These Star Wars Fans Are Building a Full-Size Millennium Falcon Cockpit

[Narrator] From the moment the Millennium Falcon

blasted away on screen some 40 plus years ago,

Star Wars fans have dreamed of piloting

the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

These guys are making that dream a reality.

Welcome to the full scale Falcon cockpit.

My name is Greg Dietrich.

I'm the project build lead I guess you could say

for the full scale Falcon cockpit replica

which you see right behind me.

We're tryin' to take the prop from the Star Wars film

and bring it into real life in such a way

that people can actually walk around within it,

interact with it, be amazed by it.

[Narrator] For the past six years,

Dietrich, Polatty and a group of fellow fans

have been building a full size version

of the famous space ship,

part by intergalactic part.

Believe it or not, I started the project May fourth,

and if you're a fan you know what May fourth is.

[Narrator] Now they have nearly finished the cockpit.

We're tryin' to stay to true to what we see on screen.

For me, it's when you walk in for the first time,

you're immediately transported back to the very first time

you saw whatever film it happened to be,

whether is was Star Wars, Empire or Jedi,

and you were immediately transported back

to being a kid and going, wow.

You can totally fit in the cockpit now and it's great.

Being part of it, even seeing it every day,

it's still pretty cool.

We are sitting in the actual cockpit that we built.

This is the first time that two people

have actually sat here.

First time in two, two and half years

that the console has been in place,

the seats have been in place.

It feels pretty good actually.

What we're lookin' at is the actual,

I guess flight console where on screen

the ship is actually flown.

What each one of these buttons does, I have no idea.

What we know for sure is that in order to go into

light speed, not warp speed,

light speed you pull these four down

and you go in light speed.

[Narrator] And it's not just the hyper drive levers.

There's a radar unit to spot Imperial Star Destroyers

and hatches that open and close.

Today, Dietrich is putting final touches

on set of pads that ring the cockpit entrance.

How 'bout we do that.

Then one goes here,

one goes here, here,

all the way around,

19 total going all the way around.

I actually gouged out this deep cut right here.

I just basically took a knife

and I went like this to the actual insulation foam.

And then when I covered with a shop towel modge podge,

I kind of tucked it in there

and once the paint was on

and the black wash was put on,

you can see what a dirty look.

So, you go from that to that in a matter of minutes,

and each pad has to be done by hand,

one at a time,

but I really enjoy about it,

is that each pad has its own character,

has its own life,

has its own story to tell

which is a lot of fun,

and that's what makes the project fun.

[Narrator] To make it as realistic

and as interactive as possible,

Polatty has rigged the craft with sound and lights.

Lots of lights.

I've lost count to be honest.

I'd have to say probably over 500 lights.

[Narrator] Some blink.

Some turn on and off with a satisfying click.

The lights are part of the full scale Falcon's teams

devotion to the fine art of something

that set builders call greeblies.

All of the details that you see,

whether it's these trays here

or this piece that I call the laser gun,

I call the cockpit laser gun.

This greebly set right here,

that's exactly what that's called.

We don't know what it is, so we call it a greebly.

One of my favorite greeblies in the whole cockpit

is this guy right here.

This particular greebly has been redesigned,

redone I think five or six times,

but it's one of my favorites

because we finally identified what it actually is,

and it's a autopilot clutch out of a fighter.

It just sits, it just sits there,

and its just one of my absolute favorite pieces.

[Narrator] You'd be forgiven if you thought

they were building this in a galaxy far, far away,

but the full scale Falcon is being constructed

in a garage here.

We are located in Huntsville, Alabama,

which is the space and rocket capitol of the world.

Just right down the road from us

is the space and rocket center.

You were to ever come into town,

you'd see the very very large Saturn Five rocket.

Wernher von Braun was here

and he's really what helped

the US start their space program.

I can't think of a better place for the Falcon to be sitting

than the space and rocket capitol of the world.

[Narrator] But, Dietrich and Polatty do get assistance

with schematics and greeblies from volunteer fans

from around the world.

The project has taken on a life of its own.

It started with just me

in my garage.

Once it began to take off,

once people were like, hey this guy's serious,

all of a sudden, people from not only around here,

but people from Seattle, Baltimore, Dallas, England

all wanted to get involved.

[Narrator] Which is good because Dietrich

who works as a graphic designer

and Polatty who also has a day job

could only do so much in their free time.

This isn't is a full time job.

I've gotta full time job in an office

where I sit all day long.

When I get the opportunity, I come here.

I build and I have fun.

[Narrator] No detail is too small,

and that can be a problem

because the Millennium Falcon is constantly changing.

The actors during the shoots might knock off a part.

They might glue it on.

They might glue it on wrong.

The might not glue it on at all,

and so they might put on another part.

So, every scene changes,

and so it's hard to kind of say,

this is the definitive Falcon

because it always changes.

It originally started as the New Hope cockpit,

and then we said, let's go for the Empire version,

that's the fan favorite.

We are trying to be as screen accurate as we can get.

I gotta really good feeling about this.

[Narrator] Of course with the new movies,

including the new Solo,

there are always new Millennium Falcon details to study.

The first time I watch a new Star Wars movie,

I just let it be Star Wars,

like I just let it get,

I want that first feeling to be just a fun feeling.

Then after that,

once I've gotten my Star Wars experience,

then I'll sit down and go,

okay what's different?

[Narrator] These guys know a lot

about the Millennium Falcon from movie quotes.

From 8.5 that's light speed.

Do the Kessler in under 12 parsecs.

She might not look like much,

but she got it where it counts.

[Narrator] To details on the original parts

used to build the first set,

take the neat chairs behind the pilot seats.

They were originally made from

Martin-Baker Mark Four ejection seats

found in early jets.

No, they're not cheap at all.

The Martin-Baker chair itself,

between 15 to 25 thousand dollars.

It's more cost effective to just build one.

This is not an actual ejection seat,

this is a replica, mostly wood,

which I built and has removable pads on it.

You've got a 3D printed parts,

3D printed parts here.

This is just a mock-up of the head piece,

but the most famous part of the chair,

believe it or not

is the actual Tupperware lid tat sits

dead center of where the person's head rests.

[Man] That's a Tupperware lid?

That is an actual Tupperware lid.

[Narrator] That level of detail

is what makes the build so unique.

Parts that can't be found are made by hand,

by 3D printer and with a laser cutter.

The cockpit is made out of

mostly three quarter inch plywood.

That's where all of the framing,

the panels are made from MDF,

which is multi-density fiber board.

The greeblies and the details you see

are mostly acrylic, MDF or 3D printed.

I would say the cockpit weighs

probably a thousand pounds maybe.

1500?

To be honest with you, I really don't know.

I don't want it fallin' on me,

but I really don't know how much it weighs.

How much longer do I think I have on it?

Six months maybe a year.

Maybe two, I don't know.

[Narrator] And believe it or not,

the cockpit is just the beginning.

The ultimate goal is to build the entire ship.

The actual full scale ship is 80 feet wide,

114 feet long and 30 feet tall at the top of the radar.

So, it's not small.

That's just three little things that are holdin' us back.

Time, space and money.

How much money have I spent?

I really don't wanna say

because probably between

30 to 60 thousand dollars I would say.

And a lot of that is just doing

something over and over again.

Realizing that, oh we got the part wrong.

I should take it off.

I have to order something.

Then I have to redo part.

So, why do we want to build something like this?

I don't know, maybe to capture that same feeling

that we had when we were eight years old,

when we were 10 years old, when we were 12 years old.

It takes us away from the, from reality,

and takes us to a time when

we didn't have to worry about bills,

we didn't have to worry about the politicians,

we didn't have to worry,

we weren't bombarded.

This takes all of that away,

and maybe that's what it is.

In the real world,

if you could just pull the four levers back

and get out of here,

I think we would do it.