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Star Wars Origins: The Dam Busters - Side by Side Scene Comparison

The Non-Conformist0 HN recommenders · 2016–2025
608K views · commentary · evergreen · Uploaded 2014-08-12

A three-minute side-by-side comparison of scenes from Star Wars (1977) and the WWII film The Dam Busters (1955). It shows how closely the Death Star trench run mirrors the earlier film.

HN links it whenever the topic of Star Wars borrowing from WWII films comes up, as direct visual evidence.

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6 comments from Hacker News

@empath752016 · in “A bigger problem than ISIS: The Mosul Dam is failing”

They didn't but we did blow up dams in WWII. In fact, the death star run in Star Wars was based on a WWII movie called the dam busters: [VIDEO]

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@npunt2018 · in “SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches”

Wow I never looked it up before, but the lifting of the trench run from The Dam Busters is uncanny: [VIDEO]

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@JoeDaDude2018 · in “The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design”

> Star Wars spacecraft fly around as if they were aircraft in an atmosphere, which isn't surprising given that older war movies were an inspiration for its battle scenes. Indeed, the following youtube [1] shows how much the original Star Wars borrowed from old WW2 movies, in particular, from "The Dam Busters" [2], 1955. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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@krapp2019 · in “Was the Death Star assault scene in the original Star Wars based on a true story”

The Death Star sequence (specifically the trench run) was based on, and sometimes lifted scene for scene from the 1955 movie "The Dam Busters." [0,1]. Substitute these experimental "bouncing bombs"[2] for Luke force-bending proton torpedoes and you have the end of Star Wars. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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@buildsjets2024 · in “Visualizing World War II”

Virtually the entire Battle of Yavin was directly copied from the old WWII movie “The Dambusters”. The dialog, the planning scenes, the special targeting device, the trench run, the sequence of battle, Lucas pretty much ganked it all. [VIDEO]

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@buildsjets2025 · in “Battle Scenes depicted in moving pictures before CGI”

How about a space battle scene with and without CGI? Compare "The Dam Busters" from 1955 with propeller airplanes to "A New Hope" with X-wings, title says 1977 but I think this is one of the enhanced editions: [VIDEO]

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