Star Wars

Continuity mistake: In the wide screen version, after Luke, Han, Chewy, Obi-Wan and the droids come out of the hidden cargo bins in the Falcon, Obi-Wan says "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool that follows him." Then he tries to lift himself out of the bin...it looks as if he doesn't quite have the strength to do it - he puts his arms on the side, exerts a bit of pressure, and waits for the cut.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where R2-D2 is rolling down a path on Tatooine, under the eyes of scavenging Jawas, the path he is traveling on can be seen to end several feet in front of R2, and beyond it is a rough, rocky surface that R2-D2's wheels could not possibly traverse. In the next shot, R2 is rolling down a suddenly extended (or perhaps the same?) path towards capture.

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Revealing mistake: During Kenobi's final lightsaber battle with Vader, Kenobi tips his lightsaber downwards, right before a scene change. The white "glow" that should be there isn't, showing the stick-like prop the actors used in filming. There is a small white light at the tip, too. This was not fixed in the Special Edition, but it was finally fixed on the 2004 DVD. (01:31:25)

Revealing mistake: When the Millennium Falcon is attracted to the Death Star, there is a frontal view of it. At the end of that shot, the sky under the ship becomes suddenly bright and you can see the stick used to move it.

Dr Wilson

Star Wars mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Luke and Obi Wan arrive at the Cantina, watch the Jawas sitting outside the Cantina. They're initially sitting in a shadow, but when Luke and Obi-Wan walk towards them, they're suddenly in broad daylight. (00:42:45)

Continuity mistake: When Han, Luke and Leia are trapped in the corridor in the detention block, a loose piece of hair on Leia's forehead keeps disappearing and reappearing between shots.

Continuity mistake: When you first see the Millennium Falcon, it is in the hangar. If you look close enough, you can see that only half of the ship is there. This is because it was too expensive to build a full-scale model.

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Continuity mistake: When Luke comes to eat dinner with his aunt and uncle, as the shot ends, he has just sat down by the table, but in the next shot, he's already helping himself to the food. (00:22:45)

Continuity mistake: When Han Solo and Luke Skywalker escort Chewbacca up to the Cell Bay to rescue Leia they are still wearing the stolen Stormtrooper uniforms, including white boots. Yet after they escape the trash compactor they are back in the boots they were wearing when they escaped Tatooine. While we can believe the rest of their outfit can fit under a Stormtrooper uniform, the boots wouldn't.

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Continuity mistake: There's only grayish objects in the garbage compactor but while Luke and Han are removing their uniform, many orange objects appears in it. (01:22:10)

Dr Wilson

Star Wars mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Vader picks up the rebel in a choke grip, the legs of the stormtrooper in the doorway behind them are apart. In the shot of the rebel's feet, the trooper's legs are together. When Vader tosses the dead rebel into the wall, the trooper's legs are apart again.

Visible crew/equipment: After the heroes have escaped the trash compactor and we see them arguing outside of it. As they walk away and Han says "No reward is worth this," the shadow of the camera covers his whole face.

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Continuity mistake: When Luke and his aunt and uncle are eating at the table, the white drink pitcher alternates from being next to Luke's cup to being across the table throughout the scene.

Lynette Carrington

Continuity mistake: Special Edition: Luke, accompanied by the droids and Obi Wan, is in the speeder heading into Mos Eisley, but just as the shot ends it looks like they're about to run over a few pedestrians... they're heading full speed at a group of three or four people just when the camera angle changes. (00:40:50)

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Deliberate mistake: When Obi Wan deactivates the Death Star's force field, there's an electronic gauge going down and a sign in clear English with the word POWER - as we've seen in shuttles and other places, they don't use English. The studio decided it was better to show "power" and "tractor beam" in English so that the audience would know what Obi-Wan was doing. The lettering we see in Jedi doesn't really affect the plot, so it doesn't need to be English. Still doesn't really fit though. This is fixed on the DVD.

Other mistake: In the beginning of the movie, when Leia is uploading a message into R2, we can see C3PO looking for R2. When they show C3PO, there are rebel soldiers behind him, running through the corridor, being shot at and falling down. If you look closely, you can see a black stripe vertically running down in the middle of the doorway.

Continuity mistake: When Vader tells Tarkin that Obi-Wan is in the Death Star, as Tarkin says, "The Jedi are extinct." he is standing between two chairs. In the next shot, he is standing behind one of the chairs. The distance between some of the chairs around the conference table changes during the scene as well.

Star Wars mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Special Edition: When Han is talking to Jabba the Hutt, as Jabba says, "Why did you fry poor Greedo?", the man standing to his left is pointing a blaster towards Han. In the next shot, the man is no longer pointing the blaster at him. (00:51:00)

Luke: How did my father die?
Obi-Wan: A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.

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Trivia: When Alec Guinness was offered the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi he was offered about $25,000 to play the part. After reading the script he was one of the few cast members who believed that the film would be a box office hit; he negotiated a deal for 2% of the gross royalties paid to the director, George Lucas, who received one fifth of the box office takings. Guinness made over $3,000,000, making him very wealthy in his later life.

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Question: During the trash compacter scene, Luke gets sucked under by the one-eyed monster thing, which leads to Han and Leia trying to find him. But if the water's only about knee deep, why is it so hard for him to be found?

Answer: Presumably because the monster has pulled him through the lair of whatever they are standing on into whatever space the rest of the body of the monster lives in. Obviously, the monster doesn't live in the part of the part of the compactor that does the compacting or it would be already compacted.

Myridon

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