Revealing mistake: When Luke and Vader enter the Emperor's throne room, in the shot from behind, you can see the stairs through Luke. (01:26:30)
Continuity mistake: When the Imperials are tricked into leaving the bunker, they are surrounded by Ewoks, and as the shot ends, if you look through the crowd, you can see that Han turns his head to his right. In the next shot, he's facing forward again. (01:46:55)
Continuity mistake: After Han is released from the carbonite, he falls to the ground, soiling his shirt. In the following shots, the amount of dirt changes continuously between shots. Later, when Han and Luke are brought before Jabba, his shirt is clean.
Continuity mistake: In the first shot of the Emperor's force striking Luke, the Emperor's hands are in a different position from the previous shot. This also happens after he says, "You have paid the price for your lack of vision." (01:50:30 - 01:51:10)
Continuity mistake: On the forest moon of Endor, when the stormtrooper punches Han, he falls and has a blaster in his hand but it disappears when he hits the ground. He can't have thrown it during the time he was falling, because he shot accidentally when he was near the ground. If he has thrown it, it should have been near him.
Revealing mistake: When Leia takes a speeder to chase the stormtrooopers, there is an SFX box around it and it makes no shadow on the ground.
Continuity mistake: When the little Ewok finds Leia, and she rises up, he points his spear at her and you can see that the front of his leather hood is over the spear's shaft. The shot changes to Leia, the back to the Ewok and now spear is over the hood, the shots change again and now the hood's front is crumbled up between the spear and the Ewok´s body.
Visible crew/equipment: The rancor puppeteer's arm can be seen on the far right side of the screen as it starts poking at a hiding Luke. Widescreen version only.
Continuity mistake: After Vader enters the Emperor's throne room to tell him that Luke is one of the Rebels landing on Endor, as the shot ends, he is just about to walk up the stairs. In the next shot, he has already walked up the stairs. (01:03:50)
Continuity mistake: When Vader is searching for Luke in the dark, in the first shot, he is walking around a computer terminal, with the great window behind him. In the next shot, he's on the other side of the terminal, with the window in front of him. (01:47:10)
Revealing mistake: After the Rebels break into the bunker, a Rebel in the background punches an officer. But if you watch closely or play it in slow motion, the Rebel's hand never comes into contact with the officer's face. (01:33:25)
Continuity mistake: Before the Emperor gives permission to fire the Death Star, in the scene at the bridge of the Star Destroyer, the blue rank insignia of Admiral Piett and another Imperial officer is coloured black. This is probably caused by bluescreen effects replacing everything blue with the colour of space. This can also be seen when a Rebel ship hits the Star Destroyer at the end of the film.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Han and Lando are talking in the hangar after the big meeting about the new Death Star, right when the scene opens and the shot pans down, notice how half the hangar is real and the other half is a matte painting. (00:49:30)
Revealing mistake: When Darth Vader lands on Endor there is a shot of him walking out of the shuttle, underneath the ramp there is slight black spot which probably marked the transition from studio set to matte painting. This was eliminated for the 4K release in 2019. (01:22:47)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the scene where Luke is being electrocuted by the Emperor, the Emperor is standing at the bottom of the stairs. When he says, "Young fool... Only now, at the end, do you understand", he is standing in front of the great window. However, in the next shot of the Emperor, he is standing at the bottom of the stairs again, before he walks down to his previous position. (01:50:50)
Revealing mistake: In many of the scenes taking place in outer space, if you look closely you can see polygon borders surrounding space vehicles (X-Wings, Star Destroyers, and even the Death Star) indicating the objects being superimposed into the outer space background. [This mistake may only apply to the Blu Ray version.]
Revealing mistake: In the wide-shot where Luke leaps from the prisoner skiff over to another skiff, you can see the stick used during the filming, which is much shorter than the regular one. The blade is not even glowing. (It is not just simply the hilt of the sabre, it's too long for that.). (00:32:15)
Revealing mistake: When Luke is in the Rancor pit, there is a Rodian in the crowd - some of his fingers are hanging from his hands. Cheap costume. He makes hand gestures like Mr. Burns - helps to find him.
Continuity mistake: When Green Leader's starship crashes into the Star Destroyer, Admiral Piett begins to run away. As the shot ends, he is about one meter away from the window. In the next shot, he is several meters away from it. He couldn't have moved that quickly between shots. (01:54:20)
Other mistake: After the catwalk that Luke is standing on collapses, Vader walks down the stairs to find him. In the first shot, there's a shadow of a lightsaber blade on the right side of the steps, but Vader's sabre is extinguished at this point. It can't be the shadow of Luke's sabre. Widescreen version only. (01:46:00)
