Say what you want about the quality of the recent Star Wars films, but there is no denying that George Lucas--the mastermind behind the Star Wars films and (with Steven Spielberg) the Indiana Jones films--has had a profound effect on moviemaking. Not only has Lucas either directed or produced some of the biggest blockbusters in cinematic history, but he is also a force to be reckoned with in his efforts to push the envelope with regards to film technology.

One of the results of this is the fact that Lucas shot both The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones with virtually no sets, shooting his actors on a blank stage and later compositing them into entirely digital settings, which is also the same method in which Sky Captain was shot. As a tip of the hat to George Lucas, a pioneer in digital movie technology, director Kerry Conran has this scene in Sky Captain, showing Polly and Joe approaching a door with the numbers 1138 written on the glass. THX-1138 was George Lucas' first major film, an SF story about a man fighting the soulless state which he lives in.