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The Millennium Falcon is a fictional starship that first appeared in the original Star Wars film, A New Hope. It went on to play a major role in the two followup films (The Empire Strikes Back and respectively), and made a cameo in Revenge of the Sith. The Falcon is under the ownership of Han Solo, a rogue smuggler. It was once in the possession of Solo's close friend, Lando Calrissian. Piloted by Solo and his Wookiee friend Chewbacca, Solo won the ship from Lando Calrissian in a high-stakes game of sabacc. Lando had won the ship from an unknown person. The ship was chartered by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to deliver R2-D2 and the stolen Death Star plans to Alderaan. The ship is a heavily modified version of a YT-1300 Corellian Transport.
History When challenged by Obi-Wan about his ship's speed, Solo famously replied, "Fast enough for you, old man." The ship is capable of attaining "point five past lightspeed." Han's famous comment, that the vessel "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs", seems a little incongruous, as a parsec is a measure of distance, not time. (see "Kessel Run" below). At sublight velocities, the Millennium Falcon is not a particularly fast vessel; Imperial Star Destroyers have been able to keep up with her. However, the Falcon was considerably more maneuverable than Star Destroyers. An example of this is when Han Solo used the maneuverability to elude three Star Destroyers that were trying to block them in and nearly made them collide with each other. The Falcons true strength involves the skill of her crew and her extraordinarily fast supralight speeds, to which no manned vessel is known to compare. The cobbled-together nature of the ship presented many problems throughout the movies and the novels; systems were barely held together and apparently had many incompatibilities, a fact that didn't go unrecognized among the characters of the movies. "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" was Princess Leia Organa's reaction at first sight of the Millennium Falcon, while Luke's appraisal of the Falcon was, "What a piece of junk!" During Imperial pursuit from Hoth the ship's technical difficulties—namely an inability to enter hyperspace—resulted in the ship and crew nearly being captured. Years after the Battle of Endor it appeared that Han Solo and/or Chewbacca were able to resolve these difficulties, much to the relief of one Leia Organa-Solo. The resolution of those problems may have involved a virtual rebuild of her internal operation systems; this has never been discussed in detail. The modified Corellian freighter sports quad blasters startlingly reminiscent of World War II crew-operated turret machine guns, with the operator tracking targets optically (due to the high prevalence of electronic warfare in Star Wars) and swiveling along with the gun barrel. In , the ship is revealed to possess powerful armor-piercing missile weapons called "concussion missiles", which are illegal in the Star Wars universe for civilians (like smuggler pilot Han Solo) to possess. During the events surrounding the reborn Emperor Palpatine, the missile launchers were temporarily replaced by a giant lightning gun. Later refits, during her service as a New Republic diplomatic courier for the Skywalker-Solo family, who were highly placed in the New Republic in honor of their service to the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War, included light turbolasers replacing her quad blasters. At least one pop-out repeating blaster is mounted to give some ground cover when the use of the heavier weapons is not warranted or possible. The ship has been captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and searched by Imperial Stormtroopers, who miss the crew and passengers hiding in the smuggling holds, which are shielded against most scanning equipment. It has also been piloted through asteroid fields, and on one occasion (miraculously) outran the massive explosion of the second Death Star. The ship played a vital role in both of the Death Star battles. In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the Falcon had a brief onscreen cameo appearance, but as a brand new, freshly-built state-of-the-art spacecraft. It can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the screen docking at the spaceport as Obi-Wan and Anakin are returning Palpatine to the Senate building on Coruscant. However, Han Solo was most likely not the pilot in this cameo, due to the dating supported by the Star Wars Expanded Universe and the fact that in Revenge of the Sith, Chewbacca is still on Kashyyyk. Most likely, the owner of the Falcon previous to Lando Calrissian is the pilot. Other ships of its class appeared in Attack of the Clones (they are briefly seen at the Naboo spaceport). In real life, the original model for the Millennium Falcon was changed at the last minute because it too closely resembled ships from the television series Space: 1999. The replacement is said to be based on a half-eaten hamburger held by George Lucas and the disused original design was further developed into the Blockade Runner starship seen at the beginning of the first film. Starwars.com confirms the hamburger claim and also adds that Lucas referred to the cockpit of the Falcon as an olive on the side of a "flying hamburger".* Like many science fiction spacecraft, the Falcons interior sets cannot actually physically fit within the exterior sets. Subsequent extended universe plans are consequently a compromise attempt at squeezing the interiors in (often with detriment to headroom). Kessel Run The Kessel Run is a pathway from planet Kessel in the fictional Star Wars galaxy used frequently by smugglers in the transport of precious Glitterstim spice. A well-known but confusing description of the Kessel Run is made by Han Solo in A New Hope when he boasts to have made the run with the Millennium Falcon in "less than twelve parsecs." On earth, a parsec is a unit of distance, not a measure of time or speed. There have been a few speculations as to the Kessel Run comment. Most rely on the logic that in a spacefaring race, speed may not be the only important factor, and the Kessel Run may be a race that tests not only a ship’s speed, but the accuracy and agility of autonomous navigation equipment as well. A ship that can plot and run a tricky course (maybe even a stellar obstacle course) would be a very impressive cargo ship indeed. The Kessel Run may – therefore – be a race wherein a ship’s systems are required to plot the shortest possible course through a particular section of space and do so in a set time, not simply the fastest time. Another similar theory is that the Kessel Run is a shipping challenge, wherein the contestants are required to make the most efficient run through a sector of space, hitting an increasing number of pick-up/drop-off spots in a set, short period of time. In this scenario, the shorter the distance traveled, the run more efficient (less fuel spent, less time to complete) ‘’and’’ faster the run. One more theory is that the Kessel Run is a section of space with black holes forcing ships to go around them to avoid being pulled in. The less distance traveled the more powerful your engines are allowing you to get closer without being pulled in. Some have explained this apparent error by postulating the presence of a black hole cluster (The Maw) close to Kessel, which is used by pilots to shorten the distance of the run. According to Expanded Universe literature, navigating the Maw black hole cluster is extremely hazardous. Ships making runs must take long complex courses to avoid the dangerous singularities and gravity distortions of the cluster. However, it is speculated that Solo brazenly shaved by the gravity wells, thus achieving a run under a distance of 12 parsecs where a safer route would be much longer. This shorter run, by necessity, would require a faster ship than more circuitious routes, since a slower ship would not be able to resist the gravitational pull of the closer black-holes. The question of whether Solo was boasting about the speed of his ship, or his skillful abilities at piloting is still debated amongst fans. One could also look at the wording of the quote and consider Solo may have been mentioning another aspect of the Falcon's fame that is unrelated to its speed - that she earned prestige for surviving a dangerous short-distanced Kessel Run, as well as being "fast". A more straightforward explanation is that George Lucas, in writing the script, simply did not remember or realize that parsecs are not time measurements. According to some sources, Lucas did realize this, but wished to portray Han Solo as an absent-minded braggart who simply did not know what he was talking about. The bemused reactions of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to Han's quip suggest that this could be the case. On his audio commentary of A New Hope George Lucas finally commented on the oft discussed misinterpretation and put the issue to rest (as far as his original intentions were concerned). In the Star Wars universe, traveling any distance through hyperspace requires careful navigation to avoid stars, planets, asteroids or any such obstacles. Since no long-distance journey can be made in a straight line, the "fastest" ship is the ship that can plot the most direct course through space, thereby traveling the least distance. This depends on the skill of the navigator and the sophistication of the ship's navigational computer. With this premise in mind we can infer that the Kessel Run is a hazardous and convoluted transport route which had only been navigated at a distance of 12 parsecs until Han Solo had beaten this record. This would make the Expanded Universe's Maw black hole cluster idea in relatively close keeping with film's original intentions regarding the infamous Kessel Run. Lucas's explanation makes enough sense if all ships were bound to a maximum velocity of "lightspeed", though the issue is confused a bit when Han states that the Millennium Falcon can travel "point five past lightspeed" suggesting that faster-than-light travel is a factor as well. In the Dark Horse Comics "The Kessel" run Han mentions is a scam that Lando uses to win money back off Han for losing his ship. Lando and a few friends trick Han into thinking if he did the Kessel Run quickly he would get much notoriety in the smuggler's circles. In the end he realizes he has been scammed and it is kind of an initiation for new smugglers. Cameo appearances Trivia Notes | ||||||||
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