The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 40 with pictures

Continuity: After Smeagol kills Deagol, Smeagol opens up Deagol's fist to claim the Ring. In the first shot, Smeagol leans over Deagol, then Smeagol's right hand holds Deagol's wrist and Smeagol's left hand opens Deagol's fingers. Yet in the close-up, now Smeagol's left hand hold's Deagol's wrist and Smeagol's right hand opens Deagol's fingers to reveal the Ring.

Continuity: Smeagol walks into the cave as his voice-over says, "They called us murderer." He coughs, and "gollum, gollum" comes out. In the 1st wide shot as he's clutching himself, Smeagol's fingernails are very thick, long and stubby. In the 2nd, a close-up of his hand, it reveals the Ring in his palm and his fingernails are perfectly normal and flat with dirt underneath. In the 3rd, a wide shot, his hand is open and the fingernails are very thick, long and stubby again. The 1st and 3rd shots are one sequence that was split to add the close-up in the middle.

Continuity: At Isengard, when Pippin recovers the palantir, in two shots it's large enough to fill both of his hands, so that he has to spread all of his fingers to hold it. In the next shot of Pippin and Gandalf, Pippin raises one hand holding the palantir and Gandalf quickly takes it. In this particular shot, as Pippin hands the palantir to Gandalf with one hand, the circumference of the palantir is noticeably much smaller (while still in Pippin's grasp), than it was in the previous shots.

Revealing: Legolas sends an arrow directly to Grima atop Orthanc, and as Grima starts to fall back the arrow is quite visibly well below the coat's fur. However, when Grima actually hits the ground, the arrow is now higher up, protruding from the fur. Even Legolas' arrows can't do that!! (Extended Edition.)

Continuity: At Edoras, Aragorn's sword leans against the wall, significantly lower than the circular carving above it, as Pippin walks toward Gandalf. However, when Merry asks, "What are you mad?" the hilt now reaches near the top of the circular pattern. Then when Gandalf grabs the blanket to cover the palantir, the sword's height is the same as in the first shot.

Continuity: When Pippin steals the palantir, Gandalf's right hand grasps the sword below the hilt's cross-guard in all of the close-ups. However, in the wide shots Gandalf's hand grasps the grip of the sword above the hilt's cross-guard. The bed sheets differ between the shots as well.

Continuity: At Edoras, after Pippin steals the palantir, it rolls out of Aragorn's hands and Gandalf chases it. Pippin lies motionless on green, grey and blue bunched up blankets and a rug etc. In Pippin's close-up, just after Gandalf says, "Fool of a Took!" there is just a grey blanket under his head and a different fur rug to his right. Then in the following close-ups, it alternates between both green and grey under him, to just a grey one.

Revealing: After the Witch King destroys Gandalf's staff, the wizard and Pippin fall to the ground in the wideshot. In the next close-up, as Pippin (who is behind Gandalf) raises his right leg while he gets up, the white/black sneaker he wears is perfectly visible on Billy Boyd's Hobbit foot!!

Revealing: After Arwen's vision, an escort says to her, "We cannot delay," and in the wideshot as she turns her horse around, the face of the riding double is perfectly visible.

Continuity: At Rivendell, in the first shot Arwen holds the book and it's open to the page with the drawing of the door on the right side. Then in the next close-up, (before the book falls) she is still holding the book open, but it is now open to a different page. Then the book starts to fall to the floor.

Trivia: When Gandalf is talking about the gathering of the armies of Sauron, the next shot shows the Corsairs on a ship. Walking there from right to left is Peter Jackson in a cameo as a Corsair pirate. In the Extended DVD, at the start of Disc 2, he is actually pierced in the chest by Legolas' arrow and dramatically dies!

Continuity: When Gandalf says, "The board is set, the pieces are moving," he has black/grey eyebrows. But in the next scene when he asks Pippin to light the beacon, he has white/grey eyebrows.

Continuity: When Denethor holds the Horn of Gondor, the metal loop (with rope), which is affixed at its wide end, is located at the outer curve where it is cloven. However in both FotR and TTT, the metal loop at the Horn's wide end, is located on the inner curve where it is cloven, on the opposite side!! (There are only two metal loops and they are permanently affixed.)

Revealing: Gandalf and Pippin walk to the prow of Minas Tirith, and while the wizard says, "Childless lords sat in aged halls, musing on heraldry..." the camera passes the two tall stones at the prow. The depth of the stones are the same at both the narrow top and wide bottom, they are irregularly shaped and the actual points are curved. The prow's short side stone walls meet the two front stones at their edges and part of the wall is broken. However, after Gandalf says, "The rule of Gondor was given over to lesser men," in the next shot facing Mordor, the stones are completely different!! The two tall stones come to a perfect point, they are straight at all sides and the design of the stone differs. The wall is not broken and both sides jut out past the side edges of the two tall pointy stones. (Extended DVD.)

Visible crew/equipment: In Cirith Ungol where Frodo is tied up, as the Uruk and Orc fight, Shagrat throws Gorbag on top of the hole. In the next shot of Gorbag, as he brings his left leg up out of the hole, three circular lights are visible in the hole below. It may be necessary to darken the brightness of your screen, in order to see the three lights properly. (Extended Edition, Disc 2).

Continuity: In the opening shot as Gandalf stands on the balcony at Minas Tirith the many buildings beside the balcony are shown. When Gandalf says, "If the garrison at Osgiliath falls, the last..." as he continues, "...defense of this city will be gone," the buildings beside the balcony are once again visible. To say that the buildings are completely different in the two shots would be a vast understatement! (This has absolutely nothing to do with camera angles. Extended Edition.)

Visible crew/equipment: At Minas Tirith, in the opening wide shot as Gandalf smokes on the balcony, the large light whose body is mounted on the ceiling behind Gandalf, is perfectly visible overhead, to his left. (Extended Edition)

Continuity: When Gollum drops the lembas from the ridge, you see the leaf it was wrapped in fluttering away, and the wafers fall roughly straight down. However, when Sam finds it later, there are still lembas wafers wrapped in the leaf, along with a few lying around unwrapped.

Continuity: When Gollum accuses Sam of eating the lembas bread, the crumbs on his shoulder don't appear until the shot when Gollum brushes them away.

Continuity: As soon as Aragorn walks into Theoden's tent, behind him stands a suit of armour. While speaking with Elrond about the Army of the Dead, there is a sudden gust of wind and the armour falls in the background in this one shot. Throughout the entire scene preceding and following this one shot, this armour is seen upright.