Interesting Wikipedia article. I immediatel thought of these games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper_effect
-Andy
Yes indeed- the mook mechanic- indeed, many of the base mechanics for these games- comes from the role play 'Feng Shui', which was basically an action movie simulator (with character classes like Maverick Cop, Masked Avenger, Everyman Hero, Old Master, Cyborg etc.) and at the heart of it all was how terribly ineffective/unimportant unnamed characters are in movies. It started this almost mystical relevance to giving someone a name.
Stormtroopers are some of the most classic examples, though the effect can be seen back past Dan Dare, Flash Gordon and earlier. To my mind, the first franchise that really started to push the effect was James Bond.
Interestingly enough, although Feng Shui was the first to tie in the concept to movie simulation and gave it in the form we tend to use now, they were not the first with the basic concept and the first game I remember which had this idea of separation on the level of mechanics (compared to, say, D&D, where a bunch of 1st level orcs may be mook-like in theory but you fight them in exactly the same way as you would fight a giant dragon) was the official Indiana Jones RP in the mid-80s, where they were called 'Goons'.
So basically Lucasfilm rules the world.
Still, IC Stormtroopers are considered to be the level of professional army, and as there is no other huge professional army in the galaxy, they invoke fear.
Rebel mook soldiers would suck as well against the likes of Rylis.
By the way, Ush, as far as I know, 4th edition D&D will have minion rules, as well as treating hostile environment as a part of combat- which reminds me of another of your games....