Visible crew/equipment: When Saruman points both staffs at Gandalf, he says, "I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, but you have elected the way of pain!" as Gandalf spins round on the floor, with his left leg raised in the air. As he spins, there is a bulge at his side and the apparatus with the wire, around his left ankle, is perfectly visible. (00:50:55)
Continuity mistake: After the hobbits take the tumble from farmer Maggot's field, they land in a heap with twigs in their hair. Frodo stands on the road and looks down it. He says, "I think we should get off the road" and the twigs are there. He looks back down the road and the smoke and leaves come swirling at him, he yells, "Get off the road" - no twigs. They hide from the wraith, then make their escape. Merry says, "What was that?" - and they have the twigs in their hair again. (00:51:10)
Other mistake: When the hobbits are hiding under the tree trunk from the Ringwraith in the beginning, you can see space to the left and right of the tree above them. Logically when the Ringwraith walks past the tree you would see it on the right side of the tree first, then on the left, but you don't - it looks like it walks out of the tree instead of behind it. [Confirmed on the commentaries - Elijah Wood asks his fellow actors if anyone spotted the mistake: 'It kind of magically comes out of the tree'. Sean Astin: 'You mean it doesn't pass from the other side?' Wood: 'No, it comes out from the centre.'] (00:51:40)
Continuity mistake: In Farmer Maggot's field, when Merry and Pippin drop in on Frodo, in the first shot, as they are bending down lifting the vegetables off the ground, Merry and Pip are standing side by side, Merry on Pippin's right. Opposite them are Frodo and Sam, with Sam on Frodo's right. In the next shot, when they're upright, Frodo and Sam are across from each other, as are Merry and Pippin, with Pippin on Sam's left. In the next shot, Pippin is now on Sam's right. The change in positions has nothing to do with Merry and Pippin lifting the vegetables off the ground. (00:52:00)
Continuity mistake: In Farmer Maggot's field, when Merry places all the vegetables into Sam's arms one shot shows a cabbage with very loose leaves around it. In the next shot, the cabbage is now whole and firm, with almost no loose leaves around it and there are carrots that Merry placed on top of the cabbage. In the next shot the cabbage's look is different again and there are no carrots on top of the cabbage. When Sam turns to face Farmer Maggot's voice there are carrots on top again. In all of these shots, Sam's left collar is either under or over his jacket. (00:52:00)
Continuity mistake: In the sequence of the first 'meeting' with the Nazgul, where the four Hobbits hide under a tree root and the Black Rider is above them, sniffing the presence of the ring, the closeup of supposed Frodo's hands shows hands with 'normal' fingernails, dirty but normal. In the following scene, after the four Hobbits jump and run, Frodo's hand holding the ring is his 'real' hand, with short, bitten fingernails, as we can see in the rest of the movie when his hands are visible. (Extended DVD). (00:52:15)
Continuity mistake: When the four Hobbits run out of the corn field, Pip stops short at the edge and there's a shot of the slope below. Next shot, when Merry and Frodo push up behind Pippin, Sam appears directly behind Merry, to his right, and stands there looking down. Yet, in the next side shot, from far behind, Sam is still running up to the rest of them, as his head is turned looking over his left shoulder. He then ends up on the opposite side from the first shot, to Frodo's left. (00:52:25)
Revealing mistake: When angry Farmer Maggot chases Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pip, whilst they tumble down the hill Sam's knee pads are visible in a couple of shots. (Slow motion is not necessary.) (00:52:30)
Continuity mistake: In the side shot as Sam slams into the other three Hobbits from behind who are standing at the edge of the cliff, Frodo is standing farther out with his arm outstretched and Sam grabs hold of the pack on Frodo's back as they start to go down. In the next front shot Frodo is now sandwiched between Sam, Merry and Pippin, and Sam's hand is now holding onto Pippin's arm as they go down. This is not because of Sam's momentum, pushing on Frodo. In the two shots, Frodo's body position is simply different. (00:52:30)
Continuity mistake: Pippin is falling down the hill after the incident with Farmer Maggot. In the shot from above, we see he is about to land with his chest right on top of the pile of dung. Yet, in the successive side shot of him, the dung is obviously not beneath his body, and we see in the next shot of his face, that the dung is now in front of his face, for him to remark, "Oh, that was close!" (00:52:35)
Continuity mistake: As Sam, Merry and Pippin run across the grass towards the Bucklebury Ferry, they have two shadows; bold ones behind them, presumably meant to be from the moon, but also unexplained faint ones to their right. (This is before they pass the cottage, so it can't be light from the weak lamps hanging outside.) When Frodo is then pursued by the wraith his shadow is in front of him, yet he is running in the same direction as the other hobbits were. (00:54:20)
Continuity mistake: When the Hobbits enter Bree through the gate, there is a distance shot from above, and the principal actors have clearly been replaced by their shorter doubles. Worse than that, however, is that their sizes are completely wrong. The last Hobbit through the gate is stocky - much stockier than any of the Hobbits really are. And he isn't even supposed to be Sam, who is the stockiest of the Hobbits. When the view switches to a close-up of the principal actors from inside the gate, it's actually Merry who's last - and he certainly isn't stocky. (00:55:20)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits are walking behind Strider and Merry is saying, "How do we know..." Aragorn turns his head to look at them Merry is holding his cloak closed. Then in the next shot it's open. (00:57:20)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits are sitting at the table in the Prancing Pony in Bree, Merry comes back with a pint. Pippin leaves to get one too. Then we see Sam mention to Frodo that a man is looking at them, across the table sits Pippin and no Merry. (00:58:05)
Continuity mistake: In Isengard, while Saruman is talking to the Uruk-Hai, dark liquid is running down the Uruk-Hai's chin, and is dripping to the floor. Saruman then says "Whom do you serve?" and the Uruk-Hai replies "Saruman" but in that shot the dark liquid is gone. (00:58:15)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits first arrive at the "Prancing Pony" the camera pans the top of the bar showing the guest ledger, an ink well off to the right along with a bar towel. When the camera angle changes to show the hobbits, a feather pen magically appears on top of the book, along with the ink well having been placed alongside the book and the bar towel folded on the opposite side of the book. (00:58:50)
Visible crew/equipment: After Frodo looks into the mirror and sees the destruction of the Shire, Galadriel is seen riding in the swan boat across the river. Look in the background, on the left bank, a man can been seen sitting there, very faintly. As the scene progresses this crew member can be seen looking back and forth. (01:01:50)
Continuity mistake: As Sam is getting into the boat, in Lorien, you see Boromir's body (not head) on the right of the screen and Aragorn's body (not head) to the left. All three including Sam, are wearing the cloaks they received in the scene before. While Sam gets into the boat, the voice-over you hear in these few shots is Celeborn, who is actually talking to Aragorn on shore. Then in the next shot of Aragorn talking to Celeborn, Aragorn isn't wearing his cloak, as he's receiving the knife gift from Celeborn. The next problem is, while Merry and Pippin talk about Lembas, Boromir is in the background without his cloak. In the next shot when Sam gets into the boat, in the background we see Boromir's body with the cloak on again. Next we see Aragorn still talking to Celeborn on shore, in the background we see Boromir and he's not wearing the cloak yet again. The shots were obviously put together out of sequence, and none are flashback. (01:02:15 - 01:03:00)
Revealing mistake: When the hobbits ask Strider where he is taking them, he answers "Into the wild." A split second later as Strider walks past the camera the bow he carries on his back touches the camera, shaking the screen a bit. (01:03:00)
Continuity mistake: When Galadriel gives Sam the Elven hithlain rope, in the close-up her hand is above the rope - palm side down, as she lets go and hands it to him, yet in the wideshot her hand is under the rope, palm side up as she lets go. (01:04:05)
Answer: It is a different staff. Look at the branches at the top of the staff.
Garlonuss ★