Speeder bikes and swoop bikes are small, fast transports that use repulsorlift engines in the fictional Star Wars universe. Return of the Jedi includes a prominent speeder bike chase; speeders and swoops also appear in ', ', , Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, the animated Star Wars RebelsTV series, and the Star Wars expanded universe's books, comics, and games.
Origin and design
Various concept sketches came from producer George Lucas' call for a "rocket-powered scooter" in Return of the Jedi. While Industrial Light & Magic's Nilo Rodis-Jamero designed a blocky vehicle with a large engine, Ralph McQuarrie's designs were more fanciful but with less of a sense of the vehicle's power source. The final designs resulted in full-scale Imperial speeder bikes used by the actors for film against a bluescreen, along with miniatures mounted by articulated puppets. ILM used a steadicam recording at 1 frame per second to record the speeder bikes' path through the forest moon of Endor—in reality, a California forest. Playing the footage at the standard rate of 24 frames per second caused a blurring effect, which ILM used to simulate the vehicles' high speed; what was shot at looked like. The BARC speeder in Revenge of the Sith was designed to appear like a predecessor to the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi. ILM's Doug Chiang designed Darth Maul's speeder in The Phantom Menace to resemble a scythe, and Chiang's initial designs for the droid army's STAP vehicle resembled the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi. An all-CGI swoop appearing in A New Hope stems from a design created for , and the swoop also appears briefly in The Phantom Menace.
Depiction
Return of the Jedi features a speeder bike chase in which Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa pilot a pair of Imperial speeders to chase down scout troopers who might reveal the Rebel Alliance's presence on Endor. Darth Maul uses his speeder to chase down Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. A pair of speeder-mounted clone troopers shoot down a speeder-riding Stass Allie when Emperor Palpatine initiates Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith. In the video game,, Swoop racing is a main part of the story with your player having to work for The Hidden Beks, a swoop gang, by infiltrating rival swoop gang, The Black Vulkars, and competing against them in a swoop race in order to rescue Bastila. Film and Expanded Universe depictions of speeder bikes and swoops consistently portray the vehicles as fast and maneuverable: Expanded Universe material describes the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi as being able to travel. Speeders and swoops achieve high speed and maneuverability, however, at the expense of size and protection for their riders. "Swoop racing" is described in the Expanded Universe texts and portrayed in LucasArts games as a dangerous, fast-paced competition between skilled pilots.
Merchandise
Since their inception, speeder bikes have been included in several Star Wars product lines, including Lego models and Hasbro miniatures.
