Continuity mistake: When Merry and Pippin are at the Entmoot, in several of the front coverage shots, Merry is several feet in front of Pippin and slightly to the left. From the back at a distance, however, they are next to each other with Merry on the right. While there are some shots in which they are both moving around, accounting for the difference, here they are both stationary. Extended DVD, Disc 2. (01:11:50)
Continuity mistake: When the berserker Uruk-hai runs with a torch and Legolas is trying to kill him, we see that Legolas has only one arrow left on his back in the first shot, but in the second shot he has three arrows left. (01:08:55)
Continuity mistake: In the shot where you see Gandalf, Eomer and the Rohirrim riders appearing in the East, you can see that the Uruk-hai's shadow is pointing towards Gandalf, i.e. towards the direction the sun is supposedly coming from.(From the viewpoint of Gandalf and Rohirrim, as they ride down the hill towards the Uruk-hai.) (01:30:15)
Continuity mistake: When Sam (in voice over) says, "But in the end, it's only a passing thing..." we see Gandalf's hair down and messy, during the battle. Just as Éomer is riding past Gandalf and the others, shouting, "Stay out of the forest!" notice Gandalf's hair in the side shot, it is neat, and pulled back. In the next close-up of Gandalf, looking at the Uruk-hai running into the forest, his hair is down again. (01:38:00)
Continuity mistake: When Saruman is telling the Orc to send out his Warg riders, in the close-up, Saruman lets his staff hit the ground and then in the shot of his back, his staff goes down again and it is in the opposite hand. (01:36:40)
Continuity mistake: Upon entering the Golden Hall, when Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf first arrive at Edoras, watch Gandalf's staff. In the shots from behind, Gandalf uses the staff as a walking stick, but the shots taken from the front, show him keeping the staff at his side, perpendicular to his body. (01:17:50)
Continuity mistake: While looking at the Haradrim, in this first front shot Frodo says, "We've got to get moving. Come on, Sam," Frodo starts to back away and rise. Sam grabs his hand and pulls him, saying, "Mr Frodo," and Frodo's position is farther behind Sam. In the next back shot Sam and Frodo are lying evenly, side by side. Then in the next front shot as Sam says, "It's an Oliphaunt," Frodo's position is behind Sam and he is crouched higher than him too. (01:43:45)
Continuity mistake: At the Armory, in the first close-up of Aragorn, he looks at a sword in his hand and tosses it down. The right sleeve of his coat is ripped almost all the way around at the seam by his shoulder, and the sleeve is folded over where it's ripped. When he tosses the sword down, there is a glimpse of his left sleeve, and it too is ripped and folded over at the seam. In his next close-up, the right sleeve's seam is ripped much less and it isn't folded over. The left sleeve however, is ripped like in the earlier shot. This is not a case of shot flipping. (00:52:45)
Continuity mistake: When the ladders are being raised to the Keep, we first see a wide shot of two ladders going up. The one on the right reaches the top of the Keep first. The next three quick shots show it differently. In the second quick shot, there are two ladders at the top already and a third ladder on their right, that is just hitting the top of the Keep. All those ladders are close together. Then just after Legolas grabs an arrow, the next far shot of the Keep shows two ladders spaced far apart, with a third one in the middle being raised. This is the one that Legolas causes to fall with his arrow. (01:17:20)
Other mistake: When Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf are at Edoras and are first entering Theoden's hall, watch the right side of the screen as Wormtongue says, "I told you to take the wizard's staff..." Legolas delivers an uppercut to a guard, but his arm goes way above his head. Furthermore, the punching sound effect is not heard until his arm is way over his head. Legolas is as tall as the guards and his fist would have stopped as soon as it hit the guard's face. There is no way the guard can be that tall. (01:19:05)
Continuity mistake: When Theoden says "I will not risk open war", you can see Aragorn in the background taking the pipe out of his mouth, which he does again when he says "Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not".
Continuity mistake: After Haldir is struck in the back by an Uruk he falls to his knees dying. Aragorn runs up and grabs him but sees the elf is dead after his head falls back and lowers his body down before running off again. But he lets go of Haldir just above the ground and instead of just falling the rest of the way down the supposedly dead elf lowers his own head to the ground. (01:57:55)
Continuity mistake: Having seen the attack on the Haradrim, Frodo says, "Come on, Sam," and he is seized by one of Faramir's men. In the next shot, Sam is getting up off his right knee, that having been the place where they were lying and hiding to see the Haradrim and Mûmakil. The edge shown in this shot has green plants growing alongside, and the bush to the right of the edge is also very different than earlier shots. This edge does not look anything like the two different edges shown, in the earlier shots of them leaning over. This is now the third edge being offered. (01:45:05)
Continuity mistake: When Sam lifts Frodo and says, "That there's some good in this world Mr Frodo and it's worth fighting for", Sam's face is wet with tears and his eyes are red and teary. In the next shot, when Faramir walks over, Sam's eyes are still red and teary and his face is still wet, but in the next shot, when Faramir kneels, Sam's face is dry and his eyes are no longer red and teary. (01:36:55)
Continuity mistake: When King Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli and what's left of the army are trying to stop the Uruk-hai from breaking in, Aragorn says, "Tell the women and children to head for the mountain pass.." and pushes Gamling toward the back entrance, so Gamling is in front of him. Then Theoden says his line about so much death and the next shot shows Aragorn and Gamling turning their heads. Now, Aragorn is closer to the back entrance than Gamling. (01:27:05)
Continuity mistake: When the Uruk-hai are sending the three huge ladders up on to the Keep, watch the last one just before Legolas cuts the rope that is pulling it up. The ladder has just passed the 90 degree/vertical point. Naturally, after that it starts gaining speed as it falls. Then it cuts to Legolas, who waits a second or two before firing his arrow. That would be plenty of time for the ladder to pass the point of no return, and hit the wall, so it would not have mattered if Legolas had shot it or not it would still have reached the Keep. (02:27:10)
Continuity mistake: In the stable, just as Aragorn takes Brego's lead rope from the Rohan, in the shot of Brego moving backward, the two knots at his halter are seen. In the next shot as Aragorn continues soothing Brego he moves in closer, the two knots seen differ from the previous shot and there is no excess rope on Brego's left knot. However as Aragorn unties the knot on Brego's right, the excess rope of his left knot is seen, which differs from the second shot. (01:31:00)
Revealing mistake: The scene at the top of Saruman's tower when he is looking down watching the Ents is shown in reverse. His hair is the giveaway, blowing the wrong way. After cutting away to the Ents once more, they reversed the film again, when he is walking backwards.
Continuity mistake: When Theoden is going to kill Grima on the stone stairway, behind him are Gandalf and three of four guards that take up the whole width of the stair way. Right when Theoden is about to strike, Aragorn pops out of nowhere and stops him. How could he have gotten there in time if we didn't see him push through the other guards, or see him behind them?
Continuity mistake: When Gandalf and the rest of the riders on horseback are watching the Uruk-hai retreating into the trees, in Gandalf's close-up, sitting directly behind Gandalf's horse is another rider on a horse. That rider has a silver helmet with the decorative high ridges in the center. However, right before that shot is shown, there is a wide shot of all their backs and a rider with that kind of helmet is not sitting directly behind Gandalf's horse, but rather further behind him, way off to his right. The close-up shot immediately followed the wide shot. Extended DVD. (01:38:20)
Answer: The movie makes it clear that Gandalf has lost some of his memory and his personality has changed. Gandalf actually did die and pass over to the "other side", as it were but was sent back to complete his task. However, he was sent back as a similar, but different entity. Gandalf the White does not have all the memories of Gandalf the Grey, at least at first. He doesn't even remember that he used to be called Gandalf the Grey until someone points this out to him. It is implied that Gandalf doesn't even remember Sam until Aragorn mentions him. Gandalf then searches his memories and remembers who Sam is and his eventual importance to Frodo's quest. When he finally remembers this, he is pleased that Sam went with Frodo, as he will play a crucial role near the end of the journey.