Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Corrected entry: When Anakin tries his podracer for the first time, his hair and clothes move as if there was wind. There are three problems with that. First, his pod isn't moving, hence no wind. Second, other persons near him don't seem to be affected by wind and third, it doesn't do that at the beginning of the Boonta Eve race, when they start their motors.

Dr Wilson

Correction: It isn't wind that's causing his hair and clothes to move, but rather exhaust from the pod turbines, which he has just switched on. The other characters aren't affected by it because Qui-Gon and Kitster are out of range to the left and Amidala, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Jar-Jar are out of range to the right. As for why you don't see his hair moving at the start of the Boonta Eve race, it's because his helmet has plastered it to his head and only a few strands are loose.

Phil C.

Corrected entry: After Anakin speaks the last time to his mother, he return with Qui-Gon. There is a water evaporator besides them. On the top, there is something looking like a Pepsi logo.

Dr Wilson

Correction: There is another shot closer to it and it doesn't look like a Pepsi logo.

Dr Wilson

Corrected entry: If combat droids are radio-controlled by a computer on the neimodian ship, why do they need to be spoken to via hologram too?

Dr Wilson

Correction: The droids are powered by the ship, they are given artificial intelligence and thus must be spoken to in order to receive orders.

Corrected entry: During the scene where Anakin is flying the Naboo starfighter we see him telling R2-D2 to switch off the auto-pilot. When R2-D2 does so we can see the red auto-pilot light switch off, but in the next shot it has mysteriously switched itself back on.

Correction: It's the red colour of the dial-displays that signifies that the auto-pilot is on. They stay blue once it is turned off. We have no way of knowing what the central switch with the red light does, so it could turn on and off for other reasons.

Jez

Corrected entry: Darth Maul, like the Jedis, would have amazingly fast reflexes, yet he isn't quick enough to block Obi-Wans death blow. Watch the scene again. Even a normal person could react to that quick enough and be able to block it in time. Yet Maul just casually watches Obi-Wan jump over him and kill him.

Correction: But Maul isn't expecting such a great move from the young Jedi apprentice. He is surprised; caught out by his arrogance. Isn't that the point?

Jez

Corrected entry: At the end when Darth Maul knocks Obi Wan back into the reactor pit using the force, Maul's lightsaber is on. When Obi Wan jumps out of the pit and over Maul, you can see Maul's saber is off. Next thing you see, when Maul gets sliced in half, the lightsaber is back on again.

Correction: This is not true. His lightsabre remains on until he is sliced in two, when it turns off as he falls. It is just out of shot when Obi-Wan jumps, but you can see the red glow.

Jez

Corrected entry: When Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon enter the underwater city they are wet for the first shot but dry in the second. Plus the floor does not get wet.

gandolfs dad

Correction: They do in fact stay wet. The floor is not shown enough to tell is it gets dripped on or not. If they do appear at all drier, this can be attributed to the barrier they went through, which, as it is designed to stop water coming in, would surely remove some of the surface water from their bodies/clothes as they entered.

Jez

Corrected entry: When Qui Gon is fighting Darth Maul in the desert, it shows a view from inside the ship. There are three very thin and closely placed together windows. When it switches to the outside of the ship. There are only 4 very thick windows that are spaced far apart.

Correction: There are 6 windows, split down the centreline of the ship into two groups of three. The view from inside looks through one of these groups. The sizes and shapes match up fine as well.

Jez

Corrected entry: Near the beginning of the film, there are about 30 Federation ships blockading Naboo but after the planet is invaded, only one remains. How does the Federation maintain the blockade with only one ship? And why did they leave only one ship to control every robot on the planet? Shouldn't they have realized that, if this one ship was destroyed, their entire plan would instantly fail?

Correction: Once the Federation has what they believe to be complete control of the planet, there is no need for more than one ship there to control the droids. The Federation knows that the Naboo are a peaceful people and the thought of them actually being able to blow up their control ship is absolutely preposterous to them.

Correction: Not true. The currency of Tatooine is "wupiupi", not "rupee"

Corrected entry: When Qui-Gon is talking with Watto about thier bet after the race (on a balcony above the track) you can see Qui-Gon move to the edge of the balcony. He stands there for a moment and then moves back in just in time to miss being spotted by one of Darth Maul's probe droids! Jedi intuition, or just good luck? (01:10:41)

Correction: The probe droid DID see Qui-Gon during its flyby. This is why Darth Maul gets on his hoverbike and rides off when the probe droids return to him - because he now knows where the Jedi are.

Corrected entry: If C3-PO is from Tatooine and R2-D2 was there, why in Star Wars are they completely unfamiliar with the planet? How come R2-D2 doesn't know Obi-wan and Obi-wan doesn't recognise the robot that saved his life?

Correction: In "A New Hope", Uncle Owen tells Luke to take R2-D2 to get its memory erased as if the memory erase isn't a big deal at all. Most likely, in the thirty or so years between episodes 1 and 4, an owner of the droids did exactly what Uncle Owen wanted to do. Also, Obi-Wan must have worked with hundreds of droids in his career as a Jedi - this may be disproved in the forthcoming films, but for the moment we can only assume that R2-D2 was one of many.

Corrected entry: When Senator Palpatine informs Amidala that he is a candidate for the Chairman, she asks who are the oponents. He answers: "...and Bail Antilles of Alderaan." Antilles (Wedge) was from Correlia, and Palpatine's greatest opposition was Bail Organa of Alderaan (Leia's father).

Correction: It's been explained that Antilles is a fairly common surname, and Bail is a relatively common first name, so the similarity is entirely coincidental.

Corrected entry: When Qui Gon first enters Watto's shop he is greeted by Watto in a language other than English (let's just abbreviate this language as OTE - Other Than English). Even though Qui Gon is greeted in OTE he then speaks English to Watto. This would indicate that he either understands OTE, or knows that Watto can also speak English. Watto then calls in Anakin and speaks to him in OTE. Yet he always speaks to Qui Gon in English. Even though Anakin and Watto speak both languages, they usually speak English to Qui Gon. Watto seems to speak OTE to Anakin whenever he doesn't want Qui Gon to understand him. However, in the scene where Qui Gon and Watto bet on the race there is a shot where Watto speaks to Anakin in OTE and the translation is something along the lines of "Better stop your friend's betting or I may end up owning him too." Then Anakin looks to Qui Gon and asks, "What did he mean by that?" Then Qui Gon replies, "I'll tell you later." This would indicate that Qui Gon understood what Watto had just said AND that he understands OTE.

Correction: The OTE language that Watto speaks is consistent with the Star Wars world - English being known as Basic - the common language. It can be assumed that senior jedi and businessmen know a variety of languages, OTE being something common in the Outer Rim like Huttese or whatever (if OTE were Watto's own language, and Qui-Gon were familiar, why is it he did not know Watto's resistance to the Force). So Qui-Gon would be familiar, but not proficient in such a language, while Basic would be the common language denominator.

Corrected entry: When Qui-Gon and Maul are fighting on Tatooine, Qui-Gon's lightsaber hits the handle of Maul's. This would do exactly the same as it does near the end of the movie except that this time Maul is in a position where he would have been chopped.

Correction: Qui-Gon's final swing of his green blade contacts the red blade of Maul's saber itself, several inches past the edge of Maul's saber handle. Qui-Gon never lands a blow on the handle itself.

Corrected entry: Towards the beginning of the movie when the two jedi are confronted by the three destroyers (Droidikars), they see that it's a "stand-off" and run away very quickly just barely being missed by laser blasts. As they run, go frame by frame during this section, and you'll notice that the jedi disappear for several frames although their lightsabers do not. I'm sure this a film flaw. Or do Jedi have the power to disappear at will?

Correction: They don't really disappear. They actually are using Force Speed to escape them. Just watch the shot after they run. You can see them clearly running faster than normal.

Corrected entry: At certain times in the podrace, a red light, like a laser pen, is in Anakin's eyes. This happens when the race is about to start and half way through.

Correction: It's just a reflection from the pod racer's instruments.

Corrected entry: Not really a mistake, but every time I see it I wonder why the princess and her guards just don't open fire on Darth Maul when he opens the hangar doors. There's no way he could have blocked all of the blasts and it would have taken all of 2 seconds to crispy-fry him. Instead they let the Jedi face him, resulting in Qui Gon's death.

Correction: A Jedi fully attuned to the Force is able to deflect energy bolts from multiple sources almost as an afterthought. A Sith Lord of Maul's caliber (remember, it took two Jedi Knights at the height of their powers to defeat him) armed with a double-bladed lightsaber would have little difficulty defending himself even against a dozen blaster-wielding assailants.

Corrected entry: After Darth Maul is cut into two pieces, his body splits in half as he falls. Notice how the cape on his lower half remains attached as he falls. I would think it would flap away from his lower torso if it was severed in half also.

Correction: The Cape is held around the body by the belt. Darth Maul is separated above it.

Corrected entry: If all the other Jedi in the previous movies disappear, why doesn't Qui-Gonn do so when he is killed by Darth Maul?

Correction: Multiple explanations for this. My preferred one is that he didn't accept his death (Yoda and Obi-Wan both do), and as such he doesn't disappear.

Continuity mistake: During the podrace, Anakin is in front of Sebulba and has him on his tail. One view looking towards Anakin you can see Sebulba's pod in the background, but the driver's seat is empty. (01:04:10)

More mistakes in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Qui-Gon Jinn: You must have Jedi reflexes if you race pods.
[Jar Jar tries to grab a piece of fruit with his tounge, but Qui-Gon catches it.]
Qui-Gon Jinn: Don't do that again.

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Trivia: This film had the dubious honor as being the highest-grossing film to be nominated for "Razzie" awards, until "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" was released in 2018. It also has the dubious honor as one of a few films to be nominated for both "Razzie" (for directing, screenplay, picture, and acting roles) and Academy Awards (only for technical achievements) at the same year. While it did not win any Oscars, it won only one "Razzie" for "Worst Supporting Actor" (Ahmed Best who provided the voice of Jar-Jar Binks).

megamii

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Question: Something I never quite figured out when watching the film was what the shields in the corridor were for? The shields that separate Darth Maul from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan during the fight. There are dozens of them and all they seem to do is benefit the fight in the film without having any real purpose.

Lummie

Chosen answer: According to "Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I" by Kristin Lund, they are "laser doors which lock into position in response to potentially lethal power outputs that occur intermittently during plasma activation process" (the fight takes place in a plasma energy processing plant). There are six laser doors in deference to an ancient Naboo legend in which Chaos is held back by six inpentrable gates. As you say though, they're really just a plot device to add dramatic tension to the duel!

Sierra1

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