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Continuity Errors in the OT

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I know that there is a web site dedicated to film errors, but I though it might be interesting to see what everyone has noticed in the way of errors in the original films (ie not the special editions). I've noticed several in ANH and not many in Empire or Jedi. However, I'm sure that there are errors in all of the films.

The ones in ANH that I have noticed are (for me) pretty hilarious. Like the bouncing Stormtrooper. When the Stormtroopers rush into docking bay 94 watch the scene closely. Han takes a couple of shots and at one point hits the archway and it explodes. At the same time one of the Stormtroopers colapses to his knees and then falls on his face. This is done in a long shot. Then in the close up of the Stormtroopers, the same soldier again falls to his knees and then on his face. Finally, as Han runs up the ramp, there is another long shot of the Stromtroopers and for the third time the same soldier does his thing. The only logical conclusion that I can reach is that this guy's uniforms must be made of rubber.

The circling Jawa is another good one. As Luke and 3PO are walking away after purchasing R5-D4 and C-3PO, R2 tries to sneak away. In the long shot of R2, a Jawa runs in front of him. Then just before R2 is stunned by the cheif Jawa, there is a close up of R2 and that same Jawa runs in front of him again. I believe it happens a third time, but I can't be sure. I'm sure everyone has noticed that when Uncle Owen says, 'What about that blue one? We'll take that one,' and thye show a side close up of R2, you can clearly see R5-D4 still sitting next to him. Impossible since R5-D4 is standing in front of Luke and 3PO.

Vader talking to Tarkin and his hands are moving but there is no dialogue.

Inside the sandcrawler you can see through R2's eye and see Kenny Baker inside.

During the battle of Yavin, you can see Vader's eyes or rather Dave Prowse's eyes through the mask.

The cardboard soldies during the awards ceremony.

Ben's lightsaber looses its color on a couple of instances during his duel with Vader and you can clearly see the sword (or fencing foil).

Has anyone noticed anything else from ANH? It took me years of watching ANH to find a mistake. Finally in 87, I noticed the first mistake. It was R5-D4 still standing next to R2 after the droid had exploded.

As for Empire and Jedi, I can't recall any at the moment so I'll let everyone else fill me in on those.
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The little mouse creature in the cantina (Kabe, if your familiar with the EU) has a mistake.

In one scene, its motioning with its hands for a drink. As its head turns, you can see through both plastic eyes and to the bar behind.

The R5-D4 thing (magic movement), was the first thing I noticed as well.
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During the battle of yavin in ANH, when 3PO is standing next to Leia, watch the dent in his head. It reverses as does what side he is standing on. This is because of 'mirror'. Somebody but the negative in backwords in that edit.
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There are many 'flipped' shots like the one MrCoffee refers to. It's sometimes necessary to maintain screen direction.

When Luke is looking for R2 with the macrobinoculars you can clearly see a rope pulling a droid across the screen.

In the shot where Luke and Ben first see the Millennium Falcon the Falcon has no radar dish. This is because only half of the Falcon was constructed for this scene. But I think a dish could have been matted in fairly easily.

After the Falcon takes off from Mos Eisley, Ben can still be seen walking out of the cockpit - after he had already strapped himself in at the chess table.

Right after Gold Leader says "Red Leader this is Gold Leader" the two Y-Wings outside his cockpit window disappear for a frame.

Right after Vader says "I have you now" the TIE fighter on the left disappears for a couple of frames.
Greedo shoots first? Not in my DVD player.
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not sure if this is a mistake or not but when luke, chewie, han and leia are in the garbage compacter and theres that really loud noise...
the camera has the whole group in the shot... if you watch Lukes mouth you can make out "what was that"...

i think we discussed this earlier on the board....
some thought he was saying it to himself...
but i have a feeling if he was saying it to himself he wouldnt make it so obvious...

and then theres the whole Luke calling Leia "Carrie" when he gets back to Yavin after destroying the death star....
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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IIRC in ESB at The Battle Of Hoth Luke and others lose their wingmen, then cut to a front shot of the pilot in a snowspeeder and can see the wingmen (now alive) in the background.

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Fuck me!

After years of watching these films the only things I've noticed are:

The R5-D4 thing - one minute he's there, the other he's not....


The one thing I've seen that not many have picked up on is...actually theres 2...is

in ESB......just after the heroes have escaped Cloud city and Vader is talking to his officers on the Star Destroyer...Piett and the dopey looking fuck are on about actvating the tractor beam...Well their medals on their outfits are on the wrong side..the Mirror thing again..

That also happens with Han and Lando in Jedi...When Han is talking to Lando about the Falcon...

But the thing I've noticed that not many people have is in Jedi........

When the Ewoks have hold of our heroes.....In the village when Luke is doing his levatating thing with 3PO...Watch R2...One minute he's tied up with ropes..then he's not, then he is agian...then he's set free by Teebo.....Thats the onyl real thing I've seen.......

Oh and also in Jedi........shit I've forgotten.....thats class A on a friday night for ya!!

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Oh, I forgot.

Here's one from ROTJ that no one ELSE has noticed, to my knowledge:

Towards the very end of the movie. Luke is in the process of being electrocuted by the Emperor.
Now, there are 2 seperate shots of Darth Vader's head where he turns to look at Palpatine. In the first one, you can see hand-grease smudges on the side of his helmet.
Moments later, in the second shot (I think this is were we see him start to motion towards Palpy to pick him up), the smudges are gone.

Added: Once I get the DVDs, I'll confirm it with screenshots.
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Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
and then theres the whole Luke calling Leia "Carrie" when he gets back to Yavin after destroying the death star....

Fan-boy myth! No matter how many times I've listened to it I have never heard anything that even sounds like "Carrie!" I think Luke just says "Hey!" Here's the truth:

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/feature/20000530/indexp3.html
Greedo shoots first? Not in my DVD player.
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Right when everyone comes in to the hanger to see the Falcon for the first time if you keep watching R2 he looks like he is on strings and is just floating down the stairs and gets hung up and starts this weird falling thing.

I can't watch anything else now that I've see that part.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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Originally posted by: Obi-Wan Spicoli
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Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
and then theres the whole Luke calling Leia "Carrie" when he gets back to Yavin after destroying the death star....

Fan-boy myth! No matter how many times I've listened to it I have never heard anything that even sounds like "Carrie!" I think Luke just says "Hey!" Here's the truth:

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/feature/20000530/indexp3.html


thats what i thought too...
i cant make out the word "carrie" in there whatsoever...
thx for the link
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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EDIT: another blank post. i'm a genius.

huzzah for archival THEATRICAL OT!!!
it is our duty to preserve star wars history...

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ARG! i keep posting blank posts. sorry guys, also the edit feature only pops up sporadically. anyway, on with the post...

i noticed a blooper in ESB during the luke/vader duel in the carbonite chamber. after vader falls of the platform, luke hops down after him. if you watch carefully in the lower left hand corner of the screen, you can see that mark landed on a trampoline and his head bobs back up into the shot. it's pretty funny.

also, in rotj, in the space scene outside the death star immediatly before sidious arrives, some of the TIE fighters disappear the instant just before the scene changes to the death star interior.

huzzah for archival THEATRICAL OT!!!
it is our duty to preserve star wars history...

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Most of these aren't continuity errors

My all time favorite is the stormtrooper who whacks his head on the doorframe.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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Originally posted by: bad_karma24
Most of these aren't continuity errors

My all time favorite is the stormtrooper who whacks his head on the doorframe.


when does that happen?

huzzah for archival THEATRICAL OT!!!
it is our duty to preserve star wars history...

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when the storm troopers bust into the control room on the death star where 3PO and Artoo are hiding in the closet (double meaning? I think so). one of the stormtroopers coming through the blast door whacks his head on it as it's going up. it's good stuff

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Originally posted by: The Dark Lord
i noticed a blooper in ESB during the luke/vader duel in the carbonite chamber. after vader falls of the platform, luke hops down after him. if you watch carefully in the lower left hand corner of the screen, you can see that mark landed on a trampoline and his head bobs back up into the shot. it's pretty funny.

I don't think that one's a blooper. It looks like Luke is just rising from a crouched position. When you jump from a high distance, you land in a crouched position and then stand back up. It doesn't look to me like he landed on a trampoline at all (although I could be wrong), it just looks like he landed in a crouched position and was standing back up again.

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And lastly 3,222,334,556.3 mistakes in the The Phantom Menace, there is no link the 16 servers supporting those mistakes are down.


LOL!

i read through some of the mistakes for ANH on that link and some of them arent even mistakes...
like they say Lukes lightsaber is blue in one scene and then looks white in another...
i doubt thats a mistake... prolly just the way it looks on film...
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Anyone seen the potatoe yet? Or is just an urban (ILM) legend?
Which is the more foolish, the fool (the OT) or the fool who follows (the PT)?

"Stay back, or Mr...Fett gets it!"
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Well, since it seems this is going to include errors as well as continuity stuff....

One of my current favorites in ANH...aboard the T4, when 3P0 finds R2, watch as R2 starts to roll forward (towards camera). If the shot had continued any longer, he would have just rolled straight into the bulkhead.

There's also some GUY in the Falcon's cokpit gangway behind Chewie as he's doing something in the cockpit...can't remember the exact shot though...

The shadows of Luke and Leia on the Deathstar can be seen during the "Didn't we just LEAVE this party" exchange between Han and Chewie, as L+L prepare to come running in.

How about the nonsensical conversation on Cloud City? As the heroes are walking with Lando, discussing the gas mining buisness, the conversation seems to have been pieced together...badly...from several versions and several takes...it makes no frigging sense.

Also in Empire, watch in the Asteroid cave, interior Falcon's cockpit. The "Captain, being held..." bit to be precise. Ford is mouthing the words along with Fisher, who aparently was so damn stoned most of the time, she couldn't get her lines straight.
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The Potato AND the shoe are in the same shot, and YES they ARE there It's the asteroid chase, as the Falcon barrel-rolls down under a large asteroid, and starts to skim the surface of the HUGE asteroid (where they end up). The potato flies left to right at the camera, followed CLOSELY by the running shoe. This question was actually cleared up on the Behind the Magic discs, complete with screen grabs. Also, if you've got the Anamorphic LD rip of Empire someone, I believe it's Ralston, comments on putting the potato into the scene, partly to blow off steam, partly to see just what an audience can and can't percieve on film.
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very cool about the potatoe...
never noticed it myself
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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The biggest error I've seen that no one has mentioned is Luke's X-Wing on Yavin. We see Luke getting into an X-wing with a solid red stripe. According to this site only one X-wing and one Y-wing was built full scale. (Check out the next page, it details one SE change the pissed me off - the use of Red two only in scanning the X-wings for the "improved" BoY).

However, during the entire battle, Luke is piloting a X-wing with a broken stripe



Finally, back at the Rebel base, Luke is seen exiting the X-wing with a solid stripe.



I didn't see this on that site listed above.

Also, how about the inaccurate Death Star plans? Technology at the time refused to allow an off-center circle put inside another circle. These are two things I was surprised weren't changed for the SE. After all, only a single X-wing was used for the battle, with only changes to the stripe done(the tell-tale number stripes pegging it as Red 2 and the rust give it away). Given that changing the stripe is easy, I fail to see why it wasn't.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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Okay, regarding the potato and running shoe. DAMN! I was watching Empire the other day and was looking for those two items in the wrong scene. No wonder I didn't find them. I thought they were in the Star Destroyer trash dump scene. RRRGGGHHHH.
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