The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

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)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring trivia picture

Trivia: When the Hobbits enter Bree, right after the wheel of the carriage passes in front of them, there is a man you see to the right who's holding a carrot and burps. That is Peter Jackson making a cameo appearance.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture Video

Revealing mistake: Once the secret door to Moria is open, when Gimli says, "Soon Master Elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves," as Gandalf leads the way inside, note the glint of the trailing power cord as it moves along the ground behind Gandalf and goes directly under his robe. This is the staff's electrical supply cable. (00:16:20)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Gandalf pulls Sam in through the window at Bag End and throws him on the desk to ask him questions, several items fall off of the desk. The scene switches back and forth between Sam and Gandalf's perspectives several times. When Sam is shown, the arrangement and appearance of items on the floor below vary. In some shots there is a wooden box and book on the floor to the left side of Sam's head and/or a book and paper to the right. (00:40:50)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Gandalf and Saruman are talking in Orthanc, we can see a black strap around Gandalf's fingers on the hand holding his staff. In some shots it's around different fingers, in others it's disappeared completely. (00:46:20)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At Dwarrowdelf, as Gimli runs into the Chamber of Mazarbul toward Balin's Tomb, just past the doorway we see a long stick and a very short axe leaning on the right wall. Later when Legolas says, "Orcs!" Boromir runs to the door and now we see a long handle axe with the big blade on top, leaning on that same wall. This does not refer to the two axes in the corner. (00:25:05)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Gandalf removes the One Ring from the fire and places it in Frodo's hand. The large overhead set light is reflected in the Ring, above Frodo's reflection, as he turns it between his fingers in the second close-up of the Ring. (00:37:20)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Gandalf meets Frodo for the first time and gives him a ride into Hobbiton on his wagon you can see that at the start of the sequence his wizard's staff is near Frodo's shoulder. In the back shot as they go over the bridge and another shot, the staff is to the rear of the wagon. In the very next shot, a close up, the staff has reappeared near Frodo's shoulder again. Also, as Gandalf goes up the hill in front of Bag End, his staff is sticking out the back of the wagon, but in the following close-up as he stops the wagon, the staff is right next to him. Other contents of the wagon also change position during the journey. (00:11:25)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Haldir says, "Welcome Legolas, son of Thranduil," the outfit that Legolas wears is not the same in these shots than in the previous and following shots. Gimli's hair/beard are not as full and his prosthetics are a bit different too. Apparently this scene was one of the first to be filmed, but they realized later that this outfit wasn't working for the role of Legolas, so they changed it. Commentary on extended DVD. (00:45:30)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Saruman and Gandalf start to battle at Orthanc, the first time Gandalf points his staff, he causes Saruman to slam onto his back. In the close-up of Saruman, the white wrap around the palm of his hand and wrist is perfectly visible on his right hand. He does not wear the wrap on his hand in the previous and most of the following shots. (00:50:25)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Saruman points both staffs at Gandalf, he says, "I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, but you have elected the way of pain!" as Gandalf spins round on the floor, with his left leg raised in the air. As he spins, there is a bulge at his side and the apparatus with the wire, around his left ankle, is perfectly visible. (00:50:55)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In one shot of Gandalf's first appearance at Bilbo's front door, he is wearing light-brownish shoes under his robes, and when he walks in, he's got his normal grey ones on. (00:15:00)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the scene when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand, it is obvious that he is against a pretty tall rock wall. But, when we see an overhead shot of the Dark Lord exploding, there is no rock wall. Notice how there are soldiers all around the explosion. (00:04:00)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At Balin's Tomb, in two shots Pippin backs up towards the stone well, and when the skeletal head falls into the well we see a part of the sticks behind the pail, lying on the well. In the shot from above as the body falls in, and in the close-up of the chain and pail falling in, the sticks aren't there. In the next shots of the stone well we see the sticks lying there. (00:26:25)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Revealing mistake: At the end of the film, there is a shot when Aragorn fights an Uruk-hai, just before Aragorn's back is up against the tree (before Legolas shoots six Uruks in a row). Look at the Uruk-hai's left arm, Aragorn rips two big holes with his fingers, in the Uruk-hai's skin. (01:21:20)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In Boromir's death scene, when Aragorn puts the sword into Boromir's hand, Aragorn's finger with the ring on is covered in blood. When we see his hands on Boromir's chest a second later, the blood has vanished. (01:23:50)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the end of the Amon Hen battle scene, where Boromir has been shot by Lurtz, there is a close-up of Lurtz's feet (as if from Boromir's POV) showing Lurtz striding over and stopping in front of him. The ground is clear all around his feet. The shot then changes to a wide shot, from the side, and there are orc corpses piled up all around. None of these were visible before, but should have been. (01:21:20)

STP

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Arwen is carrying Frodo to the Ford, during the close-up of his face, it is covered in a green slime/pus-type substance (coming out of his eyes and mouth). At the Ford when Arwen confronts the Black Riders, his face is clean. [Peter Jackson has stated that the pus was used in one scene and afterwards they decided it was too gross and didn't use it again. That's why it appears and disappears. Still a mistake though.] (01:18:15)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At Amon Hen, Merry and Pippin run from the Uruk-hai after distracting them from Frodo's escape. After they run over the bridge, the next shot is of the two of them stopping short when Merry sees more oncoming Uruk-hai. In this shot it is only Pippin's Elven brooch that is facing the opposite way it normally faces. (01:20:55)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Other mistake: When Sam and Frodo are in the field with the scarecrow, you can plainly see a car cruising past in the distance, from right to left. Further comment - there are two different shots which show the car moving from right to left. One starts at the top right distance, and in a shot a few seconds later the car has traveled down the road a bit and is more easily visible. Complicating matters is that the dust thrown up by the car looks similar to smoke from a chimney in the right distance, making some people think it is just the chimney. But chimneys don't move, and the smoke from the chimney is separate from the moving vehicle. [It is deleted on the DVD, but you can still see an obvious bit of image fakery on the hill just left of the smoking chimney. One can see the hill, tree, and surrounding area move up and down and shimmer slightly where someone has done a cut and paste to cover up the auto. The "car inclusive" scene appears on the National Geographic documentary, "Beyond the Movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Also, watch the music documentary on the Extended DVD - when it shows this scene the car is still in it. Bizarrely, in his commentary Peter Jackson said he never saw a car and doesn't know what people are talking about, but the production/post-production team say in their commentary that despite not thinking anyone would be able to see it, they took it out anyway.] (00:42:55)

More mistakes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop 'til nightfall.
Pippin: But what about breakfast?
Aragorn: You've already had it.
Pippin: We've had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?
[Aragorn stares at him, then walks off.]
Merry: Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?
Merry: I wouldn't count on it.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Trivia: While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that, during a conversation with Peter Jackson, Jackson addressed him as "Aragorn" for more than half an hour, and Mortensen didn't even realize it.

More trivia for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Question: When Gandalf is hanging on the edge of the bridge in the mines, what does he say just before he drops? At first I thought he said 'run you fools' but it sounds different every time I hear it.

Answer: "Fly, you fools"

More questions & answers from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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.