Continuity mistake: When Port Royal is being attacked by the pirates, Will throws an axe into Jacoby's back. The axe handle lies flat against Jacoby's back. In the next shot, when Jacoby is lying on his stomach, the axe's handle is sticking up, perpendicular to his back, making it easy for Will to run by and grab the axe quickly. (00:31:15)
Continuity mistake: When the coach leaves, Will walks down the steps. Both side gardens are edged with stones outside the front door. The driveway is also lined with the stones. When the pirates invade their home, Ragetti yells, "Up there." The front door's open and the stones are now lined up parallel to the front of the doorway, just past where the steps should be. Even if it's meant to be the stones lining the opposite end of the driveway, the distance of the far side and proportional size of the rocks are wrong. (00:08:45 - 00:32:15)
Continuity mistake: Will runs down the stairs towards Jack's jail cell. At the bottom of the steps there is a desk and chair. When he first comes down, the chair is pushed into the corner of the desk. As Will says, "These are half pin barrel hinges," behind him, the chair is now pulled out. Will then uses that chair to balance the bench for "the right leverage to lift the door free." (00:42:25)
Revealing mistake: Johnny Depp's and Orlando Bloom's stunt doubles, Tony Angelotti (Jack) and Mark Aaron Wagner (Will), not only fight each other's 'alter ego' as well as other pirates and soldiers, they also duel directly with each other in the blacksmith shop in many shots. They are also too obvious in the scenes on Isla de Muerta, and during the rescue of Jack from the gallows, as they run and fight the Marines. There are notable differences between the two Jacks and two Wills within all the shots, throughout the film. (00:24:45 - 02:07:00)
Continuity mistake: The pirates are running up the path towards the Governor's house. In her close-up, Elizabeth is looking down on them from the ledge outside her bedroom window, with the double full length doors. The camera pans the house after the pirates open the gate and Elizabeth is not seen outside any of the upper window ledges. (00:31:50)
Revealing mistake: Ragetti has a wooden eye, yet, when he rubs it, it makes a funny squeeking sound. When he first comes ashore he has a wooden ball that he obviously palms instead of inserting. Mackenzie Crook, as Ragetti, wears a contact to simulate the wooden eye, and spins it around with his eye. When Pintel takes the fork with the eye out of Ragetti's socket, this ball at the end of the prongs is not made of wood. Props supplied a small rubber ball, and the air hole next to the fork prongs, with the painted 'iris' right above the prongs, can be seen. (00:30:45 - 01:25:30)
Revealing mistake: When Will uses skeletal Jacoby's sword to skewer the other skeletal pirate, he runs behind Jacoby to avoid being slashed and ducks. However, as Will looks at the pirates, his eye contact with the two skeletal pirates and their weapons is not in sync with them. Since they are CG, they were not there during filming, same as the shot of the three skewered pirates. (01:56:35)
Continuity mistake: When skeletal Pintel and skeletal Ragetti are in the rowboat their appearance and parasols differ between shots, and later, when Pintel attacks Ragetti in the wide shot, the two oars are each hanging off its own side of the boat. However, in the close-up one oar is now lying across the two sides of the boat. (01:51:10)
Revealing mistake: Will walks down the stairs, after the coach leaves and the cottage to the left of the Governor's mansion isn't seen at all. In this close-up, the Governor's mansion behind Will is only a facade built at Marineland. They only built the facade for the main house, not the two servants' cottages on both sides of the mansion. In the next wide shot, both cottages and the mansion seen, are miniatures used in a CG composite on the hill. Given the proximity of the (miniature) cottages at both sides of the house in the wide shot, the left cottage should've been seen in the close-up, but obviously couldn't because the cottages weren't built. Fuller view of the wide shot in deleted scenes. (00:08:45)
Continuity mistake: At the blacksmith shop, in the close-up, the palm of Mr. Brown's hand faces upright, when he drops the bottle. In the wide shot, the palm of his hand faces down. When Jack approaches him, the palm faces up again. Also in one shot, one end of Mr. Brown's red scarf is sticking out of his smock and in the next shot, both ends are out. (00:21:05)
18th Dec 2003
Continuity mistake: In Osgiliath, after Frodo and Sam fall down the steps, Frodo is sitting on top of Sam holding Sting to his throat. In the wide shot, Sam's leg is beside the wall. Yet, in the close-up, when he starts to rise, the wall is right next to his head. (01:34:20)
18th Dec 2003
Continuity mistake: In Osgiliath, when Sam says, "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here," he is standing up right next to the wall. In the next shot, of Sam's back, he is standing a few feet away from the wall. In the next shot, he's next to the wall, and then starts to walk to the archway, for his 'Sam' speach. (01:34:55)
18th Dec 2003
Continuity mistake: In Osgiliath, before Sam's speech, in the wide shot showing Sam's back, the large fry pan hangs down, below the small fry pan, on Sam's back. In the next shot, in front of Sam, the large fry pan is seen sticking out, just behind Sam's right shoulder. (01:35:10)
18th Dec 2003
Continuity mistake: Gollum's hands are bound behind his back, during Sam's speech. After Sam's speech, Faramir walks over and while he's speaking to Frodo and Sam, Gollum is shown rubbing his hands. Faramir has not yet said, "Then it is forfeit. Release them." Gollum's ties would not yet have been cut. As explained on the commentary, they needed shots of Gollum for this sequence, so they pinched them from other moments, and inserted them here. (01:35:15 - 01:37:45)
Revealing mistake: When Jack is standing on the mast of the Jolly Mon, as he's 'sailing' closer to Port Royal, the Dauntless is seen in the distance, as are two very small row boats and the docks to the left. There are no other ships seen along the entire mountain cliffside, some of which is CG. In the next shot showing Dauntless from the dock, there are two other large ships near her, one being loaded with goods which should have been seen in the earlier wide shot. Given the proximity and dimension of Dauntless in the second shot, the other ships should have been seen in the earlier wide shot of the area. Both shots of Dauntless are CG, as is part of the cliffside. This is not because of camera angles. (00:08:55)
Revealing mistake: In the wide shot, when an unconscious Elizabeth reaches the water's bottom, the body is a mannequin that has been weighted down in the middle. The white mannequin head can be seen as the body meets the bottom. (00:15:55)
Continuity mistake: When Jack sprays Will with the soot from the sack and kicks away Will's sword, he drops down the sack of soot onto his hat sitting on the fireplace. In the next shot, from behind Will's back, the sack of soot is not on Jack's hat, but way behind it. (00:26:20)
Continuity mistake: Jack sets his hat down on the fireplace, in the blacksmith shop. Sometimes the angle of Jack's hat changes, within close-up and wide shots, even while they're duelling. (00:21:05 - 00:23:00)
Continuity mistake: After Elizabeth falls off the ramparts, the first shot is of an unconscious Elizabeth under water, and her right shoe is not on, at the heel. In the next two shots, the shoe is perfectly on. (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: When Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl, in some shots the end of the sleeves of her white nightgown are seen with the sleeves of her floral robe, yet in some shots the white sleeves don't show. Also in some shots, when the white sleeves do show, the amount of white sleeve varies. (00:38:00)
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