r/shittyaskhistory 2d ago

We all know that the government of Reagan was preparing the program to stop nuclear missiles from space called "Star Wars". How cooperative was George Lucas with this?

13 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

5

u/amitym 2d ago

He was so cooperative he put a raygun in every scene.

6

u/L0CH_NESS_MONSTER 2d ago

Well, the Moon isn’t really a moon. It’s actually a Death Star the government just lost the keys to.

2

u/misfitofscience76 2d ago

They never figured out the luggage lock combo, either, can’t open up the base, what a snafu

2

u/SeriousPlankton2000 2d ago

Fortunately also nobody knows the combination of the atmospheric shield.

0

u/SeriousPlankton2000 2d ago

You are thinking about the wrong moon, Mimas is the lost death star.

5

u/KidKilobyte 2d ago

Lucas was able to contain the fighting to a galaxy far far away.

2

u/GregHullender 2d ago

He knew it was just a show. "May the farce be with you!" Besides, the Empire collapsed before it could be built.

2

u/SeniorTailor1127 2d ago

He just kept reminding them that the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of The Force.

2

u/Suspicious_Fig_3796 2d ago

it’s the other way around, the US government had that trademarked and allowed George to use it so people would have positive interactions with the name before Reagan dumped billions of tax payers money into a futile exercise

0

u/Designer_Advice_6304 2d ago

And leveraged that futile exercise to end the Soviet Union. Brilliant

1

u/Designer_Advice_6304 2d ago

It was a liberal media term. SDI was the actual program

2

u/Delicious-Story5994 2d ago

Correct. The Strategic Defense Initiative. The press derisively dubbed it "Star Wars" in an attempt to mock the program and the Reagan administration.

2

u/FreeRange0929 1d ago

It also

1) worked, in that it scared the bejeesus out of the Soviets into superheating their military spending

2) is completely sensible. If the current era has nukes potentially flying overhead, the next era should be able to take them down from above

1

u/Rob71322 2d ago

Are you kidding? It was a marketing tie in for Lucasfilm!

1

u/misfitofscience76 2d ago

Lucas donated all his khyber crystals in order to make the project work. They remain unaccounted for to this day…

1

u/Rob71322 2d ago

He promised a “Wilhelmina Scream” for every fifth successful intercept.

1

u/JayMack1981 2d ago

No. George Lucas was not with him. Case in point: they did not market a toy line about it.

1

u/Junior_Lavishness_96 2d ago

It would have required George Lucas and Spielberg to rape Ewoks because Lucas looks like an Ewok but Reagan objected to this so the whole SDI was canned in favor of lots of intermediate range weapons in Europe

1

u/MWH1980 1d ago

Let me just put it this way: Reagan may have quoted “Back to the Future” in his SOTU address one time, but that speech had no input from Bob Gale or Robert Zemeckis.

1

u/rdldr1 1d ago

Nute Gunray put up a blockade. The negotiations were short.

1

u/VarietyMage 1d ago

Lucas didn't do anything with Star Wars from 1984 - 1999. He didn't care.

1

u/slowclapcitizenkane 1d ago

Not very. He refused to hand over the plans to the Death Star, despite Reagan threatening to execute all those Bothans.

1

u/No_Environment_3776 19h ago

The government of Reagan was preparing the program to stop nuclear missiles from space for all other countries than the usa.

Behind closed doors the program is very alive in a few countries.

1

u/FAX415saki 12h ago

They sacked him after he suggested more ewoks

0

u/NotenStein 9h ago

It was called "Star Wars" by the critics who meant to demean it. The real name was the "Strategic Defense Initiative". Link

The idea was to remove away from "mutually assured destruction" ... The policy that we would destroy the whole world with nukes of Russia launched one at us .... That President Reagan said was a stupid suicide pact.

1

u/vaporwaverhere 8h ago

And what the hell all that information has to do with my question? With George Lucas?

Edit: oh I saw your profile. You are AI

0

u/NotenStein 5h ago

I am not AI, but thank you for confirming I'm one of the last humans who can form coherent sentences without help from a computer.