Sure, it’s the most popular movie series ever made. But let’s face it: George Lucas’ pioneering space saga isn’t exactly a documentary. Lightsabers and Death Stars… pirate spaceships and bio-mechanical bad guys like Darth Vader… stuff like that can only happen in a fictional galaxy far, far away from our world of cold scientific fact – right?

Not so fast. As Vader himself said, “Don’t underestimate the power of the Force.” Several concepts in this iconic film series can be explored in terms of real science. But which are at least partly plausible – and which are pure fantasy?

Star Wars Tech takes viewers on a fast-paced, and informative trip through the galaxy to answer such questions as:

Could a lightsaber actually store light to be wielded as a deadly weapon?

How powerful would a creation like the Death Star have to be to destroy an entire planet?

Can holographic messages really be stored and projected in a droid like R2D2?

And how plausible are the biomechanics of the world’s most notorious half-man, half-machine, Darth Vader?

Stunning clips from the Star Wars saga are inter-cut with interviews with leading scientists in the fields of physics, prosthetics, laser technology, engineering and astronomy as they examine the plausibility of Star Wars technology based on science as we know it today. ILM animation director Rob Coleman and model makers Lorne Peterson and John Goodson describe the real-life science that influenced George Lucas’s vision of the Star Wars universe.

Whether fact or fantasy, it’s clear that Star Wars Tech, like the Force itself, will be with us… always.