Goofs for
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) More at IMDbPro »

• Revealing mistakes: While rescuing the boy, Robin grabs a crossbow and throws it at one of the soldiers, "hitting" him in the face. The crossbow hits Plexiglas in front of the soldier, and leaves a scratch that is momentarily visible.
  
  
• Continuity: When Friar Tuck makes his escape from the camp, he is knocked down by a low branch, breaking the wooden arch above him. When he later pulls the cart back to the camp, the arch is intact.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Robin is tripped into the stream by the rope wielded by Will Scarlet, the rope (under the water) appears to be a yellow nylon rope, not the hemp rope we saw above the water.
  
  

• Continuity: Robin's hair after being tripped in the river.
  
  
• Continuity: The hand that Robin offers to Azeem from the ground upon returning to England.
  
  
• Continuity: Robin's clothes change on the beach.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Although the refracting telescope was not invented until the 17th century, it is clearly used as an example of how much more sophisticated medieval Muslims were than their Christian contemporaries. A great amount of Arab scholarship was lost or destroyed during and shortly after the Crusades - who's to say that Azeem isn't the proud possessor of a rare optical device whose secrets were lost to the West until Hans Lippershey "invented" it in 1608? And it turns out to be very useful, too. Go on, be a sport, let him have it - it's just a fun adventure movie, not a documentary.
  
  
• Continuity: When John Little and Robin first meet at the river, John is seen from the back, holding the staff away from him. "Do you lead this rabble?". In the next shot where John replies "Yes I do, Mate.", the staff is leaned against his shoulder. But in the next shot, the staff is being held away from him again.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: Plaque on the wall of Marion's castle.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Robin begins training the outlaws, we see an arrowhead being cast, outdoors in a small mould. Next, we see an iron/steel arrowhead being shaped on a stone. Iron or steel could not be cast, outdoors and in the small quantity as shown, due to the heat needed. The metal shown can only be pewter, lead or tin. To produce arrowheads in those conditions, a friendly blacksmith would beat out a suitably thin piece of waste metal, chop pieces off, then, others could file or rub them to shape and sharpness.
  
  
• Continuity: From a distance, Sherwood Forest appears to be coniferous, but up close it is deciduous.
  
  
• Plot holes: The outlaws' hideout in Sherwood Forest is taken by surprise by large catapults, despite the density of the forest.
  
  
• Continuity: Azeem's sword when they are about to be catapulted.
  
  
• Continuity: During the final fight between Robin and the Sheriff, Marian douses the Sheriff in hot wax. For the next two shots, the Sheriff's shirt is clean. But when we cut back to the fight after the Friar kills the Bishop, the Sheriff's shirt is covered in wax and he has horrible burns on his chest.
  
  
• Continuity: The sand disappears from Robin's face after he kisses the surf.
  
  
• Continuity: Robin is knocked into the water several times, but his hair goes from wet to dry and back several times.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Robin's nude body shows tanlines from a Speedo swimsuit.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The northern Celts hired by the Sheriff to fight the outlaws were several centuries out of time.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin swears on his father's grave he cuts his hand and squeezes his fist so that the blood oozes between his fingers - but it is gone in the next shot.
  
  
• Anachronisms: You can hear rubber-soled shoes squeaking while Robin Hood and Marian are walking through the church, where they meet again after being separated.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Peter falls into the dirt after being hit by an arrow in Jerusalem there is a wooden thump.
  
  
• Continuity: As Robin is pulled up the chandelier rope, the end of the rope is close to falling off the pulley. One shot later, the rope is back on the pulley again, with the same length falling as was there before.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Robin shoots the arrow that goes through Will's hand the wire/string that the arrow is fired along is visible.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The arrow that Robin uses to shoot Will in the hand is carefully positioned in the quiver so that it stands unnaturally separated from the other arrows. It also has a visibly different (and more modern) fletching style than the other arrows.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A crewmember is visible from a second story window when the catapult is being moved near the end of the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the hanging, Robin's bow changes back and forth between strung and unstrung.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The shadow of the cameraman can be seen as Robin runs across a room near the end of the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: After Robin shoots Will in the hand, Wulf walks past twice in the same direction.
  
  
• Continuity: Robin shoots Will in the hand, but later when Will asks Marion to dance and offers her flowers, the wrong hand is bandaged.
  
  
• Continuity: In the extended DVD version of the film, the Sheriff has the scribe's tongue cut out, and the scribe is later shown using writing to communicate. However, at the end of the movie, Robin forces the scribe to tell him where Nottingham and Marion are, and he speaks... without a tongue.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin smashes through the window, there is glass still in the frame. But in the next shot, it is gone.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin swings through the window at first he grabs some kind of flag banner cloth but as he smashes through the glass he is swinging on something much thinner like an ordinary rope.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Robin is being attacked in Marian's home, Azeem tries to break down the door. Duncan cries out "Point me toward trouble Azeem, I'm ready!" - but his mouth isn't moving.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin and Wulf are having a competitive target practice, Wulf's hair is shaggy looking on both sides of his head. But in the close-up of Wulf taking aim, the right side of his hair is slicked back so that Robin can tickle his ear with the feather from the arrow.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Robin is giving Marian a tour of their hideout, they walk past a waterwheel and Robin says, "It works - sort of." Azeem replies, "Of course it works," but his mouth doesn't move.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Marian is attacked and taken hostage at her house, Duncan goes to a white horse to find Robin. Several times we see light reflecting in his eyes, but it was mentioned earlier that his eyes were taken in the attack on Loxley Castle.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Sheriff is on top of Marian during their wedding ceremony, he is wearing a black, silver and white striped coat. But in the very next shot, he only has a black shirt on, without showing the coat was removed.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Robin finds out Will is his brother, he puts his hands on Will's face and tells him "I will take my stand with you. Side by side." But when he says, "To the death," we don't see his mouth move.
  
  
• Continuity: When Locksley is writing his letter asking for news of his son, he says "Were you present at his capture near Jerusalem?" but when we see the close up of the letter, it reads, "Were you present at his capture near Acre?"
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin and Azeem are escaping from the sheriff's men at Marian's home, Robin's horse is shot with a crossbow bolt, and as they escape one can clearly see that the arrow is broken since the part sticking out of the horse has no feathers. Later when they stop, right before they enter the Sherwood Forrest, Robin turns to the wound and breaks the arrow, removing the (now reappearing) feathers.
  
  
• Continuity: When the boat takes Marian and Duncan away from the camp, Sarah isn't in the boat with them.
  
  
• Continuity: When the men are about to be hanged, Will is on a barrel. In the next wide shot, Will is no longer on the barrel.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The scribe writes on his pad using contractions.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the wedding, Tuck says "I now pronounce you husband and wife". "Husband" wasn't used until very late in the 20th century.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the men are pushing the catapult to the gate, a man in a black turtleneck and jeans is seen in a window in one of the houses, and he quickly ducks out of view.
  
  
• Continuity: The scar and disfigurement on Guy of Gisborne's ear disappear and reappear several times in the first scene that he is in.
  
  
• Continuity: During the attack by the Celts, one stuntman is killed several times as different characters.
  
  
• Continuity: The length of chain on Lord Loxley's gold cross shortens when Robin takes it off of his father's grave marker.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin returns to England, the second shot is of the back of the boat that he and Azeem travel in. However, Robin is not visible in the boat until the very next shot, in which he is standing at the front, quite clearly visible.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Robin and Azeem arrive in Dover, Robin says we will be dining with my father by nightfall. Nottingham is over 170 miles from Dover. Robin then makes an extravagant detour via the "Robin Hood" gap in Hadrian's Wall (approximately 120 miles north of Nottingham) before heading south again; making a rather unlikely journey total of more than 400 miles in under a day.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Sheriff uses the word 'thugs' although this word isn't commonly used until the British Imperial rule in India some 500 years later.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robin pretends he is blind and he bends down to rub horse crap on himself, he is wearing black boots with silver studding. When he and Azeem are being catapulted over the wall he is wearing brown lace up boots.
  
  
• Plot holes: No mention is made of Prince John, King Richard's brother, who would become King upon Richard's death in 1199. There were lots of more eligible claimants to the throne, not least of which was Prince John.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Padding clearly visible when the second Celt is shot down from his horse.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie when Robin is attempting to free the prisoners chained to the wall in the dungeon, Azeem is shown begging to be saved / freed. While pleading his case he rises to his feet and his hands are shown bound in front of him, then the camera goes back to Robin continuing to futilely pull on the chains, showing Azeem in the foreground; then there's a cut to Azeem (apparently sitting, as when he was first shown moments earlier) with his back to the wall and his hands raised and bound on either side of his head yelling "Christian!" to get Robin's attention. A second later he's back on his feet with his hands tied in front of him when Robin runs over and asks why he should save him.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Nottingham is telling the gathered lords that he will grant them land and power after he is king, he seems to completely forget that the next in line to the throne is Richard's brother, John. (John was the king who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. He is also the only English king ever named John.)
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the early part of the fight with the Celts, the film is reversed making it appear that Robin is shooting left handed. Obviously done so that Robin was shooting to the left where the Celts were coming from.
  
  
• Factual errors: Azeem is a Moor and therefore Muslim which meant that when praying, he began by standing upright and bringing his hands up to his ears and not in a squatting position like how Morgan Freeman did it in the movie.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: The cut on Robin's chin made by Nottingham in the final fight disappears after The Sheriff of Nottingham's death.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: SPOILER: In the scene where Robin finds out Will is his brother and they discus attacking the castle, the men say they are "All in", then the Friar replies "Daft buggers!" but his lips do not move.
  
  

Related Links