Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Han tells Lando that he can fly the Millennium Falcon during the battle, when Lando says, "Would you get going, you pirate", his entire outfit is reversed - his shoulder holster strap goes the other way, and his rank insignia changes side too. (00:50:00)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: After the heroes get snared and surrounded by Ewoks on Endor, the Ewoks mistake C3PO for a god and start bowing. There is one Ewok which only has holes where the eyes and mouth are and you can see the eyes and mouth of the person inside the Ewok costume. (01:07:50)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Leia offers the Ewok food, she holds it out in her left hand, but from a different angle it's in her right. (01:01:15)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Luke is prodded out to 'walk the plank', into the Sarlaac pit, he jumps off the board and springs himself back up. If you watch this carefully, you can see that only one hand catches the board and that just by the fingertips, but in the next shot both hands are springing him upwards. (00:31:20)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Han is running from the explosion of the shield generator on Endor, you can see his reflection in the plexiglass that is used to protect the camera from the explosion. Since the reflection isn't of Han's back, the plexiglass must be in front of him. (01:49:55)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Lando is hanging over the pit, he has gloves on, then he has no gloves, then they're back and so on.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Jabba pulls Leia's chain, there is a long shot as she leaps up onto his throne, and he is holding his wine goblet in his left hand, and pulling her chain with his right. However, in the very next shot (in which he says "Soon you will learn to appreciate me"), the entire frame is reversed. This is evident in Jabba's holding the wine in his "right" hand, his higher-placed nostril (which is normally on the left on his face) is now on the "right," Leia's reversal of her armlet, etc. (00:29:20)

redbaron2000

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi trivia picture

Trivia: In frame by frames views of the scene where Vader lifts the Emperor and throws him down the shaft you can see x-rays of Darth Vader.

Baz94

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Vader ignites Luke's lightsaber, Luke is standing next to a column. When Vader extinguishes the lightsaber, Luke is standing further away from the column. In the next shot, he is standing next to it again. This is best seen in the widescreen version. (01:21:10)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When 3PO and R2 are being assigned to their droidly duties in Jabba's palace, there is a shot of a poor droid having hot irons branding his feet. The irons are never closer than an inch from the droid's feet, and the steam that allegedly comes from the burning is obviously being shot out of holes in the droid's feet.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Vader's shuttle is approaching the Death Star, the crew in the control room of the Death Star are wearing black gloves. One of them then reaches forward to press a button, but in the close-up of his hand pressing the button, the hand is not wearing gloves at all. This can only be seen in the widescreen version. (00:02:25)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Vader's shuttle lands on Endor, as the AT-AT is walking towards one of the ramps, you can see that the ramps are connected right next to the lift, under the landing pad. But when Vader exits the lift, there's a circular platform going around the lift, which wasn't there in the previous shots. (01:19:40)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Luke is fighting on a skiff, he kicks one of Jabba's men in the head, causing him to fall off. Luke's foot doesn't make any contact with the person. (00:33:48)

End0fTime

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Widescreen version only: After Luke cuts off Vader's hand, the Emperor says, "Now, fulfill your destiny, and take your father's place at my side." In the next shot, Luke's lightsaber blade goes through the railing, without damaging it. (01:49:15)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Just before Luke chops off Darth Vader's hand in the battle at the end of the movie, you can see that the bar has already been cut (the line is visible) to give the illusion that Luke cut through the steel bar with his lightsaber as well as Vader's hand. (01:48:45)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Lando says, "Fighters coming in," a whole bunch of TIE fighters come towards them. There's initially a lot anyway, but then after about a second, two horizontal lines of 4 fighters appear from nowhere (centre screen, underneath the Super Star Destroyer). They suddenly just pop into existence, large enough that we should have seen them approaching. (01:31:20)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Luke and the others are trapped in the net, the dead animal changes appearance (both injuries and actual appearance) and position several times. For example, the animal seen when they are in the net has a different mouth and a bigger area of white fur from the one seen a few shots earlier. (01:08:35)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the wide-shot where Luke leaps from the prisoner skiff over to another skiff, you can see the stick used during the filming, which is much shorter than the regular one. The blade is not even glowing. (It is not just simply the hilt of the sabre, it's too long for that.). (00:32:15)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Luke is riding the speeder bike against the trooper, the black glove on his right hand jumps to his left and then back again. (01:01:15)

ozwal13

Revealing mistake: When Luke is being fed to the Rancor, in Jabba the Hutt's dungeon, there are black outlines around the beast's legs, from the composite's blue screen special effect. This was edited out in the special edition rerelease.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This was not a "mistake". The outlines showing around the beast's leg were due to the limited CGI technology at the time the film was made. With advances in special effects in the following decades, the filmmakers were able to enhance the CGI quality in later releases.

raywest

But it is a mistake to show that the Rancor is not real, and the outlines show that. It's certainly not intentional.

lionhead

Not sure what you mean that the rancor is not real. Of course it's not real. The issue is, at that time, it was not technically possible to show the beastie without the lines showing. I classify a mistake as something that was not intentional. In this case, it was, due to the limitations of CGI in the 1980s.

raywest

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Darth Vader: If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Trivia: When they were filming the scenes on Endor, Peter Mayhew was told to stay close to the set so no one would mistake him for Big Foot and attempt to shoot him.

More trivia for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Question: After Anakin becomes Darth Vader, he seems ruthless, actually evil. "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Is just one quote. That being the case, this movie makes it seem like Anakin knows that he's evil and wishes he wasn't. Basically, my question is, why didn't Anakin turn on Palpatine sooner? Or simply leave the Sith?

Answer: Darth: "Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the dark side. I must obey my master." It's implied that the dark side is intoxicating, once you totally give in to the dark side it has a hold on you, and appeals to morality and rationalization are useless against your lust for its power. (On a symbolic level, the dark side is a metaphor for vice. Darth Vader is an addict and abusive parent. It's actually funny how many scenes still make sense if you replace "the dark side" with "the bottle" or similar).

TonyPH

If we bring the prequels into it, it's one of the criticisms of those films that they only make the question of how much Anakin is a "true believer" more confusing. But it stands to reason that at first Anakin may feel vindicated in his resentment toward the Jedi. Later on, Vader may not feel that as strongly, but by then his anger has turned toward himself for failing to save Padme. He may feel that a man as terrible as he does not deserve to be "rescued" from the dark side, leading to a feedback loop where he only gets further enamored with its power and does more evil things which causes him to hate himself even more, and so it goes.

TonyPH

Answer: Anakin was seduced by the emperor to think that the Jedi were evil. This was partly fueled by anger &fear, thinking Padme would die if Palpatine didn't help save her. After he turned to Darth Vader & joined the dark side, he eventually realised the true nature of the Emperor, but he was to weak to do anything about it. Darth Vader still wanted to rule the galaxy, but didn't want the emperor controlling everything. He just wanted to use Luke to help overthrow the emperor and take over the galaxy. It wasn't until he found out he had a daughter also, and saw Luke about to die by the hands of the emperor, that he realised that Luke was right & he needed to switch sides.

envisaged0ne

Vader was not just using Luke to kill the Emperor. He actually did want to rule the galaxy as father and son - if Luke would turn to the Dark Side, that is.

More questions & answers from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

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.