Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Sound Editor Choked Himself For The Rathtar Scene
It's always fun to discover how certain sounds are created for films. For instance, the classic coconut shells clapping together to create the sound of horse hooves or breaking celery to simulate the sound of cracking bones. For sci-fi and fantasy films, some of the sounds you have to come up with have no real-world equivalent. It's not like you can go out and study the audio emanations of a dragon or the sound of an entire planet blowing up. Sound designers have to be creative to come up with the signature noises from creatures, vehicles, and all sorts of other things that don't exist on Earth.
Sometimes that can get pretty weird, as it did on the set of the first film in the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, "The Force Awakens." Sound editor David Acord had an interesting problem on his hands in one fight scene. He had to answer the question: What sound would a giant nightmare-fuel squid-like creature with Sarlacc Pitt-like teeth named a Rathtar sound like while eating a spaceship? According to an article from StarWars.com, Acord's solution was rough ... for him.
' ... trying to eat the cockpit'
In the film, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) has been doing some smuggling on his ship, the Ervana, and this time the cargo is terrifying creatures called Rathtars. They get loose on the ship and attack the pirates who've come to deal with Han. They also go after him, Rey (Daisy Ridley), and Finn (John Boyega), and come pretty close to killing them all.
When they can't get our heroes, one of the Rathtars decides to snack on the Millennium Falcon as the gang tries to escape the Ervana, attempting to suck the life out of it from the front window. There is a very specific and squelchy noise they make, and it came directly from Acord. He told the site about how he made the sound:
"When the rathtar has his mouth on the cockpit of the Falcon, when it's trying to eat the cockpit, that is me literally choking myself. [Laughs] Finger down my throat in front of the mic to accomplish that and then it's pitched down."
Well, that certainly takes the whole idea of suffering for your art to a new level. Still, most humans have a visceral reaction to the sound of someone choking. It makes us uncomfortable and upset, and that is certainly what we're supposed to be feeling with the Rathtars.
"Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens" is currently streaming on Disney+.