Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Legolas says, "Look at them. They're frightened. I can see it in their eyes." In the next wide shot, we see Aragorn's back, men all around, and behind him, to the right, stands Dan Hennah, with wavy, grey hair, in his cameo. In the following close-up, we see Dan Hennah again, standing to Aragorn's left. We also see Alan Lee's cameo, whereas, in the wide shot, Alan's character is not there. (00:53:10)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Boromir first goes over and hugs Denethor, Boromir puts both of his arms under both of Denethor's arms for the hug, as seen from Faramir's POV. In the next shot, from behind Denethor, we now see Boromir's left arm is on Denethor's right shoulder and Boromir's right arm is under Denethor's left arm. Extended DVD. (00:33:25)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Aragorn says to Haleth, "Give me your sword," in the wide shot we see that Aragorn is sitting on the tail of his coat and the coat is draped down the steps under his legs. When Aragorn rises, just after Haleth says, "...They say that it is hopeless," we see that the coat is not draped down the steps under his legs, as in the earlier shot. It is not the legs' shadow. (00:56:40)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: As this scene opens with an Uruk's body being dropped to the ground, the camera pans out to show Legolas and behind Gimli to his left, is a large rock. In the view from the front, now there is a dead Uruk sitting up against the same rock, where there was none before. He's dead, so he didn't move there between shots. Extended DVD. (01:38:50 - 01:42:55)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Just as Éomer rides past Gandalf, Aragorn and the rest of the riders that are on horseback, Éomer yells, "Stay out of the forest!" and when he yells, "Keep away from the trees!" on the left of the screen, he and his horse have turned around and are now pointing towards Gandalf and Aragorn. In the very next shot, a close-up, he is facing the opposite way and is just then turning his horse around, to face out, towards the Uruk-hai running into the forest. (01:38:05)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When we first see Legolas on the wall with Gimli, Legolas is gripping his bow, left fist over right fist. Next shot as Aragorn walks over, his left hand grips the bow lower but his right hand is gripping the front of his quiver strap. Next shot, Aragorn is beside him, his left hand is much higher on the bow now. As Aragorn leaves, Legolas' left hand is lower on the bow again and his right hand is again gripping the front of his quiver strap. (01:00:25)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Just after the Warg knocks Hama off his horse, in the wide shot, Hama is lying in short green grass and his sword is flat. Then in the first close-up of Hama, he is lying in thick, tall, yellow patches of grass and his sword is sticking way up to his left. (00:08:50)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In this first shot, there is a close-up of Legolas releasing an arrow towards the oncoming massive Warg attack. Then a wide shot of the hill, with Legolas still letting loose, and in the background, the riders on horseback coming over the hill. To Legolas' left are two riders on horseback that are just passing him. They are Gamling and Gimli. But in the next shot, Gimli is just coming from behind Legolas, and then Legolas leaps onto Arod. (00:10:30)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Gamling is fighting the Warg scout, after Hama's death, Legolas jumps off the high rocks, and starts running towards the Orc. There are high rock ridges behind and to the left of Legolas. As soon as the Orc scout falls to the ground, in the next shot of Legolas, as he runs toward the Orc, that background is flat and there is only one rock ridge directly behind Legolas. (00:09:00)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Legolas yells, "A scout!" Aragorn runs back towards the Rohirrim to warn them. In the first shot, he's running down the hill, straight ahead of him, is Theoden on his horse, Éowyn leading two horses on foot and people to her left. In the next shot, Éowyn's two horses are pointed to her right, there aren't any people to her left, and now standing between Theoden and Éowyn is Gimli with Arod. (00:09:15)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Legolas places the Evenstar into the palm of Aragorn's hand, the chain is all coiled up. Yet when Aragorn opens up his hand, the Evenstar and the chain are lying in his palm neatly and flat. Some of these shots with Aragorn and Legolas were filmed over two and half years apart. (00:45:40)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: The hand of Saruman that is painted on the face of Lurtz is shaped differently in some scenes. The handprint changes throughout these shots. (01:08:00 - 01:25:50)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In the opening shot of the stable scene, there is a saddle in the stall next to Brego. A few shots later, you see a man lifting that saddle and start to walk away. There is no saddle in the next few shots. Then the saddle is back again, for Éowyn to pick up. (Extended DVD.) (01:30:35 - 01:31:40)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Faramir and his men, along with Frodo and Sam, are looking out towards Osgiliath, when someone says, "Osgiliath burns, Mordor has come." Originally, Minas Tirith is seen as well, as it should be, at the base of the mountains behind Osgiliath, which is geographically correct. However, Peter Jackson was forced by studio heads to edit it out of the theatrical version, because it was felt that seeing Minas Tirith then would confuse some viewers, who would think that Minas Tirith was Helm's Deep. In the extended DVD, much to the satisfaction of PJ, Minas Tirith was put back in order to be geographically correct. As heard on Commentary, extended DVD. (01:20:40)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Near the Black Gate, when two of the men from the marching army are walking towards Frodo and Sam, the decorative scarves at their necks change positions and are hanging differently, than when they turn and walk away from the 'rock'. It is not windblown. (01:05:05)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Legolas throws down the rope to Aragorn to help he and Gimli escape. Aragorn then grabs the rope with his left hand and holds onto Gimli and his sword with his right hand, plus Gimli's head is lower than Aragorn's. Legolas starts to hoist them up and in the next shot, Aragorn is holding onto the rope with his right hand and Gimli and the sword with his left. In the next shot of them, it's vice versa again. As they're reaching the top, Gimli's head is higher than Aragorn's. Nothing to do with spinning around - just look at the hands. (01:18:00)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Faramir and his Lieutenant are looking at the map, just after it's been unfolded, the Lieutenant puts his right hand out and points on the map with his right hand. In the following close-up, his left hand is doing the pointing on the map. All the close-up shots of the map were added later during pickups, to show more clearly where various characters are. (00:27:55)

Super Grover

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.