Kyiv – “Attention. Air raid alert,” says the voice with the seriousness of a Jedi Knight. “Go to the nearest shelter.”
It’s a surreal moment an already surreal war: actor Mark Hamill’s solemn but soothing baritone, ‘Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker, urging people to take cover as Russia unleashes another airstrike on Ukraine.
The intrusion of Hollywood sci-fi fantasy into the grim daily reality of the war in Ukraine is a consequence of Hamill’s decision to lend his famous voice to “Air Alert” – a downloadable app linked to Ukraine’s air defense system. When air raid sirens begin to wail, the app also warns Ukrainians of Russian missiles, bombs and deadly exploding drones.
“Don’t be sloppy,” advises Hamill’s voice. “Your overconfidence is your weakness.”
The actor says he admired – from afar, in California – how Ukraine “has shown such resilience… under such terrible circumstances.” His fight against the Russian invasion, now in the second year, reminds him of the “Star Wars” saga, he says – of brave rebels fighting and eventually defeating a vast, murderous empire. His way of helping was to provide the English language version of the Air Raid App with music and his Star Wars touch.
“A fairy tale of good and evil fits what’s going on in Ukraine,” Hamill said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The Ukrainian people who are standing up for the cause and responding so heroically… It’s impossible not to be inspired by how they weathered this storm.”
When the dangers from the skies have passed, Hamill announces via the app that “the air alert is over.” Then he says goodbye with an uplifting, “May the force be with you.”
Hamill is too raising funds Buy reconnaissance drones for the Ukrainian armed forces at the front. He autographed “Star Wars” posters that will be raffled.
“Here I sit comfortably in my own home when there are power outages and food shortages in Ukraine and people are really suffering,” he said. “That motivates me to do as much as possible.”
Though the app also has a Ukrainian-language take, voiced by a woman, some Ukrainians prefer it when Hamill breaks the bad news that another Russian bombardment may be imminent.
On the worst of days, sirens and the app will blare every few hours day and night. Some turn out to be false alarms. But many others are real — and often deadly.
Bohdan Zvonyk, a 24-year-old app user living in the repeatedly-hit western city of Lviv, says he chose Hamill’s voiceover over the Ukrainian setting because he’s trying to improve his English. He’s also a Star Wars fan.
“Besides,” he said, “we could use some of the power Hamill wants us to have.”
After an alarm, Zvonyk was riding a trolleybus when Hamill’s voice came from his phone. He said the man in front “turned to me and said, smiling, ‘Oh those damn Sith'” to describe the Russian forces. The Sith are the malicious enemies of the good-natured Jedi.
Olena Yeremina, a 38-year-old business executive in the capital, Kyiv, said Hamill’s “may the force be with you” signoff first made her laugh. Now the ongoing humor gives her strength.
“It’s a very cool expression for this situation,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I feel like a Ukrainian Jedi, but sometimes that phrase reminds me to straighten my shoulders and keep working.”
Sometimes it may be advisable to turn off Hamill. Yeremina forgot about this on a trip outside of Ukraine — to Berlin — and paid for the mistake when the alarm clock started screeching at 6 a.m., and again while riding the subway in the German capital. She wasn’t alone. Another person in the subway car also had the app and she broke out as well. The two cursed at first, but then “it made both me and that person smile,” Yeremina recalled.
Ajax Systems, a Ukrainian security systems maker who helped develop the app, hopes Hamill’s star power will encourage people outside of Ukraine to download it – so they can get a taste of the fear Ukrainians are being unleashed by heart-pounding alarms and death and destruction overwhelmed by the air.
“With Mark’s approach, it won’t be that scary,” said Valentine Hrytsenko, Ajax’s chief marketing officer. “But they will somehow understand the context.”
In the first year of the invasion, air alerts sounded more than 19,000 times across the country, so “naturally people are getting tired,” he said. The app has been downloaded more than 14 million times. Hrytsenko is among those who use the English-speaking environment to hear Hamill’s voice.
“For Star Wars fans, that sounds really amazing,” he said. “It’s kind of a Ukrainian mentality to find some humor even in the bad situation or try to be positive.”
Hamill is delighted that the sci-fi saga is taking people back, albeit temporarily, to their galaxy far, far away.
“It inspires people,” he says. “Everyone flashes back to being 6 years old again. And if the film can help people get through tough times, all the better.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine And https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine-a-year-of-war
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