In the B-plot of George Lucas' 2002 sci-fi romance "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones," the stalwart Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is sent to an ocean planet called Kamino to apprehend an assassin who may be lurking there. Obi-Wan finds more than he expected, as Kamino is the home of a massive cloning facility that has been making duplicates of Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) for years. There are now millions of him. When Jango Fett catches wise to Obi-Wan's investigation, he leaves Kamino in a miniature spacecraft while Obi-Wan pursues. In order to get Obi-Wan off his tail, Jango flies into a cluttered asteroid field and begins dropping explosive space mines called seismic charges.
The TIE fighters are, of course, the eyeball-shaped ships used by the evil Empire in the early "Star Wars" movies.
Burtt loved these abstract versions of explosions, but revealed that no one else seemed to. They all said that "bwamp"-like explosions were "too crazy and weird." Burtt, however, kept the noises in his own personal sound library, hoping to crack them out someday. By 2002, it seemed the world was ready.
The seismic charges, as dramatized in the film, are cylindrical objects that float out into space, hold steady for a moment, and then explode into a flash of blue fire. There is then a disc-shaped concussive ring of energy that emanates outward, destroying everything in its path. For a moment, the charges are silent, and then the explosion emits a "bwamp"-like orchestral noise instead of the expected "kaboom" sound effect one might usually hear from a movie explosion.
The sound was created by longtime "Star Wars" editor Ben Burtt, and he talked about the "bwamp" in the 64th issue of Star Wars Insider Magazine, published in December 2002, seven months after the release of "Attack of the Clones." In the magazine, Burtt explained that he selected the sound after tinkering with it for 25 years, having first made the noise for the original "Star Wars" in 1977. It took that long for his "bwamp" to be fully realized.
Burtt originally envisioned — enlistened? — the explosions in "Star Wars" as more abstract sounds. Knowing there are no sound waves in space, and that there is no oxygen to burn up, Burtt thought blow-ups shouldn't sound like earthbound fireballs. He tinkered and came up with a few unused possibilities for "Star Wars" explosions, hoping to add a little extra surreal verse to the movie. One of them was the "bwamp." He said (via Star Wars Insider Magazine):/
The TIE fighters are, of course, the eyeball-shaped ships used by the evil Empire in the early "Star Wars" movies.
Burtt loved these abstract versions of explosions, but revealed that no one else seemed to. They all said that "bwamp"-like explosions were "too crazy and weird." Burtt, however, kept the noises in his own personal sound library, hoping to crack them out someday. By 2002, it seemed the world was ready.