Star Wars Influences: Dam Busters
The original Star Wars movie was a mashup. George Lucas and his collaborators pulled from everywhere: westerns, samurai movies, Flash Gordon, and a 1955 war film called The Dam Busters. This video shows just how closely the attack on the Death Star mirrors a scene from The Dam Busters of a group of bombers attacking a dam. The dialogue is identical in places. From the Dam Busters Wikipedia page:
Director George Lucas hired Gilbert Taylor, responsible for special effects photography on The Dam Busters, to be the director of photography for the film Star Wars. The attack on the Death Star in the climax of Star Wars is a deliberate and acknowledged homage to the climactic sequence of The Dam Busters. In the former film, rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and fire a proton torpedo at a precise distance from the target to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails, another run must be made by a different pilot. In addition to the similarity of the scenes, some of the dialogue is nearly identical. Star Wars also ends with an Elgarian march, like The Dam Busters.
You can also watch Star Wars footage with Dam Busters audio and Dam Busters footage with Star Wars audio to see just how closely the two scenes match.
Given modern IP concerns and stakes, it’s difficult to envision this type of homage working today. Star Wars came out just 22 years after The Dam Busters, which is a beloved & acclaimed movie in Britain…it’s not obscure. Imagine a movie released in 2026 by a young Academy Award-nominated director that lifts a scene wholesale from a 2004 film like The Notebook, The Incredibles, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Million Dollar Baby — it just wouldn’t happen without a lot of lawyerly conversation. I mean, maybe Lucas had those convos with The Dam Busters filmmakers… 🤷♂️
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The Dam Busters is also referenced in Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album. It's the movie that Pink is watching on TV.
https://alexonfilm.com/2017/06/28/pink-floyd-the-wall-1982/
The Ben Hur / podrace parallels are also fun to see. https://explicatingstarwars.substack.com/p/now-this-is-chariot-racing
Dude, have you seen Top Gun Maverick?! It’s probably not as faithful as DB/SW, but it felt like Déjà vu all over again.
Right?! The opening titles are like shot-for-shot!
I'm old, and not as hip as I used to be, so this eludes me. I was referring to the strike on the uranium enrichment facility recalling the attack on the Death Star. Perhaps I'm projecting more into it than is really there, but my wife mentioned it before I said anything so at least it's not just me.
If you're referring to the opening sequences of the two Top Gun movies, of course; but that just feels like you're mocking me. There's also the sports ball sequence, though with greater gender diversity. I'd expect the sequel to recall those "iconic" moments.
It was your comment that you couldn't see something like that happening today that prompted the comment.
Oh sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were making a joke about how much Top Gun: Maverick resembled the original Top Gun and was trying to play along.
But yeah, the Maverick bombing run and the Star Wars trench run share some similarities, but honestly I didn't make the connection until just now.
Kind of a bummer to see how much he straight ripped off from other sources - goes well beyond an homage.
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