The Star Wars films owe a debt to THX 1138, and it seems like the far-away galaxy takes an opportunity to quietly acknowledge the influential movie in the most unlikely of places. Even fans that have never seen the George Lucas 1971 debut film are familiar with its alphanumerical title. They should be -- those three letters and four numbers have found their way into Star Wars time and again.
Even though it predates A New Hope by six years, there are prescient references to the saga in THX 1138. For a Star Wars fan with a keen eye, there are a lot of visible roots. Distilled to its essence, the central story and theme are very much the same. It's a tale that Lucas also tells in American Graffiti: the struggle of an individual to break free of his or her surroundings and achieve his full potential. In A New Hope, it's Luke's escape from the moisture farm. In THX, it's escape from society itself. In both cases, the powerful image of a sun on the horizon underscores this most basic of character-building quests.
There are other superficial similarities. The robotic police can be seen as conceptual antecedents of the stormtroopers of the Empire. The shelldwellers have been likened to the Jawas. The white-knuckle car chase near the end of the movie uses cut-away to information displays to build drama in much the same way the X-wing race through the Death Star's vulnerable trench does.
Both films have similar philosophies in the use of sound and picture. It's been said that Star Wars could be watched with only picture, or with only sound and still deliver an entertaining experience. THX's artfully composed frame and meticulously layered sound environment are similarly complex enough to stand on their own.
Star Wars historians take note, THX 1138 contains the origin of the word "Wookiee" captured in its audio track. Terry McGovern, a bay area actor, was adlibbing dialogue to fill in the dense chatter heard throughout the film. At one point, he is heard to remark "I think I ran over a Wookiee back there." Though buried in a background of sound, it is audible in a scene where THX steals a car.
