Factual error: Sir Charles Wheatstone, an English physicist (b.1802 - d.1875), invented the 'concertina' around the mid 1800's. The 'concertina' is a small musical instrument like an accordion, with bellows and keys. During the Moonlight Serenade scene, when Elizabeth walks out onto the deck, she sees the skeletal pirates for the first time, and Jacoby is seen playing the 'concertina', but it was not invented yet. (00:58:45)
15th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: Pippin is being tended to by Gandalf after being affected by Sauron through the palantir. The blankets under Pip's head differ in some of his close-ups. Then when looking down on Pippin, Gandalf's hand is touching Pippin's head throughout most of these shots. Though when looking up at Gandalf, his hand is not at Pippin's head in at least two shots that are wide enough to see a hand, if it were there. (00:21:45)
15th Mar 2004
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)
15th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: Éowyn removes her helmet and declares, "I am no man!" In the shot of her stabbing the Witch King, her hair on both sides is in front of her shoulders. However in the shots preceding and following this one, the hair on her left side is tucked behind her shoulder. (02:11:50)
Continuity mistake: Boromir gets hit by Lurtz's second arrow, drops down to his knees in front of Merry and Pippin, gathers strength, turns around and stabs an Uruk. In the next wide shot and close-up, he stands and is about to stab an Uruk in the back and the two arrows in his chest are there. Yet, in the next wide shot, as his blade is going down into the Uruk, Boromir has only the lower arrow in him, the one near his shoulder is not there, for 23 frames. In the next close-up, the upper arrow is back. These arrows are not CGI. (01:23:40)
8th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: As Theoden lies trapped underneath the horse's body, there are many other bodies and armour lying all around him. During the entire scene, until Theoden's death, many of those bodies/armour change entirely or change positions. (02:14:10 - 02:16:10)
8th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: Smeagol walks into the cave as his voice-over says, "They called us murderer." He coughs, and "gollum, gollum" comes out. In the 1st wide shot as he's clutching himself, Smeagol's fingernails are very thick, long and stubby. In the 2nd, a close-up of his hand, it reveals the Ring in his palm and his fingernails are perfectly normal and flat with dirt underneath. In the 3rd, a wide shot, his hand is open and the fingernails are very thick, long and stubby again. The 1st and 3rd shots are one sequence that was split to add the close-up in the middle. (00:04:50)
8th Mar 2004
Trivia: At the baptism, Sofia Coppola (Michael Francis Rizzi), in her first on screen performance, is being held by Diane Keaton (Kay Adams). Thirty two years later, both women will be nominated for Oscars in 2004, in their individual categories and Sofia wins hers.
4th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: Faramir and his men are riding towards the gate of Minas Tirith on their way back to Ithilian. They ride past a crowd of many people. In this first shot, they pass Billy and Katie Jackson (Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson's children in one of their RotK cameos) in the crowd, as the riders head from left to right on the screen. The next two times Billy and Katie Jackson are shown amongst the crowd, the riders are going from right to left on the screen. The children did not cross the path of the riders to stand on the other side, nor is it the camera's angle. (01:06:30)
4th Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: At Isengard, Pippin reaches for the palantir in the water. In the first shot underwater, he clutches the palantir tightly with both hands and the lines in the palantir are vertical. In the next consecutive shot as he brings it up out of the water, still clutching it tightly, the lines are now horizontal in the Palantir. He did not shift the seeing-stone in his tight grip, it was just simply shot at different times. (These palantir's lines permanently encompass the circumference of the surface of the sphere, they do not change.) (00:11:35)
Revealing mistake: At Bilbo's party, the rocket takes off with the tent. In the aerial shot, the ground below is seen and the ropes with the lanterns and streamers hanging from them are shown around the perimeter of the party. These ropes are suspended from wood posts staked into the ground. In the aerial shot all the ropes shown are arced and in a direct view from above we should not see an arc in all the ropes that are suspended on those posts. The aspect ratio of the lantern lights, shown to the sides of the streamer lines is skewed as well. The aerial view is CG. (00:22:55)
Revealing mistake: Gandalf and Bilbo sit on the bench outside of Bag End smoking their pipes with the party area in the distance. The tree, the water, Hobbit home (future home of Sam and Rosie) to the right and party area is extremely different in dimensions and aspect ratio, compared to the background that's seen when invisible Bilbo comes through the gate at Bag End. It's also very apparent, because of the hair, that it's Bilbo's scale double in the back shots on the bench. (00:19:25 - 00:25:25)
Continuity mistake: Gandalf and Bilbo sit on the bench outside of Bag End smoking and in the distance is the Party Tree, the tents and party lights, etc. from Bilbo's party. During the party, Bilbo is speaking with the lights above him and the position of various tents are shown during the entire celebration. Later, invisible Bilbo comes to the gate at Bag End and the Party Tree with all the tents surrounding it are seen (minus the tent that the rocket took and the tent that the 'dragon' burned). The position and arrangement of some tents, lights, etc. are different in all of these shots. (00:19:25)
3rd Mar 2004
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)
3rd Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: At Bag End, as Frodo finishes writing in the book, from the hall the camera pans inside the study. The shadow cast on the fireplace by the bookstand differs in the close-ups of Frodo. Some of the items on the fireplace mantle differ and the two pipes on the shelves of the desk appear in the close-ups as well. (03:01:10)
3rd Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: As Frodo and Sam walk in Mordor, Sauron's Eye turns towards them and Sam yells, "Frodo, get down!" Frodo collapses and when he hits the ground, in the close-up, the Ring on the necklace is at his right cheek. In the following wide shot, the Ring is lying lower down on his shirt. In his next close-up, the Ring is at his right cheek again. (00:29:20)
Continuity mistake: In the opening shot of Bag End, as Bilbo says, "The Third Age of this world," we see the halls outside of Bilbo's study as Bilbo writes. There is a dresser with books on it, books lying near the coat tree, stacks of books and papers all over the floor and against the walls. Later, just before Bilbo says, "Frodo, someone at the door," and then when Bilbo searches for the Ring in the hall, in all three of these shots, the arrangement or even existence of quite a few of those books and papers is different. This has nothing to do with his search of the Ring. (00:08:00 - 00:12:50)
Continuity mistake: Gandalf and Frodo ride towards Bag End. 1st, Frodo says, "Half the Shire's been invited," the scarf is hanging on the lantern. 2nd, Bilbo in voice over says, "Life in the Shire goes on..." riding over the bridge, there is no scarf on the lantern. 3rd, Bilbo continues, "But things are made to endure in the Shire," there is a scarf hanging on the lantern. 4th, as Bilbo continues saying, "Passing from one generation to the next," the scarf is not on the lantern. 5th, Gandalf says, "If you're referring to the incident..." there is a scarf on the lantern once again. 6th, coming up the hill, as he pulls up to Bag End, there is no scarf on the lantern, yet again. (00:11:50)
1st Mar 2004
Continuity mistake: At Rivendell, the shards of Narsil shown lying on the cloth include the hilt, four small shards and the long pointy tip. In Fellowship, there are also two shots with two different versions of the shards, within the same scene with Boromir and Aragorn, also mentioned in Mistakes. In RotK, when the two Elves are reforging the blade, in one shot the pointy tip of the blade is shown with the tip broken. Though, in all three of the shards' shots in FotR and RotK the pointy tip is unbroken. Also, the long tip shown in the first shot lying on the cloth is much longer than the tip being shown while being reforged. This has nothing to do with camera angles. (00:29:55)
1st Mar 2004
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)
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