Blade Runner loves Star Wars loves 2001 loves....

I am a big fan of the movie homage ; when one film pays a small tribute to another film. Indeed it doesn’t have to be film-to-film; current TV shows like The Office (US version), 30 Rock, My Name is Earl and even – wait for it – Australian Big Brother regularly have little in-jokes (asides, allusions) that movie fans give a quiet, appreciative nod to.

Big Brother recently said “love the suit”…thereby making me hungry for some fava beans and a nice chianti.

But back to the business at hand.

Blade Runner (1982) has a model of the Star Wars (1977) ship Millennium Falcon in it. It’s turned sideways and thus standing on it’s edge is transformed into a building. One of the many buildings in the LA of the future.

Lucas et al returned the compliment with his Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace (1999). A Blade Runner ship, called a Spinner I think, is visible during a night scene on the planet Coruscant

Not the only reference in The Phantom Menace either. I believe George Lucas said something like “..before Star Wars there was, and always will be, 2001: A Space Odyssey.” And in Phantom Menace he placed a Pod from 2001, clearly shown in the junk yard scene, where young Anakin works.

And we’re not done yet. In the same movie, Lucas also has E.T. visible. Not just one but a few of them are quickly shown arguing and pointing in the Senate.