Revealing mistake: Trying to save Faramir, Pippin shouts, "Gandalf!" and in the first shot from behind Pip, he runs towards Gandalf, the Gondorian soldiers run towards the camera and he is perfectly Hobbit sized. However, in the next shot, facing Pippin, he is not only further away than in the previous shot, when he runs towards the camera as the Gondorians run past him, Pippin is now much taller, almost as tall as the soldiers he passes. (02:00:50)
Revealing mistake: After Arwen's vision, an escort says to her, "We cannot delay," and in the wideshot as she turns her horse around, the face of the riding double is perfectly visible. (00:28:25)
Continuity mistake: Just before and after Sam yells, "Frodo get down. Hide!" the sores at Frodo's neck caused by the Ring's burden are visible. Frodo then falls to the ground after seeing the Eye and the sore on the right side of his neck is seen again, but completely different. The sores change many times in consecutive shots. (02:29:00)
Continuity mistake: Gandalf and Pippin walk to the prow of Minas Tirith, and while the wizard says, "Childless lords sat in aged halls, musing on heraldry..." the camera passes the two tall stones at the prow. The depth of the stones are the same at both the narrow top and wide bottom, they are irregularly shaped and the actual points are curved. The prow's short side stone walls meet the two front stones at their edges and part of the wall is broken. However, after Gandalf says, "The rule of Gondor was given over to lesser men," in the next shot facing Mordor, the stones are completely different. The two tall stones come to a perfect point, they are straight at all sides and the design of the stone differs. The wall is not broken and both sides jut out past the side edges of the two tall pointy stones. (Extended DVD.) (00:48:40)
Continuity mistake: At Minas Tirith, after injured Faramir is carried up, Denethor walks away and sees the Orc army for the first time. In the next shot when the Troll lifts the rock onto the catapult, this catapult is totally different in the close-up and following wide shot. (02:00:35)
Continuity mistake: When Pippin steals the palantir, Gandalf's right hand grasps the sword below the hilt's cross-guard in all of the close-ups. However, in the wide shots Gandalf's hand grasps the grip of the sword above the hilt's cross-guard. The bed sheets differ between the shots as well. (00:20:00)
Visible crew/equipment: At Minas Tirith, in the opening wide shot as Gandalf smokes on the balcony, the large light whose body is mounted on the ceiling behind Gandalf, is perfectly visible overhead, to his left. (Extended Edition) (00:52:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Witch King is choking Eowyn, saying, "Die now," you can plainly see that Eowyn's thick helmet strap is securely underneath her chin. It is drawn tight. In the shot where she claims, "I am no man," and whips off her helmet, in the close-up the strap is gone. (02:11:35)
Continuity mistake: At Rivendell, in the first shot Arwen holds the book and it's open to the page with the drawing of the door on the right side. Then in the next close-up, (before the book falls) she is still holding the book open, but it is now open to a different page. Then the book starts to fall to the floor. (00:30:15)
Continuity mistake: When Frodo, who is alone, finishes writing and turns to the beginning of the Red Book, we see 'There and back again, a Hobbit's tale, by Bilbo Baggins' written on the page. However, the handwriting on the page in this close-up is different than when it is first seen in FotR, when Bilbo first writes it. Then when Sam comes into the study, he reads aloud, "There and back... and The Lord of the Rings by Frodo Baggins," in the close-up of Frodo's handwriting. Sam then exclaims, "You finished it!" Frodo closes the book, but as he closes it we see that page again and 'The Lord of the Rings by Frodo Baggins' is written differently than the previous close-up of that page. (03:01:40)
Deliberate mistake: On the fields of Pelennor, after the great battle, before Pippin and Merry meet again, Pippin's Lorien brooch points to his right. As Pippin is walking and looking around, his brooch is pointing to his left. When Pippin is next to Merry, the leaf is pointing to his right again. Obviously the second shot is flipped. (02:16:30)
Continuity mistake: When Gandalf says, "The board is set, the pieces are moving," he has black/grey eyebrows. But in the next scene when he asks Pippin to light the beacon, he has white/grey eyebrows. (00:43:40)
Continuity mistake: As soon as Aragorn walks into Theoden's tent, behind him stands a suit of armour. While speaking with Elrond about the Army of the Dead, there is a sudden gust of wind and the armour falls in the background in this one shot. Throughout the entire scene preceding and following this one shot, this armour is seen upright. (01:17:20)
Continuity mistake: Inside the Haunted Mountain, Legolas and Aragorn turn around to see all the ghosts appear. The shot has been flipped - their Elven brooches and Legolas' quiver are the wrong way round, and Aragorn is holding the torch in his right hand and his sword in his left, whereas in the previous and following shots, the torch is in his left hand and the sword is in his right hand. (01:24:25)
Continuity mistake: As Aragorn et al are in front of the Black Gate, Aragorn shouts, "Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!" In the first overhead shot, Éomer is second from the end, the rider with the flag is at the very end and Gandalf is a good distance away from Aragorn. Yet, in the next close-up, Gandalf is right beside Aragorn and in the next rear shot, Éomer is at the very end as the rider with the flag is now second from the end. (02:30:00)
Continuity mistake: At Edoras, after Pippin steals the palantir, it rolls out of Aragorn's hands and Gandalf chases it. Pippin lies motionless on green, grey and blue bunched up blankets and a rug etc. In Pippin's close-up, just after Gandalf says, "Fool of a Took!" there is just a grey blanket under his head and a different fur rug to his right. Then in the following close-ups, it alternates between both green and grey under him, to just a grey one. (00:21:30)
Continuity mistake: During the fighting with Shelob, Sam hurts her in the eye with his sword in his left hand, but in the next shot it's in his right.
Visible crew/equipment: In Cirith Ungol where Frodo is tied up, as the Uruk and Orc fight, Shagrat throws Gorbag on top of the hole. In the next shot of Gorbag, as he brings his left leg up out of the hole, three circular lights are visible in the hole below. It may be necessary to darken the brightness of your screen, in order to see the three lights properly. (Extended Edition, Disc 2). (00:48:45)
Continuity mistake: At Isengard, when Pippin recovers the palantir, in two shots it's large enough to fill both of his hands, so that he has to spread all of his fingers to hold it. In the next shot of Pippin and Gandalf, Pippin raises one hand holding the palantir and Gandalf quickly takes it. In this particular shot, as Pippin hands the palantir to Gandalf with one hand, the circumference of the palantir is noticeably much smaller (while still in Pippin's grasp), than it was in the previous shots. (00:11:30)
Continuity mistake: At the crowning ceremony for King Aragorn, the four hobbits stand side by side, and Merry is a little taller than the other three. However, in the far shot when everyone bows, the scale double for Merry is obviously the shortest of the four. (02:57:20)
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 ★