Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was Disney’s chance to prove to the world that they could take the Star Wars franchise to the next level, clawing it back to those who were disheartened by the prequel trilogy and providing a new lease of life to a forty-year-old series.
Considering how big of a challenge this was, they did very well in creating an action-filled film full of exciting new characters and enough references to the previous films to keep everyone interested. Despite this, JJ Abrams let a fair few continuity errors slip into the final product.
Where Did Finn’s Blaster Go?
When Finn is being given Luke’s lightsaber by Maz Kanata, he has Han’s blaster with him. Since his time with Han on Takodana, in which Han gives Finn this blaster, he had been carrying it. When Finn leaves the cantina, he is holding the lightsaber he is just given but the blaster he should have been careful with is gone. He takes this even further by telling Maz that he “needs a weapon” (which she rightly reminds him a lightsaber already is), so what has he done with Han’s blaster? He isn’t going to be pleased.
“Master Luke Hamill”
This one takes a keen ear and a lot of concentration to pick up on. When R2-D2 and C-3PO are talking late on in the film about their mission to locate Luke, 3-PO seems to say, “find Master Luke Hamill”.
Obviously, this suggests Anthony Daniels has slipped up and accidentally added the last name of Luke’s actor, Mark Hamill, onto the end of his name. This seems to be a source of debate amongst Star Wars fans, some of whom seem to think that this isn’t what 3PO is saying at all and that we’re just mishearing “find Master Luke how?”.
Kylo Reigniting His Saber
In the scene where Kylo Ren kills his father, Han Solo, it’s pretty obvious that he turns his saber off as soon as he has stabbed him. The light source retracts and the fuzzy sound of Kylo’s unstable saber stops buzzing. When the shot changes and Han begins to fall from the platform, the saber is back on again, indicating a lack of consistency between this shot and the previous one.
Where Is Kylo Ren’s Helmet?
When Kylo is shown about to interrogate Rey, he takes off his helmet and puts it on a table. When we are shown the room they’re in from a wider angle, this helmet is nowhere to be found, suggesting that they forgot to add the prop into the wide shots.
Interestingly, this is one of the continuity errors we actually have a definitive answer for directly from JJ Abrams. He has explained that the shot of Kylo Ren taking his helmet off was from an earlier scene and, as such, was never supposed to be in the interrogation room. It makes sense but doesn’t fix the errors in continuity.
The Starkiller Laster Can’t Work At The Speed Of Light
When we see the Starkiller base shoot its laser, the people of Hosnian Prime watch as a fate none of them can do a thing about slowly makes its way towards them. The light of the beam fills the sky and they all recoil from certain death. The only problem with that is that in a previous scene, it is explained that the laser travels at the speed of light (which makes sense, seeing as it is effectively made of light). If this was true, then the planet would basically be destroyed in a flash, with none of its people able to prepare for it or watch.
No One Cares About Finn’s Back Injury
It is made pretty clear that Finn’s back is pretty severely injured when he falls down in the snow at the end of the film (creating a cliff-hanger question of whether he even survived).
Despite this, every character who interacts with Finn seems to immediately forget about his injury, with Rey turning him over and putting pressure on his back, and then Chewie placing him on his back in the medical bay. They should really have been more careful when trying to help their friend recover.
Some Very Strange Food
In one scene, we see Rey eating some sort of taco-like dish with a weird vegetable that looked a bit like broccoli. When the scene changes, Rey seems to be eating something completely different that looks more like some sort of pastry. Unless they filmed this scene with Daisy Ridley actually eating these snacks (and thus needing a different one for the next shot) then it seems strange that they’d make two different snacks for the scene. It’s like JJ Abrams was creating continuity errors for himself.
Changing BB-8 Design
The very first interaction Rey ever has with BB-8 shows her fixing his bent antenna. It’s a subtle and simple thing, but given it is their first interaction, it seems quite significant. When she reinstalls it, it is black and metallic, but when the scene changes it is white in color and has some sort of covering on. There is no consistency in whether the antenna is black or covered throughout the rest of the film, as the design of the spherical droid keeps changing.
Why Does Poe’s Jacket Fit Finn?
Obviously Poe and Finn need different size jackets. They’re different size people. It means they shouldn’t really be able to share clothes with ease, as Poe giving Finn his jacket might end up stretching it or breaking it.
He gives it over anyway, and it fits perfectly. This would suggest that two different jackets were made for each character and that the jacket in use was different whether it was on Poe or on Finn.
The Lightsaber Was Already On
In the opening scene of the film, Kylo Ren is introduced as a ruthless killer with no regard for others. He faces off with Lor San Tekka in front of a terrified audience and we see him plunge his lightsaber into the old man. Despite the sound of the lightsaber igniting only happening as Kylo raises his lightsaber, we had been able to see its red light flickering at the bottom of the screen that whole time. It wasn’t making any noise, though, so we can only assume it wasn’t supposed to be on at all.
