The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Continuity mistake: When Fili and Kili arrive, the door is left open. We never hear the door close, yet it is closed when Bilbo goes to get the door for Gandalf and the other dwarves. (00:19:00 - 00:19:40)

Casual Person

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

Suggested correction: So... What's your point? I can, and I'm sure you can, close your door without making a sound. Plus the scene isn't one continuous shot so there is no reason it couldn't have been closed off camera.

Continuity mistake: In The Lord of the Rings, when the map of Lonely Mountain is shown, it says "Here of old was Thrain king under the mountain" (referring to an ancestor of Thror and not Thorin's father who has the same name and was never king under the mountain). But throughout The Hobbit, the map instead says "Here of old was Thror king under the mountain."

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

Suggested correction: Thrain was king after Thorin. The map would have been updated after Thrain's death, and he was subsequently buried there.

Quantom X

Thrain II was king after Thorin I and father of Thorin II (Oakenshield), but as said he was never king under the mountain but was king during their exile, Thror was the one who went back to Erebor to sit on the throne again until Smaug sacked it. The Thrain mentioned on the map is Thrain I (father of Thorin I), who is the founder of the kingdom under the mountain after Durin's folk were exiled from Moria by the Balrog (Durin's Bane, Durin being Thrain I's grandfather).

lionhead

Also, even disregarding that, it is impossible for the map to have been updated to say a different dwarf's name, because the map is given to Bilbo at the end of the trilogy, and the ending shows a close-up of the map with "Thror" still written on it, whereas in the LOTR trilogy, where we see the exact same scene of Gandalf arriving at Old Bilbo's house (albeit from Gandalf's point of view rather than Old Bilbo's), Gandalf sees the map and it says "Thrain" on it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Just after Radagast has a flashback of him seeing the Necromancer, some of the white stuff on his beard disappears briefly in the shot where he inhales the stuff in Gandalf's pipe. (01:15:20)

Casual Person

More mistakes in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Bilbo: Oh, up to but not exceeding one fourteenth total profit if any. Seems fair. Present company shall not be liable for injuries including but not limited to laceration, evisceration... Incineration?
Bofur: Oh, aye. He'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye.
Balin: You all right, laddie?
Bilbo: Yeah, I'll be. Feel a bit faint.
Bofur: Think furnace, with wings.
Bilbo: Yeah, I-I-I need air.
Bofur: Flash of light, searing pain, then poof, you're nothing more than a pile of ash.
Bilbo: [Long pause.] No. [Bilbo faints.].

More quotes from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Trivia: The blade that Gandalf presents to the high Elves and Saruman is the same blade that Frodo gets stabbed with in Fellowship of the Ring on Weathertop. Confirmed in the director's commentary. How the blade makes its way back to the witch-king hasn't been revealed.

Quantom X

More trivia for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Question: Was any reason ever given as to why Gandalf chose Bilbo to go on this journey and not someone else?

Answer: In the film, Gandalf tells the dwarves he chose Bilbo because hobbits are light on their feet, and because Smaug would not recognise the scent of a hobbit as he would a dwarf. Also Bilbo is the most adventurous of the hobbits in the Shire. This reason is not in the book but is from the story "The Quest of Erebor" in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.

Sierra1

More questions & answers from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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.