TORONTO — In "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which arrived in theaters Friday, there are men. There are goats. And, yes, staring is involved.

Not revealed in the title is that the truth-based, anti-war farce contains the rare sight of George Clooney doing an awkward white-guy's boogie to Billy Squier's slice of '80s bombast, "The Stroke," that rivals Elaine's spaz-tastic dance on "Seinfeld." Consider yourself warned.

But the moments that earn the biggest laughs in this dark comedy, based on the U.S. Army's actual efforts to train a unit of psychic soldiers, are the result of the on-screen presence of a certain star of a highly popular, if much-derided, sci-fi trilogy.

"Do you want to be a Jedi warrior?" inquires Clooney's Lyn Cassady, a paranormal operative.

The person he's addressing: a down-on-his-luck reporter played by none other than Ewan McGregor, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the "Star Wars" prequels. When his puzzled Bob Wilton, who is investigating the secret operation, asks Cassady, "What's a Jedi warrior?," it only adds to the absurdity.

McGregor didn't have to be psychic to know moviegoers might be distracted by the inside joke. The Scottish actor, 38, discussed the coincidence with director Grant Heslov.

"I asked him, 'How do you feel about all the Jedi references, in that I am one?' He claimed to not have thought about it at all."

It seems that Heslov somehow missed the second wave of the Force. "I only saw the first 'Star Wars films,' and that was a long time ago," he explains. "I thought about him from his other films." The good news: "Audiences love the references."

McGregor also worried that his character might end up being extra baggage as he and Cassady head off on an eventful road trip through Iraq. Along the way, they encounter the far-out founder of the First Earth Battalion (Jeff Bridges, riffing on the Dude from "The Big Lebowski") and a renegade psychic soldier in charge of a training camp (Kevin Spacey in seething villain mode).

"I liked the script very much but, on the page, Bob was quite the straight man," McGregor says. Heslov convinced him that the reporter was colorful in his own right. Plus, he and Clooney engage in a classic love-hate relationship. "He's like Bob's hero to begin with," he says. "By the end, they are lost in the desert, bickering and arguing."