Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) - 107 mistakes

Continuity: During the podrace, Anakin is in front of Sebula and has him on his tail. One view looking towards Anakin you can see Sebula's pod in the background, but the driver's seat is empty.

Revealing: When Qui-Gon, Jar-Jar, and Padme are eating at Anakin's house, Anakin's mum pours water for Qui-Gon. But when she gets to Jar-Jar, she tips the pitcher but no water comes out.

Continuity: Obi-Wan's braided hair keeps changing sides, and getting longer and shorter, most noticeably in the scenes around the underwater city.

Revealing: Qui-Gon's comlink is a Woman Gillette Sensor Excel Razor.

Continuity: When Anakin attaches 3PO's right eye, one shot has the eye in his left hand, then the angle changes and the eye is being applied with the right hand.

Continuity: When the flags are first brought out onto the course, we see C3P0 carrying Anakin's flag (a blue cross) three back from the front. Then in a closeup of him, he's suddenly between two different flag carriers. Worse still, in a wide shot of the flag carriers leaving the course before the race, he and the flag have disappeared completely.

Revealing: In Anakin's hovel, where everyone is introducing themselves, Qui-Gon says "I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," and you can see Padme mouth the words.

Continuity: When Palpatine and Queen Amidala are conversing in his office (when Palpatine refers to Valorum having 'very little real power') his outfit switches from a green breasted cloak with a blue collar area to a green breasted cloak and dark green collar. It switches back after one shot.

Continuity: When Amidala and some other guards use the ascension guns from the palace windows seven of them go up, when they are running along the corridor after coming off the window-ledge, there are about 13 or 14 of them. Then finally when they are surrounded by the droids, there are about 10 or 11 of them and Captain Panaka is not there.

Visible crew/equipment: In the initial scene, when the Federation invade Naboo, you can see two takes of Queen Amidala watching the window on her palace. At the left of the screen you can see a black wire - maybe a light connection?

Audio problem: Before the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship starts exploding from the inside, a Neimoidian says, "Nothing can get through our shield". But his mouth doesn't move until after he's said it.

Continuity: In the chamber room near the end of the movie, after the Queen throws the guns to everyone and goes to address the Viceroy, she starts to walk away from her chair. While she is doing that, you can distinctly see her lose her footing and slip on the floor. In the next edit she repeats this movement without slipping.

Continuity: When Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are landing the Naboo ship on Tatooine to repair it, watch the landing closely. The shadow of the ship is already on the ground before the ship lands on it. Also the ship tilts back and forth during the landing but the shadow never changes or moves. Also, if you look carefully at the dust (which was shot using a helicopter landing) some of the dust being flicked up actually passes through the ship.

Continuity: When the Queen's starship is approaching Naboo after leaving Coruscant, Ric Olié says, "Those are the forward stabilizers." In the next shot, Anakin's head is reaching higher over the back of his seat than it was in the previous shot.

Revealing: After everyone leaves Tatooine after the short stay they land on Coruscant in the middle of busy air traffic. Unfortunately, the ship that they fly in (the Nubian), with its incredibly shiny and mirror-like appearance does not reflect the bustling traffic above, nor the people walking out of it. It only seems to reflect the basic landscape.

Continuity: During the dinner scene, when Anakin says, "I'm the only human who can do it", his wrist is bare. In the next shot, it's covered up by his sleeve, and the cup in front of him has moved closer to the edge of the table.

Continuity: After the race, Anakin's face is dirty. When his mother kisses him, his face cleans itself between shots.

Revealing: When Qui-Gon is talking to Jar Jar for the first time, they are walking through the forest. A branch with leaves comes up and Jar Jar dips his head to avoid it, but his eye and part of his head go through the leaves.

Continuity: Darth Maul's neck is black, but when he is talking to Darth Sidious on Coruscant, his neck is flesh-toned.

Audio problem: After Anakin has won the Podrace, he yells, "Mum, I did it! Yeah!", but the words don't match his actual lip movement.

Other: When the Queen blasts the window to gain entrance into the upper floor of the palace, a shot from down the corridor reveals that the window was already open before the sparks and smoke appeared on screen.

Audio problem: When Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon ignite their lightsabres in the Trade Federation ship, you can hear the sound of, not two, but three lightsabres igniting.

Continuity: When Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are talking to Jar Jar in the forest, Obi-Wan's hair is wet. But when Jar Jar says, "This way, hurry." Obi-Wan's hair is completely dry. In the next shot, it's wet again.

Other: When Darth Maul is fighting with Qui-Gon for the first time on Tatooine, Darth Maul's first saber strike actually hits Qui-Gon's hands and saber hilt, not the blade.

Continuity: After Darth Maul falls off the walkway, Qui-Gon jumps down after him, and as they continue the fight, there are several vertical beams behind them. The number of beams and their size change between shots.

Continuity: When they quit the spaceship to go to Mos Espa, R2-D2 has a metal bar retaining his rear legs. He doesn't have this in the rest of the film.

Audio problem: When Obi-Wan rushes through the Force Doors, after Qui-Gon's death, to face Maul, watch and listen carefully. Obi swings his lightsabre three times in rapid seccession, Maul blocks all three attacks. The lightsabres appear to contact, there is even the almost subliminal flash from the beams hitting each other, but the sound crew only inserted two contact sound effects, and those two sounds are slightly out of synch with the actual movements.

Continuity: When Anakin and Obi-Wan walk up to greet Palpatine on Naboo, in the wideshot, a Republic guard is passing by them. In the close-up, the guard is gone.

Continuity: Just before Obi-Wan jumps up from the pit, there's a shot of Qui-Gon. His lightsabre, which was lying on his left side after he was stabbed by Darth Maul, is now lying below his feet.

Other: In the ending credits, Keira Knightley's first name is misspelled "Kiera."

Continuity: When Qui-Gon is fighting Darth Maul on Tatooine, Obi-Wan sits down in the cockpit of Amidala's starship. As the shot ends, his hand is up by the top of Ric Olié's (the pilot) seat. In the beginning of the next shot, his hand is down by his side, and Anakin's hand has suddenly appeared on top of the seat.

Continuity: Right before Darth Maul kicks Obi-Wan off the walkway, there's a wideshot where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are fighting Maul on a straight part of the walkway. In the following shots, all three of them are suddenly standing on a round part of the walkway.

Continuity: Before the battle on Naboo begins, the Gungans turn on their shields. In a following shot, their shields are off.

Audio problem: When Daultay Dofine says his first line of dialogue which is, "I knew it. They're here to force a settlement.", he speaks with the voice of Rune Haako, the Neimoidian who says, "Have you ever encountered a Jedi knight before, sir?"" shortly after.

Continuity: After the final battle scene when the Jedi council come down to the Naboo city, as they are leaving the space craft there is a figure in the background who is obviously supposed to be Mace Windu, but is definitely NOT Samuel L. Jackson.  The man is African-American, bald and dressed in Windu's clothes, but is not him. Perhaps Mr. Jackson was unavailable that day.

Continuity: Near the beginning of the film, there's a few shots of the droid army landing on Naboo, with one shot of one of those hover tanks moving out of the landing ship towards the camera. In front of it are three droids in a line who are also walking towards the camera. Unfortunately, the tank is moving much faster and is bearing down on the droids with no sign of stopping - unfortunately the shot changes just before it runs them over.

Continuity: In Otoh Gunga (the Gungan city), when Captain Tarpals comes to arrest Jar Jar, the background in the shots of Obi-Wan and Jar Jar doesn't match the background in the previous and following shots.

Continuity: During the fight against the Trade Federation Droid Control Ship, Anakin says, "Okay, let's go left" and turns the controls of his spacecraft to the left. The ship turns left. A few shots later, Anakin says, "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick" and turns the controls to the left, but this time, the ship turns right.

Other: When Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are fighting in the corridor filled with rays, when Maul spins around in the beginning of the second shot, half of his lightsabre disappears for a few frames (easier to see in slow motion).

Continuity: When Jar-Jar is helping repar Anakin's podracer, he loses his tool in the motor. When he tries to take it, it is suddenly stuck in the compressor, some centimeters ahead and over.

Continuity: When Obi Wan is fighting with Darth Maul, Maul knocks Obi Wan back into the reactor pit using the force. When they first show Maul's hand, it is his right hand that takes off the lighsaber and pushes Obi Wan back. When the camera angle changes to show Obi Wan rolling backwards into the pit, Maul's left hand is clearly shown raised.

Continuity: When the Queen in leaving Coruscant, as Qui-Gon says, "Your majesty.", Captain Panaka is walking towards him. In the next shot, Panaka is closer to him, and standing.

Audio problem: After Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are greeted by TC-14, as they're walking over to the windows, Obi-Wan says, "How do you think the Trade Federation will deal with the Chancellor's demands?" His mouth is visible as he says the last word, and even though he's far away, you can see that his lips are not moving.

Continuity: During dinner, as Anakin says, "I had a dream I was a Jedi", his arms are on the table. In the next shot, they're off the table, and there's a piece of cutlery in his food bowl, which wasn't there in the previous shot.

Continuity: During the battle in the hangar, the Droidikas roll out and stop near the ship exit, but when the Jedis ignite their lightsabers, we see the droids are missing in the background.

Continuity: When Qui-Gon delivers the hyperdrive, the amount and arrangement of the load carried by the two eopies keep changing between shots.

Revealing: When the Queen is escorted down the stairs in the Theed Royal Palace, right before Nute Gunray says, "Process them.", watch the space between Sabé (the Queen's decoy) and Captain Panaka, before a handmaiden and one of the Queen's guards block the view; the battle droid behind Sabé doesn't cast a shadow on the railing, as everyone else does in this shot.

Other: After Darth Maul is killed, in the shot where he begins to fall into the pit, there's no reflection of Obi-Wan's lightsabre blade on the shiny floor. This can also be seen in the shot where he rushes over to Qui-Gon.

Revealing: During the second lap of the Podrace, the announcer says, "Skywalker's spinning out of control" and there's a shot of the audience. After Anakin has won the race, the same shot is used again. This can be seen, for example, from that the people on the steps make the exact same movements in each shot.

Continuity: When Anakin, Qui-Gon, Jar-Jar and Padmé arrives at Anakin's house, they are near each other. In the next shot, view from inside the house, Anakin is separated from the others.

Revealing: As Darth Maul lands on Tatooine, in the night sky is the Earth's view of constellation Orion.

Audio problem: On Naboo, when they are planning to take over the palace just after the Queen asks R2 to project the map of the palace - watch her lips, they aren't in sync with what she says.

Continuity: When the captured Queen is being escorted by the battle droids towards the balcony where the Jedi are hiding, the ground is sunlit. In the next shot, it is not.

Continuity: During the climatic light-saber duel, just as Qui-Gonn and Obi-Wan have forced Darth Maul onto a ledge, look quickly and you will see that the red blade of Maul's light saber goes from being behind his waist to in front of it between shots.

Revealing: When Darth Maul is slashing at Obi-Wan in the pit, sparks form from areas of the pit wall Maul isn't even slashing.

Continuity: When Jar Jar is arrested, he and Obi-Wan switch position after the second shot of them. Also, Captain Tarpals has moved to the other side of them.

Continuity: After Darth Maul sits down in his speeder, the probe droid flies past him, but in the previous shot, it was nowhere to be seen. It should have been visible, because of its position and the direction it was coming from.

Audio problem: When Obi-Wan checks Anakin's midi-chlorian count, he says that he has a count of over "twenty thousand", but the movement of his lips indicates that he's saying "ten thousand".

Continuity: When the battle droids first walk through the Gungan shield you see the Gungans throwing hundreds of boomas at the droids but in the wide shots of all of the droids not many droids have been hit and you can't see any boomas on the ground.

Continuity: In the shot where Obi-Wan is looking up at Qui-Gon and Darth Maul, there are several vertical beams on the right side of the walkway. In the previous shots, the beams were on the left side. When Obi-Wan lands on the walkway after jumping up, the beams are again on the correct side.

Continuity: At one point before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fight Darth Maul, Anakin stands up in the fighter he's in, Artoo's nozzle thing is on the wrong side of his dome, then it switches back to the right side the next time we see him.

Audio problem: When Obi-Wan and Darth Maul are fighting, after the second time Maul swing his lightsabre over Obi-Wan's head, their lightsabres make contact three times, but there are four clashing sounds.

Other: During the fight scene in the Theed hangar, several times the droidekas (destroyer droids) are shown shooting, but no lasers come out of their guns.

Revealing: When Anakin is working on his Pod and his friends show up, you hear them laughing. When they leave, if you listen carefully, you can hear that the soundtrack used for laughter when they first showed up is played again.

Continuity: Sebulba breaks the stabilizer on Anakin's Pod before the Podrace begins, but in the following shots where he's talking to Anakin, you can see in background that the stabilizer is unbroken.

Continuity: In the Trade Federation spaceship, when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon jumps from the ventilation shaft to the hangar, everything changes in the next shot. The boxes are different, Obi-Wan is closer to Qui-Gon, they are closer to the edge of the wall and the wall itself is different.

Continuity: Obi Wan and Maul are fighting and Obi Wan stands side on to the Sith and puts his lightsaber in front of him and then directly vertical behind him, he then repeats this motion in close up, just before he cuts Maul's lightsaber in half.

Continuity: Right after Anakin blows up the generators on the droid control ship and he is flying out of the hanger you can see a close up of R2, his lens is on the wrong side.

Continuity: When Anakin is packing his backpack while speaking to C3PO, there is a toy on his bed like a Naboo fighter. In the next shot, it changes place and orientation.

Continuity: When Qui-Gon and Watto are talking in the hangar before the Podrace, Qui-Gon says "You don't think the boy can win?". You can see Watto's waist strap disappear into him.

Continuity: There is no floor in the Podracer hangar, only sand, but when Watto throws his chance cube, it lands on flat, sand-coloured stone.

Audio problem: When Anakin and Qui-Gon are running to Amidala's ship, Anakin says, "Qui-Gon sir, wait, I'm tired" but his lips hardly move when he says this.

Revealing: When they enter Anakin's house, Jar-Jar's arm passes through Padmé arm.

Continuity: After Obi-Wan falls off the walkway, he manages to grab hold of the edge of another walkway, and on the floor, there's a lit strip near his hands, to his right. When Qui-Gon and Darth Maul continue the fight, there's a wideshot where Obi-Wan (still hanging from the edge of the walkway) can be seen in the lower left hand corner of the screen. His hands are now further away from the strip, and are closer to the strip on his left.

Continuity: When the laser cannon is lowered from the ceiling to fire at the Radiant VII (the Jedi's cruiser), as the copilot, Lieutenant Williams, says, "Captain, look!", his right arm is on the controls and Captain Madakor's head is on the left side of the top of her seat. In the next shot, her head is on the other side of the seat, and Williams' arm in no longer at the controls.

Continuity: When Qui-Gon first talks to Watto about the pod race, Watto's arms change position during the first three shots.

Revealing: When Darth Maul is kicked off the platform by Qui Gon Jinn, his lightsaber blade bounces off of his chest when he lands, but no damage is done to his clothing or body.

Audio problem: After the control ship blows up, one of the pilots says, "Look, one of ours out of the main hall." His lips continue to say "way" (as in hallway) but the sound is cut off.

Continuity: When Jar Jar goes to retrieve the wrench that he dropped in the engine of Anakin's podracer, he moves his hand towards the upper part of the engine. In the next shot, he sticks his hand into the middle of the engine. In the following shots, his hand remains in the middle, but when he says that he's stuck, his hand is once again in the upper part.

Continuity: When Nute Gunray (the Viceroy) and Daultay Dofine are talking to TC-14, they are standing further away from each other in the wide shot than in the following close-ups.

Continuity: During the meal in Anakin's home, Jar Jar snatches a fruit with his tongue, but in the next shot the fruit is not attached to his tongue any longer (easier to see frame by frame), even though we see him swallow it.

Continuity: When Padmé is to come with Qui-Gon after the Queen's ship has landed on Tatooine, he says, "This is not a good idea", and something blurry flies by in the upper right hand corner. It is not there before or after.

Continuity: When the queen's ship lands on Tatooine you can see that there aren't very many big rocks near the ship but later when Panaka and Obi-Wan are talking about the storm they pass a row of rocks that wasn't there before.

Continuity: The screen that Shmi Skywalker holds in the podrace changes shape between shots.

Audio problem: Where Natalie Portman and some of the security detail are fighting in the Palace corridors, her shiny weapon makes a distinct noise and the normal blasters makes a different sound. Later, she is given a regular blaster to get up the outside of the Palace. However, when she fires that gun to break the window they've ascended to, it makes the same noise as her shiny blaster, not the sound of a normal blaster.

Continuity: When Padme is cleaning R2D2 and chatting to Jar-Jar, the film's reversed in the final shot of Natalie Portman smiling. The easiest way to notice it is that when we're looking at R2D2, normally his lens is to the right of a blue/red light, but in the final shot the lens is now to the left of that light.

Continuity: When Qui-Gon delivers the hyperdrive, the way he holds the reins of the eopie he's riding changes between the first two shots.

Audio problem: After Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan enter the hangar bay of the Trade Federation ship, Qui-Gon says, "Battle droids." His face is seen from the side, but you can still see that neither his lips nor his jaw is moving. 0:07:15.

Audio problem: When Queen Amidala shows the holographic map of the palace and discusses the plan for sneaking into it, you can tell that her explanation of the plan is a recording. There is one shot where you can see her face and her lips are not moving.

Continuity: When the final duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul begins, they are fighting in a particular area next to the pit. But when Obi-Wan cuts Maul's lightsabre in half, the background changes and they are suddenly fighting on a different side of the pit.

Continuity: Before the pod race begins, as Jabba the Hutt says, "Welcome.", the woman to his right has her hand on the wall. In the next shot, she is no longer touching the wall and her head is turned in a different direction.

Continuity: When Obi-Wan kills Darth Maul, he grabs Qui-Gon's lightsabre with his left hand. But when he twists above Maul's head, he's holding it in his right hand. In the next shot, it's back in his left hand.

Continuity: When Amidala's starship runs the blockade, after the spacecraft flies towards the screen, there's a shot where R2-D2 is missing from the top of the ship.

Continuity: Just before the podrace Qui-Gon talks to Shmi on the platform. After the conversation, they walk towards the camera. Pay attention to the background, it's the same as the previous shot even though Qui-gon and the others are walking in the other direction.

Continuity: When Palpatine and Queen Amidala address the Senate, the holocam flying around near them is inconsistently placed between shots.

Continuity: When Anakin's friends show up while he is working on the Pod, in the second shot, the youngest girl is standing in front of Wald (the young Rodian), to his left. In the same shot, Padmé begins to walk past them and Anakin begins turning right. In the next shot, the girl is standing on Wald's right, the older girl is standing further away from him, Anakin has turned the other way and Padmé is nowhere to be seen. Then, when Anakin says, "That isn't the half of it", the youngest girl is crouching down, but in the next shot, she's standing straight up. And when the oldest girl says, "You've been working on that thing for years", she is standing closer to Wald than in the previous shot, and the other girl has moved from his right to in front of him.

Continuity: After R2-D2 repairs the shield generator of the Queen's ship and the power comes back, in the next shot of Artoo on top of the ship, the hose that the droid plugged into the generator is gone.

Continuity: When Anakin and Kitster are talking to Padmé in the Podracer hangar, Kitster says,"Finish the race, of course" and in the background, Qui-Gon walks into the shot from the right and touches the arm of an alien. In the next shot of the boys, Qui-Gon enters the shot from the right again, and touches the alien's arm a second time.

Continuity: In the beginning of the scene where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are addressing Boss Nass, they change positions between shots. This can be seen from the pattern on the floor.

Continuity: When R2-D2 and three other astromech droids fixing the Nubeing ship, Jar-Jar is talking to them and there is a black one. This black one turns into a blue one when they are fixing the ship. It's the second one to get blasted.

Continuity: When Obi-Wan falls off the walkway during the duel with Darth Maul, his lightsabre lands on a lit strip of the floor. A few shots later he jumps up and retrieves his sabre, which is now resting on a dark area on the floor. Even if the sabre continued to roll on the floor between the shots, it couldn't have ended up in this position.

Continuity: Jar Jar knocks down a bunch of droids in Watto's shop, but when they leave, you can see the feet of the now stacked up droids.

Continuity: When the queen is being escorted by some droids after she has been captured, the shadows change completely. When we first see everyone walking past, their shadows stretch ahead of them, but when we see them walking towards Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, the shadows are really elongated and at an angle.

Continuity: When the Queen and her entourage enter the hangar where the pilots are being held, Jar Jar is not among the first people who walk in. In the next shot from behind, he is suddenly walking in the front part of the group.

Continuity: When Anakin is sitting in his Naboo starfighter about to take off, there is one shot of R2 with his projection nozzle on the left side of the red light instead of the right.

Continuity: During the pod-race, as the racers pass the start/finish line between laps, we see a view of R2, C3PO and Anakin's friends. R2 turns his head to watch the pods go by and it raises up about an inch and a half on one side, then seems to be stuck, the view changes and R2's head is swivelling fine, then we get another view of the wonky lid.

Continuity: At the end, after Darth Maul has knocked Obi-Wan into the pit, Obi-Wan is beginning to remember about Qui-Gon's lightsaber. The scene shows Darth Maul with the lightsaber in his right hand. When Obi-Wan leaps out of the pit and flies over Darth Maul, the lightsaber switches to Maul's left hand.