Star Wars: 10 Classic Movies Referenced In The Book Of Boba Fett

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett.

The latest Star Wars series to stream on Disney+, The Book of Boba Fett, has been met with a mixed response from fans. Some viewers have praised its pulpy thrills and grounded storytelling, while others have decried its small scale and slow pacing. One thing that the show has been getting right is the Star Wars franchise’s focus on references to existing stories.

From parallel storylines evoking The Godfather Part II to a torture scene cribbed from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Book of Boba Fett contains references to all kinds of classic movies.

10 Star Wars (1977)

The majority of The Book of Boba Fett has been set in Mos Espa, where Boba is taking over the criminal underworld and challenging the Hutts’ power. But the third episode saw Boba taking a trip to Mos Eisley.

Mos Eisley is, of course, the wretched hive of scum and villainy where Luke and Obi-Wan met Han and Chewie in the original Star Wars movie.

9 The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Directed by Edwin S. Porter, the 1903 silent classic The Great Train Robbery is famed as one of the earliest entries in the western genre (as well as one of the earliest narrative films in general).

The train heist sequence in the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett harks back to one of the western’s most well-worn traditions, first established with the titular criminal scheme in The Great Train Robbery.

8 Dances With Wolves (1990)

Kevin Costner swept the Oscars with 1990’s Dances with Wolves, in which a white Civil War soldier is embraced by Native Americans due to his ability to speak their language.

The flashback storyline in The Book of Boba Fett is a throwback to Dances with Wolves in which Boba tries to assimilate with a new culture and has to prove himself through various trials and tribulations.

7 The Godfather (1972)

Whereas The Mandalorian has explored a few fantasy subgenres around its revisionist western premise, The Book of Boba Fett is the perfect intersection between a subversive space western and a traditional gangster saga.

The pilot episode’s early sequence of locals paying tribute to Boba in his throne room is an homage to the iconic opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola’s crime epic The Godfather, in which Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone receives various requests on the day of his daughter’s wedding.

6 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Unsurprisingly, The Book of Boba Fett contains a few nods and references to The Empire Strikes Back, the seminal Star Wars movie that introduced Boba in the first place. In Empire, Boba was a straightforward villain working for Darth Vader with a reputation for disintegrating his bounties.

In The Book of Boba Fett, Boba acknowledges the mistakes he made as a villain during the Imperial era: “Take it from an ex-bounty hunter – don’t work for scugholes.” Presumably, Vader and Emperor Palpatine are the “scugholes” he refers to.

5 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)

John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the quintessential cinematic portrait of greed, telling the story of three men who seek their fortune, find it, and get driven apart by paranoia. Since The Book of Boba Fett is also about greed, it’s appropriate that the series references Huston’s masterpiece.

There’s a nod to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre during the train robbery sequence with gunslingers shooting from the windows of the carriages to fend off an ambush.

4 Easy Rider (1969)

There are many renowned movies in the biker genre, but 1969’s Easy Rider is undoubtedly the most acclaimed and iconic of the bunch. Starring Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, Easy Rider pioneered and defined the experimental style of the New Hollywood movement.

There’s a nod to Easy Rider’s portrayal of biker culture in The Book of Boba Fett with speeder bikes modified with raised handlebars and more relaxed seating to resemble Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Boba steals a bunch of them from a menacing biker gang to help with the train robbery.

3 The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)

When Boba escapes from the Sarlacc Pit, he’s captured by Tusken Raiders who tie him up and then yank him across the desert on their banthas, forcing him to walk the whole way.

This is a nod to a nearly identical torture scene in Sergio Leone’s groundbreaking spaghetti western epic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, in which Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” antihero is similarly dragged through the desert by his captors.

2 The Godfather Part II (1974)

While one particular scene from the first episode pays homage to The Godfather, the entire structure of The Book of Boba Fett pays homage to Coppola’s equally revered 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II.

The series acts as both a prequel and a sequel to its predecessor by following parallel storylines. The present-day narrative revolves around Boba’s post-Mandalorian takeover of Tatooine’s gangland, while the prequel storyline follows on from Return of the Jedi after Boba was devoured by the Sarlacc.

1 Return Of The Jedi (1983)

The classic movie most overtly referenced by The Book of Boba Fett is Return of the Jedi. The series acts as a direct sequel to the original trilogy’s closing chapter, explaining how Boba survived his trip through the belly of the Sarlacc Pit and continuing to explore a post-Imperial world.

As introduced in The Mandalorian’s season 2 premiere “Chapter 9: The Marshal,” Tatooine’s criminal underworld saw a radical change after the fall of the Empire. The Book of Boba Fett has specifically explored the power vacuum following the defeat of Jabba the Hutt.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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