pavement.
This device is one of the simple ways (although it wasn't so simple to film in those pre-CGI days) that Lucas establishes that you really are in a galaxy far, far away.
(Model landspeeder from Star Wars movie parked in suburbia) If you are interested in the subject of hovercraft, be sure to see the entry for hovercraft from Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson. He didn't invent hovercraft, but he did make them look cool. Finally, check out the original idea for this kind of craft - the flitter from 'Doc Smith's 1941 story Vortex Blaster. Compare to the flying platform from Locked Worlds (1929) by Edmond Hamilton, the gyrotomic from Ra For The Rajah (1938) by John Victor Peterson, the hoverlimo from Steel Beach (1992) by John Varley and the hovercraft from Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson. Comment/Join this discussion ( 4 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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