Since its long-awaited release in December 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been making headlines worldwide. Episode 7 is the only movie in history to reach $900 million domestically, and is the third movie of all time to pass generating $2 billion globally. Unsurprisingly, it set a new opening night box office record in the US and Canada, making $57 million in just the one evening. In the UK records were also broken for advanced ticket bookings. It goes on and on, as expected of such an anticipated production, but its most recent headline may just have come as a surprise.

That one was less expected. It transpires that Harrison Ford broke his leg on set, and the HSE are bringing 4 criminal charges against Foodles Production (UK) Ltd for it – the subsidiary of Disney that produced the film. However, is it really that surprising? Taking a closer look at the series reveals that in fact, perhaps a health and safety incident has been looming in the shadows of the galaxy far, far away, waiting to happen since 1977.

“Star Wars prosecuted over Harrison Ford injury”

– BBC News, 11 Feb 16

This is something that actually crossed my mind whilst sitting in the super-screen, super-packed Christmas Eve showing of The Force Awakens; "Hey, that walkway isn't very safe, I hope Han Solo doesn't get thrown off of it." Well, most of us know how that one ended, but if safety was on my mind during the screening, a marketing executive of an EHS software vendor, surely it was on the mind of EHS Directors, Managers, and Risk Assessors everywhere?

Does the health and safety manager ever switch off? Do you? When watching a TV show or movie, going your morning jog, getting on your train home or during other everyday life tasks, do you often pick up on safety violations?

Light-hearted, of course, but check out these HSE/OSHA violations we found throughout the films that actually relate to real life safety issues.