It’s a very minor thing that doesn’t really matter, but I found myself wondering if Obi-wan used telekinesis to hit something or mind trick to distract the Stormtroopers by the power coupling for the tractor beam. I used to be sure it was telekinesis, but lately I’ve been thinking about it, and have been coming around to mind trick. After all, he couldn’t know what was in the hallway to knock over. Although I guess he could just strike the wall. Thoughts?
I always thought he mind-tricked them into thinking some sort of disturbance was happening off in the corridor that they ought to go check out.
It's hard to say. IIRC, it makes this "heavy air" type of sound, which makes it seem like the stormtrooper reacted to something. I always thought it was just some sublte, airy thing Obi-Wan made with the Force.
The way Alec Guinness moved his fingers makes me think of a snapping gesture. It looks to me like he was telekinetically tapping on a wall to make a sound.
There is no physical sound that cannot be accounted for. That claves nook sound that occurs as Obi-Wan's fingers move is the Stormtrooper's headset radios. That sound can be heard several times in preceding and following frames when a Stormtrooper finishes a sentence.
Ben moves around the tractor beam, watching the stormtroopers as they turn their backs to him. Ben gestures with his hand toward them, as the troops think they hear something in the other hallway. With the help of the Force, Ben deftly slips past the troopers and into the main hallway. It's a bit hard to hear in the film, but there's a whump noise that sounds like it's coming from down the hallway slightly before the nook sound that comes from one of the stormtrooper's headsets. So either Ben is actually doing something telekinetically, or he's using the Force to make them think they hear something and it's simply made audible for the benefit of the audience. The description in the script makes me lean towards the latter explanation.
I like to think that those two stormtroopers continue their idle chit-chat after Obi-Wan leaves "So, are you taking a holiday this year?" "On my salary? Are you kidding?"
Well, hot damn, I've wondered the same thing myself for quite a while. I had always leaned towards him just using the Force to tap a wall or something, but the Force being used for telekinesis wasn't a thing in 1977, bar choking. If I were asked now, chances are I'd say it's more a mind****
The main thing I remember from that scene is that you hear that low rumble on the soundtrack, just like you heard it when Vader choked Motti. I don't recall hearing any other sound effect, so I figure it was a mind trick.
I thought we heard a noise. It's sort of indistict, but loud enough to warrant the Stormtroopers looking. Anyone notice that Rey climbs a tractor beam tower in The Rise of Skywalker while in the Death Star 2?
I always thought he manipulated real things to make that noise which then obviously distracted the Stormtroopers and allowed him to get away. In all my years watching SW I don't think I ever thought it was some mind trick, as if to make the Stormtroopers think something was happening that wasn't. It was just an old wizard manipulating the space time continuum.
What is the noise we hear? It's changed over the editions but it's clearly audible to the audience. As the audience can hear it too I always believed Obi-Wan had moved an object off screen to make the noise and cause the Stormtroopers look the other way...but I don't know. for certain..
I dug out my copy of the novelization just to see what it had to say. And it said.....neither? In the novelization, he just sneaks from one shadow to the next, avoiding detection. So no help there It does imply (but not outright state) that he used the Force to move more silently and/or hide himself in the shadows better. So I guess that’s closer to the realm of mind trick.
Well, the stormtroopers clearly hear something, and then the dialogue (as confirmed with subtitles) was "what was that?" And then the other says "nothing-outgassing, don't worry about it." So I'm figuring outgassing means Obi Wan used the force to cause some exhaust conduit to burst or pressure valve in the elevator door mechanism to blow open and let out a burst of air-which distracted them in the other direction.
