London Tower Becomes World's Biggest Lightsaber

The BT Tower in London, England was transformed for one night only last week into a giant, 581-foot-high lightsaber. But why?

Why would Lucasfilm go to the expense of mounting over sixty 4.5kw at the top of a famous London skyscraper — a building that, admittedly, already looks like the handle of a lightsaber? To celebrate the release of the Star Wars saga on Blu-ray, of course. The giant lightsaber itself was blue in color, hence it had a “blue ray” (get it?). The beam shone over 600 meters into the night sky, and was reportedly visible from all over London. The best part of all: the whole thing was controlled by an iPad from the roof of an adjacent building.

The lightsaber was activated last Thursday night, the 15th of September, at 8:30 PM by C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels. Darth Vader and a legion of Stormtroopers were on hand for the event, of course. Check out Vader “holding” the giant lightsaber in the photo below, and then head over to the Flickr account of Eddie Lawrence for some terrific high-res shots of the BT Tower on this special night. (One of his shots is below.)

Darth Vader and the BT Tower Lightsaber

BT Tower Lightsaber in London (photo by Eddie Lawrence)