Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Other mistake: When Vader's shuttle lands on the forest moon of Endor, an Imperial AT-AT walks near the landing pad. There's a strange shadow that keeps appearing and disappearing on one of its leg. Maybe the shadow of the puppeteers?

Dr Wilson

Visible crew/equipment: When C-3PO And R2-D2 come up to Jabba's palace in the beginning of the movie, in the close-up, you see overhead stagelights in the reflection of C-3PO's head.

Douglas Leathem

Continuity mistake: When Lando is dangling from a rope over the Saarlac pit, he keeps moving up and down the rope between shots.

Revealing mistake: During the lightsaber duel, Vader throws his at Luke. The catwalk behind Luke explodes, but if you watch closely there are two explosions: one some inches over where the lightsaber actually hits and one far on the left.

Dr Wilson

Continuity mistake: When R2-D2 is assigned to his duties in Jabba's palace, another droid (EV-9D9) says, "But you'll soon learn some respect." and her arm is in a different position from the previous shot. In the following shot, her arm is in its original position. (00:11:10)

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Just before Luke chops off Darth Vader's hand in the battle at the end of the movie, you can see that the bar has already been cut (the line is visible) to give the illusion that Luke cut through the steel bar with his lightsaber as well as Vader's hand. (01:48:45)

Continuity mistake: When Luke and Leia land on the skiff after swinging on the rope, Luke's facial hair is much darker than in the rest of the scene. (00:35:00)

Continuity mistake: When the prisoner skiff is struck by laserfire, Han Solo is knocked overboard. A long shot shows him falling over sideways, yet when it changes to above the Sarlacc he is pointing straight downwards with his feet caught in the metalwork. (00:33:10)

Continuity mistake: Luke tells Threepio to tell the Ewoks that if our heroes are not set free, that he will use his magic. If you look on the right of the screen, Artoo is standing untied, even though at that point in the movie he had not been untied yet.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Lando says, "Fighters coming in," a whole bunch of TIE fighters come towards them. There's initially a lot anyway, but then after about a second, two horizontal lines of 4 fighters appear from nowhere (centre screen, underneath the Super Star Destroyer). They suddenly just pop into existence, large enough that we should have seen them approaching. (01:31:20)

Continuity mistake: When the carbonite block begins to lower to the ground, Leia is standing in a corner. In the next shot, she is much closer to the corner. (00:17:40)

Continuity mistake: When the Sarlacc tries to drag Lando into the pit, the tentacle is grabbing his ankle in some shots. In other shots, it is wrapped around his thigh as well. (00:33:50)

Continuity mistake: During the battle between Luke and Vader, their sabers alternate between casting shadows on the floor, and no shadows. (01:52:40)

Continuity mistake: In the beginning of Luke and Vader's lightsaber duel, and also in a few shots right after Luke knocks Vader down the stairs, Vader's cape alternates between being draped behind and over his left shoulder. (01:48:55)

Audio problem: When the Death Star is about to explode, Admiral Ackbar says, "Move the fleet away from the Death Star.", but his lips don't move. (01:57:30)

Continuity mistake: When Boba Fett falls into the mouth of the Sarlaac, he disappears just before the beak touches him. (00:33:45)

Revealing mistake: When Luke leaves the Death Star in an Imperial shuttle, a large girder or something falls right in front of his ship. If you watch closely, you can see it bounce, revealing the miniature. A huge, heavy girder wouldn't have bounced like this.

Continuity mistake: In the first shot of Chewbacca when he is in Jabba's dungeon with Han, his bandoleer is on the wrong side. (00:21:25)

Darth Vader: If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!

More quotes from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Trivia: When they were filming the scenes on Endor, Peter Mayhew was told to stay close to the set so no one would mistake him for Big Foot and attempt to shoot him.

More trivia for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Question: After Anakin becomes Darth Vader, he seems ruthless, actually evil. "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Is just one quote. That being the case, this movie makes it seem like Anakin knows that he's evil and wishes he wasn't. Basically, my question is, why didn't Anakin turn on Palpatine sooner? Or simply leave the Sith?

Answer: Darth: "Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the dark side. I must obey my master." It's implied that the dark side is intoxicating, once you totally give in to the dark side it has a hold on you, and appeals to morality and rationalization are useless against your lust for its power. (On a symbolic level, the dark side is a metaphor for vice. Darth Vader is an addict and abusive parent. It's actually funny how many scenes still make sense if you replace "the dark side" with "the bottle" or similar).

TonyPH

If we bring the prequels into it, it's one of the criticisms of those films that they only make the question of how much Anakin is a "true believer" more confusing. But it stands to reason that at first Anakin may feel vindicated in his resentment toward the Jedi. Later on, Vader may not feel that as strongly, but by then his anger has turned toward himself for failing to save Padme. He may feel that a man as terrible as he does not deserve to be "rescued" from the dark side, leading to a feedback loop where he only gets further enamored with its power and does more evil things which causes him to hate himself even more, and so it goes.

TonyPH

Answer: Anakin was seduced by the emperor to think that the Jedi were evil. This was partly fueled by anger &fear, thinking Padme would die if Palpatine didn't help save her. After he turned to Darth Vader & joined the dark side, he eventually realised the true nature of the Emperor, but he was to weak to do anything about it. Darth Vader still wanted to rule the galaxy, but didn't want the emperor controlling everything. He just wanted to use Luke to help overthrow the emperor and take over the galaxy. It wasn't until he found out he had a daughter also, and saw Luke about to die by the hands of the emperor, that he realised that Luke was right & he needed to switch sides.

envisaged0ne

Vader was not just using Luke to kill the Emperor. He actually did want to rule the galaxy as father and son - if Luke would turn to the Dark Side, that is.

More questions & answers from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.