In the final lightsaber duel in "The Phantom Menace", did Darth Maul have an extra lightsaber, or did he use the Force to pick up the other half of his lightsaber as Obi Wan flipped over him?Did Obi-Wan switch off one of Darth Maul's lightsabers with the Force, as he was flipping over him?

We have studied the finer points of the couple of seconds when Obi-Wan jumps over Maul and kills him. We have discovered a couple of things.

1) When Obi-Wan jumps over Maul, Maul is holding both halves of his lightsabre. He must have picked the other half up at some point after he pushed Obi-Wan over the edge, or used the Force to pick it up.

2) When Obi-Wan starts his jump, the sabre in Maul's right hand is on, when Obi-Wan is over Maul, the sabre in his right hand is off. When Obi-Wan lands the sabre in Maul's left hand is on. This means that Obi-Wan must have used the Force to turn off the one in his right hand, so Maul activated the left one, but it was too late and Obi-Wan killed him.

Maul's lightsabre has been cut in half, Maul has lost one half of it and is using both hands on the remaining half.

You can see Maul holding the other half of his lightsabre in his left hand, while swinging the activated one in his right hand.

Same as image 2, just providing more evidence. Easier to see if you watch the film, hard to get a good still frame of it.

Obi-Wan begins his jump, the sabre in Maul's right hand is on, the one in his left hand is off.

Obi-Wan jumps, the sabre in Maul's right hand lightsabre turns off.

Maul dodges Obi-Wan's initial swing and has enough time to activate the lightsabre in his left hand (see next image) before Obi-Wan lands.

Maul has the left lightsabre activated, but he's too late and Obi-Wan slices him in two.

Ok, topic of much debate between Alex Sutton and I:

When Obi Wan flips over Maul, is Maul's lightsabre on or off? Watch closely, there are 2 shots of Obi-Wan going over Maul, a close up one and one that shows Obi Wan's whole body as it travels over the top of Maul. In the first one, the one that's closer in, Mauls lightsabre is off. Look at it. It is! This means that Obi-Wan turned off Maul's lightsabre, force jumped and force pulled Qui Gon's lightsabre all at the same time! Agree or die.

Rob Wilson found a mistake in this essay, but provided an alternate explanation:

You've probably had this pointed out by others by now, but in this picture:

...you can clearly see that there is *no* lightsabre in Mauls right hand any more so either there was never one in the left hand and the image was reversed in production by mistake, or Obi Wan turned off Mauls sabre, ripped it from his hand and Force pulled Qui Gonn's sabre as he jumped.... Much as I hate to say it I think it's the former (no sabre in the left hand at all, having gone over the DVD I just can't see one).

Change "This means that Obi-Wan turned off Maul's lightsabre, force jumped and force pulled Qui Gon's lightsabre all at the same time! Agree or die." to: "This means that Obi-Wan turned off Maul's lightsabre, ripped it out of Mauls hand, force jumped and force pulled Qui Gon's lightsabre all at the same time! Agree or die."

But wait! Another fan of my webpages, Jonny Richards, had this to say on the Maul controversy:

Maybe I can help clear this up. I saw Ray Park at a martial arts tournament recently. He told me he only had one lightsabre prop during the filming of these scenes. They switched from having a full lightstaff to a half lightstaff. He did not have two lightsabres at any time. Personally I think the reflection of his gauntlets give the impression of a second sabre.

Well, that's that then, eh? NOPE. Alan Massey has this view:

An easier explanation is that Maul switched his saber between his hands. Maybe he turned it off momentarily while he did so, but even that's not necessary. My DVD clearly shows Mauls activated lightsaber in his left hand a frame or so after this image;

You should consider changing your conclusion to; "This means that Obi-Wan timed his jump for the exact moment when Maul was switching his saber from right to left hand! Agree or die."