Creative force
The blaring siren was a call to battle stations, the boots stomping nearby were Stormtroopers moving to deadly action, and the hissing from the large man in a mask had to be Darth Vader.
A cafe now sits in place of the Titirangi house where author Adam Christopher grew up. But in the late 1980s, he’d peek from his bedroom window in the West Auckland suburb as firefighters rushed to the neighbouring station. His young imagination didn’t have to leap far, far away to feel like he was living inside his favourite movie, The Empire Strikes Back.
“My whole childhood is punctuated by the siren going off and the volunteers tearing into the carpark, ripping off their clothes as they got out of their cars ready to put on their fireman stuff,” says Christopher via video call from England. “The march up and down the street outside our house, the breathing sounded like Darth Vader because they’ve got the big respirators on.”
An Imperial March? All that scene needed was for the ominous percussion and strings then dramatic brass notes of John Williams’ iconic instrumental to kick in, heralding the arrival of the greatest villain in film history. (A few years ago, called , aka Darth Vader’s theme, the best music cue of all time.)
