Continuity mistake: As the boom slams into Will, there's no pile of rope lying at the stern, only one line. In the next shot, Jack reaches down to pick up Will's sword and now there's a pile of rope lying on deck. When Jack swings the boom back and Will drops on deck, there's no pile of rope on deck again. This doesn't refer to the rigging lines attached to the boom. (00:49:35)
Continuity mistake: Aboard Interceptor, Will cuts the lines leading to Dauntless with his axe and Interceptor pulls away. As they pull away, the first gangplank falls, knocks into the swivel cannon on the rail of Interceptor, forcing it to now point up. Jack and Will are busy stealing Interceptor. When Jack yells out, "Thank you, Commodore!" the cannon is turned straight around again. The first shot was part of the mishap during filming, as noted in another mistake. (00:47:05)
Continuity mistake: Interceptor is side by side with Dauntless, in order to capture Jack and Will. Norrington boards Dauntless with three other men following him and in that close-up ON deck, Norrington says, "Search every cabin, every hull, down to the bilges." Yet, in the next shot, Norrington and those three men are actually seen just climbing up the gangplank to Dauntless. (00:46:55)
28th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: At Henneth Annun, Frodo and Sam have their blindfolds removed, and in this wide shot, behind them to their right one of the Rangers throws a cloth onto a crate that has objects lying on it, and sits down on the sack. In the semi close-up shots of Frodo and Sam, the cloth the Ranger threw lies differently and the things lying on the crate are different too. No one touched them. (00:28:55)
28th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: At Henneth Annun, Frodo and Sam have their blindfolds removed, and to their left are two barrels. In the 1st shot, one barrel has a brown cloth draped on it with a bowl of nuts and cracked shells and on the second barrel, candles that are not lit. In the 2nd shot, Faramir walks in and to his right the brown cloth under the bowl of nuts is draped differently, the candles, which are lit now, are a different variety and there are also ceramic jugs near the barrels now. After Frodo answers, "Yes. For my part," Faramir gets up and as he walks, the items on the barrels look the same as in the first shot. (00:29:00)
28th Jan 2004
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)
28th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: Boromir approaches the statue that holds the shards of Narsil. First we see the shards laid out on the crinkled grey cloth, with two short ends draped over the edge. Then as he takes the hilt the cloth bunches up (seen on fullscreen), and he cuts his finger on the 'still sharp' blade. In the close-up when he carelessly places the hilt back onto the cloth - as it starts to fall, the cloth (which is now darker) is spread out much straighter, more cloth drapes over the left edge, and the shards are spaced somewhat differently than the previous shot. When Boromir walks away, there is a very short amount of cloth that is draped over the right edge, near the statue's fingers. Then, when Aragorn lifts the hilt off the floor, as he rises, both ends of the cloth that are draped over the edge are now much, much, longer, and the top of the cloth is crinkled, with the shards spaced similarly to the first shot. (01:33:55)
28th Jan 2004
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)
28th Jan 2004
Deliberate mistake: First there's a shot of Saruman as he communicates with Sauron using the palantir, then a shot of Barad-dur. Next we see the Orcs at Orthanc pulling down trees and a shot of a tree falling into the cavern below. In FotR, just after Gandalf catches the moth atop Orthanc, we see a shot of a tree falling into the cavern down below. These are the exact same shot, only it's been flipped in this movie. (00:20:00)
27th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: When Gandalf says, "Mellon," the doors to Moria open and they all go in. Legolas soon picks up an arrow and says, "Goblins!" When he does so, we see the left long braid is loose at the end and coming undone. After Boromir shouts, "Legolas!" in the close-up we see the perfectly made long braid hanging down. (00:16:55)
27th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: At Balin's Tomb, after Gimli kneels and cries, "Oh no! No!" there is an overhead shot of the room. In this shot we see the papers littering the floor around the tombstone. Next we see an extreme close-up of the tombstone, with the skeletal head to its left and the absence of papers around it. Then, in a close-up of the skeleton holding the book, we see papers again, but they are lying about differently than in the overhead shot. Then in the next shot as Gandalf hands Pippin his hat and staff, the papers are the same again, as in the previous overhead shot. (00:25:20)
27th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: As Gimli runs into the room of Balin's Tomb, he stops and says, "No!" and in this wide shot, the huge stone with skeletal remains on and around it is lying away from the wall, just behind Gimli, to his left. He kneels, and after he cries, "Oh no! No!" there is a wide overhead shot of the room. In this shot, that particular stone with the skeletal remains is right next to the corner of the wall now. This doesn't have anything to do with camera angle. (00:25:10)
27th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: At Dwarrowdelf, as Gimli runs towards the Chamber of Mazarbul with Balin's Tomb, we see outside the doorway an assortment of body remains, armor and other objects. Then after hearing the approaching Orcs, Boromir looks out of the doorway, and we see to his left that the various body remains and armor are different. When Aragorn and Boromir close the doors to the room, outside we see the position and/or variety of body remains, armor and objects change again. (00:25:05)
27th Jan 2004
Continuity mistake: At Edoras, standing on the steps of the Golden Hall, Hama says, "I can not allow you before Theoden King so armed...By order of Grima Wormtongue." Then Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli disarm themselves and give their weapons to the guards. After requesting not to be parted from his 'walking stick', the next wide shot shows them walking towards the door, with the guards at the sides holding the weapons of the four visitors. Yet in the very next shot from behind, though it still shows them walking towards the door, the guards at the sides changed their positions, note the ornate columns. For example, in the first shot, to the right of Aragorn standing near the steps, is the guard holding Aragorn's sword, bow and arrows. In the second shot from behind, that guard is now on the other side of the column, closer to the door on Aragorn's right, standing next to another guard, who's holding Gandalf's sword and Legolas' bow. (01:17:40)
27th Jan 2004
Deliberate mistake: During the Warg attack, Aragorn is being dragged by the Warg and is heading for the cliff. In the very last wide shot of Aragorn, from behind his head, we see the hillside and riders behind the Warg, where they just came from. Next, we see a couple of shots of Gimli finishing off a Warg. In the next wide shot, the hillside including riders and bodies is the same one as earlier, only it's been flipped. (00:12:50)
27th Jan 2004
Deliberate mistake: During the Warg attack, Aragorn jumps onto a moving Warg and in a close-up, he headbutts the Orc rider. In the next shot, as they're riding, they pass a Rohan rider on a white horse. In the background there are dead bodies strewn on the hill to their right, as they're approaching a huge bush also to their right. As they continue moving, there are multiple shots, including Aragorn falling and stabbing the Orc. In the shot just after the Orc rips off the Evenstar, the Orc falls off the Warg and it is the very same background plate as before, as they pass that huge bush to their right. These two pieces of footage were obviously one sequence that was split and other shots were inserted in between them. (00:12:30)
27th Jan 2004
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: After Jack's attempted hanging, Will and Jack run with the rope and after knocking down the first three soldiers, they encounter another two at the stairs. In the first side shot, the two Marines trip over the rope empty handed and are almost at the ground. Yet, in the next front shot they are just tripping over the rope and they both have swords in their hands now. Also, Jack is higher up on the steps in the second shot. (02:07:10)
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)
Continuity mistake: Being chased by the Pearl, the Interceptor lowers the anchor and it catches a rock. After a few shots on deck the next shot below deck, is of the table with the medallion on it. As the table starts to tip we see the medallion and chain. In the next close-up shot, the chain is lying on the table differently. The chain didn't start to slide between shots, only after the second shot. (01:24:25)
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