Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Continuity mistake: In the first shot of the hologram of Endor and the Death Star, the Death Star orbits Endor in an counter-clockwise direction. In the subsequent shots, the Death Star orbits in a clockwise direction.

Continuity mistake: In the Special Edition, Sy Snootles (the lead singer of Jabba's band) is CGI, but in the original version, she was a puppet, looking a bit differently. In the first shot of the band sequence, you can see the old puppet singing on the stage. (00:11:50)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Vader's shuttle lands on Endor, as the AT-AT is walking towards one of the ramps, you can see that the ramps are connected right next to the lift, under the landing pad. But when Vader exits the lift, there's a circular platform going around the lift, which wasn't there in the previous shots. (01:19:40)

Continuity mistake: When Lando is dangling from a rope over the Saarlac pit, he keeps moving up and down the rope between shots.

Continuity mistake: When R2-D2 is assigned to his duties in Jabba's palace, another droid (EV-9D9) says, "But you'll soon learn some respect." and her arm is in a different position from the previous shot. In the following shot, her arm is in its original position. (00:11:10)

Continuity mistake: When Luke and Leia land on the skiff after swinging on the rope, Luke's facial hair is much darker than in the rest of the scene. (00:35:00)

Continuity mistake: When the prisoner skiff is struck by laserfire, Han Solo is knocked overboard. A long shot shows him falling over sideways, yet when it changes to above the Sarlacc he is pointing straight downwards with his feet caught in the metalwork. (00:33:10)

Continuity mistake: Luke tells Threepio to tell the Ewoks that if our heroes are not set free, that he will use his magic. If you look on the right of the screen, Artoo is standing untied, even though at that point in the movie he had not been untied yet.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Lando says, "Fighters coming in," a whole bunch of TIE fighters come towards them. There's initially a lot anyway, but then after about a second, two horizontal lines of 4 fighters appear from nowhere (centre screen, underneath the Super Star Destroyer). They suddenly just pop into existence, large enough that we should have seen them approaching. (01:31:20)

Continuity mistake: When the carbonite block begins to lower to the ground, Leia is standing in a corner. In the next shot, she is much closer to the corner. (00:17:40)

Continuity mistake: When the Sarlacc tries to drag Lando into the pit, the tentacle is grabbing his ankle in some shots. In other shots, it is wrapped around his thigh as well. (00:33:50)

Continuity mistake: During the battle between Luke and Vader, their sabers alternate between casting shadows on the floor, and no shadows. (01:52:40)

Continuity mistake: In the beginning of Luke and Vader's lightsaber duel, and also in a few shots right after Luke knocks Vader down the stairs, Vader's cape alternates between being draped behind and over his left shoulder. (01:48:55)

Continuity mistake: When Boba Fett falls into the mouth of the Sarlaac, he disappears just before the beak touches him. (00:33:45)

Continuity mistake: In the first shot of Chewbacca when he is in Jabba's dungeon with Han, his bandoleer is on the wrong side. (00:21:25)

Continuity mistake: When Luke wedges the bone into the Rancour's mouth, in the first shoot from behind, he holds the bone horizontally. In the beginning of the next shot, it is pointing upwards. (00:25:25)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Wicket finds Leia in the woods, they sometimes change position between shots, as seen from the vegetation and the surroundings.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Luke and the others are trapped in the net, the dead animal changes appearance (both injuries and actual appearance) and position several times. For example, the animal seen when they are in the net has a different mouth and a bigger area of white fur from the one seen a few shots earlier. (01:08:35)

Continuity mistake: When Vader throws his lighsabre, it hits one of the supports holding the catwalk, but in the next shot, it is nowhere to be seen. (01:45:50)

Revealing mistake: When Luke is being fed to the Rancor, in Jabba the Hutt's dungeon, there are black outlines around the beast's legs, from the composite's blue screen special effect. This was edited out in the special edition rerelease.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This was not a "mistake". The outlines showing around the beast's leg were due to the limited CGI technology at the time the film was made. With advances in special effects in the following decades, the filmmakers were able to enhance the CGI quality in later releases.

raywest

But it is a mistake to show that the Rancor is not real, and the outlines show that. It's certainly not intentional.

lionhead

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Darth Vader: If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Trivia: When filming ROTJ, Lucas didn't want anyone to find out that they were shooting the third Star Wars movie, because pandemonium could break out. So when someone asked the crew what they were filming, they said "Blue Harvest". All of the crew had shirts and hats that said Blue Harvest on them. The fictitious film's tagline was "Horror beyond imagination."

More trivia for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Question: After Anakin becomes Darth Vader, he seems ruthless, actually evil. "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Is just one quote. That being the case, this movie makes it seem like Anakin knows that he's evil and wishes he wasn't. Basically, my question is, why didn't Anakin turn on Palpatine sooner? Or simply leave the Sith?

Answer: Darth: "Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the dark side. I must obey my master." It's implied that the dark side is intoxicating, once you totally give in to the dark side it has a hold on you, and appeals to morality and rationalization are useless against your lust for its power. (On a symbolic level, the dark side is a metaphor for vice. Darth Vader is an addict and abusive parent. It's actually funny how many scenes still make sense if you replace "the dark side" with "the bottle" or similar).

TonyPH

If we bring the prequels into it, it's one of the criticisms of those films that they only make the question of how much Anakin is a "true believer" more confusing. But it stands to reason that at first Anakin may feel vindicated in his resentment toward the Jedi. Later on, Vader may not feel that as strongly, but by then his anger has turned toward himself for failing to save Padme. He may feel that a man as terrible as he does not deserve to be "rescued" from the dark side, leading to a feedback loop where he only gets further enamored with its power and does more evil things which causes him to hate himself even more, and so it goes.

TonyPH

Answer: Anakin was seduced by the emperor to think that the Jedi were evil. This was partly fueled by anger &fear, thinking Padme would die if Palpatine didn't help save her. After he turned to Darth Vader & joined the dark side, he eventually realised the true nature of the Emperor, but he was to weak to do anything about it. Darth Vader still wanted to rule the galaxy, but didn't want the emperor controlling everything. He just wanted to use Luke to help overthrow the emperor and take over the galaxy. It wasn't until he found out he had a daughter also, and saw Luke about to die by the hands of the emperor, that he realised that Luke was right & he needed to switch sides.

envisaged0ne

Vader was not just using Luke to kill the Emperor. He actually did want to rule the galaxy as father and son - if Luke would turn to the Dark Side, that is.

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