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'Close Encounters of the Third Kind': How Spielberg's sci-fi classic launched R2-D2's cameo career 40 years ago

Marcus Errico
·Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo Entertainment
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Forty years ago, on Nov. 16, 1977, Steven Spielbergโ€˜s Close Encounters of the Third Kind touched down in theaters. While not as well-remembered as the filmmakerโ€™s subsequent aliens-on-Earth all-timer, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters remains a sci-fi classic on its own merits, with a touching story of lost-and-found souls, state-of-the-art effects, and a typically spectacular John Williams score. Close Encounters also is responsible for launching one of Hollywood most enduring side careers โ€” R2-D2 as the king of cameos.

Months before Close Encounters invaded cinemas, Star Wars had solidified itself as a bona fide phenomenon. George Lucasโ€˜s space opera, which opened in May 1977, dominated pop-culture discourse, and one of its breakouts was the trash-bin-shaped astromech R2-D2. Spielberg and Lucas were best friends, and Spielberg trusted the VFX of his movie to the wizards at Lucasfilmโ€™s in-house effects team, Industrial Lights & Magic.

R2-D2โ€™s big moment in <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</i>. (Photo: Columbia Pictures)
R2-D2โ€™s big moment in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (Photo: Columbia Pictures)

As an Easter egg, the droid was affixed to the bottom of the alien mother ship in Close Encounters. Spielbergโ€™s camera briefly captured the inverted Artoo during the filmโ€™s climax.

Model of the mother ship from <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</i>. (Photo courtesy of the <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/model-spacecraft-mother-ship-movie-close-encounters-third-kind" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum</a>)
Model of the mother ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

(Fans who make the pilgrimage to the Smithsonianโ€™s Udvar-Hazy Center can view the model and its intricate details, including the astromech, a TIE fighter, a Jaws-like shark, a mailbox, and a miniature cemetery.)

R2-D2 detail from mother ship. (Photo courtesy of the <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/model-spacecraft-mother-ship-movie-close-encounters-third-kind" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum" class="link rapid-noclick-resp">Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum</a>)
R2-D2 detail from mother ship. (Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

From there, Artooโ€™s hidden adventures have continued for four decades and counting, notably appearing (with C-3PO) as hieroglyphs in the Lucas-Spielberg joint Raiders of the Lost Ark, built into the pirate ship for The Goonies (although he didnโ€™t get any screen time in that Spielberg-produced film), and as space debris in Michael Bayโ€™s Transformers (another Spielberg production). Star Wars fanboy J.J. Abrams, an acolyte of Spielberg, included Artoo in all his movies, from Super 8 to Mission: Impossible III to both his Star Treks, before the director finally got to play with the real-deal robot in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

So on this 40th anniversary of Close Encounters, letโ€™s take a look back at all of R2-D2โ€™s secret adventures in the video above.

Watch the trailer for the 40th anniversary release of Close Encounters:

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