Montreal Star Wars exhibit features prop power and visitor self-discovery

MONTREAL – A new Star Wars exhibit is packed with film-prop drawing power for the hardcore aficionado: from Han Solo’s “carbonite” prison, to Anakin Skywalker’s full-size podracer, to Princess Leia’s metal bikini.

But the Montreal Science Centre’s interactive, multimedia exposition, titled “Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition,” aims to offer more than the chance to gaze deep into Jabba the Hutt’s glassy, remote-controlled eyeballs.

The exhibit’s creators hope to encourage patrons to look inward for their own journey of self-discovery — through the Star Wars lens.

The goal is to teach visitors about the origins, influences and choices that moulded the films’ heroes. The producers then want customers to explore their own identity.

“It was a really innovative way to look at the characters and the property in a whole new way,” Kyra Bowling, exhibition manager for Lucasfilm Ltd., said Tuesday at the show’s media launch in Montreal.

“What shaped them? Be it the design process or what you see up on screen. But then turning the mirror around: Well, how do you see yourself in that as well?”

The show, a collaboration between Lucasfilm and Montreal’s X3 Productions, will make its world premiere when it opens Thursday.

It will run in Montreal’s Old Port until Sept. 16 with admission ranging from $13.50 to $23.

It then continues on its 12-city world tour, including one other Canadian stop: Edmonton, in October.

The exhibit showcases more than 200 props, costumes and blueprint drawings from the six Star Wars films, including dozens of items pulled from the Lucasfilm archive that will be displayed in public for the first time.

Bowling expects the exhibit to wow enthusiasts of the 35-year-old franchise with its montage of stormtrooper helmets and original, conceptual art work from artist Ralph McQuarrie, who died in March.

The collection ranges from the necessary — a towering costume of Darth Vader from 1983’s “Return of the Jedi” — to the more abstract, including bounty hunter Boba Fett’s coffee-maker-sized model spaceship from 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back.”

But the exhibition’s truly unique feature explores the psyches of prominent characters from the films — a series that stretched from “Star Wars” in 1977 to “Revenge of the Sith” in 2005.

The visitor’s learning experience, which is carefully weaved into a tour that snakes past displays featuring the iconic objects from all the movies, includes an avatar they build throughout their tour.

Visitors must answer numerous questions about the components that make up their parallel identity, including genetics, personality and culture.

The exhibit’s producers hope visitors will take home more about themselves after learning about the characters.

Film excerpts on TV screens found throughout the exhibition help paint pictures of characters from the movies, including one clip where Master Yoda offered his take on the Jedi potential of a young Luke Skywalker.

“I cannot teach him — the boy has no patience,” Yoda laments. “Much anger in him, like his father.”

Star Wars creator George Lucas said in a statement that the Anakin and Luke Skywalker characters are good examples of similar-minded young men who eventually take different paths based on their choices.

In the statement read by Bowling at the news conference, Lucas says he believes the show could send a strong message to kids.

“That no matter what hand you get dealt in life, who and what you are is still very much shaped by the decisions and choices you make.”

The Star Wars exhibition is the second joint effort between Lucasfilm and X3 Productions, which were the companies behind last year’s “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archeology.”

Like the Star Wars show, the Indiana Jones exhibit took the visitor beyond the fabled leather jacket, fedora and bullwhip of Harrison Ford’s hero.

It explored the work of real archeologists and how they decipher some of the world’s mysteries.

Jacques-Andre Dupont, X3 Productions president and producer, said the Star Wars project took more than two years to complete and involved some 350 people.

Dupont said Montreal has shown it can respect creative and professional capacities.

“It is proof that the most amazing players from the entertainment industry do agree that we have what it takes to play on the international field,” he said.

But even without the interactive components of the exhibit, the props and objects alone should be enough to entice Star Wars buffs.

Bowling expects the “slave costume” worn by Princess Leia while she was Jabba the Hutt’s captive to catch some attention, particularly since it hasn’t been on display recently.

The revealing, copper-coloured outfit worn by actor Carrie Fisher generated a cult-like following after its appearance in “Return of the Jedi.”

“Yeah, I think there’s going to be a lot of fans that maybe grew up with the first three films that are going to enjoy seeing that particular display case,” Bowling said.