Screen Accurate Millennium Falcon Cockpit (CG Model)

[3Dsf]

Well, I buy the tank theory! It's for storing special magic space liquid. Or maybe that's where they keep their oxygen for breathing!

And as for the absurd room, maybe it's you making assumptions again! Why do you think it's a full-height room?

Perhaps you haven't read that lesser known novel, Han Solo and the Space Hamsters of Patoo, which relies on the room as a key plot point. They were using it to smuggle space hamsters from beneath the unsuspecting noses of the Patootos, and the low-ceiling room was perfect for the job. They repurposed a hold tank as a giant Habitrail.

I know Lucasfilm has tried to disown that novel, but it's just a matter of time before it gets a sly wink reference in the Mandalorian.

 

[kamandi]

What bugged me is the stupid escape pod at the front of the ship.

An escape pod is for emergencies, yet look at how much crap a person would need to climb over and around to get in there. Big pipes, four pod engines, and the space between the upper and lower mandibles is just a little higher than Han Solo's waist.

Why couldn't the filmmakers just use one of the Airlock/pod things on the side of the ship? The Solo design didn't match the OT Falcon, jettison one!

I understand the pod made the Falcon look longer and more interesting to the art team at Disney. But it didn't work as an escape pod. It would make more sense as a decoy with fast engines and a fake transponder.

 

[David3]

Design wise the most practical access for those forward compartments would be through a sliding panel in the cockpit corridor. Also the cockpit itself makes for a perfect escape pod.

 

[Lt Washburn]

Sorry for the bump, but I just skimmed through this whole thread again, and there was something I was hoping to see illustrated, but didn't...it might have been shown in one of the broken images. Anyway, could anyone visually show how the set walls/ceiling were tilted to create that misalignment seen in ANH? I understand it in a basic sense, but I kind of want to see how all the angles do or don't change. Are the wall/ceiling panels all in the same angled arrangement they were before the tilt, or have some of them been adjusted or splayed out some? I mean, I understand it, but... kinda don't.

 

[3Dsf]

The best explanation I've seen is that Lucas wanted the cockpit reduced in size. So the set builders effectively rotated the sides of the set, with the pivot point being the bottom starboard (Chewie) side. This lowered the ceiling, but resulted in the noticeable misalignment of the lightbars on Han's side.

 

[Lt Washburn]

That's the part I do understand, but do all the panels stay in the same alignment relative to each other? How does that affect where they meet the forward walls, or were those shifted too... hmm

 

[SteveStarkiller]

the back wall alignment issues are so odd. I'm not entirely sure I buy the official story that Lucas wanted a smaller cockpit, if for no other reason than that it doesn't even make the cockpit that much smaller. So is it just an error in assembly that got overlooked? Maybe they had to move it from one sound stage to another and on reassembly it just got wonky? But the rest of the production is so meticulous that I don't really think that's true. So who can really say...


But perhaps this will help show how much it changed. Here's my examination of the backwall based on photomatches overlaid with the production blueprints.

 

[Lt Washburn]

Thanks! That helps a lot.