The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - 257 mistakes

Continuity: While looking at the Haradrim, in this first front shot Frodo says, "We've got to get moving. Come on, Sam," Frodo starts to back away and rise. Sam grabs his hand and pulls him, saying, "Mr Frodo," and Frodo's position is farther behind Sam. In the next back shot Sam and Frodo are lying evenly, side by side. Then in the next front shot as Sam says, "It's an Oliphaunt," Frodo's position is behind Sam and he is crouched higher than him too.

Deliberate "mistake": In two scenes in particular, Legolas is letting loose his arrow with his left hand, because of shot flipping. When he kills the Warg approaching Gimli and when Legolas severs the rope, causing the tall ladder to collapse. The ladder shots of Legolas were put together later during editing, because Peter J. wanted an extra 'hero' shot of Legolas at Helm's Deep. They took the same shots of Legolas trying to take out the Berserker Uruk-hai and flipped it to specifically fit the later scene of the ladders going up. Commentary, extended DVD.

Continuity: As Legolas surfs down the steps, we see some dead bodies at the bottom of them, which he surfs right over. A few shots later, we see an aerial view of the wall with those same steps and there aren't any bodies at the bottom of the steps.

Continuity: At the Armory, in the first close-up of Aragorn, he looks at a sword in his hand and tosses it down. The right sleeve of his coat is ripped almost all the way around at the seam by his shoulder, and the sleeve is folded over where it's ripped. When he tosses the sword down, there is a glimpse of his left sleeve, and it too is ripped and folded over at the seam. In his next close-up, the right sleeve's seam is ripped much less and it isn't folded over. The left sleeve however, is ripped like in the earlier shot. This is not a case of shot flipping.

Continuity: Legolas says, "Look at them. They're frightened. I can see it in their eyes." In the next wide shot, we see Aragorn's back, men all around, and behind him, to the right, stands Dan Hennah, with wavy, grey hair, in his cameo. In the following close-up, we see Dan Hennah again, standing to Aragorn's left. We also see Alan Lee's cameo, whereas, in the wide shot, Alan's character is not there.

Continuity: As this scene opens with an Uruk's body being dropped to the ground, the camera pans out to show Legolas and behind Gimli to his left, is a large rock. In the view from the front, now there is a dead Uruk sitting up against the same rock, where there was none before. He's dead, so he didn't move there between shots. Extended DVD.

Continuity: In this first shot, there is a close-up of Legolas releasing an arrow towards the oncoming massive Warg attack. Then a wide shot of the hill, with Legolas still letting loose, and in the background, the riders on horseback coming over the hill. To Legolas' left are two riders on horseback that are just passing him. They are Gamling and Gimli. But in the next shot, Gimli is just coming from behind Legolas, and then Legolas leaps onto Arod.

Continuity: When King Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli and what's left of the army are trying to stop the Uruk-hai from breaking in, Aragorn says, "Tell the women and children to head for the mountain pass.." and pushes Gamling toward the back entrance, so Gamling is in front of him. Then Theoden says his line about so much death and the next shot shows Aragorn and Gamling turning their heads. Now, Aragorn is closer to the back entrance than Gamling.

Continuity: When Sam jumps at Frodo in Osgiliath when Frodo confronts the Nazgul, they both fall down some stairs. These stairs, seen from the top, have a wall to their left and are open to their right, where the camera is positioned. When they are falling down the first few steps, you can see their feet pointing towards the camera, in the next shot a few steps down it is their heads.

Continuity: Just after Sam's speech in Osgiliath, the first shot of Faramir shows several men talking and eating, with a background of decorative stonework and a broken arch on Faramir's right. After the shot of Frodo and Sam, we see the shot of Faramir kneeling. Behind him, we now see different stonework and a squad of men charging forward as if to battle. In the next shot of Faramir, still kneeling, we see soldiers walking and milling around in front of the original background.

Revealing: When the camera moves into the "Seeing Stone" and pans up to reveal "the great eye," the entire tower was a miniature. It's not that noticeable, but what really makes it a mistake is the cotton balls used to make smoke on the smaller towers leading up to the big one. (It sticks out so obviously that one must ask, why did they CG the orcs at the bottom of the miniature, but use cotton balls for the smoke instead of CGing it?)

Continuity: When Theoden says "I will not risk open war", you can see Aragorn in the background taking the pipe out of his mouth, which he does again when he says "Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not".

Continuity: When Theoden is going to kill Grima on the stone stairway, behind him are Gandalf and three of four guards that take up the whole width of the stair way. Right when Theoden is about to strike, Aragorn pops out of nowhere and stops him. How could he have gotten there in time if we didn't see him push through the other guards, or see him behind them?

Continuity: After Haldir is struck in the back by an Uruk he falls to his knees dying. Aragorn runs up and grabs him but sees the elf is dead after his head falls back and lowers his body down before running off again. But he lets go of Haldir just above the ground and instead of just falling the rest of the way down the supposedly dead elf lowers his own head to the ground.

Continuity: When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf the White in the Fangorn Forrest, Gandalf says that Hobbits whose tracks they are tracking "Have passed this way the day before yesterday." It cannot be so, because the day starts when Gimli says, "Three days and nights pursuit," Legolas says that blood has been spilled last night, and later Eomer confirms that they slaughtered the band of Uruk-hai during that night. Therefore, Hobbits could only have passed that way yesterday, more correctly during the night. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas meet Gandalf immediately after they enter the forest, so it must be the same day (we know this because the forest is unknown to them; remember Aragorn telling Gimli to lower his axe). However, it fits in Gandalf's speech in Fangorn so beautifully, so it must be deliberate.

Continuity: When Aragorn is lying on the couch in Arwen's home, during the dream/flashback sequence, he at first has the edge of a grey/green pillow visible just above his right shoulder. After a cut to Arwen and then back to him again, the pillow has slipped down so that it cannot be seen behind his shoulder, though he hasn't moved yet. When he stands, the pillow can be seen on the couch.

Continuity: When Gollum is trying to catch the fish in the rocky bed of water, in the wide shot, Frodo and Sam are walking in the background. The background seen behind Sam and Frodo in that wide shot, is very different to the background in the very next shot, seen behind Frodo and Sam, when Sam says, "Hey stinker," and in the rest of the shots in this scene. The column in the wide shot is the same column seen behind Sam, when he says, "Because. Because that's what he is Mr. Frodo." There are three distinctly different columns shown in the close-ups!

Continuity: Having seen the attack on the Haradrim, Frodo says, "Come on, Sam," and he is seized by one of Faramir's men. In the next shot, Sam is getting up off his right knee, that having been the place where they were lying and hiding to see the Haradrim and Mûmakil. The edge shown in this shot has green plants growing alongside, and the bush to the right of the edge is also very different than earlier shots. This edge does not look anything like the two different edges shown, in the earlier shots of them leaning over. This is now the third edge being offered.

Continuity: At Henneth Annun, Faramir who is alone with Frodo and Sam, walks towards Frodo with his sword pointed at him. Behind Faramir, are many spears leaning against the wall. Then there's a shot of Frodo. In the very next shot there are fewer spears behind Faramir, and they are lined up very differently against the wall too. They are alone, and no one touched the spears.

Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are down below, near the Black Gate, wanting to run in, but Gollum is convincing Frodo not to, Frodo's pants have a couple of holes at the left knee. Later, when Gollum dives for the fish in the rocky stream, Frodo's pants don't have the holes at the left knee, as seen when he's walking with Sam. Frodo did not change his pants, and this is before they have spent the night, which is the scene right after this one.