Sarlacc
Encyclopedia
The sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas
's science fiction
saga Star Wars
. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
(1983) as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth. The sarlacc in the film inhabits the Great Pit of Carkoon, a depression in the sand of the desert planet Tatooine
. This creature is one of the largest of several sarlacci scattered across the Star Wars galaxy
.
In the original Return of the Jedi, the sarlacc is simply a barbed hole in the desert sand which characters fall into and are consumed; some are pulled into the sarlacc's mouth by its tentacles. Lucas changed the sarlacc's appearance in the 1997 Special Edition of the film by adding computer-generated
tentacles and beak that emerge from the opened mouth. Besides Return of the Jedi, the creature and others like it are featured in Star Wars literature
.
Like other aspects of Star Wars, the sarlacc became a part of popular culture
. The creature was incorporated into the merchandising campaign that accompanied the release of Return of the Jedi. It is the subject of analysis and humor in works of literature unassociated with Star Wars.
, the sarlacci are very dangerous and inhabit remote, inhospitable locations in the galaxy; few scientists have attempted to observe them. Those who do study the sarlacc argue over its taxonomic classification
. While most strongly agree that the sarlacc is an arthropod
(as stated in The Essential Guide to Alien Species and The Wildlife of Star Wars), others point to its anchored root system and spore
-based method of reproduction as evidence of a plant origin. A sarlacc reproduces by releasing spores that travel through outer space
and eventually come to rest on a planet or asteroid
's surface, forming a pit which is used for capturing prey.
Steve Sansweet
's Star Wars Encyclopedia
describes the sarlacc as an "omnivorous
, multi-tentacled creature with needle-sharp teeth and a large beak". The sarlacc rests at the base of a giant pit where the entirety of its body is buried except for the gaping mouth. The creature's beak blindly gropes along the sloped walls of the pit when the sand is disturbed, searching for prey. The sarlacc's mouth can reach three meters (10 feet) in diameter; it is positioned on its giant, worm-like head. Astrophysicist
and science fiction author Jeanne Cavelos
compares the sarlacc to the antlion
, an insect that burrows a pit in the sand during its larva
l stage. Both creatures catch and consume prey that falls into the pit.
Because most sarlacci inhabit isolated environments and rely on prey to stumble into their pit, they rarely feed. As a result, sarlacci have evolved an efficient digestive process. The stomach of a sarlacc slowly dissolves prey into nutrients in a painful process that can last for several thousands of years. Victims are kept alive in the acid-filled stomach throughout digestion and few ever escape. This is one aspect of the sarlacc that makes it such a feared creature. As the droid C-3PO
announces (translating for Jabba the Hutt
) in Return of the Jedi, "In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years". If no living prey is available, a sarlacc relies on its root system to absorb nutrients. One sarlacc located on an airless moon feeds on comet
ary material rich in oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen that drifts into its mouth.
The sarlacc's stomach is lined with a fibrous network of vessels that attach themselves to a swallowed victim. According to the Star Wars Databank, the prey is incorporated into the sarlacc's biological system as it is digested. Besides digestive acids, the stomach also contains mind-altering neurotoxin
s which keep victims from struggling and escaping. The toxins induce hallucinations in prey which "suggest that the sarlacc somehow absorbs the intelligence of all its victims, who live on in disembodied torment". A sarlacc can communicate with its victims through this stolen consciousness
. In one Star Wars short story, an old, unnamed Jedi
woman who falls into the sarlacc on Tatooine explains that "sarlacci do interesting things with messenger RNA
: over the course of millennia, they can attain a sort of group consciousness, built out of the remains of people they've digested. I talked to such a sarlacc, once a few decades ago". She too becomes part of the sarlacc's consciousness.
attempts to execute Jedi knight
Luke Skywalker
(Mark Hamill
), smuggler Han Solo
(Harrison Ford
), and the Wookiee
Chewbacca
(Peter Mayhew
)—dubbed "victims of the almighty sarlacc"—by dropping them into the creature's gaping maw. Luke frees himself and the others with the aid of Lando Calrissian
(Billy Dee Williams
) and droid R2-D2
(Kenny Baker
). A skirmish ensues ending with the death of Jabba.
Two short stories
in the anthology
Tales From Jabba's Palace
(1995) edited by science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson
focus on the sarlacc of Tatooine. Dan'l Danehy Oakes
' story "Shaara and the sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale" is told from the point-of-view of one of Jabba the Hutt's unnamed skiff guards. En route to the sarlacc's pit, the guard tells Boba Fett
about his sister Shaara's miraculous escape from the sarlacc. Shaara and her Imperial stormtrooper
captors are thrown into the pit when their landspeeder
explodes. The sarlacc swallows the stormtroopers, but expels Shaara. The skiff guard cannot explain why the sarlacc rejected its prey, but he suspects the creature might possess some kind of primitive intelligence since "[n]obody really knows anything about the sarlacc".
The skiff guard from Danehy Oakes's story tells Boba Fett, "Stay right here in the skiff and I can promise you a truly amazing view. You may even see what few have seen and lived: the sarlacc's belly." The skiff guard's promise is kept in the short story "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett." Written by Daniel Keys Moran
under the pseudonym
J. D. Montgomery, the story focuses on Boba Fett's struggle to free himself from the belly of the sarlacc. As Fett is digested, the creature taps into his mind and proceeds to have a conversation with the bounty hunter. The sarlacc informs Fett, "[Your] life and death belong to me now, not you; and they serve my purpose. Recognize and understand your place in things, Boba Fett, for you are not even a real thing; merely a collection of thoughts that has deluded itself into a belief in its own existence." The voice belongs to an alien named Susejo who was eaten by the sarlacc four thousand years earlier. The sarlacc absorbed the alien's consciousness and communicates with Fett through him. Despite the hopeless nature of the situation, the bounty hunter manages to ignite his jet pack, causing it to explode; he then uses a concussion grenade to blast himself free from the sarlacc. Fett is the only person known to survive being swallowed by a sarlacc. Years later, Fett returns to Tatooine in a new ship. As he approaches the surface of the planet, he flies past the Pit of Carkoon as a voice in his mind sounds, "YOU!"
The history of the sarlacc is featured in the non-canonical
Dark Horse
comic book
"Fortune, Fate, and the Natural History of the Sarlacc" written by Mark Schultz
and illustrated by Kellie Strom. The story is printed in Star Wars Tales
6 (2000). In this story, the sarlacc seen in Return of the Jedi is the offspring of an older sarlacc on Tatooine. Shortly after the execution of an unknown alien named Grubbat Fhilch, the sarlacc releases a spore that attaches to an Imperial stormtrooper
's dewback. The stormtroopers hire a group of Jawa scavengers to clean the dewbacks and one of them discovers the spore. Not knowing what it had found, the Jawa places the spore into a jar of water. The spore grows into a young sarlacc and soon escapes from the jar only to be swallowed by a spider-like creature. The sarlacc, however, kills the creature and eats it from the inside out. The young sarlacc buries itself in the sand and forms the Great Pit of Carkoon.
Sarlacci have made minor appearances in Star Wars video games such as Super Star Wars
(1992),Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
(1996), Star Wars: Demolition
(2000), Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
(2002), Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
(2003), and Star Wars: Battlefront
(2004). The MMORPG
Star Wars Galaxies
(2003) shows one of the smaller sarlacci in the Star Wars galaxy located on the remote planet Dathomir, as well as the Great Pit of Carkoon. It has also made an appearance in Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
, Star Wars: Empire at War
and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
(2008), where a sarlacc much larger than the one on Tatooine is first an ally of a Jedi Knight, and later used as a base for the Empire (even building structures inside the creature itself). A duel is fought beside the sarlacc in this game between Darth Vader
's apprentice Starkiller and Jedi Master Shaak Ti. The duel ends with Ti falling backwards into the massive sarlacc's open mouth.
Pit"—seen in Return of the Jedi evolved during the concept, creation, and filming processes. Early concept sketches portrayed a sarlacc creature with several moving tentacles and a pronounced beak. The sarlacc was designed to be very animated. Star Wars creator George Lucas
, however, did not have the technology or financial resources to realize this concept in the 1983 film.
The creature seen in Return of the Jedi is very inanimate. Special effects artists Stuart Freeborn
, Phil Tippett
, and the crew of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) constructed a pit in the desert sands of Yuma, Arizona
, that contained a gaping mouth and tentacles. At the time, the pit (along with Jabba the Hutt's sail barge) constituted one of the largest motion picture sets ever constructed. A hydraulic
system was designed to animate the creature, but the blowing sand clogged the mechanism. The film crew instead used poles and wires to move the creature's tentacles. Lucas was not satisfied with the effect, complaining, "There was nothing alive about the whole thing."
Working on the giant set was an arduous task, according to the crew members involved. Tippett told Starlog
magazine, "We were working the creature at the bottom of a gorge
, so we got no breeze. Sand constantly fell down upon us". In addition to operating the sarlacc, many technicians were standing in as skiff guards in full wardrobe. Tippett remarks, "[We] were covered with [sand and] glue from the costumes. I almost cracked on that one. I think I cried, it was so terrible." Actress Carrie Fisher
recalled that many of the crew and stunt men who fell into the creature during filming suffered broken legs and sprained ankles. ILM crew members received some satisfaction when they dismantled the set at the conclusion of filming and sold it to Mexico
as scrap. The one condition of the sale was that the materials were not to be resold as souvenirs.
The sarlacc design underwent a series of changes when Lucas released the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi in 1997. Employing the new technology of computer-generated imagery
(CGI), ILM enhanced the creature's appearance with the addition of CGI tentacles and a beak inside the sarlacc's mouth. According to Lucas, it "just looks much more realistic and more threatening ... it helps the scene considerably." Subsequent depictions of the sarlacc in Star Wars fiction are based on this revised design.
Lucas did retain some of the special effects from the 1983 film in the Special Edition. The tentacle that captures the skiff guard Kithaba and pulls him into the sarlacc mouth is from the original film, as well as the tentacle that attaches to Lando Calrissian's leg.
popular culture
. Aside from Star Wars fiction and merchandising
, the creature has appeared in critiques of the Star Wars films as a sexual metaphor. One popular fiction author uses the sarlacc as a descriptive term for slowness, a reference to the sarlacc's extended digestive process.
The sarlacc became part of Return of the Jedi's merchandising campaign that accompanied the theatrical release of the film. Parker Brothers
produced a board game
in 1983 called Battle at Sarlacc's Pit that was sold in the United States and Canada. Players collect points for battling their way through Gamorrean Guards, Boba Fett
, and a Nikto on Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, pushing them overboard into a cardboard sarlacc. The game, which sold for only a few years, is a collector's item.
Hollywood
journalist and humor writer Peter Biskind
muses that George Lucas went to great extremes to remove aspects of sex and sexuality from the plot of the Star Wars films. Biskind, however, asserts that Lucas created a "nightmarishly explicit image of threatening female sexuality" in the form of the sarlacc: "The Jabba episode culminates in an explicit vagina dentata
fantasy, as Luke and his pals have to walk a phallic
gangplank into the pullulating maw—festooned with long, curved teeth—of the giant sarlacc in its 'nesting place'." Premiere
magazine reviewer Tim Bissell complained, "Lucas sent his trilogy’s most arresting character Boba Fett
to a "death" so inglorious—falling headlong into the vagina dentata of Tatooine’s sarlacc—that its only payoff was a burp gag."
In addition "the mighty Sarlacc" has become a semi-regular character in Doug Savages internet cartoon Savage Chickens
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
's science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
saga Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
. It first appeared in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
(1983) as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping mouth is lined with several rows of sharp teeth. The sarlacc in the film inhabits the Great Pit of Carkoon, a depression in the sand of the desert planet Tatooine
Tatooine
Tatooine is a fictional planet and setting for many key scenes in the Star Wars saga, appearing in every Star Wars film except The Empire Strikes Back, although it is mentioned at the end of the movie...
. This creature is one of the largest of several sarlacci scattered across the Star Wars galaxy
Star Wars Galaxy
Star Wars Galaxy may mean:* Star Wars Galaxies, a Star Wars themed MMORPG platform for Microsoft Windows* Star Wars galaxy, the fictional galaxy where the setting of the Star Wars saga occurs...
.
In the original Return of the Jedi, the sarlacc is simply a barbed hole in the desert sand which characters fall into and are consumed; some are pulled into the sarlacc's mouth by its tentacles. Lucas changed the sarlacc's appearance in the 1997 Special Edition of the film by adding computer-generated
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
tentacles and beak that emerge from the opened mouth. Besides Return of the Jedi, the creature and others like it are featured in Star Wars literature
Star Wars Expanded Universe
The Star Wars Expanded Universe encompasses all of the officially licensed, fictional background of the Star Wars universe, outside of the six feature films produced by George Lucas. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, video games, spin-off films like Star Wars: The Clone Wars,...
.
Like other aspects of Star Wars, the sarlacc became a part of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. The creature was incorporated into the merchandising campaign that accompanied the release of Return of the Jedi. It is the subject of analysis and humor in works of literature unassociated with Star Wars.
Description and characterization
According to the Star Wars DatabankStar Wars Databank
The Star Wars Databank is the official Star Wars site's reference on characters, locations and technology. Entries are checked when they are posted but may not be kept up to date...
, the sarlacci are very dangerous and inhabit remote, inhospitable locations in the galaxy; few scientists have attempted to observe them. Those who do study the sarlacc argue over its taxonomic classification
Biological classification
Biological classification, or scientific classification in biology, is a method to group and categorize organisms by biological type, such as genus or species. Biological classification is part of scientific taxonomy....
. While most strongly agree that the sarlacc is an arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
(as stated in The Essential Guide to Alien Species and The Wildlife of Star Wars), others point to its anchored root system and spore
Spore
In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoa. According to scientist Dr...
-based method of reproduction as evidence of a plant origin. A sarlacc reproduces by releasing spores that travel through outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
and eventually come to rest on a planet or asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
's surface, forming a pit which is used for capturing prey.
Steve Sansweet
Steve Sansweet
Stephen J. Sansweet is the Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm and the author of sixteen books, fourteen of them about Star Wars. He is also the owner of the world's largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia...
's Star Wars Encyclopedia
Star Wars Encyclopedia
Star Wars Encyclopedia is a 1998 reference book written by Stephen J. Sansweet, the director of content management at Lucasfilm and science fiction author. The book defines, explains, and illustrates the characters, creatures, settings, objects, events, and concepts that appear in the science...
describes the sarlacc as an "omnivorous
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
, multi-tentacled creature with needle-sharp teeth and a large beak". The sarlacc rests at the base of a giant pit where the entirety of its body is buried except for the gaping mouth. The creature's beak blindly gropes along the sloped walls of the pit when the sand is disturbed, searching for prey. The sarlacc's mouth can reach three meters (10 feet) in diameter; it is positioned on its giant, worm-like head. Astrophysicist
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
and science fiction author Jeanne Cavelos
Jeanne Cavelos
Jeanne Cavelos is an American writer, editor, and astrophysicist. She is the founder of the Odyssey Writing Workshop.- Bibliography:*Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages – Casting Shadows...
compares the sarlacc to the antlion
Antlion
Antlions are a group of insects in the family Myrmeleontidae . The most well-known genus is Myrmeleo. There are about 2,000 species...
, an insect that burrows a pit in the sand during its larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
l stage. Both creatures catch and consume prey that falls into the pit.
Because most sarlacci inhabit isolated environments and rely on prey to stumble into their pit, they rarely feed. As a result, sarlacci have evolved an efficient digestive process. The stomach of a sarlacc slowly dissolves prey into nutrients in a painful process that can last for several thousands of years. Victims are kept alive in the acid-filled stomach throughout digestion and few ever escape. This is one aspect of the sarlacc that makes it such a feared creature. As the droid C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
announces (translating for Jabba the Hutt
Jabba the Hutt
Jabba the Hutt is a fictional character in George Lucas's space opera film saga Star Wars. Designed as a large, slug-like alien, his appearance has been described by film critic Roger Ebert as "Dickensian," a cross between a toad and the Cheshire Cat....
) in Return of the Jedi, "In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years". If no living prey is available, a sarlacc relies on its root system to absorb nutrients. One sarlacc located on an airless moon feeds on comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
ary material rich in oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen that drifts into its mouth.
The sarlacc's stomach is lined with a fibrous network of vessels that attach themselves to a swallowed victim. According to the Star Wars Databank, the prey is incorporated into the sarlacc's biological system as it is digested. Besides digestive acids, the stomach also contains mind-altering neurotoxin
Neurotoxin
A neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells , usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels. Some sources are more general, and define the effect of neurotoxins as occurring at nerve tissue...
s which keep victims from struggling and escaping. The toxins induce hallucinations in prey which "suggest that the sarlacc somehow absorbs the intelligence of all its victims, who live on in disembodied torment". A sarlacc can communicate with its victims through this stolen consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
. In one Star Wars short story, an old, unnamed Jedi
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
woman who falls into the sarlacc on Tatooine explains that "sarlacci do interesting things with messenger RNA
Messenger RNA
Messenger RNA is a molecule of RNA encoding a chemical "blueprint" for a protein product. mRNA is transcribed from a DNA template, and carries coding information to the sites of protein synthesis: the ribosomes. Here, the nucleic acid polymer is translated into a polymer of amino acids: a protein...
: over the course of millennia, they can attain a sort of group consciousness, built out of the remains of people they've digested. I talked to such a sarlacc, once a few decades ago". She too becomes part of the sarlacc's consciousness.
Appearances in Star Wars stories
The sarlacc is a creature in Star Wars fiction that first appeared in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. Crime lord Jabba the HuttJabba the Hutt
Jabba the Hutt is a fictional character in George Lucas's space opera film saga Star Wars. Designed as a large, slug-like alien, his appearance has been described by film critic Roger Ebert as "Dickensian," a cross between a toad and the Cheshire Cat....
attempts to execute Jedi knight
Jedi
The Jedi are characters in the Star Wars universe and the series's main protagonists. The Jedi use a power called the Force and weapons called lightsabers, which emit a controlled energy flow in the shape of a sword, in order to serve and protect the Republic and the galaxy at large from conflict...
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
(Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
), smuggler Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
(Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
), and the Wookiee
Wookiee
Wookiees are a species of bipeds in the Star Wars universe. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca, a companion to Han Solo.-Inspiration:...
Chewbacca
Chewbacca
Chewbacca, also known as Chewie, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Peter Mayhew. In the series' narrative chronology, he appears in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
(Peter Mayhew
Peter Mayhew
Peter Mayhew is an English actor known for playing the Wookiee Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies. His peak height was tall.-Career:...
)—dubbed "victims of the almighty sarlacc"—by dropping them into the creature's gaping maw. Luke frees himself and the others with the aid of Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian
Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi...
(Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
) and droid R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
(Kenny Baker
Kenny Baker
Kenneth George "Kenny" Baker is a British actor and musician, best known as the man inside R2-D2 in the popular Star Wars film series.- Career :...
). A skirmish ensues ending with the death of Jabba.
Two short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
in the anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
Tales From Jabba's Palace
Tales From Jabba's Palace
Tales from Jabba's Palace is an anthology of short stories set in the fictional Star Wars universe. The book was edited by Kevin J. Anderson and was released on December 1, 1995.- Contents :* Introduction...
(1995) edited by science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
focus on the sarlacc of Tatooine. Dan'l Danehy Oakes
Dan'l Danehy Oakes
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy.Born in New York City in 1958, his talent for writing showed up at an early age. In high school in Los Altos, California, Danehy-Oakes was a major contributor to a student-published science fiction magazine...
' story "Shaara and the sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale" is told from the point-of-view of one of Jabba the Hutt's unnamed skiff guards. En route to the sarlacc's pit, the guard tells Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
about his sister Shaara's miraculous escape from the sarlacc. Shaara and her Imperial stormtrooper
Imperial stormtrooper
The Imperial Stormtroopers are fictional soldiers from George Lucas' Star Wars universe. Stormtroopers are the soldiers of the imperial army under the leadership of the evil Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine and his commanders, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.They are shown in...
captors are thrown into the pit when their landspeeder
Landspeeder
Landspeeders are fictional antigravity craft used through the Star Wars movies and Star Wars Expanded Universe. They are depicted both in civilian and military capacities, and several versions have been merchandised as toys and models.-Origin and design:...
explodes. The sarlacc swallows the stormtroopers, but expels Shaara. The skiff guard cannot explain why the sarlacc rejected its prey, but he suspects the creature might possess some kind of primitive intelligence since "[n]obody really knows anything about the sarlacc".
The skiff guard from Danehy Oakes's story tells Boba Fett, "Stay right here in the skiff and I can promise you a truly amazing view. You may even see what few have seen and lived: the sarlacc's belly." The skiff guard's promise is kept in the short story "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett." Written by Daniel Keys Moran
Daniel Keys Moran
Daniel Keys Moran , also known by his initials DKM, is an American computer programmer and a science fiction writer.-Biography:Moran was born to Richard Joseph Moran and Marilynn Joyce Moran...
under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
J. D. Montgomery, the story focuses on Boba Fett's struggle to free himself from the belly of the sarlacc. As Fett is digested, the creature taps into his mind and proceeds to have a conversation with the bounty hunter. The sarlacc informs Fett, "[Your] life and death belong to me now, not you; and they serve my purpose. Recognize and understand your place in things, Boba Fett, for you are not even a real thing; merely a collection of thoughts that has deluded itself into a belief in its own existence." The voice belongs to an alien named Susejo who was eaten by the sarlacc four thousand years earlier. The sarlacc absorbed the alien's consciousness and communicates with Fett through him. Despite the hopeless nature of the situation, the bounty hunter manages to ignite his jet pack, causing it to explode; he then uses a concussion grenade to blast himself free from the sarlacc. Fett is the only person known to survive being swallowed by a sarlacc. Years later, Fett returns to Tatooine in a new ship. As he approaches the surface of the planet, he flies past the Pit of Carkoon as a voice in his mind sounds, "YOU!"
The history of the sarlacc is featured in the non-canonical
Star Wars canon
The Star Wars canon consists of the six Star Wars feature films, along with all officially licensed, non-contradicting spin-off works to the six films. As once defined by Lucas Licensing:- History :...
Dark Horse
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
"Fortune, Fate, and the Natural History of the Sarlacc" written by Mark Schultz
Mark Schultz (comics)
Mark Schultz is an American writer and illustrator of books and comics. His most widely-recognized work is his self-created and owned comic book series, Xenozoic Tales, about a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures coexist with humans...
and illustrated by Kellie Strom. The story is printed in Star Wars Tales
Star Wars Tales
Star Wars Tales was a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics, beginning on September 29, 1999 and completing its run on July 13, 2005. Each issue featured several unrelated stories from various eras of the Star Wars timeline. All stories from Issue #20 and before have been retroactively...
6 (2000). In this story, the sarlacc seen in Return of the Jedi is the offspring of an older sarlacc on Tatooine. Shortly after the execution of an unknown alien named Grubbat Fhilch, the sarlacc releases a spore that attaches to an Imperial stormtrooper
Imperial stormtrooper
The Imperial Stormtroopers are fictional soldiers from George Lucas' Star Wars universe. Stormtroopers are the soldiers of the imperial army under the leadership of the evil Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine and his commanders, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.They are shown in...
's dewback. The stormtroopers hire a group of Jawa scavengers to clean the dewbacks and one of them discovers the spore. Not knowing what it had found, the Jawa places the spore into a jar of water. The spore grows into a young sarlacc and soon escapes from the jar only to be swallowed by a spider-like creature. The sarlacc, however, kills the creature and eats it from the inside out. The young sarlacc buries itself in the sand and forms the Great Pit of Carkoon.
Sarlacci have made minor appearances in Star Wars video games such as Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars is the first of a series of three Super Nintendo games based on the original three films of the Star Wars series released in 1992 and re-released on the Wii Virtual Console. The term Super Star Wars can refer to the first game or to all three games collectively...
(1992),Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is a multimedia project created by Lucasfilm Ltd. in 1996. The original idea was to create an interquel, a story set between the movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , and to explore all commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release,...
(1996), Star Wars: Demolition
Star Wars: Demolition
Star Wars: Demolition is a vehicular combat game set in the Star Wars universe. The game was released on both PlayStation and Dreamcast consoles. The game was released on PlayStation on November 12, 2000 and on November 19, 2000 for Dreamcast....
(2000), Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a Star Wars video game developed and published by LucasArts for the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2, released in 2002. In the game, players play as the bounty hunter Jango Fett, featured in the 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones...
(2002), Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is a Star Wars video game developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. The game follows Rogue Squadron, which, under the command of Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, uses starfighters to engage and defeat the...
(2003), and Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront is a first and third-person video game based on battles in the Star Wars film series. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts and released on September 20, 2004 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, the same day as the release of the Star Wars...
(2004). The MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Galaxies is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Microsoft Windows developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts.-History:...
(2003) shows one of the smaller sarlacci in the Star Wars galaxy located on the remote planet Dathomir, as well as the Great Pit of Carkoon. It has also made an appearance in Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a video game based on the Star Wars-themed toy line by the Lego Group. It is a combination of the game Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy...
, Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War
Star Wars: Empire at War is a 2006 real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by LucasArts. Set between Episode III and Episode IV, it focuses on the fledgling struggle between the Empire and the Rebels. It uses Petroglyph's game engine Alamo. The most recent patch was...
and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
(2008), where a sarlacc much larger than the one on Tatooine is first an ally of a Jedi Knight, and later used as a base for the Empire (even building structures inside the creature itself). A duel is fought beside the sarlacc in this game between Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
's apprentice Starkiller and Jedi Master Shaak Ti. The duel ends with Ti falling backwards into the massive sarlacc's open mouth.
Concept and creation
The design of the sarlacc creature—originally called the "SlothSloth
Sloths are the six species of medium-sized mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae , part of the order Pilosa and therefore related to armadillos and anteaters, which sport a similar set of specialized claws.They are arboreal residents of the jungles of Central and South...
Pit"—seen in Return of the Jedi evolved during the concept, creation, and filming processes. Early concept sketches portrayed a sarlacc creature with several moving tentacles and a pronounced beak. The sarlacc was designed to be very animated. Star Wars creator George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, however, did not have the technology or financial resources to realize this concept in the 1983 film.
The creature seen in Return of the Jedi is very inanimate. Special effects artists Stuart Freeborn
Stuart Freeborn
Stuart Freeborn is a British motion picture make-up artist. He has been referred to as the grandfather of modern make-up design and is perhaps best known for his work on the original Star Wars trilogy...
, Phil Tippett
Phil Tippett
Phil Tippett is a movie director and an award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design and character animation.-Early career:...
, and the crew of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) constructed a pit in the desert sands of Yuma, Arizona
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
, that contained a gaping mouth and tentacles. At the time, the pit (along with Jabba the Hutt's sail barge) constituted one of the largest motion picture sets ever constructed. A hydraulic
Hydraulics
Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...
system was designed to animate the creature, but the blowing sand clogged the mechanism. The film crew instead used poles and wires to move the creature's tentacles. Lucas was not satisfied with the effect, complaining, "There was nothing alive about the whole thing."
Working on the giant set was an arduous task, according to the crew members involved. Tippett told Starlog
Starlog
Starlog was a monthly science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. The magazine was created by publishers Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs. O'Quinn was the magazine's editor while Jacobs ran the business side of things, dealing with typesetters, engravers and printers. They got...
magazine, "We were working the creature at the bottom of a gorge
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
, so we got no breeze. Sand constantly fell down upon us". In addition to operating the sarlacc, many technicians were standing in as skiff guards in full wardrobe. Tippett remarks, "[We] were covered with [sand and] glue from the costumes. I almost cracked on that one. I think I cried, it was so terrible." Actress Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
recalled that many of the crew and stunt men who fell into the creature during filming suffered broken legs and sprained ankles. ILM crew members received some satisfaction when they dismantled the set at the conclusion of filming and sold it to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as scrap. The one condition of the sale was that the materials were not to be resold as souvenirs.
The sarlacc design underwent a series of changes when Lucas released the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi in 1997. Employing the new technology of computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
(CGI), ILM enhanced the creature's appearance with the addition of CGI tentacles and a beak inside the sarlacc's mouth. According to Lucas, it "just looks much more realistic and more threatening ... it helps the scene considerably." Subsequent depictions of the sarlacc in Star Wars fiction are based on this revised design.
Lucas did retain some of the special effects from the 1983 film in the Special Edition. The tentacle that captures the skiff guard Kithaba and pulls him into the sarlacc mouth is from the original film, as well as the tentacle that attaches to Lando Calrissian's leg.
Popular culture
Like other aspects of Star Wars fiction, the sarlacc quickly became part of WesternWestern culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. Aside from Star Wars fiction and merchandising
Merchandising
Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer...
, the creature has appeared in critiques of the Star Wars films as a sexual metaphor. One popular fiction author uses the sarlacc as a descriptive term for slowness, a reference to the sarlacc's extended digestive process.
The sarlacc became part of Return of the Jedi
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
produced a board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
in 1983 called Battle at Sarlacc's Pit that was sold in the United States and Canada. Players collect points for battling their way through Gamorrean Guards, Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
, and a Nikto on Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, pushing them overboard into a cardboard sarlacc. The game, which sold for only a few years, is a collector's item.
Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
journalist and humor writer Peter Biskind
Peter Biskind
Peter Biskind is a journalist, former executive editor of Premiere magazine, and the author of numerous books depicting life in Hollywood, including Seeing Is Believing, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Down and Dirty Pictures, and Gods and Monsters...
muses that George Lucas went to great extremes to remove aspects of sex and sexuality from the plot of the Star Wars films. Biskind, however, asserts that Lucas created a "nightmarishly explicit image of threatening female sexuality" in the form of the sarlacc: "The Jabba episode culminates in an explicit vagina dentata
Vagina dentata
Vagina dentata is Latin for toothed vagina. Various cultures have folk tales about women with toothed vaginas, frequently told as cautionary tales warning of the dangers of sex with strange women and to discourage the act of rape....
fantasy, as Luke and his pals have to walk a phallic
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
gangplank into the pullulating maw—festooned with long, curved teeth—of the giant sarlacc in its 'nesting place'." Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
magazine reviewer Tim Bissell complained, "Lucas sent his trilogy’s most arresting character Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
to a "death" so inglorious—falling headlong into the vagina dentata of Tatooine’s sarlacc—that its only payoff was a burp gag."
In addition "the mighty Sarlacc" has become a semi-regular character in Doug Savages internet cartoon Savage Chickens
Further reading
- Carrau, Bob. The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8118-2869-7.
- Lewis, Ann Margaret. The Essential Guide to Alien Species. New York: Del Rey, 2001. ISBN 0-345-44220-2.
- Slavicsek, Bill. A Guide to the Star Wars Universe 3rd ed.; New York: Del Rey, 2000. ISBN 0-345-42066-7.