After 49 Years of Star Wars, These 5 Things Still Make No Sense About the Millennium Falcon
The Millennium Falcon has been one of the most popular ships in any sci-fi movie since it was introduced 49 years ago in Star Wars: A New Hope. The ship belongs to Han Solo, who captains it with his close friend and ally Chewbacca, and it played a huge role in helping Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Forces destroy the Death Star and eventually bring down the Empire. It has since appeared in all three of the original trilogy movies and then again in the sequel trilogy as a key part of the war against Imperial Forces. However, while the Millennium Falcon has remained a popular ship for closing in on five decades, there are several things about the craft that make no sense.
From things inside the ship that make no sense to the design of the craft itself, there are plenty of things about the Millennium Falcon that make no sense, yet fans ignore these problems to this day.
5) How Much of L3-37 is Still in the Millennium Falcon?
One of the most shocking revelations in Solo: A Star Wars Story is that when Lando Calrissian owned the Millennium Falcon, he was also working with a self-aware droid called L3-37. This droid was one that had a mission, as she fought for droid rights and freedom, and that made the movie Solo even more tragic. This is because she was mortally wounded, and the only way to get out of the Maw Cluster would be for her to integrate herself into the Falcon’s computer system.
This changed her from a droid fighting for independence into a piece of property for whoever owned the Falcon. However, in the original Star Wars trilogy, there was no evidence that a self-aware droid was helping pilot and control the ship. There is a thought that many instances where the Falcon survived while Han, Chewy, and others were distracted might have been because of L3-37. When Rey began to fly the ship, with no experience, and did so well, that could have been L3-37. The existence of this ghost in the machine was never really touched on, but it could explain a lot of instances that make no sense about the ship.
4) The Cockpit is Too Confusing
The entire cockpit is a mess of buttons and controls, and not a single one of them is marked or labeled. Sure, Han Solo might know what they all do, but how could he have known when he got the ship to begin with? Each button, lever, and dial on the panel does something different, but how does anyone know what each of them does? There is no rhyme or reason to these controls, and it would seem easy for someone co-piloting to hit the wrong button and destroy everything.
What is humorous is that an old story claims that Harrison Ford got into the cockpit for the first time, looked at everything, and then asked George Lucas how to fly it. Lucas answered that he doesn’t know because it’s Han’s ship. That seems to be the best answer to most questions concerning the Millennium Falcon, as if something makes no sense, at least it looks cool, and there is no reason to worry about it. The same story said that when Ford was in the cockpit, he just pushed random buttons and that was good enough for Lucas.
3) Why Are All the Weapons in a Different Part of the Ship?
Yes, the Millennium Falcon is a freighter ship and not a fighter ship, so there would be no reason to have weapon controls. However, Han Solo clearly added his weapons when he was upgrading his ship to add offensive and defensive capabilities to it, considering his line of work as a smuggler. That said, why did he have the only gun controls at a spot where he needed a separate gunner to operate them?
Surely, the Millennium Falcon would have eventually added automated gun controls, or even moved the system to the cockpit to quickly get to them when it was needed. Han doesn’t have a big crew, and he and Chewbacca are typically the only people on board the ship. Why didn’t he make things easier when having the weapons added rather than making them so hard to get to, especially in dangerous situations? Sure, it looks cool where they are located, but this should be about ease of use, not looking cool.
2) Why Does No One Recognize It?
The Millennium Falcon was involved in some of the biggest wars and events in the history of the galaxy. Even people on planets that don’t have access to much news about the goings on in space should have heard of it. The Falcon took part in the destruction of two different Death Stars and was in plenty of fights against the Empire. However, in the sequel trilogy, it had sat untouched on Jakku for a long time without anyone knowing what it was.
While many people might not know about the battles, the tales of the war against the Empire were prevalent on all planets. If anything, the Millennium Falcon would at least have a mythical reputation, which would make some people wonder if this specific ship is the official Falcon. Yet, it sat there for ages without scrappers even going to strip it down for a profit. At least one or two people on the planet should have known what ship this was.
1) Why is the Millennium Falcon So Fast?
There are some in-canon explanations for why the Millennium Falcon is as fast as it is, but that doesn’t mean it has to make any sense. The main explanation given for its speed is that it has an illegal 0.5-class hyperdrive, a heavily customized modular frame, and an advanced navigation computer. This is all a nice sci-fi explanation, but the Falcon is a very beefy ship, and it should in no way be as fast and agile as it is.
It does not really make sense for a beefy freighter to keep up with the maneuverability of ships that were designed with that purpose in mind, like the TIE fighters. They are smaller and quicker to maneuver, but somehow, the Falcon remains the fastest and wins out in most space battles. The only thing that does make sense is the advanced hyperdrive, which would make it faster when doing the Kessel heist. Its speed in battle still makes no sense, regardless of the explanation.
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