Rogue One Becomes Fastest Film to Reach 300+ Mentions of Hope
Hope has sprung eternal for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as the spinoff film has just secured the Guinness world record for Fastest Film to Reach Over 300 Mentions of the Word Hope.
“We’re beyond thrilled. Hope is a powerful word, and it provides a foundation for everything we do,” said Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
Rogue One is truly a landmark achievement when it comes to “hope.” Within the first 20 minutes, there are 127 mentions of the word by the main character alone. It’s unclear whether Disney targeted the Guinness world record, but the former record holders seem to think so.
“We had no hope of retaining the record. It was like David going up against Goliath with the juggernaut using a magical thesaurus with one word standing for everything” said Kevin Sorbo, star of Hope Bridge which had been tied with the classic inspirational sports film Brian’s Song for 300 mentions of the word “hope” in 100 minutes.
The Star Wars spinoff absolutely smashed the record, reaching 300 mentions in less than half the time at the 45 minute mark.
“With Rogue One, Disney basically created a Hope Star if you will. The film was powered by hope, used hope as its central theme, had every character break the fourth wall and ask for hope repeatedly. Hell, it even ended with a shot that leads directly into A New Hope,” added Sorbo’s costar Booboo Stewart (no relation).
Not everyone is taking the news lying down. Hallmark, which holds a number of records involving the over reliance on words such as Love, Peace, Dream and Happy, is contesting Rogue One’s new record.
“For us, it’s not enough to just use the word ‘hope’ over and over again. We feel the Guinness world record should go to a film that not only uses the word ‘hope’ quickly and often, but actually imbues it with meaning,” said Sybill Jackson, president of Hallmark’s Hall of Fame Film division.
“We also have a sneaking suspicion that Rogue One used reshoots to add 50 additional mentions of the word “hope” in the first act of the film,” added Jackson.
FSW reached out to Disney/Lucasfilm for a comment, but has not heard back at the time of posting.
Our own spies have uncovered Rogue One’s proposed opening crawl, which does seem to suggest a conscious attempt at breaking the Guinness world record. But we’ll leave it up to the experts to decide whether the new record stands.
As always keep it locked to FakingStarWars.net for updates on this and all other Star Wars news worth faking. Guaranteed to provide you with more false hope than that one rebel who valiantly volunteered to hit the master switch.
-William “Willybobo” Bobo
