Wing Commander Movie Night: Return of the Jedi

The Wing Commander movie club is back from Skull Island and King Kong turned out to be just what we needed (a giant ape). This week, we're going to revisit a true classic: Return of the Jedi, the epic conclusion to the original Star Wars trilogy. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

There's little question that Return of the Jedi influenced Wing Commander: it's spectacular third act space battle was the best in the business for decades. The Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide specifically calls out Return of the Jedi as one of Chris Roberts' major influences for the original Wing Commander game:

Roberts had always been fascinated by science fiction movies and television shows, especially those like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Return of the Jedi. He liked the action elements of space combat, the dazzling special effects, and the variety of characters the creators had imagined in future worlds. He wanted to bring those elements to the computer.

The excitement of Jedi's space battle was still in Roberts' head when he was putting together the Wing Commander movie eight years later. Here's mention of it from the movie's original treatment:

Although the heroes become trapped deep behind enemy lines and ultimately must battle their way back out again, the combat will be infrequent...yet always lurking in the background. There will probably be no more than four set combat pieces, but they'll be spectacular ones, with incredible effects done exclusively with high-end computer graphics-think Return of the Jedi on steroids!

He continued to cite Jedi's importance for the movie throughout production. Here's another quote from a April 1999 Cinefex article promoting the film:

Roberts began development on the feature while still working for Electronic Arts. The film's deliberate retro look - featuring spacecraft that bore a strong resemblance to aircraft, battleships and submarines - arose from the director's desire to do a World War II movie in space. "I wanted to see spaceships going toe-to-toe, slugging it out and blowing up," Roberts remarked. "I hadn't seen any movie pull out all the stops and deliver that kind of action since Return of the Jedi. fortunately, production designer Peter Lamont got on board with this approach right away, showing up with ten huge illustrated volumes containing blueprints and detail of various warships.

Of course, there are some more direct connections, too. A huge one is that Wing Commander II actually stole its explosions directly from Return of the Jedi! Both types that appear in the game were traced from different scenes straight from the laserdisc release of the movie. Don't tell the lawyers!

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

We are planning to watch the "despecialized" version of Return of the Jedi which is a careful recreation of the original theatrical version of the film; this should best match what the Wing Commander team would've enjoyed in 1990! The despecialized version is not available commercially but can be found easily on the internet. A copy is currently available for download on the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!