Star Wars: 15 Things About the Millennium Falcon That Make No Sense

With Solo flying into theaters this weekend, there’s a lot that Star Wars fans will learn about the unlikely hero and his hairy sidekick. The stand-alone Star Wars flick promises plenty of action and background on Han Solo and Chewie, along with other notable characters from a galaxy far, far away.

One of the most exciting aspects of the film will be how Solo and his crew come into possession of the Millennium Falcon, the most recognizable of Star Wars spaceships. The uniquely-shaped ship has plenty of history, and fans are sure to learn much about it. That said, there’s likely much about the Millennium Falcon that the movie will leave out that can only be found in books and other Star Wars canon.

Interestingly, fans of the Star Wars franchise have spent decades sifting through information about the Millennium Falcon to learn as much as they can. Some have even gone to great lengths to figure out exactly how the ship is set up and what makes it so special. Considering how easily the ship can defeat enemies of the Rebellion and the fact that it’s said to have made a record-breaking run to Kessel, there’s much to be excited about when it comes to the Millennium Falcon. However, many of those same fans have discovered a lot about Solo’s ship that don’t make much sense.

Here are 15 Things About the Millennium Falcon that Don’t Make Sense.

15 No Labels on Any Cockpit Buttons

As any pilot will tell you, it’s important to be very familiar with the setup of a cockpit when flying any kind of vehicle. This is likely much more true of a ship that can travel faster than the speed of light than any other flying craft. And while a seasoned pilot will undoubtedly know where to find every switch and button they need by second nature, they also undoubtedly used the labels on those buttons and switches to learn what every blinking button means inside the cockpit while they learn to fly.

So it’s interesting that the Millennium Falcon doesn’t seem to adhere to this most basic of cockpit rules. One need only catch a brief glimpse of Han Solo and Chewie sitting in the iconic cockpit to realize none of the buttons or switches have any labels, or at least none that are easily visible. Yet the duo have a seemingly sixth sense for what to push, pull, or flip among the hundreds of options, even in the heat of battle. One has to wonder: did the buttons have labels before and they’ve since worn off, or did Solo and Chewie simply have to learn through trial and error?

14 Unnecessary Dish on Top of the Ship

One can’t help but stare at the unique design of the Millennium Falcon. Its elongated nose and side-mounted cockpit make it oddly asymmetrical, yet uniquely beautiful. Yet there’s one feature on the ship that doesn’t seem to play any real important role: the satellite dish on the top.

It’s likely because satellite dishes are easily recognizable by most people considering they can be found on nearly every house in a neighborhood, or on the roofs of important communications buildings. And most people would then assume that the dish is used for some kind of communication between the crew of the Millennium Falcon and people of other locations.

What’s puzzling is that the dish gets knocked off during a battle sequence and the loss doesn’t seem to negatively affect the workings of the ship.

Communications between the Millennium Falcon crew seem strong with their Rebel counterparts and no other systems seem to be affected. So either the crew isn’t worried about the loss of their Direct TV or the dish never actually served a purpose, making one wonder why it was still attached to the top of the ship where it could be causing drag when flying around planets or could get in the way of the roof gunner in a fight.

13 How Did the Ship Get So Grungy Between Solo and A New Hope?

Those who are going to see Solo will be introduced to a stunning, shiny version of the Millennium Falcon. Along with a few additional parts to the outside of the ship that aren’t present in the original trilogy, viewers will see clean hallways and a beautiful interior. That’s not surprising considering how pristine Lando Calrissian likes to keep his possessions. That’s right, before the Millennium Falcon was so famously piloted by Han Solo, it was owned by Calrissian. In fact, when Calrissian first came to own the Millennium Falcon, he spent a lot of time and money upgrading it both inside and out.

Yet those who have seen the Star Wars original trilogy will quickly recognize that the ship didn’t stay that clean and pristine for long. In fact, the time between Solo and A New Hope is only five or 10 years, which isn’t a long time for a ship to go from masterpiece to grungy battleship. That said, if Solo was involved in many of the same high-adventure activities that he participates in during the later Star Wars films, it isn’t hard to see how this ship could quickly devolve into a pig stye. Too bad, since it was once such an impressive sight.

12 Why Hasn’t the Ship Been Decommissioned Considering How Old it is?

Anyone who’s worked on a ship knows that most large vessels can only last a few decades before they need to be decommissioned. Even airplanes and other flying vehicles can’t get too far past 30 years before they become too unreliable to be flown. So one has to wonder how the Millennium Falcon has stood up so well considering it has to be nearly 90 years old.

Some fans have taken a look at the timelines of the various Star Wars films and canon, and have discovered that at the time of The Phantom Menace, the ship was already 30 years old. By all accounts, that ship should have been grounded at that point and likely never should have made it to The Force Awakens.

Granted, the Millennium Falcon isn’t a run-of-the-mill ship or plane, it’s an iconic spacecraft that has defeated or survived incredibly challenging enemies, including the inside of an Exogorth, or space slug as they’re better known. But considering the ship has been in countless battles across the galaxy, it’s a wonder the thing is still able to get off the ground and make it into space.

Additionally, with all the cosmetic changes the ship has gone through, especially those shown in Solo, one has to wonder at the viability of a ship that’s been through so much, both inside and out. Still, it’s hard to argue with the old girl’s abilities, considering she’s still doing plenty of damage to the enemies of the Rebels.

11 No Space for Cargo in Solo Version of Ship

The Millennium Falcon is easily Han Solo’s most prized possession. It’s incredibly fast, nimble, and useful in a fight, and can apparently outrun any other cargo ship around. But when one stops to look at the layout of the Millennium Falcon, it’s quickly discovered that there isn’t actually any place on the ship for cargo. Every bit of space onboard the ship is used up. That leaves only the outside for carrying cargo.

Interestingly, that’s what the two mandibles are on the front. Cargo is meant to be wedged between the two and carried on the outside of the ship. Yet those who have seen the Millennium Falcon in Solo will quickly realize that the most important feature of the cargo ship, the cargo area, has been disrupted.

When it was in Lando Calrissian’s possession, the front end of the ship was radically changed, with a new section added to the mandibles, making the ship longer and more sleek.

So one has to wonder if Solo wanted the ship for its cargo-carrying abilities, or just as a sleek prize that he could nab away from someone like Calrissian. That said, between Solo and A New Hope, whatever Calrissian put on the front has clearly been removed, so maybe Solo knew all along the ship’s capabilities as a cargo freighter and was planning to make use of it as it was intended.

10 Why is the Cockpit on the Side?

Easily the most recognizable feature on the Millennium Falcon is the side-built cockpit. While it offers a unique design aesthetic, many have wondered the origin of such an asymmetrical build. Some will point out, as is mentioned above, that since the ship is meant to haul cargo, and since the front mandibles are meant to hold that cargo, the cockpit had to go somewhere that would make it easy for the ship pilots to see without their vision being blocked by the cargo.

However, the current setup means that much of the pilots’ vision is always blocked from view. And considering the fact that there aren’t any noticeable video screens in the cockpit that give the ship’s crew a view of the far side of the ship, it’s likely they don’t know what’s going on over there when they are flying or maneuvering.

For easier flying ability, it would have likely been much better to put the cockpit on top of the ship somewhere so that the pilots have a better surrounding view of the whole Millennium Falcon. That way they could at least make sure they aren’t accidentally scraping the far side of the ship on anything, or can see when there are potential threats around them. A 360-degree view from the top of the ship is undoubtedly better than a measly 90 degree view on one side that’s inexplicably blocked by the majority of the ship.

9 How Did No One Recognize Such a Famous Ship on Jakku?

As The Force Awakens enters its first bit of exciting action, viewers are treated with a view of a garbage-laden Millennium Falcon hidden away on Jakku. Fortunately for the movie’s main characters, the ship is able to fly and even take down a handful of enemy fighters.

But one has to wonder how the Millennium Falcon made its way to Jakku in the first place and why no one there recognized the iconic ship. Granted, Jakku isn’t what one would call a place of celebrities, but considering Han Solo’s beginnings as a smuggler and the recognition he garnered during his adventures in the original trilogy, pretty much every aspiring smuggler and cargo hauler would know the Millennium Falcon. Throw in the ship’s hard-to-forget design and it seems near impossible that Solo’s ship sat undisturbed for so long on Jakku.

Of course, it’s possible Unkar Plutt, who possessed the Millennium Falcon on Jakku, figured the old girl was ready to be decommissioned considering its old age and the many battles it had weathered over the many decades it was active. Still, if Rey and Finn were able to quickly discover the ship’s unique capabilities, one would think Plutt would have found out much sooner and fetched a pretty penny for the ship.

8 How is Such a Big Ship So Agile in Dog Fights?

It’s well known that in space there’s no drag to keep a ship like the Millennium Falcon from performing near-impossible aerial maneuvers to beat out TIE Fighters and other enemy ships. But much of the fighting the Millennium Falcon has done has been within the confines of gravity-affected atmospheres where such a massive ship should have been a sitting duck to the much lighter, more agile ships it fought.

The Millennium Falcon has become known for its ability to be incredibly agile and nimble in fights, often outflying the smaller ships around it.

Granted, with a ship like the Millennium Falcon, it’s likely to have extra thrusters that help it turn on a dime, but those are never shown in the footage. Instead, the ship, without the use of flaps or thrusters, does incredible aerial moves that are either against physics or would cause such a massive increase in G-force for its pilots that it would have crashed long ago. Maybe there are some well-hidden upgrades added to the Millennium Falcon over the years from Solo and others that give it that edge, even though it looks impossible to the average viewer. It’ll be interesting to see how the ship progresses as the Star Wars universe continues.

7 The Name Millennium Falcon has no Meaning

Anyone who has owned a ship of any kind knows that naming the ship is a big part of the vessel’s personality. Often a ship’s name follows some clever pun or the lifestyle or life experiences of its pilot. Other times, the name comes from some experience of the ship or the manner by which it was created. But when it comes to the Millennium Falcon, that naming culture seems to have been thrown out the window.

The Falcon part of Millennium Falcon makes sense. A falcon is a fast-moving bird of prey and while the Millennium Falcon was originally meant to be a cargo ship, it has long since become a key member of the Rebellion’s assets of ships. It’s shown its ability to take down hordes of enemies and lead the charge against the second Death Star. But where the name gets janky is when Millennium is added. There is no such thing as a Millennium Falcon and, when added to falcon, millennium doesn’t add anything specific. Maybe the builder expected the ship to last a thousand years, or maybe it was the 1,000th ship built by the maker? Whatever the reason, it has yet to be shared and it essentially indecipherable for Star Wars fans around the globe who have puzzled over the naming convention for the Millennium Falcon for decades.

6 The Ship’s Layout is a Mess

One doesn’t have to go far to find the Millennium Falcon’s blueprints online and see how unique and technical the layout of the ship is. In fact, as one really examines the ship, it becomes clear that it is both elaborate and efficient in its design. Everything has a place and there’s very little extra space (hence the reason the cargo goes between the mandibles at the front of the ship).

However, it seems the blueprints of the ship are actually quite different than the execution. Star Wars fans have examined the footage from multiple films and have carefully reconstructed the interior of the ship and have made some interesting discoveries. For instance, the hallway between the cockpit and the rest of the ship seems to be quite long in the films, but it’s short in the blueprints. Other areas of the ship seem to be quite different than the original layout and represent real problems to how the crew is supposed to access the rest of the ship.

Of course, it’s possible that Han Solo made significant changes to the ship’s design once he gained possession of it, but some are literally impossible as they would essentially change the overall design of the ship. In fact, based on some fans’ opinions, the ship in its current form just simply isn’t big enough to house all the corridors and rooms as they are represented in the films.

5 How Could the Millennium Falcon Set the Kessel Run Record?

One of the Millennium Falcon’s primary claims to fame is the fact that Han Solo and Chewie were able to do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs. One would assume that this is possible because the ship has the unique capability of going .5 past light speed, making it one of the fastest ships around.

But there’s a glaring error when it comes to that claim. A Parsec isn’t a measure of time, but of distance. A Parsec is around 3.26 light years, which is a very long distance. That means that Solo’s claim that the ship did the run in less than 12 Parsecs means he was able to find a unique way to cut down on the distance in a ways that no one has before. Considering the route is done in space, where the only potential roadblock would be a planet or other space rock, it doesn’t seem possible that the ship could cut down on the actual distance any more than the next ship.

Some have pointed out that the claim was likely a mistake on the part of the writers, seeing a Parsec as a measure of time instead of distance.

But others have come to their (and Solo’s) defense, finding unique ways that the claim could be true. For instance, it’s possible Solo flew the ship so close to a black hole that he as literally able to cut the distance down. Whatever the reason, viewers will get to see it explained in the new Solo movie.

4 Where did Han Solo’s Dice Go?

When Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian, he claimed a set of dice as well that he hung inside the ship. While it’s a notable part of Solo, many would be surprised to know that the dice can be found in other films as well. In A New Hope, the dice appear briefly in the cockpit with Solo and crew before abruptly disappearing for the rest of the original trilogy. It’s possible the dice were originally considered for fun and then considered too silly and discarded, with the single moment remaining with the inclusion of the dice.

It seems the writers of the new Star Wars movies took notice, because the elderly Luke Skywalker can be seen taking the dice down in The Last Jedi. It’s likely the writers saw an opportunity to make a simple mistake into a fun and notable plot point to help string together the set of movies within the Star Wars universe.

It will be interesting to see if the original trilogy sees the dice added back in any measure in future releases of the movies. The movies have already seen numerous updates, upgrades, and additions since they were first released four decades ago. It could be fun to see the dice put back into the films as a fun, simple touch of consistency that was once lost and has again become a major part of the Millennium Falcon story.

3 Where Does Chewie Sleep?

As mentioned above, the blueprints of the Millennium Falcon have been scrutinized and reviewed by Star Wars fans for years. For the most part, it seems the designers figured out quite a few interesting ways to fit important features and gadgets in without taking too much space. However, it seems there’s one bit of space that was suspiciously left out: where Chewie sleeps.

As many have noticed, the Millennium Falcon has a crew quarters, but it is small and looks to only hold one person. That works great for Solo or whoever else owns the ship, but what does it mean for the rest of the crew, including a giant Wookiee, who likely have their own need to rest and sleep while the crew it out hauling cargo, setting Kessel Run records, and fighting thousands of TIE Fighters in numerous cosmic battles?

Some have suggested that Chewie and others simply make use of the couches in the sitting area, or maybe the hairy sidekick prefers the cold, hard ground over a soft, comfortable bed. Maybe there’s a hide-a-bed within those aforementioned couches or stashed away elsewhere on the ship? Wherever Chewie sleeps, it seems a major oversight to make only one sleeping spot on a ship that likely takes numerous people to run effectively.

2 Limited Motion of Gunners

While many spacecraft in the Star Wars canon are limited to only front-facing guns, the Millennium Falcon seems to have a full range of options. From the laser gun that whips out from below the ship at the right time to take down enemies in a hanger or the large mounted weapons that can be manned by the likes of Luke Skywalker to take down enemy TIE Fighters, it seems the Millennium Falcon is well stocked.

That said, the weapons that the Millennium Falcon does have seem to be limited in their abilities. For instance, the ship’s two major gunner spots that Solo and Skywalker use to take down enemy fighters have extremely limited range of movement. As one watches the duo fight on screen, it seems the guns can barely move a few degrees before they are stopped in movement and the enemy ships get away. That seems silly considering the positioning of the guns should mean that the guns can have a full range of motion to fight enemies from all sides.

Granted, the guns could have been an aftermarket addition, which is why they don’t work as they were likely intended, but it still seems to be a major oversight that so much would be put into making the Millennium Falcon as fight-worthy ship, only to have its main guns hindered in their movement.

1 How Does the Ship Survive Battles Without the Exhaust Shielding?

When ships like the Millennium Falcon go into battle, they need as much fighting power and shielding as they can get in order to stay alive against enemy fighters. For the most part, the Millennium Falcon is well protected by shields around its hull, meaning that as enemy ships target Solo’s baby, it weathers the shots and can fire back with little problem.

There’s one area of the ship that could potentially be an Achilles heel, at least in later Star Wars entries.

In Solo, it’s shown that the ship’s exhaust has retractable shields that keep it safe in a fight or when parked. Those retractable shields are noticeably absent in later films, meaning they may have been ejected or destroyed over the course of the ship’s long lifetime. If that’s the case, it could spell a potential problem were an errant laser to fly into the exhaust and set of a chain of explosions that destroys the ship and its occupants.

Hopefully Solo and his crew figured out a potential fix to this problem later and were able to ditch the shields for something more powerful. Either that, or they have extreme confidence in their ability to dodge and evade enemies or destroy them before they can send any lasers through the open exhaust area.

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Which of these do you find most confusing? Let us know in the comments!