R2-D2 - The Movie Character
When George Lucas created the StarWars saga, he
wanted to have a comedian element in the movie to provide a means of
relief after especially unnerving scenes. He thought about a duo like
Stan Laurel/ Oliver Hardy, and to make these more fitting to the
planned ultra-futuristic setting, he decided to go with two robotlike,
mechanical characters, called droids. One of them was supposed to be a
tall human shaped golden robot, while the other was intended to be a
small, quite unusually shaped machine on three legs.
Reference Pictures from
the Movies
I have compiled the following reference pictures
from all six movies. The photos were taken as screenshots from the DVD.
Please klick on the thumbnails to get to a high-res version.
Artoo´s Tools and Sensors
DOME |
1 |
"All-Arms-Out" - sequence from
ROTJ. This was still done with mechanical effects on the set. Some of
the arms used here are pictured in the Visual Dictionary. |
|
2 |
And another "All-Arms" -
sequence from Episode 3. Most of these seem to be CGI. |
|
3 |
A holographic projector (HP)
shining out of the moveable little "eye" lens below and to the right of
the single large blue-rimmed radar eye. |
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4 |
A very, very, very long arm
extending from an undetermined position on the head to do repairs on
the engines of Luke´s X-Wing. This arm is way too long to fit inside
the head, and there are no telescoping points visible. |
|
5 |
A radar dish , used as a
lifeform sensor, mounted in one of the six flaps at the top of the dome. |
|
6 |
A data exchange port at the
bottom of the large blue-rimmed eye at the front of his head. It is
here that Leia inserts her data of the Death Star in ANH. |
|
7 |
A telescoping drink dispenser
shown on Jabba´s barge in "Return of the Jedi". This is very large and
we don´t see how this mechanism extends or retracts. It would take up
most of the space in R2´s head, and it would conflict with the
lasersword-mechanism. |
|
8 |
A lightsaber-popping mechanism
that shoots Luke´s lightsaber several dozen meters into the air. The
hatch slides inwards and towards the top of R2´s head, then the
lightsword rises into firing position. |
|
9 |
After R2 was submersed in mud
on Dagobah, he spits out that mud out of the same hatch that the
ligthsaber pops out from. Is this supposed to be the one that the
periscope comes out from? |
|
10 |
LDI´s - "Logic Display
Indicators" - Two sparkling lights at the front and one wide one at the
back of the head. |
|
11 |
PSI´s - "Processor State
Indicators" - A flashing light at the front that changes from red to
blue and back at a rate of about once a second, and another flashing
light like the one at the front, but it alternates from yellow to green. |
|
12 |
A fire extinguisher that seems
to be postioned in the front of the head; below and right of his blue
eye. |
|
13 |
A periscope extendable from
R2´s head. There´s no hint in the movies behind which panel on the dome
this is hidden. On the Applause R2 with periscope head, it is situated
in the same panel as the pop-out lightsaber. |
|
14 |
Electric arc zapper situated
in the dome, in the same hatch as the lightsaber in ROTJ. The pie panel
swings out in this instance, however. |
|
BODY - ARMS AND
GRASPING DEVICES |
15 |
Two blue arms at the front
with grasping claws. With the anti-magic of CGI we later see these arms
to be extendable in Episode 3. |
|
16 |
A computer
terminal arm for access to any network. It is situated in the right
vertical door on R2´s front. In ANH this arm is mounted at the top end
of the door and swings upwards and out. In ESB however, this arm is
mounted at the bottom of the right hand door and swings downward and
out (during R2´s second attempt to plug into the Cloud City computer.).
In Episode 2 again, the arm seems to be placed in the middle...... |
|
|
17 |
A grasping arm in the left
vertical door. You can see this at the end of ESB when R2 tweaks the
Falcon´s hyperdrive back to work. This arm was also used in Episode 1
for tweaking Anakin´s podracer, but there it was situated in the right
front bay. |
|
18 |
A probable goof of the prop
department: This "computer arm" is deployed by R2 in ESB at Cloud City
when tries to connect to the city´s computer for the first time and
gets fried in the process because he mistakenly tries on a power plug.
The arm looks exactly like the one before (at No. 17) but it is
situated in the right hand vertical door. It is mounted at the top of
the door and extends upwards and out. |
|
19 |
A more simple-looking grasping
arm in the left-hand side front door. R2 uses this to wrestle with
Yoda. Later, he seems to hold a welding tool with this arm. This arm
also seems to have been used for the repair on the outside hull of the
Royal Starship in Epsisode 1, with a lower position in the bay, however. |
|
20 |
A rather different-looking arm
in the left front door R2 uses in ANH for manipulating the hologame in
the Millenium Falcon. |
|
21 |
A welding tool R2 uses for
welding on Luke´s X-Wing on Dagobah in ROTJ. This may or may not be on
the same arm as No. 20 |
|
22 |
Very long arm with very long
"fingers", used in Episode 2 in the arena to reassemble C-3PO. Situated
in the left front bay, pivoting at the middle (!) of the bay. |
|
23 |
Arm with three "polydigital
graspers", used in the interstellar liner in Episode 2. Situated in the
bay where´s also the circular saw. There´s also another of those
impossibly long (CG) arms originating from the left front bay, pivoting
at the top. |
|
BODY - OTHER DEVICES |
24 |
A power plug to recharge
R2-D2´s power cells is situated in the little horizontal door above the
six "switches" at R2´s right front. Here Luke recharges R2 after their
arrival on Dagobah. |
|
25 |
The same door contains an
electrical arc zapper to cut chains and repell nasty Ewoks. |
|
26 |
A circular saw is hidden
retractable behind the larger door at R2´s left front. |
|
27 |
Grasping device at R2´s
backside, used in Episode 2 to pull C-3PO´s head off the battlefield in
the Geonosian arena. R2 seems to have used that later in ESB, because
he managed to pull the dismantled C-3PO off the landing platform while
rolling forward. |
picture coming soon.... |
28 |
The rocket engines R2 uses in
the deleted scene on Coruscant, when he falls over the edge of the
landing platform. |
|
29 |
The rocket engines R2 uses in
Episode 2 to fly through the droid plant |
|
30 |
An oil-dispenser, R2 uses in
Episode 3 to overpower the Super Battledroids. |
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Other R-series droids:
Of course, R2-D2 is just one out of several
series that together probably make up millions of droids. In his case,
"R2" is the series designation. Besides the R2-series, the R5-series
has been known for years, because the droid from ANH with the "bad
motivator" had been identified in several sources as R5-D4. By now, a
number of other R-series droids are known. The following drawings are
taken from Ballantine Books "Essential Guide to Droids". Though they are not very
accurate in some respects, they can help in a general comparison.
It all started with the P2-series, which
was the predecessor of the R-series. It had to be discontinued due to
some lawsuit. IA came up with the R1-series, which used black shells
from recycled MarkII reactor domes. They were huge and had no
resemblance to their later sucessors, the R2 series. One R1 (R1-G4
actually) can be seen in the droid auction sequence at the beginning of
ANH. They had just enough memory capacity to calculate a single set of
hyperspace jump coordinates. |
|
|
This disadvantage was corrected in the R2
series, which were able to store 10 sets of jump coordinates. They were
also much smaller and agile. |
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The R2 series was continued with the R3
series, a special version intended for gunnery calculations. They had a
more precise computer, but at the cost of storage space for jump
coordinates. They only can record 5 sets of them. One can easily spot
an R3 droid because of it´s CLEAR head dome. |
|
|
The next member in the family was the R4
series, a more simple model for the private market. It only stores one
set of hyperspace coordinates. It is recognizable by the high
round-to-square head. |
|
Their sucessors, the R5 series, was IA´s
only failure. Intended to be even more affordable than the R4 series,
it became too cheap, it lacks the R2´s versatility and the R4´s
reliability. It only stores one set of jump coordinates. (Some rebels
have modified their R5´s to store 10 sets of coordinates. Wedge
Antilles for example used R5-D2 in the Battle of Borleias. Due to his
constant shrieking, R5 was memory-wiped and renamed R5-G8.) |
|
|
The next step in the evolution of the
R-series was (logically) the R6 series. It was less expensive, yet it
could store 12 sets of jump coordinates. It became soon very popular. |
No stills available, because
these were not in the movie. ILM thought about putting them into
Episodes 1 to 3, but decided against it. |
|
The last model so far was the R7 series,
which was especially produced for the new E-wing starfighter of the New
Republic Forces. It stored 15 sets of jump coordinates and was
protected against ion blasts. |
Appearances of other
R-series droids in the movies:
The [time] denotes approximate hours:minutes into
the movie counting from the start of the Centfox fanfare. This will
vary greatly due to the version of video you use !
Episode 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE
|
[27:06 min] |
|
Very first
appearance of R2-droids in the movies aboard Queen Amidala´s Royal
starship. Together with R2-D2, three other astrodroids are sent
outboard to effect repairs. A red R2-unit gets blasted away first,
followed closely by R2-B1, a blue-golden droid. The third one, G8-R3, a
droid who is assembled from an R2 body and an R5 series head, gets shot
into thousand pieces shortly afterwards. |
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|
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Besides. there´s a blooper in
this scene. When R2 bumps into JarJar, there´s another R2 unit in the
elevator in the background with a paintscheme very similiar to R2-D2.
Since the two other R2´s here look rather different, it must be R2-D2
in the same shot twice ! |
[57:20 min] |
|
A red-coloured R5 series can
be seen behind Jabba the Hut when he makes his appearance in the
Podracing stadium. |
|
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Yellow-coloured R2s in several
of the Naboo fighters |
|
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A red-coloured R2 that was
probably used in the Naboo hangar set. This photo is from the web
documentary. |
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A yellow-coloured R2 seen in
the background in Watto´s shop.This photo is from the web documentary.
Note the vise in the foreground that was made on the planet "England". |
Episode 2 : ATTACK OF THE CLONES
|
|
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A green-coloured R2 seen
briefly on the landing platform on Coruscant, before being destroyed by
the explosion of the Naboo starship. |
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Rdings (R4M19?), the droid in
Obi-Wan´s jedi starfighter |
Episde 3: REVENGE OF THE SITH
|
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Rdings again, here being
beheaded by a nasty bunch of buzz droids. The dome that is pulled away
is one of the R2 builder´s club´s R&J domes..... |
Episde 4: A NEW HOPE
|
[4 min] |
|
Rebel prisoners are led off by
stormtroopers. The droid is labeled R4-M9 by Decipher and BTM. White
body and head, but with dark olive drab vertical stripes along both;
olive top of head |
|
|
Same sequence. R2-series droid
with a white/light grey body, vertically alternated. The lower half of
the head is also light grey; the top half is coloured white with one
black horizontal stripe. Legs are grey. |
[13 min] |
|
Robot auction. R5-D4 on sale.
Baaaad motivator.......White body with red vertical doors, blue leg
details. |
[40 min] |
|
Mos Eisley checkpoint. A white
R2 crosses the lower frame with a black "eye" detail and red arms at
the front. This R2 has been replaced by a digital Ronto in the Special
Edition of ANH. |
[40 min] |
|
Same sequence. A R5-series
droid with a yellow head, white body with yellow details and arms. |
[41 min] |
|
Arrival at the cantina. A
white R2 with an orange-red dome with white areas crosses the picture.
This is supposed to be called R5-A2, althought the name doesn´t really
make sense. |
[44 min] |
|
The droids wait outside. A
white R2 with a dark grey head and probably grey leg details passes by. |
[48 min] |
|
Streets of Mos Eisley. White
R4, labeled R4-E1 by Decipher and BTM. Has the round-to-square-head,
red leg details and body doors. Belongs to BoShek, the Corellian pilot
who introduced Chewbacca to Obi-Wan. |
[1h: 11 min] |
|
Obi_wan alone in the Death
Star. Imperial R3 in the background. The round head is made of clear
material with a lot of detail inside. The body is medium blue with
light grey doors at the back. |
[1h: 32 min] |
|
Rebel briefing. R2-model,
called R2-X2 in BTM, with a dark green body, white head dome with two
small horizontal stripes. Black "eye" detail. This R2 is loaded into
the X-Wing of Red10 at [1h: 35 min] |
[1h: 32 min] |
|
Same sequence. R5-unit with a
mostly white body (not much more to see of him) |
|
|
R5-unit witha black-and-red
paint scheme. This is later seen in the X-Wing of Red Leader. |
[1h: 39 min] |
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In the Death Star. White
Imperial R3 with red doors and leg details. Also has the clear head
dome. |
Episode 5: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
|
[5 min] |
|
Han enters the Rebel Hangar. A
R5-series droid with white body, apparently black head and vertical
doors. Black leg details. The lower front arm is painted grey. |
|
|
Same sequence. A
yellow-coloured R3 droid with a clear dome. |
[5 min] |
|
Same sequence. R2-droid with
white body, red head with white details; red door on rear side of body. |
|
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Han talks to Chewie on the
Falcon. A yellow R2 in the background. The body looks exaclty like the
yellow R3 mentioned before. |
[24 min] |
|
Rebels man their speeders.
Only the head of an R2.series droid is visible. The head is either
clear or of a very bright chrome colour. |
Episode 6: RETURN OF THE JEDI
|
[45 min] |
|
Rebel briefing. A R3-model
with white body; clear dome with reddish details inside; red leg
details. |
[45 min] |
Same sequence. R5-droid with
white body and blue leg details. The head has a peculiar paint scheme
of four black chevrons on a white base. |
|
|
There are several black R4´s
and R5´s visible in the different Death Star hangar sequences. |
R2-D2´s Story
The Beginning - Before The Clone Wars
The definite origin of our favourite astrodroid
remains a mystery even after Episode 1.
The "official" source of Artoo´s origins (at
least for the time being) is taken from the StarWars Sourcebook,
published by West End Games, 1987 :
- Maker & Model: Industrial Automaton
R2 Astromech Droid
- Height: 1 meter [sounds too small for me]
- Skills: Computer Programming &
Repair; Starship repair
- Equipped with:
- Three wheeled legs (one retractable)
- Two retractable arms; a heavy gear
grasper and one suited for fine work
- Extendable video sensor [probably
means the "periscope"]
- Small electric arc welder
- Small circular saw
- Video Display screen [??]
- Holographic projector
- Fire extinguisher
|
please click to enlarge this picture from the "Behind the Magic"-CD |
After these "birth" notes, we know nothing of
what happened to Artoo for a long time. There are the episodes,
however, of the TV cartoon series DROIDS that starred R2 and C-3PO.
Together with the DROIDS TV series a comic series
was published by Marvel Comics. Issue #1 (shown here) started on April
1st, 1986. It was rather aimed at the younger audience. The writers did
have orders, of course, not to reveal any meaningful details of the
droids´ past.
Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace
R2-D2´s first appearance as a true astromech
droid belonging to the household of Queen Amidala of Naboo and is at
the moment assigned to the droid labour pool aboard her Royal Starship.
During the breakthrough of the Trade Federation´s blockade, he proves
to be very courageous (and pretty lucky, methinks), which brings him a
free cleaning from the hands of Maid Padme/ Queen Amidala. Later on
Tatooine, he meets C-3PO for the first time, who is still rather
unfinished. After the fateful podrace, the two are seperated again for
the moment, only to meet again in Episode 2. R2 helps in destroying the
battle droid command ship above Naboo.
Episode 2 - Attack Of The Clones
R2 accompanies Senator Amidala to Coruscant, only
to become witness of the bomb atack on her ship (and the destruction of
a fellow Astromech). Later, he flies with Amidala and Anakin Skywalker
to Naboo, and from there to Tatooine. R2 meets C-3PO again, who has by
now gotten a skin, although not a golden one. After a message from
Obi-Wan they fly to Geonosis to help Anakin´s master. On Geonosis R2
rescues the Senator from a fiery death in a melting pot by flying to
the melting control station using his anti-gravitiy thrusters. And he
saves C-3PO by retrieving 3PO´s head in the arena.
Episode 3 -Revenge Of The Sith
R2 helps Anakin Skywalker to rescue Chancellor
Palpatine from General Grievious´ flagship. After that he´s present at
much of the action, but doesn´t play much of a role. At the end, he´s
with the soon-to-be rebels on the Royal Alderaanian Envoy ship
Tantive IV.
A New Hope - The Radio Drama
The next time R2 is mentioned is in the "Star
Wars radio drama", broadcasted at the time by National Public Radio and
today available on CD. We learn to know a lot of the dramatic events
right before "A New Hope":
After a rebel group under the command of Bail
Organa, Leia´s stepfather, managed to ambush an Imperial convoy
transporting the plans of the almost finished Death Star, Leia hurries
aboard the Tantive IV to meet the rebel group and take the
plans over from them to deliver them to Alderaan. Aboard this vessel
are two droids named R2-D2 and C-3PO, who belong to the ship´s captain
called Antilles (Wedge´s father), yet due to a shortage of duties the
robots are temporarily assigned to the ship´s droid labour pool, to do
very low-grade work. Just when they are about to receive the Death Star
plans by radio transmission, the Tantive IV is intercepted by
the Imperial Star Destroyer Devastator. To give a cover story
for their presence, R2-D2 is sent out into space and pretends there to
do extravehicular repairs. Due to this diversion the Tantive IV
manages to escape with the stolen plans into hyperspace. They emerge
from hyperspace close to a backwater planet called Tatooine, seemingly
in safety. But obviously some traitor (according to BTM it was the
protocoll droid U-3PO, who is shortly seen on screen behind C-3PO just
at the beginning of this sequence) has placed a homing device aboard
the Tantive IV blockade runner, because the Devastator
is right on their heels. The larger vessel manages to hit the rebel
ship and draws it into its docking bay. But Leia succeeds in placing
the stolen plans and a message for a certain General Kenobi in R2´s
memory banks and sents him down to the surface of the planet Tatooine.
The rest is movie history......
Episode 4 - A New Hope - The Movie
R2 takes his droid friend C-3PO and flees in an
escape pod. They are both taken prisoner by the Jawa people and later
by a wonderful coincidence sold to a certain Owen Lars, who happens to
be the uncle of Luke Skywalker. Luke finds a message in R2´s memory
banks for General Kenobi. After Luke´s relatives are murdered by
Stormtroopers chasing the Death Star plans, Luke meets Obi-Wan Kenobi
and takes the droids to Mos Eisley in hope of finding a ship to leave
the planet. They escape in Han Solo´s Millenium Falcon, only to be
drawn into the Death Star that is still hovering among the remains of
the planet Alderaan, their intended destination. With R2´s help they
succed in freeing the Princess and leaving the Death Star again,
although without Obi-Wan, who sacrifies himself to allow Luke to
escape. They flee to the Rebel Hideout on the fourth moon of Yavin. The
rebels mount an attack on a weak spot of the Death Star. Luke flies
with them, using R2-D2 as his astrodroid. Together, they succeed in
destroying the Deatth Star only seconds before the anniliation of the
rebel base.
Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back
After the victory at Yavin, the rebels hide on
the ice planet of Hoth. After a probe droid discovers them, they are
forced to flee. Luke takes R2 along in his X-Wing, but they don´t folow
the rebels to their rendezvous-point; instead flying to the uncharted
planet Dagobah, where Luke wants to find Yoda, the Jedi Master. R2
brings himself into trouble several times. Luke senses his friends are
in danger, and although Yoda warns him not to go, he leaves Dagobah
with an unfinished training. On Cloud City over the planet Bespin, Luke
confronts Darth Vader, while R2 meets up again with Lando Calrissian,
the Princess and C-3PO. R2-D2 enables them to escape by opening the
doors, spraying a fog from his fire extinguisher to hide his friends,
and by finally repairing the deactivated hyperdrive in the Millenium
Falcon.
Episode 6 - The Return Of The Jedi
Luke sends C-3PO and R2-D2 into Jabba the Hutt´s
fortress, where Han Solo is held frozen into carbonite. Not knowing
that he took a troian horse into his palace, Jabba takes them prisoner.
When the rebels are supposed to be thrown into the pit monster of
Carcoon, R2 shoots Luke´s lightsaber into his hands, and the friends
manage to kill Jabba and escape. During the attack on the second Death
Star, R2 and 3PO accompany the Princess, Luke and Han to the surface of
the moon of Endor. Here, R2 makes some Ewok friends, otherwise he takes
no big role in the destruction of the Death Star this time.
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