Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[darrell]

(At around forty minutes) In the flashback scene in which Dumbledore visits the young Tom Riddle in the orphanage, a photograph on the wall of Tom's room depicts the seaside cliff to which Dumbledore and Harry travel later, in search of the third Horcrux (the locket). There are also seven rocks on the windowsill, which is the same number of Horcruxes that Tom/Voldemort created. In the book, the cliff is described as a place where young Tom Riddle once used magic to terrorize his fellow orphans while on a field trip, hence the place has special meaning to him. There is no picture of it in the book, implying that Dumbledore learned of the place from the orphanage staff or its students.

[mathew]

Fake working title seen on clapper boards: "Champion".

[marc]

(At around one hour and forty minutes) When Ginny and Harry enter the Room of Requirement, a familiar mirror can be seen behind them. The shape of this is the same as the Mirror of Erised from the first movie and book.

[sara]

Dumbledore's fall from the tower filled Alan Rickman with nostalgic glee, as it harkened back to his first hit, Die Hard (1988), where his character fell from a tall building. Rickman felt at least "he was on the other end in this film!"

[caroline]

(At around two hours and fifteen minutes) When Harry is in Dumbledore's office at the end of the movie, a bowl of sherbet lemons can be seen on his desk. In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone", Dumbledore announced these to be his favorite Muggle candy. In "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", it is the password to enter Dumbledore's office.

[cameron]

Three new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: the collapsing Millennium bridge (at the beginning of this movie, and which appears in the third trailer); Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) flirting with the waitress at the underground station before meeting up with Dumbledore (Sir Michael Gambon); and the Death Eater attack at the Burrow (seen in the second trailer). An attack on a Muggle bridge is actually mentioned in the original opening of the book by Cornelius Fudge, but in an after the fact manner.

[veronica]

The character Fenrir Greyback is a direct reference to Fenris the wolf as depicted in the Nordic mythology. In that myth, Fenris bit the arm of Tyr and was prophesied to be involved in Odin's death as will be killed by Tyr's brother Vidar during Ragnarok. The novel shares the similar mythology: Bill Weasley, Ron's brother was attacked, his face scarred during the skirmish with Fenrir like as Fenrir bit Tyr's arm; like Fenrir's involvement with Odin's death, Fenrir was amongst the group who was involved in Dumbledore's murder; Deathly Hallows resolves the story. An interesting fact that was never mentioned in this movie is that Fenrir was the wolf who infected Remus Lupin.