A mysterious mecca for film geeks, Skywalker Ranch in a practical sense is nothing more than a really nice post production house, as well as the location of George Lucas' "office" (a super-fancy Victorian dubbed the "main house.") For more than anything I was ecstatic just to be able to go past those gates. Those gates actually took us awhile to find.
Michael J. was driving me, his two little nephews, and my good buddy who also loves Star Wars, Peter. When we drove up to the gate that we thought was Skywalker Ranch, we were told by the guard that this was a different ranch and we still had to drive a few miles down the road. We only found it after getting lost once then doubling back (it's a very hidden, wooded entrance). Once we finally made it, the guard gave us directions to something called the archive building, where we would meet our friend and tour guide, Don. Archive building? Hmm, okay then.
Don Bies was our connection for getting into the ranch. Michael J. and I were introduced to him in 2004. Our family friend Erik Jensen invited us to help out on a movie shoot that Don was directing as part of an Industrial Light and Magic in-house film festival competition. Since that first project, we've been helping Don out annually on "Every 15 Minutes" anti-drunk driving videos he produces every year at a local Petaluma high school. When he got word that we had never been to Skywalker Ranch, he offered to take us there sometime. Michael arranged a date, and there we were.
Don was waiting for us in the parking lot of this enigmatic "archive building." He took us through a couple of offices adorning various Star Wars decorations and collectables, then told us that we weren't allowed to take any pictures or touch anything where we were going. This got me VERY excited, but could never have prepared me for what we were about to see.
We entered a large warehouse-type room half filled with tall, metal shelves. On these shelves and around the entire room was nearly every major and minor prop from all of Lucasfilm's movies; including ALL of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. I was completely overwhelmed. Even just from where we were standing, there were too many awesome and familiar props and creatures I recognized from some of my favorite films.
There was a dusty old R2-D2, which Don informed us was used in 90% of his shots in the original 1977 Star Wars. Across from him were the two Ark of the Covenants used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Next to that were some of the singing aliens from Jabba's palace, as well as the Super Star Destroyer from Return of the Jedi (which, an interesting bit of trivia, there's a tiny figure of a Nazi soldier hidden inside of).
The list of treasures went on: tie fighters, Salacious Crumb, Max Rebo, a cart from the Temple of Doom mine chase sequence, those cute baby Ewoks, A Taun-Taun and Rancor head, some Holy Grails from The Last Crusade, Howard the Duck (hahaha), the chair C3Po was elevated in in Jedi, Indiana Jones' signature hat and whip from Raiders, Lando's little intercom thing he speaks into when announcing that stormtroopers have taken over Cloud City, a thermal detonator, character and ship models from Episode 1, a few original light sabers, that frog thing from outside Jabba's palace, the umbrella Sean Connery uses to scare the birds in Last Crusade, the broken C3PO that Chewbacca carries around on his back from Empire, various alien heads/masks from the trilogy including Greedo, the cage Kate Capshaw was lowered into the lava pit in from Temple of Doom, those iconic green Imperial officer costumes from the Star Wars trilogy, the white dress Marion is forced to put on in Raiders, Tusken Raider masks and gaffi sticks, the mine cart from the chase scene in Temple of Doom, Salacious Crumb (Jabba's little laughing monkey pet, as well as a personal favorite of mine), and the list goes on.
Even though it was implied that we shouldn't touch any
thing, there were a few things I had to sneak in a quick hold/feel of to have that physical connection with. I had to hold the golden idol from the beginning of Raiders to see for myself exactly how heavy it was (it was hollow). I had to hold Han Solo's blaster because it's Han Solo's blaster. I had to touch Han Solo frozen in carbonite to see what "carbonite" felt like. I also had to pick up Dr. Henry Jones Sr.'s Holy Grail journal, so I could peruse it's pages and secrets (it was the same 30 some-odd pages repeated), as well as The Holy Grail itself, of which there are many.
After we finished going up and down all of the aisles, we approached a table where a man was sorting through some original concept art from Empire Strikes Back. It was really interesting getting to see the early incarnations of famous vehicles and aliens which often hardly resembled their final look, such as the AT-AT. These pieces of paper where definitely the originals; stamp marks put there by George Lucas himself could be seen, designating the designs he liked.
Don introduced us to the guy sorting through everything as Jonathan. It turns out that Jonathan was actually J. W. Rinzler, LucasFilm archivist and author of such books as The Complete Making of Star Wars, and The Complete Making of The Indiana Jones Trilogy. This actually got me quite excited, as the making of Star Wars was the one thing I was asking for last Christmas. Jonathan was super nice, and told us that he was there doing research for The Complete Making of Empire Strikes Back! I can't wait.
The Archive building was definitely the highlight of the visit. After leaving there, we toured the rest of the compound. We ate lunch, walked around the main house (where George's office is upstairs), saw a scoring stage, and bought some Skywalker Ranch merchandise at the store.
All in all, probably the best birthday present ever.
