MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – JUNE 05: Stormtroopers attend adidas Host The Street Party at Coronation Street, ITV studios on June 5, 2010 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for adidas)
Bucketheads: A STAR WARS STORY (Watch here)
In contrast to the Darth Maul fan film, which focuses on force users and expands on an already established character, this fan film showcases a side of the Star Wars universe that the movies have to this point left untouched.
Bucketheads was released back in 2018 and follows the story of a group of Stormtroopers escorting a prisoner to an Imperial base after their ship crash lands in a forest, when they are ambushed by a group of rebels.
While traditionally in Star Wars films, Stormtroopers are primarily used as nameless cannon fodder whom are all easily expendable, this fan film starts off by showing the camaraderie between the squadron.
Members of Stormtrooper squadron are shown trying to comfort each other as their ship crash lands, and later on talk about what they plan to do in their personal lives after their mission is over.
Beyond this, the film takes this dynamic of taking you inside the mind of a Stormtrooper one step further when the group is being ambushed by the rebels, as it shows the nerves and stress of a trooper when faced with battle, the anger of losing a comrade in the aftermath, and a decent twist at the film’s conclusion.
The action is aided by some excellent VFX and is also shot very well, making it come across more like a war film rather than a traditional Star Wars.
Regardless, the film showcases a different side of the galactic war from the original trilogy, and adds a new element to the story by helping to show the personalities of the Stormtroopers, making them seem much more human than any of the official movies did.