Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Corrected entry: Why would Gilderoy Lockhart use Ron's wand to cast a memory charm on Harry, the spell that backfires on him? Even if Ron's wand was intact, any wizard knows that the wand chooses the wizard not the other way around, and if you remember from the first movie, Harry caused quite a bit of destruction trying out wands that weren't made for him. Surely Lockhart shouldn't expect someone else's wand to work for him. (02:01:50)

princesskelli

Correction: Other people's wands don't actually cause destruction in the books - this was just amped up a bit in the initial 'choosing a wand' process for the films. Mr Ollivander, the wandmaker, explains to Harry simply that 'you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand'. The spell only backfires in Lockhart's case because Ron's wand was broken.

STP

Corrected entry: When Harry, Ron and Hermione made the Polyjuice potion so they could get into the Slytherin house, Harry and Ron made the sleeping draught potion in the cupcakes for Crabbe and Goyle so they could lock them away and not risk running into them in the house. Hermione was going to turn herself into a Slytherin named Millicent Bulstrode before the spell went wrong, but she hadn't taken any precautions like a spell to not see her in the house. What if she ran into Millicent in the Slytherin house looking like her?

princesskelli

Correction: In the book we are told that Millicent Bulstrode has gone home for the holidays at the last minute, so that's why Hermione doesn't need to be as careful. Of course, this raises new concerns - what would the Slytherins think if she suddenly turned up again? - but that's a book issue, not a movie mistake.

STP

Corrected entry: In the scene where Harry falls out of the car when they are trying to get away from the train you can see that Harry's hair is blowing in the wind. When Ron goes to grab Harry and pull him in Ron's hair does too, then when he goes back in the car his hair is still blowing even though he is in the car with the windows up.

Correction: The two front windows are in fact down. They are down even before Harry falls out of the car, which can easily be seen while they're flying over the tracks (notice their hair waving in the breeze).

Corrected entry: When Harry and Ron go and visit Hermione in the hostpital wing, Harry is holding her hand and by the look of it, he had been for a few minutes. Then he discovers the piece of paper in her hand. Wouldn't he have felt that earlier?

Correction: At the very beginning of this particular scene, we see Harry exchanging some dead flowers with some fresh flowers, in a vase next to Hermione's bed. He then goes and sits down on the bed and says "wish you were here Hermione, we need you now, more than ever". At THIS point, he puts his hand on hers and finds the piece of paper. He had only just put his hand on hers when he found it.

Corrected entry: When Harry drops the polyjuice potion, you see that it lands on a grate. When Myrtle floods the washroom, wouldn't the water go into these grates? (01:20:16)

Correction: No, there could have been too much water for the grates to have drained all the water on the floor causing the water to spread. Also, the floor might not have been even or had flooded too far away from the grates so that the water could have created a puddle and could not run back to the grates.

Corrected entry: When Harry is writing to Tom Riddle through the diary there is a close up of Harry's face and in the reflection of his glasses you can clearly see the film crew. You are able to see the camera-man and a women standing next to him, and they are moving around.

Correction: You can't see anyone in his glasses because there wasn't any glass in the frames for the majority of the film.

Corrected entry: While the rocks are falling between Harry and Ron, Harry falls on his stomach and you can see several boulders bounce off of his back.

Correction: The boulders do not hit Harry, they fly over his back.

Corrected entry: When Harry is pulled out of the flash back (where he saw Riddle), a door closes on the way. But how did the door close when no-one was there to close it?

han_solo_321

Correction: This occurs only because Harry lives in the wizarding world. This door closing was obviously because of magic.

Corrected entry: Fred and George Weasley are on the Quidditch team as Beaters - the players who keep bludgers from hitting their teammates. So where were they when the rogue bludger was attacking their star Seeker?

Correction: They were protecting Katie, Alicia, Angelina and Oliver from the other Bludger. This is explained in depth in the book, so presumably we just have to assume the same is happening in the film.

Corrected entry: Near the end of the film when Lockhart is packing up and leaving because he doesn't want to go into the chamber. Look closely in the mirror next to the door just before Harry and Ron enter the room. You can see Lockhart watching the door waiting for the boys to come in.

gandolfs dad

Correction: Lockhart was jumpy because it could have been one of the teachers coming. He would have heard Harry and Ron's footsteps. I think that would draw his attention to the door.

Corrected entry: When Harry and Malfoy are duelling, Harry casts a spell which launches Malfoy in the air. By the way he was flying through the air, he should have landed on his back, but when the shot changes, he has landed sitting and turned around.

Correction: In the wide shot, you can see that Malfoy's legs swing over just as the shot changes, so that his legs will be facing towards Snape.

Corrected entry: When Harry and Dobby met in the hospital wing Dobby is on the ground standing, and when Harry gets out of his bed he puts his leg through Dobby.

Correction: When Harry gets off the bed, there was a good foot of distance between him and Dobby.

Corrected entry: Aragog says that he came from a distant land. How then, in the Dark Forest, did he find another spider to breed with and make all the little spiders?

Correction: Aragog had said that Hagrid was a nice guy who also gave him someone to live with so he wasn't lonely. Then he said, "But i can't help giving my relatives fresh meat when it comes into the forest so willingly." At least he said that about Hagrid giving him another spider to live with in the book.

Corrected entry: When the basilisk bites Harry, he pulls out a straight fang. But when he carries it across the room, it is a curved tooth. But there were no curved teeth in the mouth of the basilisk, let alone Harry's arm.

Correction: The tooth is curved. The camera angle when Harry first pulls the tooth out of his arm is straight on so the tooth looks straight but almost immediately Harry changes the angle that the tooth is shown and it is clearly curved.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Harry and Ron shuffle out of the crowd in Flourish and Blotts, Draco was reading a book by the stairs. It seems as though a crew member called him for his cue because he looked at the side and nodded. Then he tore one page and resumed his line.

Correction: Draco is taking a cue from his father. Draco stops Harry and friends so that his father can add the diary to Ginny's cauldron.

Corrected entry: When Mr. Malfoy is coming from Dumbledore's office near the end, Mr. Malfoy is already down the stairs and Harry is just at the bottom, but if you look back at Harry it's quite obvious that there are no stairs - he is just walking out from behind the stone statue.

Correction: When you see Harry coming out of that "hole" where the stairs are. You can see that the stairs are just finishing going down so Harry went down on the stairs.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the Weasleys are rescuing Harry from the bedroom, when Harry is still in the room he is wearing pyjamas, and also when the Weasleys are pulling him in to the car, but in the next shot, when Harry is already sitting safely inside the car, he is wearing different clothes.

Correction: There has been a time lapse. In the time it took Harry to pack his trunk and gather up all of his possetions, he could probably have gotten changed out of his PJ's and into other clothes.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the pixies are let lose in their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the pixies make a disaster of the classroom, yet when Professor Lockhart runs out and tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione to take care of the rest, Hermione freezes the whole lot of them with one simple spell. Couldn't she have performed this spell when the professor first released the pixies and saved the class a lot of trouble?

Correction: Hermione, when Professor Lockhart lets the pixies free, still thinks that he has everything under control, and therefore would not want to disrupt the whole lesson by freezing the pixies.

Corrected entry: When the rogue bludger was following Harry in the Quidditch match, it went right through a tall stand from the back to the front. When the hole showed up, it was on the side.

Correction: It was actually the side view, it just looks like it came through the front of the stand because it was on a close up shot.

Corrected entry: If you notice the scene where the trio is sitting in the library after the Duelling Club incident, Justin Finch-Fletchley is in there (he is sitting with a group of Hufflepuffs glaring at Harry). However, in the next scene he is petrified in the hallway Harry is going down.

Correction: It isn't Justin Finch-Fletchley who is in the library. That boy is Ernie Mac Millian but he and Justin look a bit alike.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: In the dueling scene, when Snape pulls Malfoy back onto his feet, a cameraman is visible kneeling down on the far left of the screen (Widescreen version only). (01:07:46 - 01:20:00)

More mistakes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Dobby: Harry Potter! Such an honour it is!
Harry Potter: What... Who are you?
Dobby: Dobby, sir. Dobby the house elf.
Harry Potter: I see. Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time to have a house elf in my bedroom.

More quotes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Trivia: When Hagrid is welcomed back to Hogwarts and everyone stands up and applauds, Vincent Crabbe also stands up and starts to applaud as well. This wasn't in the script and Tom Felton, staying in character, quickly grabbed Jamie and pulled him back down.

More trivia for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Question: Is this true that line "I didn't know you could read" was improvised by Tom Felton, who forgot his original line?

Answer: Yes. It's a common occurrence in a lot of movies for actors to forget their original lines so they improvise something to help move the scene along and not break character. Tom did this because he forgot what his original line was.

Answer: Yes in the same way Daniel Radcliffe improvised his line about always being around when talking to Lucius at the end.

Ssiscool

Actually, Jason Isaacs said that, and he and Daniel didn't forget their lines but did it intentionally.

lionhead

More questions & answers from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.