THX 1138 is still one of George Lucas’ most intriguing worlds

THX 1138 opened in March 1971, and 55 years after its release, the science-fiction thriller mostly exists in the shadow of Lucas’ best-known creation. The filmmaker even went on to hide various references to his first movie throughout the Skywalker saga. But while the earliest evidence of his sci-fi mastery can be found in THX 1138, the film itself has more in common with famous dystopian books by Aldous Huxley or George Orwell than it does with stories of Ewoks and Gungans. That makes it a rare outlier in its director’s career that’s still worth revisiting all these years later.