The Princess Bride

Question: When Buttercup confronts a masked Westley, she says that she loved more deeply than a killer like him ever dreamed. Westley's response is to raise a hand as if to hit her, but he stops and says that was a warning and that where he comes from, there are penalties when a woman lies. In what way was Buttercup lying?

Answer: Westley comes back from the sea, only to find that his one true love is engaged to another man. He feels her love for him wasn't true if she could even think of getting married again, at least so soon.

Brian Katcher

Question: Inigo shows Westley the sword his father made for the 6-fingered man ("I've never seen its equal"). How did Inigo acquire this sword? You would think that if Count Rugen was prepared to kill Domingo for the sword then he would have taken it with him.

Answer: When Inigo was a child, Count Rugen came to Inigos father and requested a sword be made for him. When the sword was finished, Count Rugen refused to pay the price he originally offered for the sword. Inigos father refused to hand the sword over so Count Rugen killed Inigos father. Outraged, Inigo took the sword his father made and tried to kill Count Rugen. He has kept the sword ever since so he could use it to kill Count Rugen.

Answer: In the book, Count Rugen told the outraged villagers that Domingo had tried to rob him and he killed Domingo in self-defense. He couldn't very well take Domingo's sword after that.

Brian Katcher

Question: What does Miracle Max mumble before agreeing to help Inigo and Fezzik with mostly-dead Westley? It's after Inigo says "humiliations galore," as Max is turning away to get his hat.

Answer: He is just singing/babbling happily. According to the captions, he sings, "Hi diddle lick do day dee shie!" He then says, "That is a noble cause".

BGraz

Question: Has anyone verified that Christopher Guest has six fingers on his right hand in every scene? There are a few shots (other than the one showing off all the fingers) where his right hand is visible, but the black gloves make a finger count difficult.

Answer: Not meaning to shoot down your idea, but since he is wearing gloves, even if the gloves only had five fingers, it would still not be a mistake as he could easily tuck his two smallest fingers into one of the glove's fingers. I would guess that this is why he wears gloves throughout the film, as the director would surely not have gone to the trouble of making 6-fingered gloves, and the actor does not really have 6 fingers.

Jazetopher

They did make a six fingered glove. It's visible when Count Rugen knocks Westley out with his sword. Just before that Westley observes "You have 6 fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you."

Question: Why didn't Buttercup leave Humperdinck's castle and search for Westley? When Westley and her are surrounded in the woods by Humperdinck, Rugen and the soldiers, she only agrees to return with Humperdinck if they spare Westley's life and asks that they return him to his ship etc, and then after Humperdinck tells her he's going to send a messenger out to look for Westley, she asks him each day if they've heard word, to which he says no. So couldn't Buttercup have just left and looked for Westley herself? She is shown to be able to look out for herself, think on her feet and if she really wanted to find Westley again, she would have done everything in her power to search for him.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: Even if Buttercup was able to leave the castle (she was probably under house arrest at the time), she wouldn't have much luck finding him. She has no money, no tracking or survival skills, and no experience beyond the castle and her farm. Besides all that, she's the typical storybook "damsel in distress", waiting for Westley to save her.

Question: Submitting as a question since it actually may explain something rather than a mistake: In the scene where Prince Humperdink throws the machine to maximum, note Westley's left hand. Did anyone else notice he appears to be holding the tubes attached to his abdominal area? Seems like an odd thing to do (or for the the Count to not notice). Initially I thought it was a production ad lib to keep the tubes from flailing around too much (to prevent damage to either the prop or Cary - or keep it from accidentally getting snagged by the nearby machinery). However, it also seemed to open the possibility that because he is holding the tube, it might be lessening the effect of the machine and may have contributed to the "mostly dead" status. He's holding the tube throughout the scene (not just for the shot where he is writhing).

Answer: It is a natural reaction to grab onto things that are causing pain and try to remove them. The machine causes immense pain and so Westley is trying to remove the tubes, however futile it may be.

kristenlouise3

Continuity mistake: After Montoya has hauled Wesley to the top of the cliff, he drops the rope on the ground, where it lands forming a couple of coils. You can see this as Wesley sits down and Montoya leans up against the wall. However, when they start their duel, the rope is hanging straight off the cliff, without any coils in it.

Twotall

More mistakes in The Princess Bride

Vizzini: Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

More quotes from The Princess Bride

Trivia: Mark Knopfler, who composed the music to the Princess Bride, only agreed to do so if Rob Reiner could include the baseball cap he wore in the film Spinal Tap. The director placed the cap in the boy's bedroom, beside the bed.

More trivia for The Princess Bride

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