Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone corrections

As Hermione hides under the sinks the troll smashes the front basin of the second sink on the right, leaving its faucets and surrounding sinks intact. Though in a view of the entire lavatory when the troll holds Harry upside down, from behind Hermione, the entire second sink, its faucets and trim are entirely missing and the entire fourth sink, which was never touched, is as well, both are gone. When the troll is knocked out, as Hermione stands up and moves toward Harry and Ron, though the faucets of the second sink are back, the front basin of the second sink is visibly broken again just as in the original shot, and the entire fourth sink is still inexplicably gone in this shot. See more...

Trivia

Book author J.K. Rowling wanted former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam to direct. However, Warner Bros. chose Chris Columbus, who had experience directing child actors (most notably, Macauly Culkin in the "Home Alone" films). Interesingly, John Cleese, who was in Python with Gilliam, appears in the film as Nearly Headless Nick. See more...

Picture

Movie Mistakes blog

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) - 152 corrections

Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Ian Hart, Maggie Smith, Richard Griffiths, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Rupert Grint (add more)

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Corrections

When Harry, Hermione, and Ron go up the stair case, and end up in the third floor, you see there are three floors in view, plus a stair case going down, connected to the last visible floor, so in reality, it really wasn't the third floor. [In the UK, we don't start numbering right from the bottom. We start with the ground floor, which would be the first floor under the US system, then number as you go upwards. So, our first floor would be the second floor in the US and so forth. As such, the third floor that they refer to would be the fourth floor in US terminology, which fits with what's seen on-screen.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

Even before the Sorting, Harry has a Gryffindor tie on with his robes. [Harry has a Hogwarts tie on like everyone else before the sorting. The Gryffindor tie has more color to it than the ones that all first year students are wearing.]

When Harry is standing on his broomstick to catch the Snitch at the Quidditch scene and then he falls, it is impossible for the Snitch to get in his mouth without its wings cutting Harry's lips. [How so? We have no idea what the Snitch is made of. The wings could very likely be soft enough to rub right over Harry's lips without leaving a mark.]

Corrected by CocoCami

When Harry is searching the restricted section, he puts the lamp down first and then the cloak. So the cloak would be on top of the lamp, but when he pulls on the cloak so he can put it on, the cloak is under the lamp. [Harry puts the cloak down as he is using the light to look at the books. He then puts the light down ON TOP of the cloak.]

Corrected by Duff "King Of Beers" Mckagan

When Harry, Ron and Hermione walks towards the door leading to the third corridor the first time you can see the right banister wobble. [The stair cases move, it's possible that the banister will wobble.]

Corrected by Boobra Time

In the end credits they say that there are 3 beaters on the Slytherin team. There should only be 2. [It doesn't even list Slytherin team beaters in the end credits.]

Why didn't Ron just get off the stone horse instead of risking his life by taking the hit the queen gave out? [Because then he's not playing the part of the knight, and it would end Wizard's Chess. That would then invalidate the challenge and not allow them to pass.]

Corrected by CocoCami

In the scene where Ron is under the sorting hat, he is sorted into Gryffindor, but instead of heading off to the left, to the Gryffindor table, he heads off right which would send him out of his way to the correct table. [True but there is a large group of first years between him and the Gryffindor table which he has to walk round. It's not at all clear if going left or right is shorter and in any case, taking the long way round isn't a movie mistake.]

Time

When Harry, Ron, and Hermoine get off the stairs (which have just moved) onto the third floor, the stairs bounce, clearly illustrating that they are not made of the hard stone they appear to be. [The bounce is related to the fact that the staircase is only attached at the bottom otherwise it would be unable to turn. The flex comes from where the stairs are connected to the lower landing, not from the material itself.]

Time

Last shot of the Hogwarts Express as it pulls away: the trees to the left of the screen are blowing madly in the wind, while the trees to the right aren't moving at all. [The trees on the right are further away and more difficult to see but it's clear that they are blowing just as madly as the trees on the left side.]

Time

When Harry is in the hospital wing, and he's been sleeping there for a while (time not known) as soon as he wakes up, before even lifting his head, he reaches over to the right side of his bed, picks up his glasses, and puts them on. But earlier in the movie his nightstand was on the left side of his bed, when he slept in the dormitory. It's odd how automatic Harry knew where his glasses were, even when they changed sides - he was presumably unconscious when they put him in bed, so he can't have noticed then. [He wakes up, opens his eyes and looks to his left. Since he doesn't see his glasses there, the next logical choice would be to look right which is exactly what he does, nothing odd, no mistake.]

Time

After Hermione says, "It's the 3rd floor, it's forbidden." you can see all 3 actors look up at the column before the flame even erupts. [The three of them are reacting to the noise made as the flames start, not to the appearance of the flames. The noise preceeds the appearance.]

Time

When HRH go to McGonogall to tell her about the Philosopher's Stone, after she says, "Now go back to your dormitories, quietly", Harry turns around and it's pretty obvious that he lets out a big smile there as turning. [Speculation, it certainly isn't obvious to me. ]

In the scene with the flying letters, the way they enter both the living room and the corridor is simply screwed up. They start off shooting horizontally, going slightly up, but a few seconds later, they are obviously just being dropped from the ceiling. This is even more obvious in the shot of Mr Dursley trying to get the letter off Harry, where it shows the letters coming out the door at a very fast speed, then floating down about a metre away. [Not correct, many of the letters shoot up quite sharply after exiting the fireplace and, in accordance with the law of gravity, they float back down soon after.]

Time

Hedwig is supposed to be a female snowy owl, but only male snowy owls are completely white. The female has brown and/or black spots on her in order to blend in with the nest and trees; the males are white so they blend in with the snow as they hunt animals. [As mentioned in another correction, a completely white female owl is not that unlikely in a world of magic with dragons and whatnot.]

During the entire movie, you notice Hedwig is a snowy owl that does not really have a lot of black on her. While that tends to make 'her' more appealing, it means that Hedwig is actually a male, even though it is stated numerous times in the film that she is, in fact, a girl. The same goes for the second movie, and I suppose for the rest of the series. [In a world where magic can do just about anything, I'm sure there can be a white female owl.]

When Hermione petrified Neville, Neville's hands immediately came to his side and he fell, but in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when someone was being petrified, they would stay in their original position. [Any number of possible explanations, the most obvious of which is that Hermione petrified Neville with a spell, whereas the Basilisk petrified people through reflections of his eyes. It wasn't the same magic at work.]

The name for Diagon Alley is a play on words. To get to Diagon Alley, you tap three bricks up and two over. The starting and ending bricks are diagonal from each other. Therefore the word diagonally = Diagon Alley. [This isn't really trivia. JK Rowling is the person who originally thought up the name, not the film makers, and in the book you have to tap one brick to get into the alley. Therefore, although 'Diagon Alley' sounding like 'diagonally' is sort of a play on words, it isn't for that particular reason.]

When Ron begins the chess game, white moves a pawn two spaces. Someone says, "Do you suppose this is like regular wizard's chess?" then Ron moves his pawn forward two spaces to see if the pawn will be destroyed. White's pawn takes Ron's pawn in the next move. This is impossible in two moves - there should still be a horizontal row of squares in between the two pawns. [The move is not only possible, it is a standard opening known as the Queen's Gambit. There are 8 rows in chess, pawns start on rows 2 and 7. If they each move two they are on 4 and 5. If they are in adjacent columns one may take the other on its second move.]

In the scene of their first flying lesson, the teacher tells them to kick off from the ground after she blows her whistle. The next shot is of everyone's feet and she blows her whistle, but nobody's feet kick or leave the ground, except Neville, who simply lifts off. [This is just character stupidity - they're all a bit nervous and are distracted by Neville, who as we know isn't very bright and couldn't get himself down.]

Time

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 • Next page

Click here to send this page to a friend...

Your name
Your email
Personal message	Take a look at this: http://www.moviemistakes.com/film1654/corrections/page1
Addresses (Separate each one with a comma)
Addresses are not kept or used for anything other than this one notification.