ABSTRACT
A long shot of deep space; a small spaceship appears from the bottom of the screen, bombarded by laser fire and racing into the distance. Seconds later, another much larger ship enters the top of the frame and fills the screen as it passes overhead. This is the oft-described, iconic opening shot of George Lucas’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and it establishes many of the characteristics of the blockbuster sf film (see Bukatman 1998). It is made up entirely of special effects; the second ship, enhanced by the framing of the image, is presented as excessively big; and the sequence is driven by the kinetic pursuit of the smaller ship. Arguably, with this shot, blockbuster sf was born.
