'STAR WARS' AT 40: RECOVERING FROM "A BAD STEP"!

The Sandpeople are easily startled but Obi-Wan knows they'll be back- time to depart with the out of hiding Artoo, but not before Luke also thankfully remembers to collect the remains of Threepio - recent unwitting backwards cliff top plunge survivor, now short of an arm and thinking he's done for!

Filming the scene with Daniels as Threepio, only wearing the top half of his costume- a crew member keeps his feet supported from getting in camera shot.

'STAR WARS' AT 40: THIS MAN NAMED 'OBI-WAN'?

Thankfully not dead, Luke Skywalker is saved from the Sandpeople due to the fortunate arrival of a mysterious yet kindly old man cloaked in tattered brown rags, soon administering a wake-up call to the boy's consciousness and ultimately introducing himself as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the very person whom the dedicated Artoo has been looking for since touchdown on Tatooine.

George Lucas supervises Sir Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill's first scenes together on location in Tunisia, during March 1976.

Alec Guiness Interview On Set Of Star Wars 1977 - YouTube

In the Alan Dean Foster novel of the film, using one of the revised filming drafts, Kenobi actually made two Krayt Dragon calls to scare off the Sandpeople, not the singular effort seen on screen..

'STAR WARS' AT 40: WHEN SANDPEOPLE ATTACK!

Artoo has finally been found and his Tatooine walkabout temporarily ceased, but Luke Skywalker's curiosity about some nearby nomadic Sandpeople gets the worst of him, as the creatures make a vicious surprise attack on both Luke and a shocked Threepio- a scene well depicted on the cover of the second issue of the UK's STAR WARS WEEKLY comic, from February 1978.

Episode Nothing: Star Wars in the 1970s: Looking back at Star Wars Weekly – issue 2

CLASSIC IMAGE: INSIDE THE DANGER ZONE...

"I've never been out in this direction this far from the farm before. There are some awfully strange things living out here. Not all of them have been classified. It's better to treat anything as dangerous until determined otherwise. Of course, if it's something utterly new..."

Luke Skywalker - deleted script dialogue - 1975/76

Entering the harsh realm of the Jundland Wastes, Luke Skywalker and See-Threepio finally catch up with the rogue, mission-set Artoo Detoo before encountering the Sandpeople, in this scene rehearsal filmed on location at the later named STAR WARS Canyon in Tunisia, March 1976. Note that, to keep warm on a unseasonably chilly day, Hamill is wearing the poncho he later acquires at Mos Eisley spaceport.

With thanks to Ian Trussler for the image.

BEHIND THE SCENES: PROJECTION PEOPLE!

At Elstree, near the end of Summer 1976 London filming for STAR WARS, Mark Hamill gets into the Landspeeder cockpit alongside Anthony Daniels, readying to shoot their scenes of Luke and Threepio searching the Jundland wastes for the missing Artoo-location footage speeding by that would be projected behind them: a common industry technique often replaced these days by blue or green screen. The completed sequence was deemed unusable-the final results not believable enough for Lucas- but eventually appeared on the 2011 Blu-ray release as one of the many deleted scenes.

STAR WARS AT 35: TUSKEN TRAVELER!

A lone Tusken Raider atop his Bantha travels the Jundland Wastes in this very rare image taken on location in Death Valley, California for shooting of extra footage in 1977 for the original STAR WARS.

Banthas: From Concept to Screen | StarWars.com

CLASSIC IMAGE: "SANDPEOPLE...OR WORSE!"

Atop a canyon, and with rifle ready, a careful Luke, with the Protocol Droid See-Threepio behind him, surveys the valley below looking for the fearsome Sandpeople. The young farm boy, however, in unaware that they have already found him!