This page may be out of date. Submit any pending changes before refreshing this page.
Hide this message.
13 Answers
Rob Fletcher
Rob Fletcher, Star Wars geek since seeing the first movie in the theater at 6 years old
56.2k ViewsMost Viewed Writer in Star Wars (creative franchise) with 270+ answers

Oh man. Leaving aside how much the basic plot structure resembles that of episode IV the movie is full of little nods to the original trilogy for a start. Some of these are super-obvious, others less so but I'm trying to be as exhaustive as I can.

  • The first spoken line of dialogue in the movie is "This will begin to make things right" which could be considered a joke about how this movie is trying to repair Star Wars' reputation after the prequels.
  • We see vaporators on Jakku similar to those on Tatooine.
  • Rey lives in the wreck of an AT-AT.
  • Rey has a pilot's helmet with a "Tierfon Yellow Aces" design from the X Wing novels. She also has a doll that looks like a rebel pilot.
  • Rey's goggles appear to have been taken from a stormtrooper helmet so presumably she made them herself from junk found on Jakku.
  • Rey's whole outfit appears to be inspired by a costume designed for Star Wars when they were toying with the idea of making the Luke character female
  • The arch at Niima Outpost that Rey demolishes with the Falcon is based on the design of the gateway to Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi although it never ended up appearing in that film you can see it in Ralph McQuarrie's production design artwork.
  • The most obvious one – Kylo Ren has Vader's helmet. It's burned from the funeral pyre so Ren must have dug it from the ashes on Endor.
  • This is not confirmed anywhere I'm aware of, but it appears the melted Vader helmet may visually reference Mr Plinkett the "narrator" of Red Letter Media's epic dissections of the prequels? Look at the "teeth" in particular. Could be another dig at the prequels. (This was spotted by another Quora user).
  • An interrogation droid similar to the one Vader used in Episode IV is visible when Kylo Ren is interrogating Poe Dameron.
  • Finn's designation is FN-2187. Princess Leia was held in cell 2187 on the Death Star.
  • Finn removes his stormtrooper helmet and says "this is a rescue" very similar to episode IV when Luke removed his stormtrooper helmet and said "I'm here to rescue you" when he opened Leia's cell.
  • There's a Wilhelm Scream in the scene where Finn and Poe steal the TIE fighter.
  • The jump scare where the rathtar presses its "mouth" up to the glass is very similar to a moment in Empire with a mynock doing the same on the Falcon's cockpit.
  • There's a shot of a rathtar rolling after Han Solo down a corridor that I thought was meant to be a play on the famous scene where the boulder is rolling toward Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • Other visual references to famous movies:
    • North by Northwest
    • Apocalypse Now
    • The Seven Samurai
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Triumph of the Will
  • Finn finds Luke's training drone on the Falcon.
  • He also accidentally activates the game board R2 and Chewie played with in episode IV. The "pieces" on the board were stop-motion animated by the same team that did them in the original movie.
  • Rey and Finn use the breathing masks Han, Leia and Chewie used in the space slug asteroid.
  • Rey dismisses the Millennium Falcon as "garbage". Luke's reaction the first time he saw it was "what a piece of junk!" and Leia's was "you came in that thing? You're braver than I thought".
  • She may not have recognized it but Rey has heard of the Falcon as "the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 14 parsecs". Han corrects her that it's 12. This was a boast of Han's in episode IV, notorious because a parsec is a unit of distance not time.
  • Among the flags on Maz's castle are a Mandalorian design the same as a marking on Boba Fett's armor, the flag of the 501st clone legion and banners from the pod race in episode I.
  • During Rey's vision she sees the basement corridor in Maz's castle transforms into the Cloud City corridor where Luke and Vader fought in Empire Strikes Back.
  • She also hears Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda's voices. Most were just sampled from the original movies but they also had Obi-Wan say "Rey" by editing a recording of Alec Guinness saying "afraid" and had Ewan McGregor record a new line.
  • "Starkiller base" is a reference to names considered for the heroes in early drafts of Star Wars – Kane Starkiller and Luke Starkiller.
  • The modified X-Wing design is based on an original design variant done by Ralph McQuarrie for the first movie.
  • One of the X-Wing pilots has "born to ill" written in Aurebesh on his helmet. Presumably a reference to Beastie Boys album License to Ill. Abrams is known to be a big fan.
  • That pilot's name according to toys & supplemental material is "Ello Asty" – a play on the Beastie Boys' album title Hello Nasty as well as sounding like the letters in the title of a hit JJ Abrams TV show – L.O.S.T.
  • Nien Nunb (Lando's copilot at the battle of Endor) and Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi both return and are played by the original actors.
  • Stormtroopers searching for the heroes on Starkiller base use a line of dialogue used by stormtroopers on the Death Star "we think they may be splitting up".
  • Han suggests they throw Phasma in a trash compactor.
  • Carrie Fisher's daughter appears as "Lieutenant Connix" in the Resistance base and has something very close to Leia's hairstyle from episode IV.
  • Someone Force pulls a lightsaber out of a snow bank.
  • Star Wars movies have a tradition of someone losing an arm or hand: Ponda Baba, the Wampa, Luke, Vader, Anakin, Zam Wessel, Dooku, Grievous and now C-3PO (for the second time).
Liam Voris
Liam Voris, Former Jedi Knight

I think, the coolest, and probably most important Easter Egg that I had heard* of, comes in the final scene, where Luke is standing looking out at sea. Apparently, if you look close enough, you can see him looking at a tombstone. This is why he wasn't facing Rey, when she approached. So I looked more closely at the scene.

Yea. Were not given much to work with from that shot. It does show how he is looking away from Rey, looking out to the ocean. After some cool dramatic music, (which we will talk about later,) the shot pans to,

Do you see the upright stone. Sure, this was filmed off the coast of Ireland, a country that got torn up with glaciers, which means that there are lots of glacial rocks. So this could be any old rock that just happens to be sitting upright.

But this is a REALLY OLD jedi temple. The first one. Not that nooby CG one in Courosaunt.

So these rocks are old, and this tombstone is old, and worn, from years of being worn down from the sea winds.

Now. I don't really know who this tombstone is for, but hopefully we will find out.

_______________________________________________________

*Hence on heard of, because I didn't actually find this Easter Egg, but just investigated more on it, and interpreted it.

Quora User
Quora User, failed polymath
4.8k Views
Daniel Craig, of James Bond fame, makes a cameo as the stormtrooper who Rey practices her mind trick on.

The Easter Egg would be that the stormtrooper's ID is JB-007, an obvious nod to Craig's more famous role: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvsho...
Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson
12.6k ViewsUpvoted by Quora User, I've watched every movie at least thrice. and Bart Loews, intimately following the Star Wars franchise for 3 decades

There are 2 storm troopers discussing "The new T-17", a nod to A New Hope, when 2 troopers discuss the new BT-16

""Have you seen the new T-17?"

"Yeah, look like they modified the ion engine"

"I still prefer the T-16's.""

Quora User
Quora User
9.6k Views

Here's one right toward the end (fair warning for a potential spoiler).

On the island when Rey climbs to the top of the hill, you notice little zen stone pyramids. They're identical to the ones Luke built to practice using the force while training with Yoda on Dagobah. Interesting nod to the past and the future, given what is likely to happen between Rey & Luke in Episode 8.

Top Stories