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Helping someone with a childhood Star Wars memory

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This is reposted from another board:

"VanEck posted this on Oct 29th, 2007 at 09:26:11 am
I fancy myself a hardcore Star Wars nerd... but I know there are a few who surpass my knowledge of the Force on this board.

Do any of you know what video/clip from 80's features Darth Vader chasing a boy on a Subway? It is a very short clip, and there is a very groovy tune in background. I do not recall any vocals, but I was like 5 years old when I saw it, so I could be wrong. Whatever this video is, it had a big impact on me as a kid, and I always associate Subways with Darth Vader to this day.

I have never seen it again since, and I have started to think I was crazy... until today i stumbled upon this lonely thread: http://ask.metafilter.com/31435/What-80s-music-video-featured-Darth-Vader

Apparently I'm not the only one who has seen it... this guy described exactly what I remember seeing once. He seems to think it was a music video of some sort. Personally, I thought it was something I saw on HBO once, in between movies or something... just some weird random stand alone short. No one seems to be able to provide him with an answer though =/"

Does anyone know what this was/is?
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I don't know for sure, but it almost sounds like a comedy parody or something. Good luck on finding it.
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I think I know what you're talking about. It was one of those odd little film shorts HBO used to run inbetween movies in the 80's.

The plot is basically just a boy riding alone on a monorail(?) type of train. (I remember it being an elevated track.) He was reading a Marvel Star Wars comic, and his imagination cuts loose as the train keeps going. A whole lot of pseudo-2001 visuals set to a synthesizer score follow, as the boy imagines travelling in hyperspace and firing at the bad guys.

There is no dialogue, which is why it might have seemed like it was a music video.

When he arrives at his station, Vader is waiting for him! He starts to flee, when Vader grabs him! The boy snaps out of the fantasy, and realizes it's just his older sister. They go down the escalator together. The End.

I wish I could recall the title. It's been too long!
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Thank you for mentioning this…I thought I imagined the whole thing because I can’t find anything about it! I’m glad I’m not the only one who remembers this film!

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There are some on this forum for whom this thread could be a childhood memory.

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It’s a shame those HBO monthly guide booklets never listed the short films. We could probably find it in minutes if we had a title. It was years before I found this short. It’s like a lost sequence from Heavy Metal!
https://youtu.be/BNSnsccG0T4

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SilverWook said:

I think I know what you’re talking about. It was one of those odd little film shorts HBO used to run in between movies in the 80’s.

I don’t remember this short, but I also remember when HBO used to show short films between features. Seems like now they just show ads. 😦 I remember one in particular that was like a ghost story—it was kind of interesting.

I’m surprised they were able to use a Vader mask, for copyright reasons. They couldn’t even use one in Revenge Of The Nerds. 😛

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 (Edited)

Arguably, a indie short that probably never was screened theatrically isn’t going to get the same level of scrutiny as a feature film made by 20th Century Fox. I hadn’t heard that ROTN couldn’t use a Vader mask. I guess Lucasfilm objected?

How Fox got away with this, I have no idea.
https://youtu.be/8CegGbscPn0
I thought it was sleazy of them to use Star Wars this way.

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SilverWook said:

Arguably, a indie short that probably never was screened theatrically isn’t going to get the same level of scrutiny as a feature film made by 20th Century Fox. I hadn’t heard that ROTN couldn’t use a Vader mask. I guess Lucasfilm objected?

How Fox got away with this, I have no idea.
https://youtu.be/8CegGbscPn0
I thought it was sleazy of them to use Star Wars this way.

I never heard about ROTN not being able to use a Vader mask, I just made an assumption, because of the carnival scenes. I assumed that they were going for a Vader look, but it looked more like a welder’s mask.

LOL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEFi7sGQK6A

They probably got away with the “A long time ago…” in the Mischief trailer because it was more parody, and probably not a copyright issue. Both films were FOX, so I guess they both could have gotten permission, if Lucasfilm was also ok with it?

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I’m not sure what the heck the ROTN mask is. Could be a cheapo Vader knockoff, or something they reworked to fit on the German biker style helmet?

I can’t imagine Lucas being okay with the line that opens every Star Wars film being used to promote an R rated sex comedy. This is the guy who tried to sue over the press using Star Wars to describe the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative.

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