Continuity mistake: On the way to Helm's Deep, when they stop for the night, Éowyn offers Aragorn some stew. As Aragorn is putting the spoon into his mouth, in the wide shot, there is a piece of 'white food' hanging over the side of the bowl near his right hand, Aragorn's hair is messy, blowing on his forehead and his hair is put behind his left ear. In the following close-up shot of his reaction to the taste of the stew, the 'white food' isn't hanging off the side of the bowl, his hair isn't as messy on his forehead and he has more hair in front of his ear now. (00:01:40)
Continuity mistake: When Aragorn is dreaming of Arwen, they stand and kiss. In the close ups, his hands are on her cheeks and jaw, but in the wider shot his hands are on her waist. (00:05:35)
Continuity mistake: Very near the start, when Frodo and Sam are talking, keep an eye on Sam's backpack. The blanket rolled up at the top of it moves up and down his back, without him adjusting it. (00:06:10)
Continuity mistake: When Frodo and Sam are eating the Lembas, the camera angle switches back and forth between them. At one angle, the Ring once again is first outside, and then at the next shot of him, it is back inside the coat. (00:07:15)
Continuity mistake: When Sam first reaches into his pack, in the close-up, he takes out the lembas bread and says, "Oh yes. Lovely", one corner of the leaf is sticking up. As he continues to say, "Lembas bread", in this wide shot, all the corners of the leaf are now down and completely covering the lembas bread. (00:07:20)
Continuity mistake: As the people are fleeing from Edoras, many shots are shown of Eowyn, and frequently her hair is arranged somewhat differently. (00:08:15 - 00:10:00)
Continuity mistake: As Gamling and Hama ride past Aragorn and Éowyn, a snowy high mountain range can be seen right behind them. As they are riding past Legolas' view, over Legolas' head, another greener mountain range is right behind them. These shots were filmed at different locations. (00:08:15)
Continuity mistake: Just after the Warg knocks Hama off his horse, in the wide shot, Hama is lying in short green grass and his sword is flat. Then in the first close-up of Hama, he is lying in thick, tall, yellow patches of grass and his sword is sticking way up to his left. (00:08:50)
Continuity mistake: When Gamling is fighting the Warg scout, after Hama's death, Legolas jumps off the high rocks, and starts running towards the Orc. There are high rock ridges behind and to the left of Legolas. As soon as the Orc scout falls to the ground, in the next shot of Legolas, as he runs toward the Orc, that background is flat and there is only one rock ridge directly behind Legolas. (00:09:00)
Continuity mistake: After Legolas yells, "A scout!" Aragorn runs back towards the Rohirrim to warn them. In the first shot, he's running down the hill, straight ahead of him, is Theoden on his horse, Éowyn leading two horses on foot and people to her left. In the next shot, Éowyn's two horses are pointed to her right, there aren't any people to her left, and now standing between Theoden and Éowyn is Gimli with Arod. (00:09:15)
Continuity mistake: In this first shot, there is a close-up of Legolas releasing an arrow towards the oncoming massive Warg attack. Then a wide shot of the hill, with Legolas still letting loose, and in the background, the riders on horseback coming over the hill. To Legolas' left are two riders on horseback that are just passing him. They are Gamling and Gimli. But in the next shot, Gimli is just coming from behind Legolas, and then Legolas leaps onto Arod. (00:10:30)
Continuity mistake: After Legolas leaps onto Arod, the men on horseback change in their arrangement, as they charge towards the Warg Riders. In one shot Gamling is just drawing his sword, while riding between Theoden and Legolas. Next shot is a Rohan rider directly behind Legolas. Then in the next shot of Theoden, it shows Gamling drawing his sword again, riding behind Legolas. (00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: During the Warg battle, just after Gimli falls off Arod, the Warg across the field lifts his face and spots Gimli. In the two close-up shots, directly behind the Warg, on his right, there are two arrows sticking up out of a dead body. However, in the wide shot that follows, there is no body with two arrows protruding, anywhere behind him. It is not the bodies to his side. (00:11:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Warg raises his head from his kill, he spots Gimli and he growls, showing his blood stained teeth. There are spikes on both sides of the harness around his neck. When he charges toward Gimli, Legolas kills him and he falls right in front of Gimli. There are no spikes on the harness, nor are his teeth stained with blood as before. (00:11:20)
Continuity mistake: During the Warg attack, as the first Warg falls on top of Gimli, in the wide shot we see the area they fall, past the Warg. Later, when the second Warg climbs on top of the corpses and Gimli, in the wide shot, as Aragorn throws the spear we see the area past the second Warg again. The landscape, including patches of grass and rocks, is different in the two shots. This has nothing to do with the angle of the shots. (00:11:30)
Continuity mistake: When Aragorn fights with the Orc riding the Warg, Aragorn knocks the Orc off and he falls to the ground. Then the Warg tumbles off the cliff with Aragorn. If you notice, the Orc falls a fair distance from the cliff, but when Legolas and Gimli ask him what happened, he is much closer to the cliff edge. (00:12:45 - 00:13:40)
Continuity mistake: When the Uruk-hai run through the rock canyon carrying Merry and Pippin, it's obviously the same rock canyon that Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli run through when Aragorn says, "Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall." However, when the Uruks run through it, many false rock formations and extra running footage were added which not only changes the appearance of part of the canyon between the two shots, but also makes it seem like a longer distance through the same canyon. (00:14:40 - 00:18:00)
Continuity mistake: Éowyn and many of the refugees are shown as they see Helm's Deep in the distance. In the first wide shot, Éothain and Freda are riding on the horse and a particular rock formation is seen way in the distance. They keep riding towards Helm's Deep, which we see in the next shot. In the children's next close-up, they are now right in front of that rock formation that was shown in the earlier shot. This is not due to zooming. The two pieces of footage were switched, so as to have their close-up seen last. (00:14:55)
Continuity mistake: When Gimli is about to tell Eowyn that Aragorn fell, Gimli's axe has Orc blood on it, in the next shot there is no blood. There's not enough time for him to have cleaned his axe. (00:16:40)
Continuity mistake: When Saruman and Wormtongue look down from Orthanc at the Uruk-hai army, it is spread out across the plain in front of the tower. What happened to the vast caverns which had been dug into the ground? Some are shown off to the left of shot, but the landscape had earlier been shown as much more pitted in other scenes. (00:17:30)
Answer: The movie makes it clear that Gandalf has lost some of his memory and his personality has changed. Gandalf actually did die and pass over to the "other side", as it were but was sent back to complete his task. However, he was sent back as a similar, but different entity. Gandalf the White does not have all the memories of Gandalf the Grey, at least at first. He doesn't even remember that he used to be called Gandalf the Grey until someone points this out to him. It is implied that Gandalf doesn't even remember Sam until Aragorn mentions him. Gandalf then searches his memories and remembers who Sam is and his eventual importance to Frodo's quest. When he finally remembers this, he is pleased that Sam went with Frodo, as he will play a crucial role near the end of the journey.