Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Revealing mistake: If you watch closely (or play it in slow motion) when the scout trooper punches Han, you can see that the troopers hand never actually comes into contact with is face. (00:55:45)

Revealing mistake: When Luke somersaults over up to a platform above him when fighting Vader, If you look at the hair of Luke jumping, you will notice that the stunt double's hair is much more blonde than Mark Hamill's.

Revealing mistake: When Luke jumps from Jabba's prisoner's skiff over to another skiff, if you watch Lando hanging underneath the prisoner's skiff, you can easily see that he is a matte painting in this shot, because he doesn't move at all (visible on widescreen).

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

Revealing mistake: Vader tosses the Emperor and then collapses on some barrels next to the railing. Look at Vader's arm - the one with the severed hand. His arm is bent at the forearm in a way that arms just don't bend. This is because David Prowse's hand was inside an "elongated" arm to simulate it being chopped off. He couldn't keep his wrist straight, giving the appearance of a bent forearm. (01:57:00)

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

Revealing mistake: When Jabba's sail barge begins to explode, you can see that one of the floating skiffs is standing on stilts. (00:36:30)

Revealing mistake: The interior matte painting of the hangar on the Rebel ship holding the stolen Imperial shuttle doesn't match the appearance of the hangar from the exterior shot of the Rebel ship. The interior hangar shows an extended platform and four banks of vertical lights bordering the opening and then walls. From the exterior, the hangar appears to have a big light bank near the opening, and then thinner light banks behind it spaced further apart than the interior shot. The exterior shot also doesn't have a platform. (00:50:45 - 00:53:20)

Vader47000

Revealing mistake: When Admiral Piett says "I have orders from the emperor myself," the right edge of the matte can be seen on the right. Theater version only. This has been corrected on the 1997 special edition release.

Revealing mistake: The close-up of R2-D2 waiting for Leia to return has a clear shot of the middle wire section of C-3PO in which you can see Anthony Daniels breathing as the spandex underneath the wires expands. This is especially clear on the Blu-ray. (01:02:00)

Vader47000

Revealing mistake: When Han Solo lifts his hands up and he spots the Walker that Chewie and two Ewoks are in, one of his hands is transparent, and the trees are visible through his hand.

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Suggested correction: They are not transparent. What you are seeing is glare from the bright sky in the background. You can see other ghost images matching the bright white portions of the shot. Besides, there would be no reason for it to be transparent. It appears to be a fully on-location shot with no compositing.

Completely not true. You can see the trees through his hands; therefore, they are transparent.

Look closer. There is a white ghost image that matches the bright white sky, offset to the left and rotated slightly. And why would the hand be transparent? This is not a composite shot.

While it's not a composite shot, that would mean that the shot of the imperial officer yelling "freeze" in the original version wouldn't have been transparent. But it's not a composite shot too, therefore, they are transparent.

Vector9061138

This comment makes no sense. What Imperial officer are you referring to and what does it have to do with this shot? And if this isn't a composite shot, which you seem to be admitting, why would the hand be transparent? Do you think Harrison Ford's hand actually became see-through?

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.

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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

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 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: 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.

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

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