The Book of Eli

Continuity mistake: When Solara hijacks the SUV after leaving George and Martha's, there are mountains that disappear from shot to shot. Right after Carnegie yells "Go back," you can see mountains in front of them. When Solara gets out and looks at them turning around, those mountains are gone. After she grabs the grenade and stands in the middle of the road, they are back. When she throws the grenade and Carnegie's vehicle swerves out of the way, the mountains are gone again. (01:27:30)

Jason Sieberg

Continuity mistake: When Eli is leaving Carnegie's town, as he walks away from Carnegie and his gang right before the shoot-out, the position of their shadows alternate drastically between shots, falling sometimes in front of the characters and sometimes to the side.

Continuity mistake: When Eli has the confrontation with the gang in the beginning he cuts the leader's hand off with his sword. When you see the sword in the very next shot, the blood is only on the edge of the sword and not smeared across it as it should be.

dbfilms

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

Suggested correction: If the cutting took ages, there would be enough blood to cover the blade. The action was over very quickly though so no reason to expect there to be a lot of blood.

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Mistakes

Factual error: The type of book that Eli is protecting would actually be just a fragment. The complete Bible, in braille, occupies as many as 18 volumes.

eirik

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Quotes

Eli: People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now.

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Trivia

Trivia: When Eli and Solara are in his room for the night there is a movie poster on the wall behind them for a similar post apocalyptic movie. "A Boy and His Dog". In Eli the survivors protect themselves from the sun's rays and in "A Boy and His Dog" they flee underground to hide from the sun.

drw60a

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Questions

Question: If he is blind how do you explain the accurate shots with the arrow?

Answer: A large study was done after the atomic blasts in Japan in WW2 after the surrender on the effects to victims' eyesight. Over 70% of the people that indirectly looked at the light were not completely blind. They suffered from cataracts, and out of those studied over 50% could see during the day - mostly shades of black and shadows / silhouettes of people and objects. Those that survived became very keen to see movement as long as they were in bright light, also heightened since of smell and feeling vibrations. This would explain why Eli never traveled at night and was not totally blinded by a nuclear flash, if he was completely blind - night would give him a much larger advantage. You notice he always travels when the sun comes up so he can see silhouettes of people and objects moving. Also when Solara interred his room at Carnegie's hall she said "it's bright in here" Eli had all the lights on so he could see anyone entering the room / cell. Also he wears sunglasses because obviously he does not want his cataracts to get worse. If you watch the movie again there are many tells to support that he is only partially blind and had mild to moderate cataracts. You can also see his eyes on the boat to Alcatraz, showing his cataracts.

He was born blind, at the start he smells the hijackers and moves into the dark to level the playing field.

How would he know where the dark is?

He was not born blind. He was blinded during armageddon, but after finding the Bible was given his sight back in order to complete the task given to him by God. Once his task was completed he once again lost his sight.

Nope! He was given his sight back by God in order to complete the task he was given, only to lose it once again after it was completed.

Answer: Believe he is partially blind. You don't need to be completely blind to need to learn braille.

He is not blind. He sees cars coming runs into the house and immediately checks the windows.

Answer: He was blind before the flash. That's how he could read braille, and had a braille bible. Remember, he asked Solaris' mother when she lost her sight - she said before the flash. That's why she also could read braille. He was totally blind. God gave him the ability to do what he did.

Answer: I think everyone missed something that is completely obvious. He is absolutely 100% blind. He always reacts. He never starts at first. During the gunfight he never once fired upon someone unless he was shot at first. During the bridge fight, he did not attack anyone until they screamed or were close enough to where he was feeling them. When he found the body hanging in the closet and he felt it with his hands from head to foot and felt the boots. Same thing with the car with the skeleton. He felt all the way down and realised it did not have boots. Every fight scene and everything he did in this movie was a reaction to somebody else doing something first.

Answer: He is 100% blind and if you pay close attention to the movie, it is proven and shown. He only reacts to his senses, the scene where the man is hanging, Eli smells him; he does not see him. The scene with the hijackers, he goes under the bridge, soo he can hear their movement using echolocation. The shootout scene if you listen very closely when Carnegie is speaking to him, Eli clicks his tongue using echolocation again. The scene with the couple as he is walking up to their home, he makes the clicking noises again and bangs of the door with the gun to listen to the sound. In the shootout scene, Eli only shoots at those who were firing at him; which was in the direction of the gunshot sounds. The scene where he gives up the book and is shot, he stands up and looks around with confusion because he does not know who else is there, and he blindly swings his knife around to try to fight back. He was able to do what he did due to God's protection and guidance.Hence "Walk by Faith not by Sight".

Answer: It's clear from examining his eyes in various shots throughout the film that he is not blind for most of it. He was almost certainly blind before his journey began, then is sight was restored so he could complete the task. There are several scenes where his eyes can be seen. They are brown and when he talks to people, he looks them in the eye. At the end of the film, his eyes go gray, showing he is blind again.

Um...no...sorry good theory, but he just has heightened senses, and I believe isn't 100% blind but is mostly like 80-90%.

If you disagree, then please present evidence to refute my theory, rather than simply stating an opinion. Do you disagree that his eyes are brown throughout the film, then go gray at the end? Do you disagree that he looks people directly in the eye? Do you disagree that he is able to aim and shoot at distances a blind person wouldn't be able to?

The idea is that he was blind to begin with. The fact they didn't show his eyes grey is that it would reveal that fact and make the movie look stupid. The way they approach it is the surprise at the end that it turns out he is blind, not that he had gone blind again. If wasn't blind during the movie there would have been no point in showing him blind at the end, nor would it be logical he has a braille bible that he knows by heart.

lionhead

We'll just have to disagree. My take was that he was blind previously (hence his ability to read braille and his use of his other senses) but was given sight to complete his task, then lost his sight just before death.

Answer: He can hear their wings flapping, and he is guided from above. His other senses are extraordinarily sensitive and honed.

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