The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 225 mistakes

Continuity: When Deagol comes out of the water, the shot opens as he is submerged in water below his arms. As he crawls up there is quite an obvious difference in wetness of the overalls that were submerged for the take and the area above it, including the overall straps. Also, as Smeagol goes after the Ring, there's a close-up of Deagol's backside and there are patches on Deagol's pants that are completely dry. Then Smeagol begins to choke Deagol and as he goes down to the ground, his backside is completely wet again.

Continuity: When Deagol first finds the ring and is cleaning it off, the fingertips of his left hand become wet with mud. Seconds later, when he and Smeagol are grappling, those same fingertips drag across Smeagol's face-yet it is not even smudged.

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: When Frodo and Sam wake up in the culvert, the area of ground just outside of it in the interior shot looking out differs from the exterior shot as Sam stands at the opening.

Continuity: At Orthanc before Gandalf and company confront Saruman, Treebeard is standing right in front of them and some Ents are in the background, but in the subsequent shots of the group on the ground and from above Orthanc, Treebeard and the other Ents are no where to be seen. After Saruman dies and Pippin finds the Palantir, Treebeard is back again. (Extended Edition)

Continuity: When Gandalf, Theoden, et al arrive at Orthanc, they stop when they're greeted by Treebeard and then are confronted with Saruman. The positions of the huge spiked wheel in front of Orthanc, Treebeard, the riders, etc., from the time they ride in, as well as the amount or even existence of debris in the water, changes drastically in consecutive close-ups, overhead and wide shots. (Extended Edition)

Continuity: When Pippin takes the palantir out of the water and Gandalf takes it from him, in several consecutive shots of Pippin, the burnt bark in the water changes to sticks, then back to bark again.

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: In the first scene in Edoras (the capital city of Rohan). The first pan over Edoras: You can see the pan is shown in reverse, with the smoke going into the chimney and the fire at the end is burning backwards. The flags are fluttering oddly as well.

Deliberate "mistake": In the Extended Edition, the location of the Tomb of the Stewards is shown to be behind the city of Minis Tirith, at the cemetery on the mountainside, accessible via a long bridge. Flaming Denethor later runs to the far prow of the city, leaps off and plummets. The distance between the two areas makes it is obviously entirely impossible for someone, even adrenaline charged Denethor, to run this distance while his oiled flesh burns. Admitted on the commentary that it's poetic license, due to director Peter Jackson's long awaited vision for this dramatic shot.

Continuity: As Gollum says, "Too risky. Too risky. Thieves... Musn't wake them," in the two close-ups Frodo and Sam sleep with their backs against a wide rock wall and a single tree between them near Sam's head. However, when Gollum says, "Musn't ruin it now..." and after Sam yells, "You treacherous little toad!" in the next close-up and wide shot of the area, it is very different than in the first two 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.)

Audio problem: At the drinking game, after Éomer says, "No pauses," in the next shot facing Legolas, when Éomer continues to say the two words, "No spills," his lips are closed. Even as he turns his head, his hair does not obstruct the view of his closed lips. (Extended Edition)

Continuity: Before Merry asks, "What are you doing?" in this wide shot Pippin heads towards Gandalf and walks in the very narrow area between the center cots and the cots against the walls. Yet, when Aragorn walks in and also in the close-up as the palantir rolls out of Aragorn's hand, the area between the cots has significantly widened from the original width, note the floor pattern, for the obvious dramatic shot!

Continuity: When Pippin gets up from his cot in the corner, in the wide shot the fur rugs between his and Merry's cot are two light browns and a black in between and there is a black rug in front of Gimli's cot. Yet when Aragorn comes in and takes hold of the palantir, in this shot the black fur rug at the foot of Pip's cot is gone. In the next shot the black rug in front of Gimli's cot is gone and the rug that the palantir rolls onto when out of Aragorn's grasp now faces the opposite way than when Pippin first awoke and walked toward Gandalf.

Revealing: Pippin's height reaches the circular carvings on the wall near the front door and behind Gandalf's cot, when he walks towards Gandalf to steal the palantir. However, after Pip's contact with Sauron, the heights of Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf are now about the same as Pippin's in the previous shots, when standing near the same carvings! When Gandalf pushes Merry out of the way in the wide shot, this short Merry would barely reach the height of the shelf behind Gimli which is way below the carvings.

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: During the drinking game, after Legolas says, "I think it's affecting me," in the close-up when Gimli slams his mug down and slurs, "What did I say?" the tower of mugs are in front of him. When Gimli passes out the tower of mugs are visible from the other side, but it's still obvious that they're positioned differently. (Extended Edition)