Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace (1999)
When the Trade Federation organize a blockade around the planet Naboo, the Supreme Chancellor Valorum sends the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to negotiate the end of the blockade. However the evil Viceroy Nute Gunray is ordered to kill the Jedi and invade Naboo. However the Jedi escape and Qui-Gon saves the life of the clumsy Gungan Jar Jar Binks. The outcast native takes the Jedi to his submerged city and the Gungan leader gives transportation to them. The Jedi head to the capital to warn Queen Amidala about the invasion. However she has been captured by the Federation droids but the Jedi rescue the queen and her court and they flee in a spacecraft that is damaged when they cross the blockade. They land on a desert planet and Qui-Gon Jinn goes to the town with Jar Jar, the droid R2-D2 and the queen's assistant Padm? to seek the necessary part for the spacecraft. When they find the component, they do not have money to buy it. But the slave boy Anakin Skywalker offers to dispute a race with his pod to raise the necessary money. Qui-Gon feels the Force in the boy and accepts his offer. Will the boy win the race? What will happen to Naboo? Will Queen Amidala be capable to convince the politicians to release her planet from the Trade Federation?
Every generation has a legend. Every journey has a first step. Every saga has a beginning.
Obi-Wan: Why do I get the feeling that we've picked up another pathetic life form?
CTV Services, Tunisia
(studio)
Ksar Hadada, Tataouine, Tunisia
(Slave Quarters, Tatooine)
Ksar Medenine, Medenine, Tunisia
(Slave Quarters, Tatooine)
Ksar Oueld Soltane, Tataouine, Tunisia
(Slave Quarters, Tatooine)
Leavesden Studios, Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, UK
(studio)
Oung Jmel, Nefta, Tunisia
(Mos Espa, Tatooine)
Royal Palace, Caserta, Campania, Italy
(Naboo Royal Palace)
Sidi Bouhlel, Tozeur, Tunisia
(Podrace, Tatooine)
Whippendell Woods, Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
(Naboo forest)
Liam Neeson was so eager to be in the film that he signed on without having read the script.
Ewan McGregor recalled that his performance in the film consisted of "walking into rooms and looking up".
Keira Knightley's parents tried to convince her not to audition, but the twelve-year-old actress still sought a role, given she was a Star Wars fan.
During filming, Ewan McGregor made lightsaber noises as he dueled. George Lucas explained many times that the sound effects would be added in by the special effects people later on. Ewan said "I kept getting carried away."
Sets were built only as high as the tops of the actors' heads, and computer graphics filled in the rest. Liam Neeson was so tall that he cost the set crew an extra $150,000 in construction.
Continuity
In the Nubian parade scene at the end of the movie, Anakin Skywalker is seen as a Jedi Padawan and sports a new haircut and a Padawan braid. The braid is considerably longer than his hair had been at any other point in the film.
When Jar Jar activates the Pit Droid in Watto's shop, he knocks over a protocol droid and some other junk. A moment later the droid is upright again.
During the fight over and around the droid control ship, Anakin says to R2-D2, "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick." Anakin is seen to turn the flight controls to the left, but his craft spins to his right. In an earlier scene (right after the auto pilot is disconnected) Anakin says, "Let's go left", turns the controls to the left, and the scene tilts to Anakin's left.
When Anakin and Padm? arrive at the pod racer hangar, Anakin is taller in the close-up shots, and Padm?'s hair is noticeably a little different. The close-up shots were done almost a year after principal photography.
Upon the Queen's landing to meet the Senate there's loads of air traffic, yet when they land, there's no reflection of any of the ships flying overhead on the shiny ship itself.
Factual errors
When the engines start turning on Anakin's pod racer, they are turning the wrong direction. They should be turning so that the fan blades will force air into the engine, but the direction they are turning, air will blow out the front of the engine.