User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/THE CHOSEN ONE: Chapter 5 released!/@comment-236683-20130307002954/@comment-20644-20130307032908

That's not to say that there were no shades of A New Hope. The warrior's display of dominance, by thrusting his weapon over his head and howling, was very much A New Hope. However, the concept of dragging an injured companion towards a cave while being confronted by people out to attack you is A Princess of Mars.

In that story, John Carter and his companion (whose name/role slips my mind) are attacked by Native Americans. It was written in 1912 so there was still very much anti-Native American racism, given that it wasn't long after all the American/Native American horrors of the 19th Century, but that's the basic gist of it. The companion is injured by the Native Americans, and Carter pulls him to safety at a cave. It's in that cave that Carter is mysteriously transported to Barsoom&mdash;which, as he soon finds out, is the planet he knows as Mars.

So that's where this came from. Michael isn't running from the sand people to get to the cave, rather he's attacked once he's there, but you can see the inspiration there. Given what happens to John Carter in the cave, I'm sure you can begin to realize that something will happen to Michael as a result of this cave as well.