One of ‘Revenge of the Sith’s Biggest Mysteries Has Just Been Solved Two Decades Later
It’s the time that Star Wars fans have been eagerly waiting for since it was announced: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is back in cinemas for its 20th anniversary. As someone who was only three years old when the film came out, the opportunity to experience one of my most beloved films on the big screen is one I will treasure, like many others. One of the best parts about the anniversary is seeing people discuss their favorite tidbits, factoids, or theories concerning the prequels.
Theories such as these are as old as time itself… or at least some of them are just as confusing. However, the one that will leave you most puzzled has nothing to do with Darth Plagueis, Midichlorians, or Jar Jar Binks’ (Ahmed Best) true intentions, but something that is only on-screen for a half-second at the 1-hour 59-minutes and 1-second mark. During the battle between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) on Mustafar, when the two are floating on the lava river and Anakin jumps off the raft to land on Obi-Wan’s, you can see someone’s face appear in the foreground pulling some kind of grimacing face.
Theories have ranged from this being a force ghost, a different take or deleted scene that has been spliced in by accident, to a purposeful Easter egg. The answer isn’t perhaps as cool as any of those, but it does reveal something deeper about our connection to Star Wars.
The CGI Blunder Has a Far Less Mystical Purpose Than Fans May Hope in ‘Revenge of the Sith’
Considering this comes from a movie on its 20th anniversary, it felt like we would never get an answer. Not that Star Wars fans would mind, outlandish possibilities are the bedrock of a fandom. However, Todd Vaziri, a compositor who worked for ILM and specifically on Revenge of the Sith, decided to get to the bottom of this once and for all and posted the results on his blog, FXRant. Vaziri sifted through clip after clip of the original green-screen footage that “hadn’t been touched in years” until he finally discovered the truth.
It turns out that the face we see is the set rigger manipulating the raft Anakin stands in, most likely to give it movement to mimic being on an actual river. Regarding how this could creep into the final edit, Vaziri explained that, when CGI artists work “frame by frame,” they end up “creating new garbage mattes in order to paint details into the motion-blurred edges” and someone must have “inadvertently revealed” the rigger’s head in one of those frames. Therefore, it would only be caught by scrutinizing the footage in the same way, frame by frame. With a rate of 24 frames per second, that means there are over 170,000 frames in Revenge of the Sith. I think we can accept that 1/170,000 is a decent rate of return for mistakes.
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May the force be with you.
Gaffs Like These Are Part of Star Wars’ DNA
Now, before you start screaming for George Lucas to make another one of his famous edits, consider that this does not ruin the scene. Even in recent projects, we have seen similar mistakes, such as when Jeans Guy became an internet sensation after being spotted in the background of The Mandalorian. In that case, Disney removed him, and that feels unnecessary, considering, as Vaziri argues, it adds to the mythos of how Star Wars is made. Since A New Hope, where a stormtrooper banged his head on a doorway, gaffs such as these have always found their way into the finished product and been embraced by the creatives.
It shows how the passion for your craft is arguably as important as the execution. As Vaziri says, we can see that “human hands” touched every shot we see and how many talented people came together to create the galaxy far, far away that we all love. With Revenge of the Sith coming back to cinemas, knowing that this little error exists adds another layer of excitement at getting to see it on the silver screen. So, if, at the 1 hour, 59 minute, and 1 second mark, anyone looks around confused, you can sit smugly knowing that you alone are aware of the truth behind the spooky “force ghost.”
Revenge of the Sith is currently in theaters across the U.S.
