TPM: The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Chapter I: The Phantom Menace

Opening Crawl

 * Episode I


 * THE PHANTOM MENACE


 * Turmoil has engulfed the
 * Galactic Republic. The taxation
 * of trade routes to outlying star
 * systems is in dispute.


 * Hoping to resolve the matter
 * with a blockade of deadly
 * battleships, the greedy Trade
 * Federation has stopped all
 * shipping to the small planet
 * of Naboo.


 * While the congress of the
 * Republic endlessly debates
 * this alarming chain of events,
 * the Supreme Chancellor has
 * secretly dispatched two Jedi
 * Knights, the guardians of
 * peace and justice in the
 * galaxy, to settle the conflict....

Scene by Scene
John Williams’ Star Wars Main Title is used to open the movie, segueing in to The Arrival at Naboo.

The back-story mentioned in the title crawl is explored in the novel Cloak of Deception, by James Luceno. Set in the year prior to Episode I, the novel was actually written after the film’s release, and included a number of minor references to upcoming features of Episode II, including the various commerce guilds.

The title crawl has a minor semantic discrepancy: Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are both referred to as Jedi Knights, even though the former is a Jedi Master and the latter his Padawan. Although it may be admissible to refer to Jinn as the "umbrella title" of Jedi Knight&mdash;as Obi-Wan is in Episode IV, despite being a Master at the time&mdash;in Episode II, Padmé Amidala notes that Anakin, as a Padawan, is "not a Jedi yet".

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