George Lucas has never cared about the physics of Star Wars

Something that trips up some Star Wars fans is the realization that this franchise is a space opera and a modern mythology, not a sci-fi. Sure, there are plenty of science fiction elements in a galaxy far, far away, but it has never played in the realms of logic. George Lucas has never cared about the physics of space, and this notion was confirmed once again by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt.

Burtt is being honored at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival with the Vision Award Ticinomoda. For the event, the sound designer sat down with Variety for a fascinating interview about his decades of work where George Lucas' lack of care about physics came up. While discussing the creation of A New Hope, Burtt said

"When the Millennium Falcon’s doors open, it should sound mechanical, it might squeak, it might be rusty. Because I came from a background in physics and I loved 2001, I initially thought: Well, there’s no sound in space, and I told George that. He was kind of puzzled but he said. 'Well, we’re going to have sound and music in space.' He wasn’t shy about creating a world where you hear everything in space. And thank heavens, I guess, because that gave me a career."

- Ben Burtt

This isn't the first time the physics of Star Wars has been called into question. However, Lucas has never cared about this detail. For example, the creator wanted cool explosions in his movie, but there is no oxygen in our real-world space. So, he made it to where this could happen. He famously said in the book Star Wars Archives, "In my world, there is air in outer space when I want it."

Lucas has always cared about telling a good story, first and foremost. Any kind of physics comes second. Burtt added that the kind of "realism" that Lucas wanted was for the story, saying:

"Well, at the time, most science fiction films contained sound effects and ambiance that were electronic in nature. Things sort of derived from Forbidden Planet, you know, that wonderful electronic score and sound effects that were made for that film. George felt that was a cliche by this point, so he didn’t want to have a synthetic or electronic score or electronic effects of any kind. He described it to me as an organic soundtrack, which meant, let’s go out in the real world and gather acoustic sounds, be they motors, animals or jet planes. Let’s fashion the world of Star Wars out of these real sounds. The idea being that people would inherently recognize the reality of those sounds, the naturalness of them."

- Ben Burtt

I highly suggest reading Burtt's full interview with Variety. It's a wonderful exploration of his incredibly storied career.