The first time Chewie gets into the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, he hits his head on a small set of dice. They aren't seen in subsequent shots, nor are they seen in the rest of the trilogy.

During the trash compactor scene, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) held his breath so long that he broke a blood vessel in his face. That's why many of the shots show only one side of his face.

I believe it is at the house of Obi Wan Kenobi in the background you can see, on a table or shelf, part of a Volkswagen heater duct. It's a part of the car that goes under the rear seat. Most people wouldn't know what it is. It's black and standing vertically on the table

When Ben Kenobi is deactivating the tractor beam, the set Alec Guinness was on was only six feet above the floor.

All the dialogue when Han is on the console talking to some of the commanders was all ad libbed. Harrison Ford deliberately didn't learn the lines, so that it would sound more spontaneous.

The opening title crawl was inspired by the Flash Gordon serials, which is partially what inspired George Lucas to write Star Wars.

When Luke goes to his room we see C-3PO saying he told R2-D2 not to leave. In the room there is something visible that looks like the bonnet of a car with a Mercedes Benz sign on it.

In the Jawa's Sandcrawler, a shiny droid says "Je t'ai coupé les patates avec des choux," something in French that means "I cut your potatoes with cabbages."

The reason why C-3P0 lets R2-D2 go in front of him as they enter the Skywalker's residence right after being purchased from the Jawas, is because the set guy operating R2-D2 by radio control kept on hitting C-3P0 from behind and pushing him down the stairs, so in the final shot, C-3P0 suddenly steps to the side, waves R2-D2 past, and the shot cuts out right before R2-D2 goes flying down the stairs.

Anthony Daniels is the only cast member of the trilogy to voice his character in the trilogy's National Public Radio's dramatizations (while Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams voiced their characters for "The Empire Strikes Back," they were replaced in "Return of the Jedi" by Joshua Fardon and Arye Gross, respectively).

While filming the desert scenes, Anthony Daniels' C-3PO costume kept falling apart, especially the legs. In many of the close-ups, Daniels was in costume only from the waist up. Notice as Luke and Obi-Wan pick up the damaged droid following the Sand people attack - the film cuts to the next scene with an upward vertical wipe, to avoid having to show his legs.

Before signing on as the film's sound designer, Ben Burtt auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker.

The uniforms of Alliance pilots ressemble the uniform of US Navy pilots in the 60's and they were made with racing pilot's clothes. They also have distress rockets on their ankle like Luftwaffe pilots in the second world war.

Luke Skywalker's name was originally going to be Dirk Starkiller.

The interrogation droid has a protruding metal object at the top that resembles salad tongs. These are Simpson forceps, which have been used for centuries to deliver babies. Certainly a torture device if the expectant mother has no anesthesia.

While not as beset by disasters as Lucas's previous movie American Graffiti, there were some setbacks. Firstly, filming in Tunisia was delayed when the region experienced its first winter rainstorm in fifty years. Getting R2-D2 to work also proved very problematic, and at one point it started picking up Tunisian radio signals.

Han Solo's gun is a Mauser pistol (Schnellfeuer model), a copy of which was used in the Chinese Army.

Just before the film's completion, Mark Hamill was cast as David Bradford on the TV series "Eight is Enough." Hamill believed the film was going to be a hit, and wanted to focus on his film career. Hamill played David in the series' pilot, and was replaced by Grant Goodeve for the rest of the show's run.

George Lucas wanted to do a Flash Gordon remake, but couldn't obtain the movie rights and developed Star Wars in its stead - hence the opening title sequence. Following the success of Star Wars, the owners of Flash Gordon decided to make a movie after all. Released in 1980, the same year as The Empire Strikes Back, it flopped.

In the Death Star scenes (yes, all of them), whenever the Imperials walk, you can hear their footsteps. But when Tarkin walks, you can't hear him. This is because Peter Cushing (Tarkin) found his Imperial boots so uncomfortable, he didn't wear them. He wore carpet slippers, so you can't hear him. The only shots in which he can be seen wearing boots are shots in which he remains stationary.