A Knight's Tale (2001) - 38 mistakes

Revealing: In the joust montage sequence when William allows himself to lose repeatedly in order to prove his love: Just after the shot of the white flags going up, we see "William" get hit again but it reveals itself to be a mechanical double first in the way it folds over backwards in a sharp 90 degree angle (no human can bend that way), and it reveals that there isn't a person within because it breaks with the lower portion of the "body". Shot from another angle (the right) the front portion of the saddle blocks this from view.

Continuity: During the scene when William was learning to dance, Chaucer got punched in the nose... so he put a cloth in it to stop the bleeding. In one brief shot the cloth went from his left nostril to the right, then back again.

Continuity: On the jousting scene where William loses his helmet, he has a monstrous bruise under his right eye (in the late afternoon).  That night at the banquet, there is no trace of the bruise. So far as I know, even a black eye doesn't completely heal that quickly.

Continuity: At the end of the film, when Heath Ledger has defeated Rufus Sewell, he is seen with a puncture wound on the upper right side of his chest. In close up the wound is seen to be bleeding through a hole in his jacket but in the next shot it is shown just as a red blob on his jacket with no hole in it. And when the jacket falls open you can see there is no wound underneath. In the next close-up the hole in the jacket is back.

Continuity: During the last jousting scene against Adhemar, William has a piece of red string tied around his neck. While he is riding down to knock Adhemar off of the horse, you see the string in one shot, but not in another, then it is back again.

Continuity: In the scene where Sir William (Heath Ledger) is preparing to fight Adhemar (the "bad guy") he is talking to Geoff Chaucer.  In the background in the stands, you see a figure in a yellow dress (Jocelyn) talking to a figure in brown clothing (John Thatcher).  Jocelyn leans over to speak to John, and then they sit down.   In the next shot, when William is told that Jocelyn had arrived, he looks into the stands, where Jocelyn is again standing, leaning over to speak to John.  They then sit down again.

Factual error: In every scene where knights collide on the lyst, you see their lances in one hand and the reins to their horse in the other. When knights jousted, they would drop their reins before impact so that a severe impact would not cause them to jerk the reins or become entangled in them causing more damage to themselves or the horse.

Revealing: After William Thatcher loses agains Count Adhemar, he wins a gold jouster figure for best "sword on foot". Right after that, he cuts it in two with an axe. You can see that the figure is already cut in two, and that William almost doesn't touch the figure.

Continuity: When William is in the stocks, the Prince lifts his hood and his henchmen take their swords out of their sheaths and place them on the ground. In the next scene you see the Prince approaching William and one of the henchmen takes out his sword again and place it on the ground again.

Revealing: In the first cathedral, the Bishop raises his hand before he extends it to Jocelyn and we see the underside of his ring. It is obvious that his ring is a costume ring because it's not closed in the back. This is confirmed on the DVD commentary.

Continuity: Right before William meets the nude Chaucer, he can been seen riding his horse about 5 feet in front of the wagon carrying his equipment. The camera angle changes to a wide view and the wagon is now in front of him.

Continuity: Just prior to when Prince Edward is Knighting William (after William takes a knee), they do a wide shot to show where everyone is, and Chaucer is sitting in front of the stocks directly in the middle. After he is knighted, Chaucer is sitting to the left of Roland (as you face the stocks) and then at the end of the scene, he is back in the middle.

Continuity: When William first fights Adhemar, Adhemar picks up his lance. Then, he shuts the visor on his helmet with the hand that he held his lance in. The lance miraculously disappeared, then reappears as he rides up to fight William.

Continuity: In the scene where William is about to fight The Prince, William starts charging towards him. William is already past halfway there when The Prince sets off yet they seem to still make contact in the middle of the stadium.

Revealing: If you watch the deleted scene "Chaucer's speech" on the DVD you can see that when William is in the stocks, Chaucer makes a nice speech about him and the crowd starts chanting "William, William...". Well in the movie it is made to look like they are angry with him but if you watch their mouths, they are mouthing the name William, but all you hear is yelling.

Continuity: When Geoffrey Chaucer is teaching Sir Ulrich how to dance he gets punched in the nose by Wat Falhurst and when he makes a comment about Wat hitting like a girl Wat goes after him and Chaucer backs up with the pole he is holding to his right but when the camera pans back to a wider shot, he's now holding the pole to his left.

Continuity: In the scene where Ademar is in France with the Free Companies, it is raining fairly heavily at the beginning of the scene. In the following shots, showing just Ademar and his squire, there is no rain visible, just fog in the background. After Ademar stabs the knife through the tournament result sheets, there is another wide shot, with rain again visible.

Continuity: When Wat Falhurst is stretching out Sir Ulrich's arm after losing on purpose, every time the camera pans back to Wat from Sir Ulrich, the horse behind Wat which is covered by a striped blanket is either there, gone, or moved to a different position.

Continuity: When Sir Ulrich first battles Count Adhemar after the first hit Sir Ulrich is taking to Roland stating how hard he hits. The camera angle from the front shows his arm bent in front of him but the camera angle from the back shows his arm resting on his leg. Happens about 3 times during the entire scene.

Continuity: In the scene where Ulrich first rides to compete as Sir Ector ("We Will Rock You" is playing), there are various shots of the crowd enjoying the song. The woman seated to the right of the tournament sponsor (as you look at the screen) has a Princess Leia-type hairdo. Her buns sit high on the sides of her head in one shot, down lower in the next shot of her, and back up high in a third.