STAR WARS I: THE PHANTOM MENACE
When Mace Windu tests Anakin Skywalker, he nods
when the boy says it's a picture of a speeder, but it's a
picture of a starship.
Outside the Senate building, the vehicles flying across
the screen from left to right don't cast shadows on the
ground.
The Gungan Chief is clearly not the same species as the
rest of his people.
When dangling above the reactor shaft, Obi-Wan couldn't
have seen Qui-Gon's lightsabre from that angle. (Was
this the power of the force bending the light into his
eyes?)
As Jar Jar tries to steal food from the vendor in Mos Espa, there is a man with a scarred face in the background walking past. As the camera cuts to another angle, the same man is making the same approach again, without having ever returned to his starting position.
When Qui-Gon Jinn gets impaled on Darth Maul's lightsabre, he
falls with his left arm at his side. When he's next seen, his
arm's draped across his chest, then it's at his side
again.
Panaka refers to the Senator for Alderaan as Bail Antilles, when his name is actually Bail Organa.
Darth Maul's lightsabre disappears when he falls down the reactor shaft.
At the very end of the film, Padme Amidala looks over her
shoulder to smile at Anakin. Looking at the angle she
appears to be standing at (facing the Gungan chief and
with her back to Anakin) she would have to be able to see
through that gargantuan collar she's wearing in order to see him.
STAR WARS II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES
There are three Naboo fighters escorting Senator Amidala's ship to Coruscant, yet there are four on and around the landing pad during the explosion.
Ki-Adi-Mundi's lightsaber blade is blue for most of the film, but it briefly turns green at one point in the end battle.
During the execution ceremony, when Anakin is calming the beast he is about to take a ride on the back of, he is standing in front of it, staring into its eyes. He then leaps onto the creature's back, yet he jumps onto it from SIDE-on, even though neither he nor the creature ever moved.
In Palpatine's office, watch the traffic outside the window. The same vehicles fly past almost every time, in the same sequence.
On the bridge of her ship Padme uses the same button on the control panel to call up the tactical readout that she'd previously used for the communicator. Now I suppose that this isn't necessarily wrong, but it does lead you to wonder what all the other controls on the panel are there for.
Although the rips on her tunic remain, the wounds to Padme's back disappear during the battle between the clones and the droids.
Obi-Wan's new lightsabre blade is bright purple when he fights the droids, then light blue when he fights Count Dooku.
After the duel with Dooku, Yoda clips his lightsabre back onto the front of his belt, but it's disappeared a moment later.
Jango Fett bangs his head on the door as he enters his ship. NOTE: This maybe one of those deliberate in-jokes George Lucas is so fond of, referring to THAT moment in Episode IV.
When Anakin fights Dooku, the two lightsabres he wields swap hands.
Nothing comes out of the cup when Dex takes a swig.
When Anakin is searching for the changeling in the cantina, his Padawan 'rat-tail' braid keeps changing sides of his head.
From the command she gives the clonetrooper after falling from the transport, Padme appears to be aware of the hangar that Dooku is fleeing to on the hillside. How does she know about this when this is the first time she's ever seen Geonosis, and no one informed her of it beforehand?
STAR WARS III: REVENGE OF THE SITH
Obi-Wan refers to Darth Sidious as 'Emperor' before Palpatine himself does (or before the founding of the Galactic Empire is even announced). To compound this, when he confronts Vader later on, Obi-Wan calls Palpatine 'the Chancellor' again.
Mace Windu is carrying the wrong lightsabre while at the tactical table in the war room.
The two Royal guards Yoda sends crashing into the wall of Palpatine's office disappear during his fight with Darth Sidious.
Obi-Wan, Vader, Padme, Palpatine and countless others fail to die while on Mustafa. This is some achievement on a planet of lava, as the poisonous gases should have killed the lot of them the moment they drew breath.
STAR WARS IV: A NEW HOPE
This one has millions of 'em (perhaps literally). We'll start with the various botched lines.;-
Princess Leia says "The Imperial Senate will not
distill for this" when she is meant to say that they
"will not sit still over this."
Luke calls R5-D4 an R2 unit.
Admiral Motti mispronounces "sorcerer's ways".
What he says sounds something like "Do not try to
frighten us with your sauce worse ways, Lord Vader."
Red Leader calls Pops Gold Leader, when he should have
said Gold 5. He also asks Red 6 if he can see Luke's
fighter, but Red 6 (Porkins) has already been destroyed.
Red 4 and Red 12 are seen during the battle, but neither
of them reported in before the firing started.
Famous one here. Luke, according to some people, cries
out "CARRIE!!" while he and the Princess
celebrate victory over the Death Star (I'm not convinced
he did, incidentally, no matter what George Lucas says. I
think Luke was just whooping, but I thought I'd put this
one in before everyone e-mails me asking why I left it
out).
When Luke fires the torpedoes at the exhaust port, a
faint voice can be heard to say "Die dickhead!"
(Unconfirmed).
Retroactive error: Ben claims that he hasn't gone by the name Obi-Wan since before Luke was born. Judging by the details revealed at the end of Episode III, this is untrue.
Others find it difficult negotiating their way around the
cramped corners of spaceships;-
For instance there's another famous one where a
stormtrooper bangs his head on a door while it's still
opening.
When Han, Chewbacca, Luke and Leia are on the run aboard the Death Star, they run into a group of stormtroopers. Han shoots one and starts to chase the others. Watch the dead stormtrooper's leg after he falls - he rather kindly moves it out of the way so Han won't trip over him.
While the stormtroopers are searching for Leia on the Tantive IV, a white-trousered leg, which is patently not Leia's, gets caught in shot at the side of the screen.
Artoo Detoo has serious problems telling left from right.
Like the left stabiliser of Luke's X-Wing being the one
that is hit by fire from the TIE Fighter, and the right
stabiliser being the one Artoo repairs in the trench
later on.
As Luke stumbles on Leia's message, See Threepio stumbles on the stairs.
Early in the film, after receiving the Death Star plans
from Princess Leia, Artoo rolls into a bulkhead. (You
don't see the collision but it's clearly about to happen.)
He then becomes the most athletic astromech droid in
history by moving down more than half the corridor to
reach See Threepio in a little under a second.
On the subject of the physically improbable, how do Han,
Ben, Chewbacca and the droids reach the Death Star
Docking bay control room without anyone seeing them? Are
the two stormtroopers they shot and the Deck Officers the
only ones in the entire area? I suppose it is possible
but when you watch it it just doesn't seem right.
A man in a green jacket appears to be sitting in the hatch of the Falcon while it blasts out of Mos Eisley (original version only, I think).
Most other problems come from props and special effects;-
Leaving Tatooine: Just before Luke and Ben run into the
cockpit, Han leaps into his seat and grabs the flight
console, making it tilt.
When Darth Vader kills Ben and starts to walk back to the closing doors his lightsaber has turned into a metal rod.
When Luke finds his Aunt and Uncle's corpses, smoke is blowing across the screen from left to right. We cut to the opposite angle to see Luke and yet the movement of his hair indicates that the wind is still blowing across the screen from left to right.
Ponda Baba's hands seem to change shape during the cantina scene.
Darth Vader's chest plate is upside down during the duel with Obi-Wan.
While Luke is arguing with Owen, the pitcher of blue milk
keeps moving around the dinner table by itself.
During the duel with Vader, the white cord providing power to Ben's lightsaber keeps getting caught in shot behind him.
During one of the 'sabre-locks' as they duel, Ben's and Vader's lightsabre blades briefly swap colours.
You can glimpse Kenny Baker's head inside Artoo when he
gets captured by the Jawas - watch him as he turns around
to see who's spying on him, and again just before he gets
put into the Sandcrawler.
The hole Leia blasts into the cover of the garbage chute keeps changing size as people drop through it. Furthermore, when Han dives in his foot hits one of the grate pieces and you can see that it's made of rubber.
Shortly before Obi-Wan's duel with Vader, we glimpse a group of stormtroopers, one of whom has his arm guard on backwards.
Han's right arm keeps passing through Jabba's CGI-jaw.
In the Cantina on Tatooine, just after Obi Wan and Luke
have secured the deal with Han, the camera fixes on a
couple of stormtroopers walking their way. Look in
the middle of the screen, and that little mousy alien
tries to take a drink, but misses his mouth.
When Han Solo sits down at the Falconīs controls to take the ship out from the Death Star, he is wearing the white Stormtrooper utility belt. In the next sequence, when he and Luke are manning the gun turrets, he is suddenly wearing his usual brown gunbelt.
Luke's Stormtrooper utility belt changes into his regular belt on the way to the guns.
The objects on Ben's table suddenly rearrange themselves while he's talking to Luke (the power of the Force again, maybe?).
The mouths on some of the stormtrooper helmets are mis-shapen,
including one which is set in a cheesy grin.
The first time we see Han enter the Falcon, his head
seems to bump against a pair of fuzzy dice that aren't
there in subsequent shots.
In Ben's house, the curtain in the alcove behind Threepio
vanishes while Luke is trying out his father's lightsabre
for the first time.
A bright blue object is caught in Leia's hair while she is comforting Luke. Her eyes start watering later as she tries, unsuccessfully, to remove it, suggesting it hurts quite a bit.
When Vader attacks Gold 2 and Red 12 his shots seem to
bend, as do Black 3's blasts when they hit Red 2.
Vader's first shots at Luke pass under the X-Wing, but
one of them hits Artoo who is perched at the top.
The last TIE Fighter attacking the Millenium Falcon,
flies 'below' the freighter to a position which
could only be hit by the belly guns, manned by Luke.
However, Han is the one who shoots it down from the main
guns. The only way that could happen is if his shots pass
through the body of the Falcon.
STAR WARS V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
The main error in this film appears to be the overall
timing. Luke and Artoo leave Hoth a few moments after the
Millenium Falcon. They travel to Dagobah and, for his
powers to develop as far as they apparently do, Luke must
have been training with Yoda for several weeks at least,
possibly even months. Meanwhile, Han and the others spend
a couple of days trying to run and hide from the Imperial
fleet, and make repairs, at the end of which they reach
Cloud City. There they are capured and Luke comes
running, arriving at Bespin just a couple of days after
them. Unless Han and the others spent an increeeeeeedibly
long time inside the space slug's mouth (without being
digested? Without Vader finally giving up and trying to
catch Luke some other way? Sure, I believe that), plus an
amazingly long while travelling at sub-light speeds to
Bespin, the whole set-up fits together about as well as a
soggy jigsaw.
During the battle on Hoth the weather changes from shot
to shot - first the sky is blue and cloudless, then
bright with some clouds and finally grey and overcast.
After Vader re-boards Executor, the badges on the
Imperial uniforms appear to have moved to the other sides
of the officers' chests.
When Luke blows up the AT-AT, look at its rear left foot
- a stick pops up from the ground to topple it over and
it gets caught in shot. You can just glimpse the stick
when the foot turns sideways.
On Bespin, when Chewie finds See Threepio's remains, you
can see some of the film-crew reflected in Threepio's
head.
When Vader talks to Luke above the core shaft, the head-shell
of his breath mask keeps wobbling in the breeze.
Lando is unarmed during the race through Cloud City to escape the stormtroopers, then he plucks a rifle out of thin air just before boarding the Millennium Falcon.
The only other apparent error I can find is, while in the
space slug's stomach, Han opens the Falcon's hatch
without activating the airlock, and yet none of the
ship's atmosphere escapes. (And don't give me that old
"Oh there must be a force field" excuse - how
were they able to walk off the ship if there was?)
(This next bit wasn't a smeg up, but I thought I should
say I wasn't too fond of the scream they added in the
Special Edition when Luke falls down the core shaft. It
sounds like Kermit when Miss Piggy treads on his foot.)
STAR
WARS VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI
I
wasn't as fond of this film as the others (and yes, that includes The Phantom Menace!), so I'm happy to say I've found plenty of nits to pick.
Just after Artoo plays Luke's message to Jabba at his
palace, the film runs backwards - look at the smoke in
Jabba's pipe - it moves backwards, and the bubbles go
downwards.
Luke's glove changes hands several times while he's on Endor.
Oola's bra slips briefly while she is falling into the rancor pit, exposing one of her "bodily glories" for an instant.
While he's hanging by a rope from the skiff, Lando is wearing black gloves when viewed from long-range but is bare-handed when viewed from closer in.
(Subtle one) After Chewie is taken away by the guards in
Jabba's Palace we see Lando. Just before he pulls his
mask down, he hits his head on the ceiling.
The damage to Luke's mechanical hand keeps appearing and disappearing during the fight on the sail barge.
While talking to Han on the ramp of the Falcon, shortly
before Tydirium takes off, Lando's bandolier keeps moving
from shoulder to shoulder.
Han has a stain on his shirt when he is released from the carbonite. It has suddenly disappeared when he starts talking to Jabba.
Denis Lawson's Christian name is mis-spelt in the credits ("Dennis Lawson").
During the space battle, The Super Star Destroyer
Executor is behind the other Destroyers initially. A
moment later we see them again, but Executor suddenly
appears to be in front of the others, and as a result, it
looks like it's about a tenth its usual size.
When Han, Leia and Chewie are captured, Threepio steps out from hiding and calls to the imperial soldiers "Are you looking for me?" The officer says "Bring those two down here." However, Artoo was hiding behind a tree, so how did the officer know that there were two of them there?
While Paploo shows him the bunker's back-door, Han is
nearly whacked in the face by some swinging branches.
As the Emperor's shuttle heads in to land on the Death Star, four TIE fighters moving from right to left along the bottom half of the screen suddenly vanish.
When the Ewoks first lay eyes on Threepio, two of them
speak in English/Basic ("That guy's wise" ...
"as wise as i am short").
When Luke, Han, Chewie, and the droids get caught in the Ewok trap and Artoo cuts them down only Luke, Han, and Chewie are seen to fall. The droids don't appear to fall with them, but they are still on the ground with the others a moment later.
Luke has his lightsabre when he is captured by Imperial
troops, but he left the Ewok village before See Threepio
had a chance to recover the Rebels' weapons from Chief
Chirpa.
(Another petty one perhaps) The Ewoks' lips never move
when they speak.
Han's hand is too high when he grabs Leia and pulls her out of the firing line after she is shot in the arm.
The Death Star's second shot destroys a Calamari cruiser
it couldn't have possibly hit from that angle.
In the shield bunker, Han throws a crate at an Imperial
Officer who falls over the railings before it hits him.
Vader's helmet has little stains and smudges on it while Luke is bombarded by the Emperor's lightning bolts. A moment later the smudges have gone.
When the Super Star Destroyer crashes into the Death Star, amidst the cheers on Ackbar's ship it is once again possible to hear someone shouting the infamous "Die dickheads!" line.
In Jabba's Palace, the antenna on Boba Fett's outfit keeps switching from one side of his head to the other.
Just before Jabba's Barge blows to pieces, the large pole propping the second skiff up in front of the barge is caught in shot.
When Vader blocks Luke's attempt to strike down the Emperor, look closely at the crossed blades - Luke's appears to be nearer the Emperor than Vader's, suggesting that Vader was too late, and that there is nothing blocking Luke's attack.
While trying to save Lando from the Sarlaac pit, and while Chewie is supposed to be holding him up by the ankles, it is visibly clear that Han is in fact being held to the skiff by a length of rope.
(Pettiness warning.) When Leia shows her headgear to the Ewok, she says "It's a hat. It's not going to hurt you." It's not a hat, it's a helmet.
Plenty more screw ups in the series for us to find and sneer at, I don't doubt. In the meantime, we have plenty to keep us going, but let me know any more you can find.
|
|
