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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.

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 will be clarified in the next and final film, 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 (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 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.

This merely appears so. As Yoda says at the end, being a Sith Lord, Dooku uses lies 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 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 master. But it is not unthinkable that Dooku is trying to get Obi-Wan to 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. Later, Dooku claims to the Trade Federation viceroy that he does not know how the Republic was able to produce such a large clone army that quickly. But this is clearly a lie because, at the end, Dooku tells Sidious that everything is going as planned. Combined with the fact that Dooku most likely ordered the creation of the clone army himself, we can assume that Dooku uses time-proven divide-and-conquer politics to pit the Republic and the Separatists against each other.

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. 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. 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; 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.