Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Revealing mistake: When C3PO and R2D2 are picked up in the sand, there is no sand falling off them. Obviously, C3PO's legs and R2D2 where just placed behind some sand (and not in it) or they used blue screen in this shot.

Revealing mistake: When Han Solo lifts his hands up and he spots the Walker that Chewie and two Ewoks are in, one of his hands is transparent, and the trees are visible through his hand.

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Suggested correction: They are not transparent. What you are seeing is glare from the bright sky in the background. You can see other ghost images matching the bright white portions of the shot. Besides, there would be no reason for it to be transparent. It appears to be a fully on-location shot with no compositing.

Completely not true. You can see the trees through his hands; therefore, they are transparent.

Look closer. There is a white ghost image that matches the bright white sky, offset to the left and rotated slightly. And why would the hand be transparent? This is not a composite shot.

While it's not a composite shot, that would mean that the shot of the imperial officer yelling "freeze" in the original version wouldn't have been transparent. But it's not a composite shot too, therefore, they are transparent.

Vector9061138

This comment makes no sense. What Imperial officer are you referring to and what does it have to do with this shot? And if this isn't a composite shot, which you seem to be admitting, why would the hand be transparent? Do you think Harrison Ford's hand actually became see-through?

Revealing mistake: Look carefully at the close-ups of C3PO's waste where the exposed wires are. You can tell it's fake wiring on top of a black suit which is particularly noticeable when the actor inside the costume as his stomach is moving when he has to breathe.

jbrbbt

Revealing mistake: During the lightsaber duel, Vader throws his at Luke. The catwalk behind Luke explodes, but if you watch closely there are two explosions: one some inches over where the lightsaber actually hits and one far on the left.

Dr Wilson

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Just before Luke chops off Darth Vader's hand in the battle at the end of the movie, you can see that the bar has already been cut (the line is visible) to give the illusion that Luke cut through the steel bar with his lightsaber as well as Vader's hand. (01:48:45)

Revealing mistake: When Luke leaves the Death Star in an Imperial shuttle, a large girder or something falls right in front of his ship. If you watch closely, you can see it bounce, revealing the miniature. A huge, heavy girder wouldn't have bounced like this.

Revealing mistake: When the shield generator explodes, a piece of shrapnel flies towards the left side of the screen and then flies back, because it bounces off the inside of the building the miniature was housed in. (01:50:05)

Revealing mistake: When Luke and Leia swing to the skiff on the rope, in the shot from the back, Leia is obviously played by a stunt woman - the birthmark on Carrie Fisher's back, which can be seen a few times on board the sail barge, is missing. (00:35:00)

Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the ground battle on Endor, two stormtroopers are knocked to the ground by the Ewoks. In the following shot, one of the troopers has a big crack in the left shoulder of his armour. The crack was obviously not there in the previous shot. (01:34:40)

Revealing mistake: In the battle on Endor, there is a shot of some Ewoks on a catapult and the at-st fires at them. Notice the second time they get fired at, the blast hits the catapult. Just before the shot ends, notice there is no damage to it. (01:40:10)

Revealing mistake: When Vader throws the lightsaber at Luke and the platform collapses, the point where the platform's columns connect to the ceiling have expanding circles of smoke coming from them as the columns detach from the ceiling, created by the charges used to sever the platform. (01:50:20)

Vader47000

Revealing mistake: During the speeder bike chase scenes, speeders bikes don't affect any vegetation, even though they're flying near the ground at incredible speed.

Revealing mistake: When Luke and Vader enter the Emperor's throne room, in the shot from behind, you can see the stairs through Luke. (01:26:30)

Revealing mistake: When Leia takes a speeder to chase the stormtrooopers, there is an SFX box around it and it makes no shadow on the ground.

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: After the Rebels break into the bunker, a Rebel in the background punches an officer. But if you watch closely or play it in slow motion, the Rebel's hand never comes into contact with the officer's face. (01:33:25)

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Suggested correction: If you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a mistake.

Sacha

It says "if you watch closely OR play it in slow motion." It is perfectly visible at normal speed.

Catwalk

Revealing mistake: In the scene where Han and Lando are talking in the hangar after the big meeting about the new Death Star, right when the scene opens and the shot pans down, notice how half the hangar is real and the other half is a matte painting. (00:49:30)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the wide-shot where Luke leaps from the prisoner skiff over to another skiff, you can see the stick used during the filming, which is much shorter than the regular one. The blade is not even glowing. (It is not just simply the hilt of the sabre, it's too long for that.). (00:32:15)

Revealing mistake: When Luke is in the Rancor pit, there is a Rodian in the crowd - some of his fingers are hanging from his hands. Cheap costume. He makes hand gestures like Mr. Burns - helps to find him.

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: After the rebels have destroyed the radar on Endor, there's a shot of Lando and a Sullustean laughing, and after that, a shot of spaceships. One Y-Wing passes in front of an X-Wing, but the light of its engines disappears a little bit before.

Dr Wilson

Revealing mistake: In one quick scene when Luke's hologram is talking to Jabba, the film has been reversed. The camera shows Jabba sucking on his 'bong' and then pans down to Salacious Crumb. However, during the Jabba shot, the air bubbles in the 'bong' are going down, as opposed to surfacing. Behind Jabba, you can see the smoke created is also going downward.

Revealing mistake: In many of the scenes taking place in outer space, if you look closely you can see polygon borders surrounding space vehicles (X-Wings, Star Destroyers, and even the Death Star) indicating the objects being superimposed into the outer space background. [This mistake may only apply to the Blu Ray version.]

Phaneron

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Darth Vader: If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Trivia: When filming ROTJ, Lucas didn't want anyone to find out that they were shooting the third Star Wars movie, because pandemonium could break out. So when someone asked the crew what they were filming, they said "Blue Harvest". All of the crew had shirts and hats that said Blue Harvest on them. The fictitious film's tagline was "Horror beyond imagination."

More trivia for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Question: Who is Luke talking about when he covers up his hand and says that he has a promise to keep to an old friend? Who is the old friend?

Tyler R

Answer: Yoda. When he was departing for Cloud City to save his friends in the previous film, he promised Yoda that he would return to Dagobah to complete his training.

Phaneron

OK. But I thought he was talking about the holeish thing in his hand since he covered it up when he said it. I must have misunderstood it.

The hole in Luke's robotic hand reminds him that he got that robotic hand in the first place because he lost his duel with Darth Vader at Cloud City - a confrontation Yoda warned him he was not ready for.

TonyPH

More questions & answers from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

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