Spaceballs Poster # 4 Princess Vespa’s Mercedes Spaceship aboard Spaceball One!

Description

The Spaceballs’ weapon of conquest, Spaceball One, is a powerful spaceship and the equivalent of the Death Star in the movie, although in appearance it much more closely resembles an Imperial Star Destroyer. The opening scene with the ridiculously long, wide angle continuous shot of Spaceball One is a homage to the opening scene of Star Wars. The Spaceballs’ attitude toward others is expressed by the ship’s large bumper sticker: “We brake for nobody.” In the DVD commentary, Mel Brooks mentions that he wanted the introductory ‘spaceship’ scene to be much longer, but changed his mind when it was pointed out that at the length he wanted, that one scene would become the entire movie. The ship’s absurd size is a frequent point of reference: The ship is so large that it contains a shopping mall, a zoo, and a three-ring circus (complete with a freak show). When shown on a radar, it takes up almost half the screen, while other spaceships appear as only dots. The ship takes about 1 minute and 38 seconds to cross the screen at the beginning of the film. This is emphasized by the music theme (based on the musical theme from Jaws) which stops and resumes again several times, each time growing louder and louder. President Skroob is once forced to jog to the bridge in order to arrive before the end of the film. He references this by saying “The ship is too big. If I walk, the movie’ll be over.” Spaceball One is capable of traveling at four different speeds: When a situation requires it to travel faster than its normal “sub-light” speed, it can accelerate to light speed, “ridiculous speed”, and “Ludicrous Speed”. When going to Ludicrous Speed, all crew members must use a seat belt for their own safety. Ludicrous Speed results in the ship leaving a trail of plaid, parodying the “warp trail” seen in the first few Star Trek films and 2001.

Near mint condition.