Continuity mistake: Aragorn's shirt has been mended at the shoulders where it was ripped from his fall during the Warg attack in TTT, but the pattern of the thread that was sewn onto the shirt, at both shoulders, is different throughout many of the shots in this film. (00:21:50 - 00:24:20)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Aragorn suggests attacking the Black Gate in order to draw out the orcs and give Frodo safe passage, the amount of Gandalf's hair hanging loose from his pony tail varies from shot to shot. (02:24:25)
Continuity mistake: Faramir and his men ride out of Osgiliath, and in the first wide shot their shadows are behind them. Thereafter as they ride, sometimes the shadow is directly below them, in front of them or to their left, and as Gandalf rides towards them, in one shot his shadow is in front of him to his left. Obviously filmed at different times of the day. (00:53:45)
Continuity mistake: When Frodo is in Shelob's lair, before actually seeing her, there is a semi close-up of a bird swinging about upside-down in the webs. There is thick webbing that stretches from the bird's body to the tip of its beak, but in the next close-up the webbing only reaches halfway down its beak.
Continuity mistake: At Cirith Ungol, in the close-up of Frodo's face as Sam says, "I can carry it for a while," Frodo has prominent black smudges under his eyes, on his cheeks and nose. In the preceding and following close-up shots of Frodo, the smudges on his face are not nearly as dark. (01:04:45)
Continuity mistake: When Pippin approaches sleeping Gandalf there is a shot of Gandalf hugging the cloth covered Palantir, yet when Pippin waves his hand in front of Gandalf's eyes the cloth is wrapped around the Palantir differently. When Pip places it on the blankets and opens the grey cloth, in the first close-up, then a wide shot and subsequent close-ups, the cloth lying around the palantir is arranged differently. (00:20:20)
Continuity mistake: When Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli etc, ride up to the gates of Mordor, the main characters go up to the gate on their own to demand it opens. The trails the horses leave on the way towards the gate are different to those that you see in the shot when they retreat after the gate has opened. (02:29:40 - 02:31:20)
Continuity mistake: In the scene at the beginning of the siege of Minas Tirith, as Denethor looks down, when the Troll is heaving the first rock onto the catapult, the first shot shows the rock being flat with a flat bottom. In the next shot, once on the catapult, the rock is taller. (01:31:50)
Continuity mistake: When King Theoden is lying under his horse, when Eowyn starts to battle the Witch King, he has spots of mud on his right cheek that are very clear. After Eowyn has slain the Witch King the spots on Theoden's face are now faint smudges. After he dies and she leans down to hug him, the spots are now as they appeared in the first shot. (02:09:20 - 02:15:45)
Continuity mistake: In the previous movie Oliphaunts make sounds similar to real-life elephants. However, in this movie, they sound entirely different.
Answer: There are only five wizards. Saruman and Gandalf are heavily involved, as we see. Radagast, while not mentioned in the film, has a particular affinity with the birds and animals - it is he who sends the Eagles to the last battle, and to rescue Gandalf from Isengard. The final two, Alatar and Pallando, known as the Blue Wizards, went into the far eastern regions of Middle-Earth and never returned. Tolkien felt that they would ultimately have fallen from grace, much as Saruman did.
Tailkinker ★