Nightmare Fuel: A New Hope
Ben Kenobi: There was nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed too.
- The sight of the charred corpses of Owen and Beru (shown right). It is very briefly shown in the movie itself; you could easily miss it; but once you actually do see it, you can never unsee it.
- The IT-O interrogator droid used to interrogate Leia. Interesting euphemism, "interrogator droid". The radio adaptation actually shows us Vader's mind probe-assisted interrogation of Leia, and it's terrifying. First, he tries to convince her he's another rebel who needs to know where the Death Star plans are, before just causing her horrible pain.
- During this moment in the NPR version, Vader attempts to invoke her loyalty to her father. If you've seen the movies and know the truth, it's rather chilling.
- The fact that it's her FATHER who's torturing her(not that the two knew yet).
- The dianoga (the creature in the trash compactor).
- Ben Kenobi slicing off a patron's hand in the Mos Eisley Cantina, mostly because of how it's one of the few scenes in the whole saga where we actually see blood, plus said patron's realistic reaction to being de-handed.
- Even more disturbing was how little time it took the patrons to go right back to what they were doing, as if what took place was entirely routine. Though then again, Obi-Wan did say Mos Eisley was "the most wretched hive of scum and villainy"...
- Perhaps more Fridge Horror than Nightmare Fuel, but stop and think about the destruction of the Death Star for a moment. A fully functional battle station the size of a moon, and with a crew of thousands, completely destroyed. Thousands of people killed and not all of them believed in Palpatine's ideals, they just didn't have any other choice in the matter. How many thousands of families have been torn about because of Luke's actions? How many children have been lead to believe that the Rebellion is the true evil in the galaxy because their mothers and fathers were taken away from them?
- Taking this idea further — now that we've watched The Clone Wars, we actually know one of the people who was on the Death Star when it blew up — Admiral Yularen (he only makes a brief, non-speaking cameo in the movie, but still). From what we see on the show, he doesn't seem like a bad person at all. If anything, he's the one who has to put up with shenanigans on a daily basis, courtesy of being under Anakin's command. It just makes it so much more horrifying because we know this guy...and he hardly seems like the sort of person who deserved to die that way. Doubles as a Tear Jerker.
- Just the size of the Death Star. The Star Destroyer that completely dwarfed the Tantive IV in the intro is microscopic in comparison!