The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Continuity mistake: At the Grey Havens, Cirdan the Shipwright stands behind Elrond, Celeborn and Galadriel. There are five mooring pilings on the dock near them. 1st shot, Cirdan stands to the right of the second piling (on the left). 2nd shot, he stands in front of the second piling. 3rd shot, he stands to the right of the second piling again. 4th shot, Cirdan now stands behind the second mooring piling. This has nothing to do with camera angles. (03:04:20)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: At the Grey Havens, Frodo hugs Merry and when they let go of each other, in the shot facing Frodo, Merry's cloak hangs down smooth over his right shoulder, but in the next shot facing Merry his cloak is folded up at the shoulder. (03:05:55)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the end, when the four Hobbits are entering Grey Havens, Sam is wearing a yellow vest with brown buttons over a white shirt. The vest can still be seen when Sam and Frodo hug. But when Frodo makes his way onto the ship and turns back to smile at his friends, Sam is no longer wearing the yellow vest. The vest is still not there when the three Hobbits turn to leave Grey Havens. But, when Sam returns home to the Shire and is holding his daughter, he is once again wearing the yellow vest. (03:09:05)

Cate

Continuity mistake: After Aragorn cuts off the head of the Mouth of Sauron and rides back with Gandalf, Legolas and Eomer to his army, the dead body, horse and decapitated head of the Mouth of Sauron are nowhere to be seen, while no time has passed. The horse hasn't run away, so it all just kind of disappeared. (Extended Edition)

Revealing mistake: When Legolas is climbing up the oliphaunt during the battle of the Pelennor fields, there is a shot of him moving along the oliphaunt's side. During this shot, he pivots a bit on the rope he is holding. When he pivots towards the side, you can see that the arrows in his quiver pass through the skin of the CGI creature.

Revealing mistake: At the stairs of Cirith Ungol, after Gollum says, "Come away, Hobbits. We climb. We must climb," there is close-up of Hobbit feet. The next shot as Frodo and Sam climb, is a flipped shot - just note the stew pot on Sam's back, it is on his left side, though he carries it on his right side. Sometimes, what gives away the reversed shots are the Lórien leaf brooches or Sam's pots and pans.

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: At Minas Tirith, after Frodo wakes up and finally sees Gandalf standing at the center of the footboard, there are three wideshots which face the doorway from the side of the bed. In that second shot, when Gimli stands in the doorway, just as he throws his arms open, a laughing Gandalf's eye contact is not in line with any of the Hobbits. Frodo, Merry and Pippin are huddled together in Frodo's bed, and Gandalf's eyes are actually looking to their sides.

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When the Witch King attacks Theoden and Eowyn fights him, the Witch King's helmet changes between shots. The gap at the bottom where the chin should be varies in width. In some shots the gap is small, nearly non-existent, while in other shots the gap is rather large.

Continuity mistake: In the battle of Pelennor fields, you can see that an Orc scratches the top of Aragorn's face with his blade, making blood form around Aragorn's forehead. In the next shot, all the blood is gone.

Continuity mistake: At Edoras, after Gandalf throws the blanket over the palantir, Pippin's hair is on the floor above his head. However, in the next shot, his hair is completely under his head.

Continuity mistake: During the "It will be spring soon" speech between Sam and Frodo on the slope of Mount Doom, notice that the light hits their faces differently based on the shot. If it is a wide angle shot, the light is on the right side of their faces/bodies. However, if the camera is in tight for a close-up, the light is shining from the left side.

Revealing mistake: Though the effort is made to hide Shadowfax's saddle under Gandalf's cloak, bits of it are still visible in some shots as Gandalf rides the horse. For instance, when the wizard rides with Pippin to save Faramir from Denethor, just as they exit the tunnel in front of the Witch King, the brown saddle is seen right behind Gandalf's knee, though his robe is deliberately secured at the bottom to prevent this.

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: In the scene of Shelob's lair, upon seeing Shelob Frodo falls down with the light of Earendil in his hand, and the forefront foam 'rock' hops upward upon his fall.

Continuity mistake: When the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is wrapping up, you see Aragorn with some of his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. In the next shot (in the background you can see the Dead swarming up a mumak), his forehead has nothing on it.

Continuity mistake: In the charge of the Rohirrim if you look in the background all the horsemen are ordered and are charging in formation, much like they were before the charge. However, in the overhead shots there are no separate groups, all the horses are charging in one large group together.

Deliberate mistake: After Frodo puts on the Ring at Mount Doom, when the Nazgûl fly away from the Black Gate, the next close-up of Gandalf's reaction is actually a flipped shot - the wizard's smudges are on the opposite side of his face.

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: When Bilbo is boarding the boat at the Grey Havens, in the wide shot, the body doubles are standing at the dock. This is most noticeable on the leftmost of the hobbits, who is standing with his face staring straight ahead, unlike the others who are following Bilbo going up the ladder.

Continuity mistake: During the ride of Rohan, there are a number of close-up shots showing characters as well as wide shots showing the whole army. In the close-up shots, the horses you see are brown, black or white, however, the wide shots are different. They show all brown or black horses, with the exception of Theoden's one white horse.

Continuity mistake: Inside Mt. Doom, there is a wide shot of Gollum on top of the invisible Frodo. In this shot, Sam is lying in the background with his arms at his sides. Then when he attempts to get up again in the next shot, his arms are in front of him.

Revealing mistake: In several crowd shots of Minas Tirith during Faramir's suicide charge (particularly the one featuring Irolas), the top of the set is visible. Buildings stop unnaturally, and the sky is visible where the other walls of the city and the mountain range behind it would have blocked it.

[After Legolas single-handedly takes out an Oliphant and its drivers.]
Gimli: That still only counts as one.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Trivia: At the end of the film, young Elanor Gamgee is played by none other than Sean Astin's own daughter in a cameo. Not only that, but Frodo Gamgee (the baby) is played by Maisie McLeod-Riera, the daughter of Sarah McLeod, who plays Sam's wife, Rosie.

More trivia for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Question: When Déagol finds the ring, Sméagol asks to have it. When Déagol asks why, Sméagol says because it's his birthday and that he wanted it. Was it really Sméagol's birthday or was he already so quickly drawn by the ring's power that he only claimed it was in hopes that Déagol would hand it over?

Answer: In the book, it absolutely was his birthday.

Brian Katcher

What chapter in the book where smeagol kills deagol?

DFirst1

The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter two 'The Shadow of the Past.'.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It probably wasn't his birthday on that exact day, that would be too much of a coincidence. But close is definitely possible, or at least closer than Deagol's. Both were immediately drawn by the ring, heavily enough that they fought over it and Smeagol becoming the ultimate winner. Both did everything to keep it.

lionhead

More questions & answers from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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