TIE fighters are fictional starfighters in the Star Wars universe. Propelled by Twin Ion Engines (hence the TIE acronym), TIE fighters are depicted as fast, fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire. TIE fighters and other TIE craft appear in the original Star Wars trilogy — (1977), (1980), and (1983) — and throughout the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Several TIE fighter replicas and toys, as well as a TIE flight simulator, have been released by merchandise companies.

Origin and design

Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Colin Cantwell created the concept model that established the TIE fighter's ball-cockpit and hexagonal wing design for A New Hope. Initially given a blue color scheme, the TIE fighter models for the first Star Wars movie were grey to better film against a bluescreen; TIE fighters in the next two movies shifted back to being a muted blue. Sound designer Ben Burtt created the distinctive TIE fighter sound effect by combining an elephant call with a car driving on wet pavement.

Combat scenes between TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon and Rebel X-wings in A New Hope were meant to be reminiscent of World War II dogfight footage; editors used World War II air combat clips as placeholders while ILM completed the movie's special effects. The Jedi starfighter, created for , was designed to bridge the appearance of the Jedi starfighter in and the TIE fighter design from the original trilogy. Dark Horse Comics' Sean Cooke designed the TIE predator in , set 130 years after the events of A New Hope, to appear both reminiscent of and more advanced than the original TIE fighter.

Depiction

Star Wars literature states that Sienar Fleet Systems manufactures TIE fighters and most TIE variants. TIE fighters' solar panels power a twin ion engine (TIE) system that accelerates gases at a high speed along almost any vector, affording the ships tremendous speed and maneuverability. Described as lacking a hyperdrive, life support, or shield generators, the fragile TIE fighters are deployed in large numbers from bases or larger ships; a Star Destroyer carries a wing of 72 various TIE craft.

Other TIE craft

's TIE advanced x1]] In addition to the TIE fighter, a variety of other TIE craft appear throughout the films. Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) flies a TIE advanced x1 in A New Hope. ILM gave it a design different from the other TIE fighters to make it instantly recognizable. The next movie, The Empire Strikes Back, introduces a TIE shuttle and TIE bombers, which ferry Captain Needa (Michael Culver) to Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer and bomb asteroids in the hunt for the Millennium Falcon, respectively. Both TIE craft have a design that stems from an unused "TIE boarding craft" concept developed for A New Hope. The TIE bomber's double-hull design led ILM's modelmakers to dub the ship a "double chili dog" fighter. Two scales of TIE interceptor models were used during filming.

Additionally, LucasArts Star Wars video games introduce several TIE variants, such as the TIE hunter starfighter in and the TIE mauler surface vehicle in . The TIE avenger and TIE defender — heavily upgraded derivatives of previous craft seen in the Star Wars universe — first appear in TIE Fighter as player-pilotable craft. The plot of revolves around destroying the Empire's ability to manufacture the cloaking TIE phantom starfighter, and a campaign in centers on destroying experimental remote-control TIE fighters.

Star Wars literature also introduces TIE varieties. Corran Horn flies a TIE clutch in I, Jedi and TIE raptors attack Rogue Squadron in Solo Command. TYE wings — TIE fighter and Y-wing hybrids — appear both in I, Jedi and . West End Games' roleplaying sourcebooks introduce varieties that include the TIE/fc fire-control support ship, the TIE/gt ground-attack fighter, the TIE/rc reconnaissance vessel, and the TIE scout.

Cultural impact

A TIE fighter model used in filming the climax of A New Hope sold at auction for $350,000. Fans built a 16-foot-by-20-foot, 1,000-pound TIE fighter float to commemorate Star Wars' thirtieth anniversary as part of the 2007 Crystal Lake Gala Parade. A Wired editor's creation of a TIE fighter model out of Starbucks cups and stirrers prompted the magazine to create a contest for its readers to submit their own art out of similar Starbucks material.

Kenner released TIE fighter and TIE interceptor toys during the original Star Wars trilogy's theatrical release, and Kenner's die-cast TIE bomber is a rare collector's item. Hasbro also released TIE fighter, TIE bomber, and TIE interceptor toys. Both Kenner and Hasbro also manufactured TIE fighter pilot action figures. Lego manufactured TIE fighter, TIE bomber, TIE interceptor, TIE defender, and TIE advanced models. One of eight Lego mini-kit vehicles released in 2002 is a TIE advanced, and the pieces to all eight can be combined to create a TIE bomber. Lucasfilm members had access to a limited-edition mini-kit TIE fighter.

In 1994, LucasArts released the TIE Fighter flight simulator, which casts the player as an Imperial pilot flying a variety of TIE starfighters. TIE starfighter variants are also playable in and appear in other LucasArts Star Wars titles.

References

External links

Databank index at starwars.com - Look at Vehicles and Starships tabs

Category:Star Wars starfighters

Name	Sergei Govorkov
Caption
First	His Nickname Is 'Beast' (1989)
Last	Return of the Furious (2005)
Nickname	30th
Alias	Beast, Rex, Furious
Title	Sergeant
Portrayer	Igor Livanov (1992 film)Dmitry Pevtsov (1989 film)
Creator	Victor Dotsenko

Sergeant Sergei (Rex) Govorkov (nicknamed Furious) is a fictional character in the 1992 Soviet action/adventure film Terminate the Thirtieth!, played by Igor Livanov. He is arguably a breakout character. The movie is based on the same-titled novel by Victor Dotsenko. Govorkov, created by Victor Dotsenko in 1980s, is a main protagonist in the novels of other well-known Russian writers including Yuri Nikitin, Anton Pervushin, Valery Roschin, Kirill Vorobyev. Novels about his adventures made Victor Dotsenko the most published and highest paid Russian writer in 1995. In them his character got to know many prominent Russian politicians and officials, who later became personal friends of Dotsenko in reality (for example, the mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov). Overall Dotsenko has written 25 books about Govorkov or about gaps in his fictional biography (for instance, An Appeal to Furious). Dotsenko even calles himself Furious's Father (). Today, the total number of books sold about Govorkov's adventures remains unknown. The approximate number is 20,000,000 from 1991 to 2001, which includes books with different covers and by other authors as well as unlicensed books. Some of them have been translated into English.

Short description

Sergei Govorkov is a fictional character, created by Victor Dotsenko, returnee of the Afghan war, who fights the Mafia in the manner of a superhero or Rambo. He fights mafia criminals, corrupt politicians, Chechen terrorists, and foreign enemies, saving President Yeltsin and receives a Purple Heart from US authorities.

In the novels his name is Savely – a rare Russian name, which was changed to relatively sounding, more common and catchy. He appeared in more than twenty novels, all of them became a bestsellers.

Fictional character biography

Sergei was brought up in an orphanage, VDV and Spetsnaz Sergeant, martial arts sensei's best trainee, Afghan vet, after being retired he was convicted for a crime he didn't commit, became a prisoner, then an escapee and fugitive from justice, later considered not guilty, back in the Afghan, MIA, then became a POW, during his escape he came into a copter crash, badly wounded and healed by some Pakistani Zoroastrian sect which later initiated him as adept. And by the time depicted in the beginning of "Terminate the Thirtieth!", he's just a lonely drifter in some oriental country , completely out of money, applying for any kind of job and attempting to sold his war decorations to prevent himself from starvation death. His friend Cpt. Voronov (or '11th'), which also became missing in action during the Afghan campaign, is his only relative - they grew up together in the orphanage.

Complicated tangle, eh? And there is no wonder that KGB, Russian mob and Mujahideen wants him dead or alive. Finally he came back in the USSR, but now it's not the same Country he had left a years ago. New trends, new ideas, new liberties are in the air.

Meaning of the "30th"

30th is a chest-badge number, which is a heritage from his previous owner, killed in the beginning of the novel "Terminate the Thirtieth!"

Victor Dotsenko "Terminate the Thirtieth!":

Other facts

Unlike the novel, the film contains no sex scenes, which are frequent in the novel. Despite, its having been shot shortly after the 'Glasnost' period, sexploitation on the screen was widespread and encouraged. A vast majority of the initiated audience, mostly VDV and Spetsnaz servicemen considered the movie quieter, more interesting and related to reality. This is because Dotsenko, who was Director as well, has used military consultants. Also, actor Igor Livanov, who portrayed the '30th', served active duty in Soviet marine troops, and was well-experienced in martial arts. A "Kill the Thirtieth" novel took the 9th position in the 1992' The Economist chart. After the 1992' film, there were events, when people change their original name to character's one.

See also

VDV

Spetsnaz

Further reading

Adele Marie Barker "Consuming Russia: popular culture, sex, and society since Gorbachev". Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1999 - 473 p. ISBN 0822323133, 9780822323136 (Page 188)

Birgit Beumers "Pop culture Russia!: media, arts, and lifestyle". Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2005 - 399 p. ISBN 1851094598, 9781851094592 (Page 300)

Eliot Borenstein "Overkill: sex and violence in contemporary Russian popular culture". Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2008 - 265 p. ISBN 0801474035, 9780801474033

Michael L. Bressler "Understanding contemporary Russia". Boulder : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009 - 423 p. ISBN 1588265862, 9781588265869 (Page 371)

Anna Brodsky, Mark Naumovich Lipovetskiĭ, Marina Kanevskaya, Sven Spieker "The imprints of terror: the rhetoric of violence and the violence of rhetoric in modern Russian culture". Gesellschaft zur Förderung slawistischer Studien, 2006 - 290 p. ISBN 3876909791, 9783876909790 (Page 121)

Anthony Olcott "Russian pulp: the detektiv and the Russian way of crime". Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2001 - 207 p. ISBN 0742511405, 9780742511408 (Pages 33,145,191,202)

"Russian studies in literature", vol. 36. Periodical. Armonk, NY : M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2000. ISSN: 1061-1975

"The Soviet and post-Soviet review", vol. 29. Periodical. Salt Lake City, UT : College of Humanities, University of Utah, 2002. ISSN: 1075-1262

References

Category:Fictional sergeants Category:Fictional Spetsnaz personnel Category:Fictional war veterans Category:Fictional mercenaries Category:Fictional private military members Category:Characters in Russian novels of the 20th century Category:Russian characters in written fiction