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In the original (1977) Star Wars film, there was a very brief shot showing a connector being attached to R2D2 so that Rebel mainframes could retrieve and analyse his memories.

Is there a still of that available anywhere?

I'm trying to explain to a journalist friend the concept of hooking a logic analyser to a target system....

Having said that, I must say that I find the whole idea of voluntarily opening ones mind to even friendly interrogation by intellectual superiors incredibly spooky.

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  • if the question had been "what kind of real-world connector was used as the prop for this scene" that would be an interesting and on-topic question. The question as stated is on-topic but could have been easily self-answered via Disney+, or Amazon, or as the answers point out (one explicitly and the other in how long it took to answer), a fairly cursory search. again, no offense meant so I'll retract the close vote :)
    – NKCampbell
    May 23, 2022 at 21:45
  • Well, I don't deal with Amazon and it always takes me a great deal of mental effort to associate Star Wars with Disney: the cantina fight etc. was hardly their style, at least in the 1970s :-) As I've said in a different comment the connector is much less chunky than I thought I remembered... I must admit that it looks half-familiar and it could very easily have been something that the model operators used for remote control.
    – Mark Morgan Lloyd
    May 24, 2022 at 16:09

2 Answers 2

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I think that is the moment you are looking for:

youtube link enter image description here

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    @user57467 that looks firm and solid. - What about wireless data transfer? - That is not our way!
    – Yaroslav Kornachevskyi
    May 23, 2022 at 4:59
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    @user57467 That in part is my point: with a physical attachment to a target system you can access a lot of state that wouldn't normally be available over a public API: storage blocks inaccessible due to wear-levelling and so on. For example, if the disc containing the Death Star's plans had been a malware vector (influencing R2D2 to trust Skywalker and Solo, both unknown to the Rebels), it would be impossible to tell just by asking for a copy of the data, but laying out a complete image of his state (instantaneous and journaled) in a larger system might make intrusion detectable- and curable.
    – Mark Morgan Lloyd
    May 23, 2022 at 6:56
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    @YaroslavKornachevskyi two ways of looking at star wars - is it a product of its time before we knew wireless data transfer was a thing or is is a security method... wireless data transfers can be tapped in to and recorded, a hardwire connection could have intrusion detection and shielding to ensure data security
    – David McGowan
    May 23, 2022 at 10:46
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    @user57467 End-user systems frequently have ejectable media hardware that servers don't support.
    – doneal24
    May 23, 2022 at 13:53
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    @AnthonyX I'm now imagining some rebel IT guys connecting a series of dongles and converters to connect a now decades-old maintenance droid to whatever computer system they have.
    – BillThePlatypus
    May 23, 2022 at 16:10
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I found this (full width, reasonably high resolution) picture fairly quickly via Google.

R2-D2 Hookup

(I could probably take a better screen snapshot from my DVD copy, but my regular computer at home does not have a DVD player. O tempora, o mores!)

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  • Good catch. I thought the OP was talking about the extendable arm, which if I recall correctly, little Artoo plugged into a power socket... now why wouldn't a space fairing universe have created typed plugs....
    – CGCampbell
    May 23, 2022 at 11:08
  • @CGCampbell: My understanding is that wasn't a power socket, but rather the Death Star computer security system could respond to intrusion with high voltage.
    – Joshua
    May 23, 2022 at 15:55
  • @CGCampbell no, definitely not which is why I carefully wrote "connector being attached to R2D2". However what I thought I remembered was more like this sort of thing molex.com/pdm_docs/hires/0587231010_hires.jpg with a single pullin/latch lever although after this many years its hardly surprising that my recollection is flawed.
    – Mark Morgan Lloyd
    May 23, 2022 at 17:22

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