The Futuristic Star Wars Prop That Was Actually Just A Razor

In “The Phantom Menace,” the movie about the aging space wizard disillusioned with the organized religion that forces him to serve as a glorified bodyguard until he decides to sacrifice everything to ensure a young orphan boy is indoctrinated into his cult and raised as a child soldier, we often see Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) using a small communicator device to report to his superiors. The device, no bigger than a thumb drive, was not only capable of long-distance communication with zero lag despite being used in the desert, but was even capable of performing blood tests on the fly — take that, Elizabeth Holmes!

When you’re crafting the next evolution in sci-fi communication, where do you look for inspiration? Some avant-garde sculpture? Perhaps the already-existing cellular phone? Not if you’re George Walton Lucas Jr. Because then you’d look for something much more alien-looking, something that screamed “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” — a women’s razor. More specifically, the device (officially referred to as a Hush-98 comlink) comes from a resin cast of a Gillette Ladies Sensor Excel Razor, according to CBS News. That’s right, the long-haired, bearded space wizard who probably hasn’t shaved in years carried around a razor in his pocket at all times.