FAQ for
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones can be found here.

Like all of the Star Wars movies, Attack of the Clones is based on a screenplay written by American director and screenwriter George Lucas. A novelization of the screenplay, written by R. A. Salvatore, was released in conjunction with the film in 2002.

At first this does appear to be a monumental blunder, but if one looks back at the original Star Wars they will see that at no point does C-3PO give his number to Owen in the one and only conversation the pair ever have. Owen dies the next day, so this fact has no chance to come to light. In addition, we see throughout the series that C-3PO follows a standard protocol droid design which seems to be quite common. The metal plating covering C-3PO in Attack of the Clones was a rusty brown color, and not at all the shiny gold he sports in the later episodes, further obscuring his identity when he appears again, twenty-five or so years later. By that point, C-3PO had undergone a memory wipe, so he doesn't recognize Owen, either (although R2-D2 presumably might). No explanation has yet been given, on the other hand, as to why Anakin simply walks off with the Lars' protocol droid without even asking. On the other hand, C-3PO is Anakin's, as he is the droid's maker (3PO even identifies Anakin as such when they meet again). Anakin gave 3PO to his mother when he left for the Jedi training, so it is no more than fair that Anakin receive the droid back after Shmi's death. Perhaps Owen had given his permission off-screen, before Shmi's funeral.

The army created by the cloners of Kamino was supposedly, according to the Prime Minister of Kamino, ordered by Jedi master Sifo Dyas; however, Mace Windu disputes any Jedi involvement. The genetic donor for the army, Jango Fett, also claims to have never heard the name, instead crediting the idea to a man named Tyranus, who had recruited Jango for the job. While the films never make a clear pronouncement, the events can be seen for what they are by paying attention to a few key scenes. We learn at the end of the film that Count Dooku is Darth Tyranus, and that he, while seeming to head the Separatist movement, is actually colluding with Darth Sidious in order to bring about the Clone War. The clones created from Jango, who appears to be working for Dooku and the Separatists, actually are created for use by the Republic. Dooku/Tyranus is playing both sides to bring about the conflict so that his master can grab more power and erode the democratic goverment, paving the way for a dictatorship. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the clone army was actually ordered by Dooku, who used the name of a respected but recently deceased Jedi to cover his tracks. One can also infer from this that it was Dooku who erased Kamino from the Jedi archives, which Yoda claims could have only been done by a Jedi-why this is, he does not make clear. In the DVD commentary track, Lucas claims that this matter would be clarified in Episode III, but such a clarification never came about.

In many Star Wars novels and spin-off series, it is established that, as part of Jedi training, the padawan creates his own lightsaber. The type of crystals used in the hilt ultimately determine the color of the saber. Sith Lords generally use synthetic crystals that make the saber red in color. Jedi use either green or blue organic crystals. Mace Windu is a unique Jedi, in that he practices a very complex style of fighting called 'Vaapad' (as described in the Star Wars novel Shatterpoint). This style uses techniques which lean very close to the Dark Side of the Force. Purple is a combination of red (Dark Side) and blue (Light Side), so it is possible this was done to portray his "double personality" though this is not canon and is unlikely. This is how he came into possession of a purple saber outside of the movies: As a padawan, Mace was sent to the planet Hurikane on a mission. In exchange for saving one of the native species, he was given a "handful" of Hurrikaine crystals, which allowed him to make a lightsaber with a purple blade.

According to Jedi Training given in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a Jedi's lightsaber is to convey the class he is trained in. Blue is a Jedi Guardian/Knight (focused on strength and combat skills over the Force), yellow is a Jedi Sentinel (a balance of strength and the Force) and green is a Jedi Consular (a focus on Force training over combat). Red lightsabers are used by the Sith, along with purple. However, using KOTOR 2, and the further classing of the basic Jedi, the following list shows a Jedi's lightsabers by color classification: Jedi Guardian/Knight and Weapons Masters - blue, cyan and purple (Mace Windu is a Jedi Weapons Master). Jedi Sentinel and Watchman - yellow, orange and bronze. Jedi Consulars and Masters - green, silver and viridian. All Sith have red.

In an interview, George Lucas said he had the intention of using the yellow lightsabers in the battle on Geonosis as the movie introduction to them; however, due to the desert landscaping of the planet, the yellow blades did not work well in long shots and therefore were scrapped.

Outside of canon, it has been stated many times that Samuel L. Jackson (the actor who played Mace Windu in the films) requested his own color of lightsaber. He asked Lucas whether purple was a possibility and Lucas said "you may get purple." (This exchange was captured by the on-set documentary crew and appears in part ten of the "Web Documentaries" section, entitled "Good to G.O.," on the Attack of the Clones DVD.) So the purple saber may have no more symbolism than that Samuel L. Jackson wanted his own color.

Dooku's aim is to start a galactic civil war, and so he appears to be playing both sides off against each other. As Yoda says at the end, being a Sith Lord, Dooku uses lies and deception, and creates mistrust to confuse his enemies. At Obi-Wan's capture, he claims to have good intentions towards the Jedi, and not to know Jango Fett. But we soon learn that this is merely a trick to get Obi-Wan to join him, as later scenes clearly prove that Dooku is a Sith and also Jango's employer. But it is not unthinkable that Dooku is trying to get Obi-Wan to join the Dark Side, in order to destroy Darth Sidious. During the entire saga, we see Sith apprentices scheming to overpower their masters (Darth Vader states his intention to overthrow his master several times), so perhaps Dooku was partly sincere when he asked for Obi-Wan's help in destroying the Sith Master, although he left out the part of wanting to become master himself. When Obi-Wan refused, he probably abandoned this plan, also possibly because he judged Obi-Wan a disappointing opponent at the end, and thus an unworthy ally. Dooku apparently also knew that in revealing the knowledge of the existence of his Sith master, Darth Sidious, the risks are minimal for Dooku being aware that the Jedi know that the Sith are master manipulators, he predicted exactly that Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi would not believe him about Sidious controlling the Republic from behind the scenes.

Later, during the climatic battle sequence, Dooku claims to the Trade Federation viceroy that he does not know how the Republic or the Jedi was able to produce such a large clone army that quickly. This is clearly a lie because, at the end, Dooku tells Sidious that everything is going as planned. It is safe to assume that Dooku most likely ordered the creation of the clone army himself, and recruited Jango Fett under his alias Darth Tyrannus, as well as bringing together the Separatists and their droid army through financial means.

As Jango is ducking into the entry hatch on his ship during his escape from Kamino, he's seen to strike his head on the lower lip of the door. The obvious explanation would of course be that Jango simply did not duck quick enough to miss the closing door. However, animation supervisor Rob Coleman has described this as an inside joke referencing an actual mistake that made it into the final cut of the original Star Wars (i.e. Episode IV). When stormtroopers break into the control room where the droids are hiding in that film, one on the right-hand side of the screen can be seen running face-first into the lower edge of the door (later versions of the movie confirm this obvious goof by including a sound effect); the implication is that the stormtroopers, who were revealed in the prequels to have all been cloned from Jango, had inherited this slightly clumsy trait from him as well. However, this is almost certainly a case of the filmmakers sharing a winking reference rather than an actual, serious explanation. After all, most of the troops in Episode IV are standard humans, not clones.

As the Trade Federation is still under investigation following their illegal actions in The Phantom Menace, it is conceivable that their weapons production has been halted by the Senate for the time being. If this is true, then they may have started an illegal factory hidden on Geonosis. The secret production might necessitate using local minerals and ores (the surface of Geonosis is also quite red), as large shipment of the regular materials would attract too much suspicion. This would go some way to explaining why the droids look different. It could also just be that in preparing for the coming war, the Trade Federation has sped up production and therefore opened more facilities to create more droids in a shorter time. Perhaps shortage of the normal materials forced them to use other (local) materials. Also, there is the fact that this film takes place ten years after The Phantom Menace. Maybe the new color is related to a marketing campaign the Trade Federation is using to promote the battle droids and other products ("Now available in 20 designer colors!!"). The whole "blockading of Naboo" thing probably didn't help their public image too much.

No, this was deliberate. The bombs, called seismic charges, break the sound barrier. By the laws of science, objects that break the sound barrier create a sonic boom. You can't hear a sonic boom until the object breaking the sound barrier is close enough to you, only a second after the detonation. However, science also dictates that there would be no sound in space at all since there is no air of any kind, but the Star Wars films have always fudged this fact for dramatic effect. The seismic charge bombs are thought to be modeled after underwater depth charges used against underwater submarines which give off a similar sound explosion. In the DVD commentary track, Ben Burtt acknowledges what appears to be a mistake. He says that he and George Lucas debated the sound effect & in the end, Lucas agreed it would be a dramatic addition to the scene. Additionally, this effect was the same in the theatrical run of the movie.

In order to obtain a PG rating in Britain the fight between Jango Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Kamino was cut: a head-butt was removed. All cuts were waived for the latest releases of the movie on DVD. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.

It is said in the other stories that between the events of Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars, there was an uprising on Kamino where the cloners used an army of clones to rebel against the Empire but was defeated by the Empire. After the uprising, the Emperor ordered a new supply of clone recruits different from the Jango Fett clones. At the same time the Empire began recruiting large numbers of humans into the Stormtrooper units as well. By the time of the events in Episode IV, the Stormtroopers were a mix of humans and clones made from several different cloning templates.

Step 1: Shortly after The Phantom Menace, Palpatine orders his new apprentice Darth Tyranus a.k.a. former Jedi Count Dooku to travel to Kamino in order to commission them to create a clone army for the Republic under the guise of Jedi Master Syfo Dias. Dooku also starts fostering discontent among leaders of star systems over the widespread corruption and abuse of power within the Galactic Senate.

Step 2: 10 years after the end of The Phantom Menace, many planets have joined a Separatist movement led by Count Dooku. Since both the Trade Federation and the Techno Union Army are prominent members, the Separatists start to become a military threat to the Republic. Palpatine proposes a vote in the senate to decide whether or not the Republic should build an army to resist the growing Separatist threat, as the Jedi are no longer capable of maintaining the peace. He has also formed a friendship with Anakin Skywalker, who is susceptible to his subtle influences due to Anakin's sometimes strained relationship with his Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Step 3: Senator Amidala returns to Coruscant to vote in the senate. As she is firmly opposed to the creation of a Republican army and her vote carries much weight with the rest of the senators, two attempts are made on her life by assassins hired by Lord Tyranus. Palpatine uses this to insist that Amidala go into hiding on Naboo and be accompanied by Anakin as protection. This gets Amidala out of the way for a while, and she gives her proxy to Jar-Jar Binks while she is gone.

Step 4: When the Jedi learn that the Separatists are creating a new battle droid army, they inform Palpatine of this matter. Palpatine and his aides subtly trick Jar-Jar into using Amidala's authority to recommend granting Palpatine immediate emergency powers so that he can combat the Separatist threat without the approval of the senate.

Step 5: Chancellor Palpatine claims that he "reluctantly" accepts the powers he is given and vows to give power back to the senate once the Separatist threat has been averted. He then uses the emergency powers to commission an army for the Republic. Conveniently, the clone army was already commissioned and ready to be deployed by this time. Palpatine cleverly uses his influence to play both sides against each other, in order to gain more power as the conflict escalates. The initial battle on Geonosis is the beginning of the Clone Wars, during which he can use and extend his power without much interference from the Senate, while at the same time gaining massive popularity from the public.

For the next steps see Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

The optical differences in Episode II: Attack of the Clones are not too many. In contrast to Episode I, there is no completely new set of color filters but only slight changes in a few scenes. Nonetheless two striking differences can be found. The change in Anakin's nightmare is completely new and the the scene in which Count Dooku flees was recut and rearranged. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.

After Jango is decapitated by Mace Windu in the Geonosian arena, his son, Boba, picks up his helmet. Seems reasonable that Jango's head would've fallen out at that point. However, if you watch the scene where he's killed very closely, you'll see two shadows on the floor of the area: one is from his helmet and a second, harder to notice, is for his head, which falls out of the helmet.