Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

How many people noticed continuity errors in TTT? What are they?

The first error I noticed was Frodo's scream in the begining. In FOTR, he screams after Gandalf falls. In TTT, he screams before he falls!

Another error a friend told me about was a while after Merry (or was it Pippin? :confused: ) pulled off his leaf brooch and spit it out. Later, during the orc battle, my friend said they both had their brooches on.

Finally, the last thing I noticed was Sam and Frodo's brooches would flip directions almost every scene near the end of the movie. I didn't notice if they did that earlier...

BTW, did anyone notice the entry for "Cute Rohan Refugee Children" in the credits? ROFL!

http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0167261

A friend of mine mentioned Gandalf's horse having a bridle in one scene but not in the next. Or something like that. Anyone else notice horse inconsistancies?

-matt

when they enter at king theodens place gandalfs staff points down/up/down between shots

I am going to deduct half a star from my rating of the film for every mistake pointed out in this thread.

This is from the first one, but I always wondered how Gandalf got his staff back when he escaped from Saruman, since Saruman took it from him.

I just thought of this in the morning. Merry and Pippin have never been to Isengard or Orthanc. How did they know that Saruman had desecrated the trees in order to have treebeard take them there?

Gandalf had been there, he relayed the situation in FOTR, plus they may have overheard orc conversations during their captivity.

Forgot. They also knew the orcs were taking them to saruman since they thought that's who the ents were going to take them to. The White Wizard.

This site blows, 75% of the stuff listed here aren't even mistakes, just nerds pointing out things they don't understand, as opposed to genuine mistakes and continuity errors.

Example:
"How does Faramir know his brother Boromir died, when only Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli were there to witness it? He hadn't met any of them. "
Well, in the BOOK, Faramir finds his brother's body on the shores of the river. Of course they don't have time for this non-essential scene in the movie, so they left it out. Is that a MISTAKE?!, No, its selective screenplay / editing.

One thing mentioned on this site that did kinda bother me was Frodo drawing Sting on Sam. I don't think this could really be considered a mistake, since it was obviously intentional, but it seems Faramir would not let prisoners remain armed.

Here is one from the website.

"During the battle of Helm's Deep, Legolas never runs out of arrows. In the book, Tolkien constantly has him foraging for his arrows after shooting them, but in the film, the supply in his quiver simply never diminishes."

Like all I want to watch for three hours is Legolas constantly searching for arrows.

He never did get his original staff back. The staff he has later is different. I wish I had some screen caps... but alas...

-matt

Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

I noticed the switch of shots, but I was very willing to put up with it for the badass unbroken tracking shot of Gandalf falling through the crevaces!

Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

After watching this again last night, I wouldn't call this a continuity error, without an admission from PJ.

Technically this was a dream sequence. When's the last time you had a dream about a past event that was 100% accurate? While the events Frodo did not witness, but had in his dream, ultimately prove to be an approximation of the facts, he is dreaming so some departures from fact should be expected or at least accepted.

Re: Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

A friend suggested the same thing...I sort of wonder how that accounts for showing what happened to Gandalf. Sure, Frodo wakes up at the end of the sequence, but how could he dream about something that he never heard about? Gandalf explains what happened later on. Movie magic I guess...hehe

Re: Re: Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

Or maybe simply magic, period. This is a fantasy after all.

Here is another one I caught. Sam complains about lambas bread, which was only talked about in the EE version of FOTR.

Looks like they had so much scenes shot that they forgot what was going into where.

I sort of wonder how that accounts for showing what happened to Gandalf. Sure, Frodo wakes up at the end of the sequence, but how could he dream about something that he never heard about?

In the book, Frodo dreams of Gandalf's imprisonment by Saruman at Orthanc before he knows about it or is even out of the Shire.

How is this a continuity error? Just because we didn't see him get the bread in the Theatrical Version doesn't mean he doesn't have it.

Not sure why it matters if this was discussed in LOTR or not. No real impact on the story, but a minor issue I guess. I would place that issue in the same catagory that only in the EE did they really explain how Hobbits eat multiple meals during the day, which explained their complaints about not stopping and eating enough.

I think a bigger issue(though still overall minor) is in FOTR when the eagle flies in and saves Gandalf. I hadn't read any of the books before I saw FOTR and this was a WTF scene for me at the time. At the very least I thought it came from left field. After reading The Hobbit, it made sense that they had a previous relationship.

They explain the multiple meals in the theatrical cut as well. The whole "does he know about second breakfast" conversation.

Also, Aragorn smokes in one scene, I think that should lower the rating.

Ahh, but smoking WHAT is the question?

I always thought that would leave people scratching their heads if they hadn't read the books. In a way, it reminds me of how so many people got confused at the end of the 1st Harry Potter, wondering how the sorceror's stone got in his pocket. That's the bad side of adapting a book to screen- it can be very hard at times to explain why certain things happen the way they do.

Yeah, very superficially they did explain, but didn't get into the hobbit way of life like in the EE or the book. But that is my point before, it really is a non-issue as far as telling the story goes and not a continuity error. Just a little extra for the people who already know the story.

Not only that, but Pippin and Merry got a glimpse of it from afar. Watch carefully at the beginning of one of the Treebeard scenes and you will see Orthanc in the distance over the tops of trees; Treebeard is focused on what he is saying while the Hobbits strain to see.

Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

I used my free ticket from the EE tonite, and I watched for these: nope and nope, Pippin's brooch stays gone, and Frodo and Sam's brooches don't switch, it's just that Sam's points one way, and Frodo's points the other. But I'm pretty sure they stay the same for each respectively.

Re: Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

I noticed that Sam and Frodo's broches always stayed opposite each other as if they were mirrored. I think that was deliberate.

Not quite a continuity error but the horse that Eomer gave Aragorn was named Hasufel. He later calls it Brego, the second King of Rohan. Maybe something was cut where he got another horse. On the battlements of Helms Deep, Aragorn drawsmhis sword with his left hand, but he is right handed and always wore his sword on his left. But I think this was a reverse shot to contrast the angle that the Uruks were on. I've seen it 5 times.

Re: Re: Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

The Horse that Eomer gave Aragorn was killed in the battle with the Warg Riders. The Horse that finds Aragorn is

Ok, I think I have what could be a real continuity error. In the battle at Helm Deep there is a scene after the Elf commander dies where Aragorn gets angry and grabs the top of one of the ladders and pushes it over onto a bunch of orcs while riding it. What seemed strange about this is that the ladders would only be on the outside of the wall, and therefore Aragorn was throwing himself into a huge group of orcs outside the wall. Then only a few seconds later he is running up the steps into the keep. Sure, this could be explained by off screen actions, but it seemed odd to me.

I just saw the movie again. I'm not sure because i got caught up in the battle but I believe I saw ladders on BOTH sides of the way. The Orcs had to get down from more than one way to make the attack effective.

Re: Re: Continuity Errors in TTT?
 

Exactly. This was not a continuity error at all but an intentional switch of shots. Frodo’s scream was rearranged to show Gandalf’s fall unbroken. What a classic Peter Jackson move it was and a great, dramatic way to open the film.

Close to finishing reading TTT and came across something else. In the book Faramir says that Gandalf came to visit them while looking for ancient records. In FOTR we see Gandalf visiting an ancient city on a mountainside. Then in TTT Minas Tirith is in a valley split by a river. I assume in FOTR Gandalf was in Minas Tirith like Faramir implied in the book.

Yes, The Fellowship of the Ring film actually shows Gandalf in Minas Tirith researching the origin of the One Ring. Peter Jackson points this out in the commentary track on the Extended Edition DVD. He and cohorts also say that they considered showing the titles of geographic locations on-screen to identify them but were afraid it might look too cheesy. In the book of FOTR, Gandalf mentions going to the archives of the citadel in Minas Tirith at the Council of Elrond. Also, Jackson states that about half of his movie of The Return of the King will take place in Minas Tirith.

The city on the hill was Minas Tirith. The city with the river running through it that was under attack in TTT was Osgiliath.

For nitpickers, I highly recommend www.nitpickers.com -- lots of fun. Interesting to choose a movie you like and then read all the comments -- http://www.nitpickers.com/movies/titles/302849.html = TTT

Tuan Jim

Part of the problem is the fact that this movie (the one we saw at the cinema) was NOT the version that's meant to be TTT. Like LOTR, this version is a cut version.

When you, as a director, realise that there will be two or more versions, which do you film? The whole "finished product" as the director intends or a "completed" film that is perfectly seamless after editting.

Sure, some of the continuity errors ARE errors, but a lot of them are scenes cut for time (for the theatrical release) that will be reinstated for the EE of the DVD.

Even now, I've heard rumors that after all three films are released (and finally out on DVD) there may be an additional set in the works that's 16 - 18 hours long (although from the commentry PJ has said that there was no scouring of the shire filmed). If that's the case, then some of the errors in the EE may actually become null and void after the "definitive" cut.

Ultimately, if you have a perfectly seamless 2 1/2 hour theatrical release and then go onto release a 3 1/2 hour version of the same thing, then the extra hour CAN be considered filler and not integral to the movie.

Me - I'm happy to put up with a few more continuity errors (at the theatrical release) if it means that the EE version of the DVD is a more "complete" version and the extra material isn't just added filler.

I just mentioned this in "extra sences in TTT trailer" but the fact that the initial rough cut of the film ran 4 hours, begs to ask what was filmed and ultimately dropped for the sake of the theatrical cut of the film. An hour's worth of film is a lot of footage, granted some of the scenes might have been redundant some of the film's errors and flaws IMO will be greatly enhanced with the extended cut of the film. Early rumoured word is that like FOTR, the Extended edition of "Two Towers" will only reinstate 30 minutes - well, I hope Jackson puts in as much footage back into the film he feels like to, to make this film a tad more coherent and complete. I continually bitch about this but I really hope more of the attack on Helm's Deep and the arrival of Gandalf at the film's conclusion can be elaborated.