Visible crew/equipment: At the blacksmith shop, Jack and Will start to duel and Jack asks, "But how's your footwork?" In the next close-up shot of their feet, the imprint of a modern, flat bottom trainer/sneaker sole can be seen on the dirt floor at the bottom right of the screen. It is not the imprint of a heel and sole of the time period. As a point of interest, on the video version of this film there are multiple imprints visible. (00:23:25)
Continuity mistake: Either the first shot has a gratuitous view of the fort or the composite people neglected to add the fort in the second shot. Norrington says, "...this is the day that Capt. Jack Sparrow almost escaped. Take him away." The night shot that follows, shows the bridge archway, and beyond it the pier, Interceptor, the fort and its parapet. After Will breaks Jack out of prison, they approach the same archway and beyond it is the pier and Interceptor, but in this shot we don't see the fort and its parapet, nor the line that Jack slid down the day before. The camera angle is exactly the same. (00:27:15 - 00:44:30)
Deliberate mistake: Jack wears one pair of boots throughout the movie; however, the heel has at least two discernible heights, including the ones worn in the underwater close-up. One kind is worn by Tony Angelotti (Johnny Depp's stunt double) and the others are worn by Depp. When Jack steps onto the dock from the Jolly Mon and when he's balancing himself on Will's sword at the attempted hanging, he's wearing the higher heel boots. As Jack crawls across the broken mast chasing the monkey, and when he dives off the Pearl's plank, the lower heel boots are obvious. (01:34:40 - 02:06:30)
Visible crew/equipment: After Will admits to Elizabeth that he loves her, she looks over and sees Cotton's parrot sitting on the flag post. Mullroy is also watching as a black-haired crew member, wearing a short-sleeve, white tee-shirt, can be seen holding the post and shaking it with his bare arm to get the parrot to fly off. (02:06:00)
Continuity mistake: Pintel and Ragetti walk into the stateroom, Pintel carries the folded dress for Elizabeth in his arms. She walks over to them. In the next shot, the folded dress is now folded differently in Pintel's arms. Also, when they tell her she'll be dining with the Captain, Ragetti's collar is under the strap on his shoulder. After she answers them, in their next close-up, his collar is straight and over the strap. (00:54:15)
Revealing mistake: Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, and he goes down the stairs to the cache of rum. From below, he lifts his right arm up holding a bottle of rum and we see the pirate brand. It's a CG brand, and in this shot, the pirate brand is crooked and off to the side. It doesn't look the same as the close-up when Norrington lifts Jack's sleeve in Port Royal, and it's not because of camera angle. Jack's sun and sparrow tattoo isn't where it's supposed to be either. At this point in filming, this 'tattoo' on his arm is not a real tattoo, it is only applied for specific shots, and make-up didn't apply it for this shot. (This has nothing to do with Depp's real tattoo that he supposedly got later, after filming.) (01:36:15)
Continuity mistake: Jack and Will jump down from the beams and Jack reaches for the bag of soot (really cocoa powder). In the back shot of Will as he approaches Jack, Will has his sword in his right hand. In the front close-up of Will as Jack starts to spray him, his right hand is NOT holding the sword - we SEE his hand when he turns. In the next wide shot, Jack is still spraying the soot, Will is again holding the sword in his right hand, then Jack kicks the sword out of Will's hand. (00:26:15)
8th Dec 2003
Continuity mistake: Just before Brego comes up to an unconscious Aragorn, his sword is lying on his left side, perpendicular to his body, with the blade facing towards his back and the hilt facing his front. In the next shot, before Aragorn even rolls over onto his back, the blade is now pointing up his back and the hilt is at his thigh. Also once again, the tear in the coat and shirt at Aragorn's left shoulder is very different in both shots, as it is in many of the following shots too. (00:20:55)
7th Jan 2003
Continuity mistake: When the Berserker Uruk-hai with the torch runs to the bomb to detonate it, Aragorn yells at Legolas to stop him. Legolas fires an arrow with green short fletch (feathers), then you see the berserker hit by a long white fletched arrow, the kind the Lothlorien Elves use. A second time, Aragorn yells to Legolas to kill him, and then again, the arrow shot by Legolas is not the same type as the one that hits the Uruk-hai. The Uruk is not hit by arrows of another Elf, it is Legolas that hits him, twice. (01:08:50)
Continuity mistake: After the credits, Barbossa is shown lying on the treasure pile. The Aztec chest is up at the top and the lid is closed and straight. (It was also shown with the closed lid when Jack asked Will to drop him off at his ship.) Then, in the last shot, when the monkey jumps up onto the chest, the lid is on the Aztec chest, but it is partially open now. (02:22:10)
Continuity mistake: Will walks through the crowd at the hanging and stands in front of the scaffolding looking at Jack, as the official reads the list of Jack's crimes. The rope wound around the beam is wound differently here than in the close-up shots. The rope that leads up to the noose is in front of the beam. In the next semi close-up of Jack, when he smiles at the hangman, the rope that leads to the noose is now on the opposite side of the beam. (02:04:50)
28th Aug 2003
Continuity mistake: Just before Legolas surfs the shield down the stairs, he is holding the shield in his right hand and his bow in his left hand, which is down. In this shot, he starts to toss the shield down onto the ground, still clutching the bow in his left hand. In the next consecutive wide shot, the shield is still in mid-air, and as he is starting to run towards the moving shield, Legolas does not have the bow in his left hand now. He did not throw the bow over his shoulder. The next shot is a close-up of his feet on the shield, just starting to come to the stairs. In the next wide shot, as he is starting to surf at the top of the stairs, Legolas has the bow in his left hand again and he is lets loose the arrows at the Uruk-hai. (01:11:00)
19th Dec 2003
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)
Continuity mistake: As Elizabeth says, "Lower the anchor on the right side," Mr. Gibbs' right white collar is under the leather strap buckled correctly and Will's neck scarf is crooked. In the next shot, when Elizabeth says, "On the starboard side," Mr. Gibbs' leather strap is not buckled properly, his right white collar is over the strap and Will's neck scarf is straight. When Mr. Gibbs says, "Daft like Jack," his white collar is under the strap again and one end of Mr. Gibbs' neck string is much longer than the other end. Also, Will's right white shirt collar is over his vest. Yet when Mr. Gibbs says, "Do it, you gobs..." the ends of Mr. Gibbs' neck string are even and Will's right white collar is under his vest. (01:24:00)
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: Barbossa rips the chain and medallion off Elizabeth's neck, puts it into her palm, then cuts her hand. He takes her hand in his and he turns hers over so it's palm down. The chain can be seen in the close-up and wide shot, dangling down between her fingers and the chain is NOT clasped shut. In the next close-up of the chain and medallion falling into the chest, the chain IS clasped shut. (01:11:55)
Continuity mistake: When Barbossa takes the sword out of his own chest, he then stabs Jack with that sword, and he stabs Jack right under the strap and buckle. As Jack walks backwards, into the moonlight, the skeletal Jack appears and now he has the sword over the strap and buckle, in his chest. The length of the sword between the guard and his chest differs greatly, as does the amount of sword that protrudes from his back. (01:55:15)
Continuity mistake: Will's facial hair darkens quite a bit in the time it takes him to walk from Elizabeth's house to his blacksmith shop. (The sword scene in the Governor's mansion was the first scene that was filmed with Orlando. His facial hair was not fully grown in because he had just arrived on set. On commentary.) (00:07:05 - 00:22:05)
Continuity mistake: In Tortuga, on the dock, Anamaria slaps Jack twice. In the side shot, Jack says, "You'll get another one," and she picks up her right hand and points her finger right up into Jack's face. When Will says, "That one," Jack spins around, and in this shot when he asks, "What one?" now Anamaria's left hand is the one pointing at Jack's face. (01:02:20)
Continuity mistake: When Will first sees the hammer it's lying on top of the anvil almost parallel with it. Right before Jack says, "You know what you're doing, I'll give you that," as Will sticks his sword towards Jack's legs, the hammer's seen to Jack's right, perpendicular to the anvil. In the next shot, when Jack actually says those words, the hammer's lying parallel to the anvil again. Jack says, "If I step here," and the hammer's perpendicular to the anvil again. Then in the next few shots, once again the hammer's parallel to the anvil. Even in the 'parallel' shots, the hammer's lying a bit differently. (00:22:25)
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