There Was An Indiana Jones Easter Egg In The Force Awakens

In an interview with the sound editors of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Matthew Wood & David Acord revealed the Indy Easter egg in the movie.

Nerdist recently uncovered a treasure trove of fascinating trivia in their interview with the sound team behind Episode VII. Aside from finding out Kylo Ren’s sound in the movie was recorded from Acord’s cat purring, they also discovered the Indiana Jones Easter egg in the film. And of course it’s in a scene with Han Solo (via Uproxx).

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You remember the scene in The Force Awakens aboard Han Solo’s freighter where an escaped rathtar starts rolling towards him and Chewie? Wood and Acord used the sound of the boulder rolling in Raiders of the Lost Ark, which they obtained from the Lucasfilm archives, to create a fun callback to Harrison Ford’s other famous film role.

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It’s pretty obvious when you think about it, but I didn’t get the connection till now. Given this is probably Ford’s last appearance as Han Solo (excuse me while I weep), it’s a cute homage to his rich history with Lucasfilm. And since we know there’s going to be an Indiana Jones 5, maybe that scene doubled as practice for him to get back into the hat later on.

Another interesting fact about the rathtar sequence: When a rathtar throws itself on the Millennium Falcon’s viewport and tries to eat it, the sound it makes is David Acord choking himself.

"When the rathtar has his mouth on the cockpit of the Falcon, when it’s trying to eat the cockpit, that is me literally choking myself. [Laughs] Finger down my throat in front of the mic to accomplish that and then it’s pitched down."

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Now that’s dedication.