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

Not sure what you mean that the rancor is not real. Of course it's not real. The issue is, at that time, it was not technically possible to show the beastie without the lines showing. I classify a mistake as something that was not intentional. In this case, it was, due to the limitations of CGI in the 1980s.

raywest

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

Yoda: When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.

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

Trivia: When Oola the dancing girl (with those two things growing out of the back of her head) is trying to get away from Jabba, she briefly falls out of the top of her costume. It isn't as visible in the letterbox version, but quite visible in the regular version.

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

Question: Who is Luke talking about when he covers up his hand and says that he has a promise to keep to an old friend? Who is the old friend?

Tyler R

Answer: Yoda. When he was departing for Cloud City to save his friends in the previous film, he promised Yoda that he would return to Dagobah to complete his training.

Phaneron

OK. But I thought he was talking about the holeish thing in his hand since he covered it up when he said it. I must have misunderstood it.

The hole in Luke's robotic hand reminds him that he got that robotic hand in the first place because he lost his duel with Darth Vader at Cloud City - a confrontation Yoda warned him he was not ready for.

TonyPH

More questions & answers from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

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