Revealing mistake: The appearance of Harry's scar differs in some close-ups. For example, at the Quidditch match, in Harry's first close-up his scar has an outline and is thicker than other shots. Other examples are, in Harry's first close-up as he flies behind Malfoy below the pitch stands and also when he reaches for the Snitch after his arm breaks. (00:53:35 - 00:55:50)
Revealing mistake: During the Quidditch match, just after the close-ups of Snape and Lucius Malfoy, there is a shot of Harry flying towards the camera, coming to stop, with Draco Malfoy flying in beside him and in this shot the goal posts cast a shadow on the sand. Malfoy remarks, "All right there, Scarhead?" and Harry looks down below at the approaching Bludger. Now in this shot, not only do the goal posts have a completely different shadow, there are no hoops at the top of the poles' shadows (while the angle might make them hard to spot, putting everything in a line, the shadows should at least thicken at the top where the hoops are). (00:54:10)
Revealing mistake: After Harry yells, "Wood, look out!" Harry ducks to avoid the Bludger and flies away. In the following close-up of Harry, there are two reflections in each of the lenses of his glasses. The reflections were added deliberately for this shot, however, as he sweeps around the pitch, changing direction as he goes, the reflections should reflect the change in scenery around him, but it does NOT. (00:54:35)
Revealing mistake: At the Quidditch match, the goal posts are visible at both ends of the pitch in many shots, including the shortest ones. When rushing to Harry, Hermione shouts, "Finite Incantatem!" In the shot of Ron and Hermione's backs as they run towards Harry, the short goal post's base is visible on the left. It is completely different in this close-up than in any of the wide shots. (00:54:40 - 00:57:45)
Revealing mistake: The spectator towers nearest the castle cast shadows on the Quidditch pitch throughout the match, albeit differently in some shots. From within the pitch, when facing the castle, the towers that cast shadows are between Gryffyndor, the last tower on the left and Slytherin the last tower on the right. When Malfoy flies up from below the stands and slams to the ground he lands in front of the opposite side, with the black/white faculty towers, between Ravenclaw on one end and Hufflepuff on the other end, which do not cast shadows on the pitch. Yet, as Harry closes in on the Snitch with his broken arm, in the shot facing the Snitch as his left hand reaches out and in the next shot that faces Harry as he seizes the Snitch, the towers between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are the ones that cast shadows on the pitch. (00:56:55)
Revealing mistake: Throughout the Quidditch match, Harry's right arm guard is visible. At the top, over his elbow, there is an attached strip of leather that is tied securely around his arm and the three short straps are snugly buckled around his forearm. However, as the Bludger approaches just before breaking his arm, the ties on the strip of leather are GONE, though visibly tucked up in the close-up and the buckled straps are considerably LONGER, deliberately causing the arm guard to be very loose. The position of the arm guard differs in the two close-ups as well. (00:57:10)
Revealing mistake: At the Quidditch match, in the close-up when the Bludger knocks off Harry's arm guard, his right arm below the elbow is very conspicuously digitally augmented. When Harry falls toward the sand and unlocks his legs from around the broom, his legs below the knees, especially his right leg, are digitally augmented as well. (Second shot is more visible in DVD fullscreen.) (00:57:10)
Revealing mistake: From within the Quidditch pitch, when facing one set of three goal posts the last spectator tower to the left is Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tower is last to the right and when facing the other set of goal posts Slytherin tower is last to the left and Hufflepuff tower is last to the right. After the Bludger breaks Harry's arm, in the shot facing the Snitch, as Harry's hand reaches for it, directly in FRONT of Harry are the goal posts between Slytherin and Hufflepuff towers. Then in the next shot facing Harry, as he reaches and catches Snitch, those same goal posts are directly BEHIND Harry. Yet, when he lands in the sand, he is at those very goal posts. (00:57:20)
Revealing mistake: When Lockhart pushes up Harry's sleeve before attempting to mend Harry's broken bone, we see a few freckles on Harry's forearm. When Lockhart got rid of Harry's bones, he also got rid of Harry's freckles. The freckles are back when Harry drinks the Skele-gro at the hospital wing. In other words, the fake arm was missing details visible on Harry's arm. (00:58:12)
Revealing mistake: In the duelling scene, when Harry casts the Rictusempra spell, as Malfoy is flying through the air, he is much larger and obviously the stunt double. (01:07:35)
Revealing mistake: When Crabbe and Goyle are reaching for the cakes that Harry levitated, Ron and Harry are seen in the background, beside the statue, and though they are a bit out of focus you can clearly see that it is Rupert Grint's body double in each of the long shots. The shape of his face differs and his hair is very floppy. (01:19:00)
Revealing mistake: When Harry sits in the Gryffindor common room with the diary, in the close-up, the name Tom Marvolo Riddle is gold embossed on the back cover. However in the previous shot, when Harry lifts the diary off the floor in the lavatory, both sides are clearly visible and the name is NOT on either side, nor is it seen on either side when Harry first takes it from Ginny's arm and when he closes it to stab the cover with the Basilisk fang. The name is also NOT embossed on the cover when Dumbledore holds it up in his study or in the close-up of the other side when he places it on the desk in front of Harry and Lucius Malfoy. (01:27:10 - 02:15:10)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Harry Potter is writing in Tom Riddle's diary, we see Harry dipping his feather pen into the ink jar. Notice the shape and size of Harry's hand. When Harry actually starts to write in the diary we see a close up of Harry's hand, but it's not his actual hand doing the writing. The "stunt" hand has longer thinner fingers than Harry Potter's 12 year old hand. (01:28:05)
Revealing mistake: After the car shows up to save Ron and Harry from the spiders, Harry shouts, "Arania Exumai!" The light from his wand illuminates the car and the NORMAL tread back tire is visible. When they are in the car Harry shouts, "Go!" In the close-up of the tire, before it starts to spin, the tread on the tire is once again visible. However it's an entirely different tire, a deep tread SNOW tire no less. (01:48:10)
Revealing mistake: When Harry is fighting the Basilisk on top of the skull in the Chamber of Secrets, you can see that there is a safety tip on the end of the sword. (02:12:55)
Revealing mistake: As Harry climbs the Salazar Slytherine stone head's locks of hair, the Basilisk crashes his face and creates the first immense hole. As Harry tries to climb higher, it pounds into the stone again creating another huge hole, higher up on another lock of hair, to Harry's left as he hangs on. However, when the Basilisk smashes his face into the stone a third time, as Harry nears the top, the second huge hole is GONE, in this shot and in the first wide shot in which Tom Riddle is visible. (02:13:05)
Revealing mistake: When Harry puts the sword through the head of the basilisk, you can see that the front pair of fangs are to the left of his right arm that the fang goes through. With the way Harry pulls out the sword it is impossible that the fang would go through his right arm. (02:13:50)
Revealing mistake: In the many and lengthy dialogue scenes between Potter and Dumbledore, with countless facial close-ups, neither of them have glass in their spectacles. (02:19:40)
Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the scene near the end of the movie with Lucius Malfoy fuming at Dumbledore in his office, Malfoy's hair is fanned back behind his shoulders. The lighting in the room illuminates the back of his neck, where you can see his real, short brown hair. (02:22:05)
Revealing mistake: In the scene when Harry and Ron come back to the bathroom after drinking the polyjuice potion, they find Hermione turned into a cat. Look at her eyes. When she turns around, a digital editing oval appears around her eyes for the rest of that shot.
Chosen answer: After Harry hands it to Lucius, Lucius hands it to Dobby to carry. After Dobby is freed by the hidden sock and protects Harry from Lucius, Lucius leaves it behind.
Greg Dwyer