Star Wars (1977) - 259 mistakes

Other: When the stormtroopers break into the control room, the stormtrooper on the right of the screen hits his head on the door frame. On the DVD release they've added a thump when he hits it.

Continuity: In the scene where Luke and Leia are about to swing across the canyon inside the Death Star, Leia shoots one last time. She hits the bulkhead behind the stormtrooper on the right and he falls forward. The trooper on the left continues firing (as seen in the screencap).

Continuity: When Darth Vader and Ben are fighting, Darth's chestplate is on backwards.

Revealing: In the scene at the end of the very first battle, where Imperial troops have just taken control of Princess Leia's rebel ship, Darth Vader breaks the neck of the rebel leader and tosses his body to the wall. The "dead" rebel puts up both of his hands to avoid slamming his face into the wall.

Visible crew/equipment: When C-3PO is on the Conveyor belt in the Jawas transport vehicle, if you look in the reflection in his head you can see the camera crew.

Visible crew/equipment: In the original widescreen version, during a long shot of a loading bay in the Death Star, you can see a crew member walk just into shot on one side of the screen, stop, look up, and back out again.

Continuity: When the Jawas are walking toward Luke to take the damaged droid, there's no more smoke coming from it but in the following shot, there's a lot of smoke.

Continuity: After Darth Vader kills Ben, there's a shot from the docking bay towards him. Vader's lightsaber is missing its red color. [This has been fixed in the 2004 DVD, but is still valid for VHS prints.]

Visible crew/equipment: Just after the Falcon takes off from Mos Eisley, there's a shot of the Falcon with Star Destroyers chasing. The next shot is of Han Solo alone in the cockpit. Watch carefully behind him in the doorway, and you'll see the shoulder of a man in a green shirt quickly move out of shot.

Revealing: On the Jawa's transporter, when R2 looks around in one of the shots, you can very clearly see the person who is inside R2 through his little eye hole.

Continuity: After Luke gets pulled underwater in the trash compactor, he is shown with a piece of garbage on his forehead in one shot. In the next shot his forehead is clean, but in the following shot, the piece of garbage is back again.

Revealing: Just before Lord Vader appears the first time (on the boarded consular ship, through the breached door), there is a Stormtrooper checking another trooper apparently dead on the floor (he's lifting the dead one's head). Then Vader enters, and the Stormtrooper quickly straightens up, dropping the head. It turns out the "dead" Stormtrooper was actually alive, however, because he carefully lowers his own head to the floor.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Tuskan Raiders are seen raiding Luke's speeder, you can actually see the wheels or at least whatever is holding it up off the ground.

Visible crew/equipment: At the begining when R2-D2 is in the escape pod and C3PO is arguing with him there is a shot of 3PO from the side and you can see the reflection of the camera in his head.

Continuity: Twice during the lightsaber duel, Ben and Vader inexplicably change sabers as the color jumps from one sword to another. Vader is swinging the blue sword while Ben holds the red one.

Revealing: When an Imperial Officer is running down the tunnel in the Detention Block towards Han, Luke and Chewbacca, Han clearly shoots the top-left hand corner of the tunnel and the Imperial Officer falls down the stairs as if he shot him.

Revealing: Sand people are up on a hill overlooking a valley below where Luke is passing by in his speeder. One of the sand people takes aim at Luke, but his companion stops him. Right before the end of the shot, as the speeder is traveling towards the lower right corner of the screen, it becomes transparent. This is a multiple exposure shot, and the path of the speeder wasn't quite lined-up right.

Continuity: When Obi-wan and Luke are watching the hologram of Princess Leia projected onto a small table, the objects on the table change position and number in each shot.

Revealing: In the Death Star corridor leading to the Millennium Falcon, just before Han says "Didn't we just leave this party?" you can see Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammill's shadows on the wall as they await their cue to run in.

Continuity: The first interior shot of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit shows small hanging dice. In every other shot, however, the dice are gone.

Audio problem: When Vader is talking to an Imperial officer in the hangar in the Death Star, when the officer says, "It must be a decoy, sir. Several of the escape pods have been jettisoned." his head is shown from behind, but his profile shows his mouth is moving before the words are heard.

Visible crew/equipment: When the Falcon is in the Death Star hangar, a scanning crew is sent aboard to find passengers, one of the stormtroopers walks straight past the camera and its shadow is visible on his leg.

Revealing: When Luke and C3PO are outside of the farm searching for R2D2, a droid passes in front of them. You can see the thread which pulls it.

Continuity: When Leia shoots a hole in the detention area wall for their escape, the hole is not big enough to jump through, but when they all jump in, the hole is much bigger.

Revealing: When Luke first ignites his lightsaber, he turns it from the right side of the screen to the left side. When the blade is facing the screen, the lightsaber appears flatter than in the previous shot.

Revealing: When Darth Vader flies out of the Death Star you see the light falling on the back of the ship change as he clears the bay. Later, when he regains control of his spinning fighter the same shot with the falling shadow is used to show him flying away.

Revealing: In the scene where the "torture" robot goes to get information from the princess, if you look carefully on the side of the syringe you will read monoject, which is an American hypodermic syringe manufacturer.

Continuity: After Darth Vader had killed Obi-Wan and walks towards the group running onto the Millennium Falcon, Luke shoots the dock door control, successfully closing it, fully blocking Vader's path. In the shot immediately following the door is closing once again.

Continuity: When a stormtrooper stands guard by the door of the control room, the door is low enough for someone to hit their head on. But when C-3PO wants to take R2-D2 "down to maintenance", there is plenty of clearance between the trooper's head and the bottom of the door. This has nothing to do with camera angles, as Threepio is the same height as the trooper, and walks out of the room with no problem.

Visible crew/equipment: You can see the arm of the crane used to lower the torture device through the door when it is going into Leia's room.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film, the Death Star rounds the planet towards the moon in order to destroy it. The movie continually reverts back to the Death Star where a commander informs us of the time until the Death Star is in range of the rebel base. It will then show the panel with the Death Star's co-ordinates and how long until contact. However, it does not count down in minutes, it counts down in seconds. E.g the commander will say "40 minutes till contact" yet the screen will start at 40 seconds and count down, 39, 38, 37. Regardless of whether or not they use the same time system as us, the time would have run out far too quickly.

Continuity: In the scene after Carrie Fisher inputs the Death Star plans into R2-D2 the droid moves towards C3-PO along a corridor. As you watch you can follow R2's movements until the camera cuts away. If the shot were to continue it seems clear that R2 would have banged into a piece of set protruding from the side of the corridor.

Continuity: Special Edition DVD. When Luke, Obi-Wan and droids arrive at space bar in Mos Eisley, notice the herder with white jacket followed by dinosaur-creature on a leash and then the R2 unit. In the next shot dinosaur and R2 are there, but the herder has disappeared.

Continuity: When Greedo is threatening Han in the Cantina, there's a black object behind him. When Han shoots him, the object is smaller and some round things appears on the wall. It's visible in the screenshot of the dummy Greedo.

Revealing: When they are diving into the trash compactor on the Death Star, one can see the metal bars of the grid, that had previously been cut through, wobble like rubber when one of the team brushes against them.

Continuity: Subtitling and translation can also lead to weird mistakes. Han Solo says (twice in the special edition) that he dumped his cargo because "Even I get boarded sometimes", and in Dutch cinema's the subtitles read as if he said "Even I get bored sometimes".

Continuity: In Mos Eisley, when Ben and Luke are interrogated by the stormtroopers, the background changes. At the beginning and at the end of that scene, the street is large and full of people and beasts, but at other times, the street is small.

Revealing: Before Leia and Luke swing across the chasm in the Death Star, Luke shoots one of the stormtroopers. The laser beam misses the trooper, but he screams loudly and falls anyway.

Continuity: When Luke is in Obi-Wan's house trying Anakin's lightsaber, the coat behind him keeps appearing and disappearing.

Continuity: When C-3PO and R2-D2 are standing next to each other in Luke's garage, the position of R2's head changes between several shots.

Continuity: During the final battle at the Death Star, nearly every time Darth Vader is shown in his ship's cockpit, the actor's (presumably David Prowse's) eyes are visible through his helmet's lenses. It seems that in this movie, but not the two following it, red lenses were used on the helmet, and the red light of his cockpit causes a transparent effect, showing an unscarred actor instead of the deformed Anakin.

Continuity: Several times during the Death Star battle when the Rebel ships are flying down the trench, their position in relation to the chasing TIE Fighters change. For example, sometimes the Imperials are just behind and then nowhere in sight when, next shot, they are back in close firing range.

Revealing: In the first shot of the Millennium Falcon, the ship is missing its radar dish.

Continuity: When Darth Vader is talking to Princess Leia, the chain holding his cape keeps changing between over and under his mask.

Continuity: Moff Tarkin has fourteen little blocks of color that perhaps indicate rank, seven in two rows. The ones on the top are consistently blue, but at least once the ones on the bottom alternate from orange and red to just orange.

Continuity: During the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, there's a scorched slash mark on the wall to Obi-Wan's right before either saber makes contact with it. A few seconds later Darth slashes his saber in exactly that spot (we can see the scorch mark again before he hits it).

Continuity: On the journey from the Cantina to the Millennium Falcon the camera pans left to right to follow the actors as they walk first towards and then away from the camera, towards the hangar. At the beginning of the shot R2-D2 is heading in one direction, the droid leaves the frame momentarily and at the end of the pan, trundles into the shot from an impossible angle.

Continuity: In the Cantina, look at the walrus-like alien in a orange space-suit near Luke. He has hairy paws, but when he pushes Luke, he has normal hands with leather gloves and hairy paws again when Obi-Wan cuts his arm.

Other: When the Rebel ships are heading towards the Death Star, there is a shot of the squadrons flying towards the camera. Several of the X-Wings seem to be the same model as the lead craft for they sport identical dirt and battle scars.

Continuity: During the scenes in the trash compactor, after Han fires his blaster, the burn marks on the door keep changing shape, size and position. In some of the wideshots, they disappear completely.

Revealing: Special Edition. When Han is speaking to Jabba in the hangar, when they are talking about the percentage, or something like that, Han says that 20% is too much. When he says that, his sleeve passes through Jabba's arm.

Continuity: Sometimes, the red stripes on the wings on the underside and topside of Luke's X-wing change. For example, compare the shot where he brushes his hand along the underside of the wing of the ship prior to the battle, and the shot before he says, "I'm hit, but not bad."

Continuity: Sometimes during the scene in the trash compactor, Leia's sleeves move up and down her arms between consecutive shots. This is best seen in the widescreen version.

Continuity: As C-3PO enters the escape pod and says, "I'm going to regret this", he is right in front of the round opening. In the next shot, he has already begun to walk through the opening.

Continuity: When Luke is in Obi-Wan's home, C-3PO tells him "I'll shut down for a while." and Luke nods. However, when R2-D2 projects Leia's recording, C-3PO turns his head to look at it. (This is only just visible.)

Visible crew/equipment: You can see the shadow of the crew on the stormtroopers after Luke and Leia have passed over the Death Star's canyon (the shot where you see Obi-Wan).

Continuity: When R2D2 and C3PO land on Tatooine, the escape pod is on the flank of a dune. When the stormtroopers are doing their investigation, the pod is suddenly on more or less flat sand.

Revealing: As Luke prepares the line and grappler to swing across the shaft, Leia provides cover fire. In one close-up, you can see a cartridge case being ejected from the 'blaster gun'.

Continuity: Near the end of the Vader/Obi-Wan duel, Luke and Co. run up to the Millennium Falcon. Luke says something along the lines of "Ben?" and it cuts to a shot from roughly behind Luke that shows Vader and Obi-Wan. Look closely: Obi-Wan already has his lightsaber straight up and Vader is going in for the kill. It then cuts to a shot of Obi-Wan glancing over at Luke. Obi-Wan then proceeds to raise his lightsaber (again) for the famous Jedi-disappearing trick as Vader slashes at him (again).

Continuity: When Luke and Obi-Wan are stopped by the Storm Troopers and Obi-Wan uses his mind trick on one Trooper, there are a couple of other Troopers standing at Obi-Wan's side at first, but when they are cleared to pass, they disappear.

Visible crew/equipment: In the original widescreen version, when Luke pulls his landspeeder up to the cantina and jumps out, you can see the microphone boom at the upper left half of the screen. This has been corrected in the DVD release.

Revealing: In the Cantina, look at the little alien at the bar, the one which makes mice sounds. Each times he drinks, he doesn't touch his mouth, but his chin with his glass.

Continuity: Viewed from outside, the Millennium Falcon has 4 windows around a round one, but view from inside, there are only three.

Audio problem: When C-3PO lowers himself into the oil tub, as Luke says, "It just isn't fair." his head is shown from the side and he then turns his head away from the camera, but the words don't match the motion of his jaw (or his lips, if you look closely).

Continuity: When Luke uses the comlink to call up C-3PO to ask how to get out of the detention block, a rack with 3 blasters can be seen in the control room. But right before the stormtroopers enter the control room, there are suddenly 4.

Continuity: The windows in the cockpit of Darth Vader's ship are arranged differently when viewed from the inside or outside.

Continuity: The ammo belt of Chewbacca appears on him just before the jump into hyperspace.

Deliberate "mistake": When the heros reach Yavin (the Rebel Base) there is a shot of them getting off a cart. Han's holster is on the wrong leg, and Artoo's small lens is on the wrong side. The film was obviously flipped to keep the visual flow of the scenes.

Revealing: If you watch in slow-mo right before Han Solo shoots Greedo, you can see that Greedo has been replaced with a faker looking goofy dummy just before he explodes.

Revealing: There is a scene where two sandpeople are running to intercept Luke Skywalker after spotting his landspeeder. One of the actors is holding on to his mask in a desperate attempt to keep it on. (1997 version).

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Luke is talking to Biggs and Red Leader, R2D2's position jumps as he is being lifted up to the top of the X-Wing. (Widescreen version, Special Edition.)

Revealing: After Han Solo runs into the room full of stormtroopers, you can see rubber soles under Chewbacca's feet as he follows him.

Deliberate "mistake": After the Tusken Raider has attacked Luke, he raises his stick over his head and shouts. The movement of his clothing is extremely unnatural. During the editing, they put the same footage forward, then backward many times, to add emphasis to his movements, but it looks decidedly odd.

Revealing: After Luke orders a drink in the Cantina, there's a shot of two purple-skinned aliens. One of them has big, purple, alien hands, but the other one is wearing white gloves over human hands.

Continuity: When Chewbacca and R2D2 are playing holographic chess, there's the black and red set of the control room in the Death Star behind the droid whenever there's a closeup on him.

Continuity: The Jawa that shoots R2D2 puts his gun in his holster twice.

Audio problem: When the Millennium Falcon is attacked after the group escape from the Death Star, there is a TIE fighter which makes an X-Wing sound.

Other: 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.

Visible crew/equipment: At the start of the Vader vs. Ben lightsaber battle, when Ben turns his on, a cord can be seen that runs up Ben's sleeve.

Other: Widescreen version only: When the stormtroopers are searching for hiding Rebels in the blockade runner, Leia pokes her head out from her hiding place. In the next shot, in the lower left hand corner, something white sticks out behind the foremost "pillar" and then disappears out of view.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Luke is eating with his uncle and aunt, the cup he's drinking from keeps switching hands.

Continuity: In the Detention Block, Han and Luke are in their stormtrooper outfits and are firing at the enemy. They go to a shot of Han then to Luke. Luke's white shoulder pads of his stormtrooper outfit are clearly missing, and you can see a black undergarment. They then go back to Han and then back to Luke again, where the shoulder pads are now back.

Continuity: When Luke and Leia are stopped in front of the pit, one stormtrooper arrives at the other side and shoots at them. Two others arrive later but in the following shot, there's only two stormtroopers, not three. One has disappeared and there's one dead on the floor that we have never seen dying. After that, the dead one disappears and two stormtroopers arrive again - it's the same shot as the beginning, only from another angle. Then, there's one that gets shot and falls in the pit and the dead stormtrooper reappears on the ground.

Continuity: In the scenes in the conference room in the Death Star, the black hemisphere on the conference table changes position between shots.

Revealing: When Han shoots a stormtrooper and runs after the rest of them, the stormtrooper he shot moves his leg out of the way so Han won't trip.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: In the scene where stormtroopers are firing at the Millennium Falcon as it leaves Mos Eisley Spaceport, watch the trooper on the far left. After he is shot he begins to fall, then suddenly he's standing again in the next shot, where he begins his fall again. This happens two or three more times, this falling and straightening.

Audio problem: When Vader and Tarkin learn that Leia has lied about the location of the Rebel base, we hear Darth say "I told you she would never consciously betray the rebellion." There is a pause and Vader continues to move. An obvious dubbing error.

Visible crew/equipment: I'm not a specialist in audio equipment, but when the Jawas are transporting R2D2, one of them has what I think is a microphone in his pocket.

Factual error: 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.

Revealing: On the Death Star when C-3P0 makes the announcement that he and R2 should join the others back on the Millennium Falcon, as R2 begins to move, the poor droid's right leg becomes rooted and begins to pull away from its socket.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: In the end scene, when they blow up the Death Star, whether the camera is on the Ties or X-wings, the enemy is never visible in front or behind them.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: During the binary sunset, the two suns are closer together in the close-up than in the wide shot. There is also a cloud and a mountain in front of the lower of the suns, which weren't there in the wide shot.

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

Revealing: After they free Princess Leia, other stormtroopers make the door explode to enter the detention room. You can see that the door is pre-cut.

Continuity: When the Jawas arrive to sell the droids, Luke walks over to R5-D4 (the "R2 unit with a bad motivator"), and the droid is standing in front of R2-D2 on Artoo's left. In the next shot, the two droids are standing perfectly next to each other, and there are several Jawas around them that weren't there in the previous shot.

Continuity: When Han and Luke (disguised as stormtroopers), and the "captured" Chewbacca are waiting for a lift in the Death Star, an officer wearing a grey shirt walks by, which changes to an officer wearing a black shirt in the next shot. Widescreen version only.

Revealing: When Luke and Leia are trying to escape the Death Star and they are stopped in front of the canyon, the stormtroopers shoots on the door, but you can see the pyrotechnic charges and the explosions are not where the laser touches the door.

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: 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.

Continuity: 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.

Deliberate "mistake": When Obi Wan deactivates the Death Star's force field, there's a 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.

Continuity: In the control room when Obi Wan says "I can't help you guys" and decides to leave them the red beam on the radar behind him points down. When it cuts it is suddenly pointing up. It couldn't have moved that fast.

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: When Darth Vader releases the admiral and he slumps on the desk, the force of the impact makes the whole set wobble.

Continuity: 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.

Revealing: In the Death Star, when Han is screaming and chasing some stormtroopers and enters a room full of them, some are cardboard.

Revealing: When the droids head towards Tatooine in their escape pod, a rotating imperial ship is shown in the pod's window, getting smaller as the pod moves away. Regrettably, the star field gets smaller at the same rate as the ship, something that would only happen if you were moving away from a photograph, painting etc.

Other: After the escape from the Death Star, the first TIE destroyed is not shot.

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.

Revealing: Original theatrical version: At the very end when Han and Luke first step into the awards ceremony, there's a long shot behind the pair and the first few rows of soldiers on each side of the hall (closest to the camera) are cardboard paintings.

Continuity: When Vader is strangling the Rebel aboard the blockade runner, the Rebel's hands keep changing position between shots, as he tries in vain to loosen Vader's grip.

Deliberate "mistake": As noted in another mistake, Red Leader's helmet microphone changes sides before he crashes. Because some shots during the attack on the Death Star are flipped, this also happens to Rebel pilots earlier in the battle: Red Leader when he says, "All wings, report in", Wedge after a shot of Leia and C-3PO monitoring the battle, Luke when Red Leader says, "There's a lot of fire coming from the right side of that deflection tower" and when Luke says, "I'm hit, but not bad" and finally Red Leader after Gold Leader is killed.

Continuity: When Aunt Beru speaks to Luke about buying droids, there are many shrubs besides Luke. In the next shot, they are gone.

Revealing: When they power-up the Death Star, the control panel is a Grass Valley switcher, production equipment which is still prevalent in television stations everywhere.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Luke and the others are trapped in the detention corridor, there are some black marks on his stormtrooper armour, on his chest, which weren't there before. These marks change slightly between shots, and in the wideshots they are missing.

Other: 2004 DVD edition. As Jabba and Han finish their conversation, Jabba turns to his left as Han moves toward the Millenium Falcon. At the end of the shot Jabba then exits by continuing to turn to his left; his tail would have made this movement not smooth- Jabba should have had to move it or twist over it or something. Probably comes from the scene being shot with a person in that place and Jabba being added later; the person could certainly have moved like that.

Continuity: In two shots of Chewbacca in the beginning of the trash compactor sequence, there's a little area of blue paint on the right side of the hatch. For the rest, the blue spot is missing.

Continuity: In the opening shot of the movie, sunlight strikes Tatooine from above, but hitting the two moons from the left.

Continuity: When Luke is outside of the farm seaching for R2D2 with his binoculars, C3PO is not visible in them even when Luke turns in front of him.

Continuity: When R2D2 and C3PO escape from the Blockade runner, the rate at which the escape pod turns when seen from the outside does not correspond with what we see from inside.

Continuity: When R2 and 3PO are walking in the desert look at the sun's reflection on C-3PO's head throughout the shots. It keeps changing places.

Visible crew/equipment: When Luke and Leia are stuck on the bridge, just before the stormtroopers arrive on the opposite platform Luke remembers the cable and sees the thruster like things over the top of him and Leia, when we get a view of them a small shadow bobs up and down at the centre bottom of the screen.

Continuity: Widescreen version: In the trash compactor, in the scene where Han says, "One thing's for sure, we're all going to be a lot thinner," the pole used to stop the compactor is leaning on the wall in different angles between the wide shot and the close-ups.

Revealing: After the tractor beam pulls the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star, there's a shot of a MSE-6 droid ("mouse droid") at the feet of four stormtroopers. The trooper in the back right, is holding onto his helmet in a desperate attempt to keep it from falling off.

Continuity: When Luke is eating with his aunt and uncle, he takes a sip of blue milk, and then lowers his cup twice.

Continuity: When the garbage compactor is almost completely closed, Chewie holds the walls with his weapon. In the next shot, he is standing by the wall crying and in the other shot, he is holding the walls again.

Continuity: 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.

Other: Drewe Henley, who plays Red leader, is misidentified in the credits as "Drewe Hemley."

Revealing: When R2D2 has finished showing Leia's holo-message to Luke, C3P0 says something like "he has become a bit eccentric". When he say that, there is a wire coming from his belly. It was not there before or after.

Continuity: When the Millennium Falcon escapes from the Death Star, each time we see Chewbacca, the sky behind him is dark grey with a few stars rather than black and and full of stars. Some shots later, the sky is normal.

Continuity: After Obi-wan saves Luke from the sand people, there is a shot of him sitting on a rock and his white robe is visible, then there is a close-up and he says "I don't seem to remember owning a droid" and his robe is not visible.

Revealing: 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.

Continuity: In the trash compactor, Han says, "One thing's for sure, we're all going to be a lot thinner." In the next shot, Han and Leia are both standing in a totally different position. For example, both of them are looking in another direction, and Han's left hand is in a different position.

Continuity: When Han, Luke and Leia run into the group of stormtroopers, Leia's hair is messy. When Luke and Leia reach the chasm, her hair is back to normal.

Audio problem: Widescreen version: When Tarkin attempts to make Leia reveal the location of the Rebel base, he says, "You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system." In the next shot, his head is shown from behind, but the motion of his jaw shows that he is still talking, even though nothing is heard.

Deliberate "mistake": Just after Obi Wan kills the two aliens in the Cantina, there are two quick "reaction shots" from both ends of the bar. If you are quick, you can see that they are both shots of the same end of the bar with one shot flipped. You can see the same human with the light blue/dark blue suit on in both shots.

Continuity: In the original version of the film, when Luke and C-3PO are searching for R2-D2 outside the moisture farm, in the shot where Luke says, "It's too dangerous with all the Sand People around. We'll have to wait until morning", the sky changes colour. This has been fixed in the Special Edition.

Other: In the trash compactor, after C-3PO realises that he turned off the comlink, Leia grabs the bar used to stop the compactor and her hand sinks in and puts a dent in the bar. When she loosens her grip, it returns to normal. No wonder it was useless at bracing the walls...

Continuity: In the Death Star, when they are running into the Millennium Falcon, Leia tells Luke to come. She is behind a piston of the door but the shot later, she is in front of it.

Continuity: When Owen is talking to C3PO, the droid has a wire coming form his head to his back. It's not there in the rest of the film.

Revealing: At the beginning of the film, when the Blockade Runner is shot at, some of the lasers seem to pass through the star destroyer.

Visible crew/equipment: After the attack on the Death Star, when the pilots return to the base, the camera crew is visible on C3PO's body.

Continuity: During the conference in the Death Star, the back of Tarkin's chair is higher in the wideshots than in the close-ups.

Revealing: During the scene when Obi-Wan is sneaking around the Imperial ship, a group of stormtroopers march by in a close group. One of the troopers is losing his armour and is attempting to hold it on.

Revealing: In the shot where Han Solo and Luke jump down the garbage chute, Smoke outlines the end of the corridor, revealing it is a board with the scenery on it.

Continuity: After Owen buys C-3PO from the Jawas, Luke says, "All Right. Come on." and R2-D2 begins to turn his head/dome. In the next shot, his head is still turning, but his dome is in a different position from the previous shot, evident from the droid's features.

Continuity: In the beginning of the first scene of the duel between Vader and Obi-Wan, their lightsabres are held in different angels between several shots.

Continuity: After the droids leave the control room of the Death Star, there's a close-up of Luke in the trash compactor, pushing against some garbage. In the next shot, he is pushing against the wall.

Continuity: When Han and Leia try to use a pole to stop the trash compactor, Leia says, "Help me." Two shots later, Han can be seen lifting the pole. In the next shot, Leia is suddenly lifting it with him, and Han is holding the pole differently.

Continuity: Special Edition: When Han is talking to Jabba the Hutt, when Jabba begins to says, "What if everyone who smuggled for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship?", Chewbacca can be seen walking behind them. In the next shot, he is suddenly walking next to a wall that was nowhere near him in the previous shot. In the following shot, he is back to his original position.

Revealing: During the escape from Mos Eisley, when Han says, "They're gonna try and cut us off", he grabs the control panel in the cockpit, and the whole panel lifts off the floor.

Continuity: In the scene where Luke finds the remains of his aunt and uncle, in the shots from behind Luke, the wind is blowing from his left. In the shots facing him, the wind is blowing from his right.

Other: During the chasm crossfire scene, Leia says, "Here they come" and points the blaster upwards as she aims at the stormtroopers above. But the laser moves downwards.

Continuity: When Darth Vader is interrogating the captain of the Blockade Runner, the stormtrooper on the left behind them has his blaster at his waist but in the shot showing their legs, he has it at his chest. It's at his waist again some shots later.

Revealing: After the Death star, the stick that is used to move the Millennium Falcon is visible when the first TIE fighter attacks it.

Revealing: In the Death Star, when Chewbacca and Han arrive in the hangar, the shadow of Luke and Leia waiting for their signal is visible.

Revealing: Many times during the film, when someone shoots with a blaster, the shot does not came from the gun. A good example is in the detention block of the Death Star. Luke shoots and the laser comes from 10 centimeters over the gun. Special edition.

Audio problem: In teh French version of the film, Han Solo tells Obi-Wan and Luke to go to hangar 49. 94 is written at the entrance.

Continuity: The first time that Luke plays Leia's message from R2-D2, he jumps back (which looks fine), but C3PO flinches and slips off the little 4" or 5" ledge between him and R2.

Revealing: When C3PO is carrying a dead Jawa to the funeral pyre, it looks like it doesn't have a head, legs and arms. It's like a costume stuffed with a pillow.

Continuity: Watch Luke's shadow when he walks toward his aunt to talk to her, and when he turns around. In the following shot, where he is walking toward the Jawa sandcrawler, his shadow is cast in another direction.

Revealing: When Luke and Leia are trying to pass the pit in the Death Star, Leia shoots at a stormtrooper. The shot passes through him without hurting him.

Continuity: When Han is about to fire his blaster at the door of the garbage compactor, Chewie moves away from the door. In the next shot, he is back in his previous position, and moves away from the door again.

Continuity: Widescreen version: In the trash compactor, as Han says: "What an incredible smell you've discovered." Leia is leaning against some garbage, and then turns her head. In the next shot, she is no longer leaning against the garbage, and her head is turned another way.

Continuity: In the trash compactor, after the dianoga roars, there's a close-up of Leia standing straight up, with her arm over the large iron pole. In the next shot, she is crouching, and her arm is underneath the pole.

Continuity: When the Walrusman attacks Luke in the cantina, if you look carefully you can see that the alien has curved hooves instead of hands (behind the scenes photos confirm this.) When Ben Kenobi cuts off his arm, an arm with hairy paws is lying on the floor. We know it is walrusman's arm because the other guy wasn't wearing an orange jacket.

Continuity: When a confrontional alien thug threatens Luke and Ben interferes, the thug has his hand on Luke's upper arm. In the next shot, his hand is on Luke's shoulder.

Other: When the stormtroopers stun Leia, if you play it in slow motion, you can see that she begins to fall before the beam touches her.

Continuity: When Tarkin meets Leia in the Death Star, he touches her chin at a certain moment. His arm is bent, but it's impossible because he is too far from her in the previous and the next shot.

Continuity: If you watch Leia while they're in the garbage compactor, her belt, at various points, has fallen down around her thigh. It moves from her thigh to her waist (depending on the camera angle) during the whole scene.

Continuity: Luke is on the Millennium Falcon practicing with the floating orb. When he is done, he goes to shut off his lightsaber and as it turns off he jumps to the right due to a dodgy edit.

Revealing: For this one, you will need a LETTERBOX copy that is NOT the special edition.  In the final award scene, there is a long shot of Luke, Han, and Chewie walking through rows and rows of Rebel Troopers.  If you look quickly, the troopers on both ends of the screen are cardboard cutouts.  They are cropped off in the Pan and Scan version, and digitised in the special edition, so its got to be the right copy to see this mistake.

Continuity: Widescreen version only: When Luke activates his new lightsabre for the first time, the position of C-3PO's head is different from the previous shot. After he turns it off, Threepio's head is back to its original position.

Other: During the attack on the Death Star, in one shot an X-Wing has two blue engines with two pink, while they are all supposed to be pink.

Continuity: After the dianoga pulls Luke into the water (both the first and second time), Han's blaster changes hands a few times.

Continuity: After C-3PO is separated from R2-D2 on Tatooine, when he's walking among the sand dunes, the sky alternates between being clear and cloudy.

Continuity: When the Rebel fleet is on its way to the Death Star, there's a shot where the fighters are seen from behind as they approach the Death Star. Given its tremendous size, and the rate at which it is growing larger to our view, their rate of approach must be incredible. But when Red Leader calls, "Accelerate to attack speed", when you consider their speed with their surroundings, they are now going much slower.

Continuity: In the Cantina, the burly alien threatening Luke pulls out his blaster twice, once in the background when Luke crashes into the table, and once as Ben's lightsabre is heard being ignited.

Continuity: In the scene where Alderaan is destroyed, the "buns" on each side of Leia's head are positioned higher up than in the previous scene she was, so that her earlobes are visible. When Luke and Han rescue her, her hair is back to normal. She's held prisoner in a cell, so it's not likely that she could or would have changed her hairstyle.

Other: Lightsabre blades have no shadow, but when Luke is practicing with his lightsabre against the remote, just before Ben says, "Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him", if you look closely, you can see the shadow of the blade on his left arm.

Continuity: When Obi-Wan's spirit instructs Luke to run, Luke is holding his blaster with two hands, and then drops it down by his side, holding it with only one hand. In the next shot, Luke is again holding the blaster with two hands, and repeats the movement.

Continuity: Widescreen version only: After escaping the trash compactor, Leia says, "From now on, you do what I tell you", and Luke's left hand is up by his head. In the next shot, his right hand is up by his head and his left hand is down by his side.

Continuity: When the walls of the trash compactor start moving, the bar Leia uses to brace them is easily obtainable, but in the previous shots, it was partly buried in garbage.

Revealing: When Gold Leader enters the Death Star trench, there's a shot from his cockpit. When Luke, Wedge and Biggs enter the trench later, the same shot is used again. This can be seen from a flash of light accompanied by the sound of a shot, followed by three green laserbolts, then another flash/shot and more laserbolts.

Other: In two close-ups of Han before he jumps down the garbage chute, you can see make-up smeared on his stormtrooper suit, under his chin.

Continuity: In the Death Star, when Luke and Leia are going to jump over the pit, Leia wraps her hands around Luke's neck. In the following shots, her hands are wrapped around his waist.

Other: Just before Darth Vader enters the Blockade Runner, there are some kind of tiny white-green lasers in the air. They are sometimes in line with the normal red ones. The stormtroopers and the security guards of Leia are both using red lasers, so there is no reason to see green ones.

Continuity: After Vader kills Obi Wan, he turns and starts to walk away down a corridor. A few shots later, Vader is back, stomping on what remains of Obi Wan's cloak.

Factual error: After the Death Star, when TIE fighters are attacking the Millennium Falcon, each time one explodes at high speed, the debris and the fire does not keep moving.

Continuity: When Leia is recording her holo-message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, she pushes a button on R2D2 to finish the message but each time we see the actual message during the film, she turns a huge round button.

Continuity: When Luke starts to lead C-3PO and R5-D4 to the garage, some of the droids in front of the sandcrawler repeatedly change position. For example, as Luke says, "And the red one, come on." R2-D2 is standing next to the boarding gantry, but in the previous and following shot, he was standing by the front treads.

Continuity: As R2-D2 is rolling through the canyon, he's on a smooth part of the land. He then stops and looks around. When he starts moving again, the terrain has changed and is now full of rocks and pebbles.

Continuity: When Luke and Obi-Wan are talking to Han in the Cantina, the black cup on the table is sometimes standing right by Han's hands, and sometimes right next to Luke, depending on the camera angle.

Revealing: When Luke ignites his new lightsabre in Ben's house, the reflection of the stick used during the filming is visible on C-3PO's body.

Continuity: When Luke first tries his father's light saber in Ben's house, it has a blue color but when he is practising on the Millennium falcon, it now has a white or sometimes light blue color. It has nothing to do with lighting because light sabers always have a bright color in the rest of the movie, even in the darkness.

Continuity: In the scene where Vader chokes the imperial officer with the force, watch him before he gets choked. On his left (your right) of his blue and red button things, he has a pocket with what looks like two pens sticking out. But in a later shot, only one "pen" is sticking out. Later, it goes back to two again.

Continuity: After the escape from the Death Star, when C3PO is stuck in electric wires, there's a shot of R2D2 with the black and red computer panels of the control room in the Death Star behind him.

Continuity: Every storm trooper has 2 pipes with slots besides their masks, but the one that shoots Leia with the stunt gun doesn't have those slots.

Continuity: When everyone is getting in fighters for the final battle, they all have white helmets with blue insignias. However, they aren't wearing them when they're flying.

Continuity: Just after the scene where R2-D2 is riding shotgun on Luke's X-Wing fighter and is hit by a shot from Darth Vader, there's a shot of C3-PO standing beside Leia in the rebel HQ, and the dent on C3-PO's head is on the right side (it's on the left side throughout the rest of the movie).

Revealing: Special Edition Only: In one of the new Mos Eisley scenes, the speeder goes down a road with two Stormtroopers on each side. The troopers are just mirror images of the ones on the other side of the street. Their movements are exactly the same.

Continuity: After the droids land in the desert C3-PO has a streak of oil running down his left shoulder. A couple of scenes later when he is walking after he splits up from R2-D2 there is a long shot of him and he still has the streak on his left shoulder. There is an immediate close up and the streak switches to the right shoulder.

Continuity: When Luke and Obi-Wan enter Docking Bay 94 in Mos Eisley, as the first shot ends, C-3PO is turned to his left and is standing right behind Obi-Wan on Obi-Wan's left. In the next shot, Threepio is turned to his right, and is standing further away from Obi-Wan, behind him on Obi-Wan's right.

Revealing: As Princess Leia is about to undergo interrogation by the droid in her cell, the needle bears the legend "Made In England".

Continuity: When the dianoga grabs hold of Luke in the trash compactor, his legs are together. In the next shot, they are much further apart.

Continuity: In the trash compactor, as Han says, "I've got a bad feeling about this", Leia's arm is held straight, but in the next shot, it is bent.

Continuity: When Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca are going into the Millennium Falcon to escape from the Death Star, a storm trooper is shot and falls twice into the pit.

Revealing: During Darth Vader and Ben's lightsabre duel, sometimes you can see a white wire attached to Ben's lightsabre, for example after he says, "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Continuity: When they are searching for the monster in the garbage compactor, the garbage is shaking, except in one shot.

Continuity: When Luke returns after dinner, he comes back and finds C-3PO hiding. When Luke finds out that R2-D2 is gone, he runs out of the room and outside. But you see the stairs he runs up to get outside. When you see Luke arrive and takes out the micro-binoculars C-3PO is right behind him. There is no way that C-3PO is that quick to keep up with a younger Luke. What did he do run?

Revealing: On the Death Star, before Luke and Leia try to cross the pit, Luke shoots a panel to close the door. Firstly, he shoots beside it, and secondly, after it explodes, no electronic components are visible in it.

Audio problem: When Luke, Han, Chewie, Ben and the droids are in the control room, and Luke says "but they're going to execute her," watch closely: his mouth doesn't move for half the sentence.

Revealing: When Wedge leaves the Death Star trench, the green screen is visible behind him for a few frames.

Continuity: In the final battle, the leader of the fighters (not the group that was to blow up the Death Star, but the leader of Luke's group), got killed. Then it goes back to the home base where Leia, C3PO, etc are watching the action and you hear a transmission from that leader.

Audio problem: [Special Edition only] In the scene where Luke and Leia swings across the missing bridge, a number of the shots fired by Leia are "bangs" instead of the laser "zap" sound. The bang is probably from the prop gun used (it shot blanks) and was never dubbed over.

Continuity: Right before Luke yells at Han after he fires his blaster in the trash compactor, there's a wideshot where Han is sitting among some garbage and holding his blaster with one hand. In the next shot, he has turned the other way and is standing, holding the blaster with two hands.

Continuity: When Leia's holo-message is being played in Luke's garage, and C-3PO explains about R2-D2's restraining bolt, the background behind the hologram has been flipped.

Revealing: When Ben and Luke are transporting C3P0 after the attack of the Tusken Raiders, the arm of Anthony Daniels, the actor that plays the droid, is visible during the transition to the next shot showing Ben's house.

Continuity: When the rebel leaders are studying the tactical illustration of the Death Star, it shows a large, round indentation positioned at the Death Stars equator. The Death Star actually has a smaller, round indentation in its northern hemisphere. Can't be due to intentional differences between the plans and the finished thing, otherwise the rebels would have no way of knowing that the vulnerability was still there either.

Continuity: When the walls of the trash compactor start moving, Han is holding the pole, and leans it against the wall to his left (we hear it hit the wall). In the next shot, the pole leaning on the wall to his right instead., and the right side of the pole moves up and down between the next few shots.

Continuity: When the garbage compactor is going to crush them, Chewbacca takes his weapon to retain the walls. He takes it again in the next shot. [Duplicated mistake]