The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Corrected entry: When Bilbo and the dwarves leave Beorn's house, it is just past daybreak, with the sun presumably rising in the east, their direction of travel. Later in the day, when the band realize they're lost in Mirkwood Forest, Bilbo says "We have to find the sun," and he looks upward, spotting the sun at about high noon. But when he climbs the tree and pokes his head through the canopy, he looks east and it is daybreak again with the sun just rising. Where did the day go? (00:23:50 - 00:25:40)

Correction: Bilbo and the Dwarves were lost in Mirkwood Forest for several days, and the enchantment on the forest is making them hallucinate, just like Gandalf said it would. Bilbo doesn't see the true position of the sun because he is still under the influence of the enchantment of the forest. His head clears once he climbs above the trees, and he is able to see the edge of the forest and the true position of the sun (on a different day from the day they entered the forest).

Corrected entry: In Lake-town, where the dwarves are surrounded by villagers and presented to the master of Lake-town, Stephen Fry exclaims: "Welcome, by Christ, welcome!" Jesus Christ was not a part of their culture. They believed in beings such as the Ainur.

LOTRFanatic

Correction: The Master does not say 'by Christ, he says 'thrice'.This is an old term meaning 'three times'. The line reads thus: "Welcome, thrice welcome". This is also a title of a track from the soundtrack album.

Corrected entry: There were 13 barrels, one for each dwarf. Bilbo had to hang from the side of a barrel because there wasn't one for him to ride in. But after Bombur's barrel broke, he was able to jump into an empty barrel floating along with all the others.

Phixius

Correction: There are more barrels than there are dwarves, as is visible when Thorin orders them to climb in. The reason why Bilbo doesn't have a barrel at the beginning is that he has to open the trapdoor and after he's done that, all the barrels are, of course gone.

Corrected entry: After Bilbo frees himself from the spider's silken cocoon in the forest of Mirkwood, he hides behind a tree listening to the clicks of the spiders "talk" to each other as they wrap up the dwarfs - i.e., he doesn't understand what they're saying. When Bilbo puts on the ring, all of a sudden he can understand the language of the spiders. He attacks one of them, invisible, and he can hear it ask, "Where is it?" Bilbo takes off the ring and says "Here." Then he kills the spider, with the ring off, but he can still understand the spider crying "It stings!" And Bilbo says "Sting. It's a good name." Without the ring on his finger, it doesn't seem like he should understand the spider's language.

Correction: Just like the ring having the ability to extend the bearers life (whilst not being worn), it is not too unreasonable to believe the ring has a residual effect on the wearer (translation) after it is removed, even if only for a few seconds as shown in the film.

Corrected entry: In the shot where Bilbo and the dwarves are climbing up to the hidden passage outside the mountain, Gloin is seen holding the axe that was taken by the wood elves, which is the axe he will later give to his son Gimli (will assume they return it after the battle of 5 armies). The next time we see it he is beating on the wall and breaking his axe from Laketown.

Correction: It is impossible to see what either one of the dwarves are carrying as they are climbing. The camera is too far back from the characters to see their weapons in any detail. In the scene when they have all reached the top, Gloin is shown to have the same axe (before and during the door smashing scene).

XIII

Corrected entry: In the scene when Thorin's company approaches the Elven gate, it is raining. In the next few shots, it's not raining, and then it starts to rain again as Gandalf leaves.

Hillarie369

Correction: It is starting to rain when Gandalf leaves the company, and it keeps on raining when the company enters Mirkwood. Then the movie cuts to a scene where the company is walking through the wood, and it is indeed not raining, but this could be hours later.

Corrected entry: Right at the start when Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield are in the Prancing Pony the barmaid passes behind Gandalf 2 times in the same direction, within 5 seconds. (00:03:00)

Correction: There are two young women walking behind Gandalf as he introduces himself to Thorin, but the second one is wearing a shawl and the barmaid does not, and she is also taller than the barmaid, so it is another person,.

Corrected entry: Smaug refers to Thorin as "Oakenshield" several times. Oakenshield is a title he was awarded for events which occurred while the dragon was sleeping, not a last name - there's no way Smaug could know it.

Correction: In the context of the book the observation would have been correct. However in the movie it is hinted that Smaug has been contacted by the necromancer. If Smaug had been contacted by the necromancer, it would have given him news of what was going on in the rest of middle earth, including the fate of Thorin.

Corrected entry: There is so much gold in the mountain, in real terms it would have been worthless.

Correction: First, we shouldn't use phrases like "in real terms" for fantasy films not based on reality. Additionally, just because an item is abundant doesn't make it worthless if there is a need, desire, demand, or if it's difficult to obtain. For example, iPhones are abundant and still have value.

Bishop73

Revealing mistake: When Smaug confronts Bilbo and weaves around the gold in his lair, as the dragon asks "What else do you claim to be?" his tail passes through one of the pillars (audience's left).

More mistakes in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Smaug: There is something about you. Something you carry, something made of gold. But far more PRECIOUS...

More quotes from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Trivia: In the beginning of the scene in the Master of Laketown's house, Alfrid tries to empty a chamberpot through the open window. During this, the window half closes, so much of the contents of the chamberpot splash on the inside of the window and windowsill. In the extras of the Extended edition it is told that this happened during the first take, and the scene was reshot many times. Nevertheless, the first take ended up in the final cut. (01:11:35)

Lammen Gorthaur

More trivia for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Question: Why on earth does Bilbo remove the ring in front of Smaug? He has no real reason to believe that Smaug won't simply eat him or roast him. Smaug can hear and smell him but can't see him, so as long as he remains still, he is safe unless Smaug gets lucky. Seems like taking the ring off is a huge risk that was not necessary.

oldbaldyone

Chosen answer: Bilbo is actually quite clever, I think he was trying to talk his way out by buttering Smaug up. If he tried to run, Smaug, who was on high alert, would have caught him and swallowed him without a second thought. By playing with words he was able to both interest and distract Smaug, and get away.

Answer: Smaug started talking about the ring, which started drawing the attention of the Necromancer (Sauron), causing Bilbo pain. Remember, wearing the ring made one noticeable to dark forces.

Brian Katcher

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