Entertainment
27 Years Later, This Is Officially the Most Horrifying Scene in All of Star Wars
There are very few moments in Star Wars that genuinely feel horrifying. The franchise has always balanced war, tragedy, and darkness against pulpy adventure, but even its most devastating scenes usually carry a sense of mythic spectacle. Deaths happen constantly across the galaxy far, far away, yet very few linger in the same deeply uncomfortable way as one specific moment from Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace. Oddly enough, it happens during the podrace, which is still one of the best Star Wars sequences.
More specifically, it happens when Ratts Tyerell dies screaming in a fiery crash during the Boonta Eve Classic, a moment that has recently gone viral again online after fans revisited just how shockingly brutal the sequence actually is. A post from X user @NudeGunray called it “the most horrifying scene in Star Wars,” while another viral post from creator Jacob Andrews (@jtimsuggs) pointed out that deleted scenes from The Phantom Menace make the entire thing significantly worse.
Ratts Tyerell’s Death Feels Weirdly Real for Star Wars
The death itself happens quickly, but that almost makes it more disturbing. During the race, Ratts loses control of his podracer after a collission. His engines violently spin out, slam into the canyon wall, and explode while he lets out one of the most panicked screams anywhere in the franchise. What makes the moment stand out is how little fantasy softening there is around it. George Lucas does not frame the crash like a heroic sacrifice or dramatic wartime casualty: Ratts dies terrified, and the practical effects make the crash feel especially harsh.
Throughout the sequence, the podracers look unstable and dangerous, constantly rattling apart as they rocket through narrow canyon walls at absurd speeds. Ratts’ crash reminds viewers that these machines are essentially death traps. What makes the scene even sadder is that Ratts was a respected podracer who faced an accelerator malfunction, leaving him with little chance of avoiding the crash. Even stranger is how quickly the movie moves on afterward, because there’s hardly any reaction or acknowledgment that someone just died horribly. The Phantom Menace quietly establishes that podracing is an incredibly lethal spectator sport where racers can explode to death in front of thousands of cheering fans and everyone simply accepts it as part of the event.
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George Lucas Accidentally Created A Real Racing Tragedy
The reason the scene has resurfaced recently is because of the deleted scene involving Ratts Tyerell’s family. One deleted scene from The Phantom Menace shows Ratts’ wife and children attending the podrace to support him. According to the dialogue referenced online, someone even mentions that his wife had just gotten out of the hospital with their new child. Then Ratts dies, and practically in front of them. That additional context transforms the sequence into one of the bleakest moments anywhere in Star Wars. Suddenly, the terrified alien screaming before impact is not just a random background racer created to raise the stakes. He is a husband and father who dies during a sporting event while his family watches from the stands.
What makes the moment especially unsettling is how closely it mirrors real-world racing tragedies. Lucas famously drew inspiration from Formula 1 and other motorsports while developing the Boonta Eve Classic, incorporating recordings of F1 cars alongside other racing vehicles into the sound design for Anakin Skywalker’s podracer. The goal was to make podracing feel fast, dangerous, and authentic. Viewed through that lens, Ratts’ death takes on an entirely different weight, because the scene suddenly feels uncomfortably close to the kinds of accidents that have haunted real racing events throughout history. The deleted scene only reinforces that feeling by reminding viewers that Ratts had a family waiting for him to come home.
‘The Phantom Menace’ Barely Acknowledges What Happened
Ratts’ death is the moment that fully sells the danger of the Boonta Eve Classic. From that point forward, every turn carries real tension because viewers have already watched one racer die horribly. The scene becomes even stranger because of what happens next. The Phantom Menace immediately pivots back into adventure mode, with the crowd moving on, the race continuing (there’s no safety podracer here to help keep things safe), and the movie barely acknowledges what happened. That emotional coldness is a big part of why Ratts Tyerell’s death still feels so disturbing more than two decades later. Plenty of characters die throughout Star Wars, but very few deaths combine genuine terror, horrific implications, and complete indifference from everyone around them. It is one of the rare moments where the galaxy far, far away feels uncomfortably close to the real world.
- Release Date
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May 19, 1999
- Runtime
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136 minutes
- Director
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George Lucas
- Writers
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George Lucas
- Producers
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Rick McCallum
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