Star Wars Documentary Attempts to Decipher 40-Year-Old Mystery

A U.K. documentary crew is apparently setting out to learn which actor was the Star Wars Storm [...]

By Russ Burlingame

A U.K. documentary crew is apparently setting out to learn which actor was the Star Wars Storm Trooper who famously banged his head in one of cinema's most famous bloopers. Star Wars fans will apparently learn which of at least three men who all claim to have been the unfortunate extra was actually concussed by a spaceship, and which of them is either lying, misremembering or, most likely, also hit his head on that same low-hanging door but was not caught on film doing so. You can see the trailer for the film, which comes out later this month, in the tweet below.

The film will apparently include a number of celebrity cameos, and a "jury" to appraise the men's claims, which includes famous geeks Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg as well as a number of others. Smith, it seems, is his usual gregarious self and brings some energy to the trailer with his enthusiasm about discovering the truth behind a decades-old mystery relating to Star Wars.

Filmmaker Jamie Stangroom funded the film partially on IndieGoGo, although most of the budget appears to have come through traditional channels.

Per his description on the IndieGoGo page, "The Empire Strikes Door is a fun mini documentary (30 minutes +) which aims to solve a Star Wars mystery! We know who Luke's father is. We know who stole the Death Star plans. We even know who shot first! What we don't know is the identity of the stormtrooper who cracked his skull against a Death Star door, in one of cinema's most famous bloopers....I wanted to track him down, and relive his memories of that fateful day. It sounded simple, until I actually started looking. It wasn't that I couldn't find him, it's that I kept finding more of him! I now have three suspects, and no idea who to trust."

The trailer is playing things faux-seriously, and Stangroom's Twitter replies are full of fans who are excited for a slightly less reverential take on the franchise that has been setting box office records for over forty years.

One of the men, actor Laurie Goode, released a single on iTunes in 2016, titled "Who Was the Stormtrooper Who Banged His Head!?" and spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his time on the film the next year.

The Empire Strikes Door will be available on September 25 on Stangroom's YouTube channel.

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