May the 4th be with you! A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there’s some positively awesome pieces of technology. The Star Wars films paint a picture of an ancient, lived-in galactic community, with rusty, beat-up machines churning away at their tasks. With that in mind, let’s check out the top ten coolest pieces of technology in Star Wars!
10. Blasters
Photo Credit: StarWars.com
Where the series’ main protagonists prefer to use the more elegant lightsaber, most scoundrels, smugglers and pirates in the galaxy far, far away prefer to use the tried-and-true blaster. Capable of blasting open doors, blasting doors closed, slagging combat droids, and everything in between, the blaster is the workhorse of the average Star Wars hero’s arsenal. Apparently never needing to reload or cool down and sporting some really cool special effects from Industrial Light and Magic, these slick pieces of combat tech are sure to stick with the viewer!
9. Holographic Displays
Photo Credit: Richard Hoefer
With a galaxy as large and far-flung as the one Star Wars takes place in, it helps to communicate remotely. An iconic aspect of the series, the holographic display first seen in Obi Wan’s hut on Tatooine, immediately sets the heroic tone of the series: a distant princess sends a distress signal to a forgotten knight in the middle of nowhere. He and his young apprentice rush to save the day.
While we have similar technology in our own world, with video communication services being commonplace, we’re still hashing out the details of proper holographic displays and three-dimensional projections. It seems even in the sci-fi Star Wars universe they haven’t yet figured out how to project holograms in any color but blue…
8. X-Wing Fighters
Photo Credit: Wookiepedia- Fandom
While Luke Skywalker would come to be known for his lightsaber skills, in his first adventure it was his ace piloting of the series’ signature X-Wing Starfighter that saved the day and destroyed the Death Star. Complete with a full suite of communication tech, a port for navigational droids like R2-D2, and full support for combat targeting (that Luke promptly disables: Space Magic, baby!) the X-Wing fighter is a very advanced and iconic piece of tech for the series.
Seeing X-Wing fighters engaged in tense dogfights with their Imperial counterparts, the TIE Fighters, evokes the WWII-era film reels that Lucas was inspired by as a child, lending a swashbuckling, adventurous feeling to the otherwise mythical and heavy monomyth the film is presenting at its heart.
7. Bacta Tanks
Photo Credit: StarWars.com
In Empire Strikes Back, Luke is badly injured in the opening and to facilitate his speedy recovery, he’s put in a diaper and submerged in healing goo. Okay, that doesn’t sound too cool, but the Bacta tank is a slick piece of medical tech! I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly prefer to float in a gel tank to heal severe wounds in a few hours instead of having to wait for months in a hospital bed. Access to this sort of tech in the real world would be revolutionary for medical science, and the number of deaths to things like traffic accidents and other traumatic injuries would likely go way down! It seems the Rebels on Hoth just take the tank for granted, as it’s a completely normal occurrence for them, suggesting that tech like this has all but replaced traditional doctors.
6. Hyperspace Drives
Photo Credit: Tor.com
As we discussed, galaxies are very big. If one wishes to tell a tale on a galactic scale, faster-than-light travel is a requirement. True to genre, Star Wars sees its ships outfitted with Hyperspace Drives, like Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, that allow them to accelerate past the speed of light and cross vast distances of space in the blink of an eye. In later films, interactions between ships in hyperspace, such as tracking ships that travel through hyperspace, and accelerating a ship into hyperspace to perform a destructive ramming maneuver, have become a hallmark of the series’ space combat. While the best and brightest scientists in our world study quantum physics in pursuit of a real-world answer to hyperspace, in the Star Wars galaxy even scoundrels like Solo have access to this reality-altering tech.
5. Jet Packs
Photo Credit: Sideshow Collectibles
While not seen often, the jet pack technology utilized by bounty hunters like Boba Fett and his father Jango, are objects of envy for nearly every kid who watches Star Wars. The freedom to jet about while blasting bad guys is an exciting prospect, and really, what sci-fi series is complete without a few jet packs? While most folks would likely end up hurting themselves while trying to impress their friends, you could rest assured that if tech as cool as this was made available, I’d be all over it! Cat in a tree? Got it. Frisbee on the roof? No problem! Traffic jam? Hop on, guys, I’ll boost us out of here!
4. Droids
Photo Credit: Screenrant
Another series mainstay, droids with various applications and skills populate the Star Wars universe. From the prim and proper C3PO to the spunky, dauntless R2D2, droids have been a core part of the series from the very beginning. In our world, we’re actually not too far from similar technology: leaps and bounds in robotics and artificial intelligence brings the concept of a fully autonomous robotic companion or worker closer to reality. Star Wars, in contrast to films like Terminator and I, Robot, presents a world where the robotic companions are happy to live with their human creators and don’t resent their lives as something between ally and tool.
3. Advanced Prosthetics
Photo Credit: CNN.com
During his lightsaber showdown with his father in the Cloud City, Luke has his arm removed unceremoniously and painfully. Thankfully, just like with the Bacta tanks, the Rebels have ample medical technology on hand to restore Luke to fighting shape: not long after he lost his original hand, Luke is outfitted with an advanced robotic prosthetic. Luke’s new hand looks and acts just like the original, and likely has superior strength and durability, to boot! While this technology was firmly in the realm of science fiction in the 80’s, it has since become a much more plausible piece of tech. Modern robotics and prosthetic technology has created very similar devices for amputees, and every year the fine motor control and accessibility of these prototypes goes up.
2. Landspeeders & Speeder Bikes
Photo Credit: Geek Tyrant
The coolest way to crash into a tree this side of Tatooine! Landspeeders and speeder bikes are endlessly awesome, jetting around effortlessly and efficiently. Using what we can only assume is advanced antigravity tech, the speeders of the series hover a few feet off the ground and avoid the typical vehicular pratfalls of rough terrain and wear and tear to tires or treads. In our world, tech like this, while potentially possible, is still so difficult to replicate as to make it an unlikely prospect for us to see any time soon. Antigravity technology in the real world is incredibly bulky, costly, and experimental, so don’t expect to see it in a motorcycle-shaped vehicle in the near future.
1. Lightsabers
Photo Credit: Wookiepedia
No list of the coolest technology in Star Wars would be complete without mentioning the Jedi’s signature weapon. Combining sci-fi beam projection technology with the form factor and fighting style of ancient samurai warriors, the lightsaber sets Star Wars apart from its contemporaries, like Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey; the lightsaber represents the series mythical soul, its fascination with the monomyth and with the classic tale of the young hero against all odds.
Where other sci-fi series use blasters, phasers and the like as armaments for their protagonists, Star Wars outfits a sword for the main characters to carry. This elegant, and downright awesome, weapon might be unrealistic, even in the context of the universe it exists in, but the Jedi’s mastery over the mystical Force that pervades their universe allows them a supernatural control of themselves and their weapon.
Coordinating the superheated beam in such a way that the user doesn’t harm themselves or destroy the beam projector surely takes immense skill coupled with a mastery of the Force, and as such the lightsaber is a much more elite and exclusive weapon than the blaster, and marks those that carry it as worthy opponents.
