Projects » The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Production Year: 2002
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Tagline: A New Power Is Rising
Rating: 8.7/10 (153,253 votes)
Runtime: 179 min/223 min(special extended edition)
Country: New Zealand / USA
Language: English / Sindarin
Certification: Argentina:13 / Australia:M / Brazil:12 / Canada:14A / Denmark:11 / Denmark:15 (special extended edition) / Finland:K-11 / Finland:K-15 (special extended edition) / France:U / Germany:12 (w) / Germany:16 (special extended edition) / Hong Kong:IIB / Iceland:12 / Ireland:12RA (video rating) / Ireland:PG (original rating) / Israel:PG / Italy:T / Japan:PG-12 / Mexico:B / Netherlands:12 / New Zealand:M (special extended edition) / New Zealand:PG / Norway:11 / Peru:14 / Philippines:G / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:PG / Spain:13 / Sweden:11 / Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) / UK:PG / USA:PG-13 (certificate #38473) / Greece:K-13

Plot Outline: The Fellowship has been broken. Boromir (Sean Bean) is dead, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) have gone to Mordor alone to destroy the One Ring, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) have been captured by the Uruk-hai, and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) have made friends of the Rohan, a race of humans that are in the path of the upcoming war, led by its aging king, Théoden (Bernard Hill). The two towers between Mordor and Isengard, Barad-dúr and Orthanc, have united in their lust for destruction. The corrupt wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), under the power of the Dark Lord Sauron, and his slimy assistant, Gríma Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), have created a grand Uruk-hai army bent on the destruction of Man and Middle-earth. The rebellion against Sauron is building up and will be led by Gandalf the White (Sir Ian McKellen), who was thought to be dead after the Balrog captured him. One of the Ring's original bearers, the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis), has tracked Frodo and Sam down in search of his 'precious', but is captured by the Hobbits and used as a way to lead them to Mt. Doom. The War of the Ring has now begun.

Awards

Won 2 Oscars. Another 55 wins & 71 nominations.

Screen Actors Guild Awards 2002 - nominated
Film - Choice Actor, Drama/Action Adventure, Elijah Wood
Film - Choice Actress, Drama/Action Adventure, Liv Tyler
Film - Choice Movie, Drama/Action Adventure
Academy Awards, USA 2003 - won 2 Oscars, nominated for 4 Oscars.
Best Sound Editing - WON
Best Visual Effects - WON
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Best Editing
Best Picture
Best Sound

Cast

Elijah Wood .... Frodo Baggins
Ian McKellen .... Gandalf the Grey/Gandalf the White
Liv Tyler .... Arwen
Viggo Mortensen .... Aragorn
Sean Astin .... Sam
Cate Blanchett .... Galadriel
John Rhys-Davies .... Gimli/Voice of Treebeard
Bernard Hill .... Theoden
Christopher Lee .... Saruman the White
Billy Boyd .... Pippin
Dominic Monaghan .... Merry
Orlando Bloom .... Legolas
Hugo Weaving .... Elrond
Miranda Otto .... Eowyn
David Wenham .... Faramir

Trivia

Stuart Townsend was fired shortly after shooting began due to creative differences.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) were filmed simultaneously.
The Gollum that is briefly glimpsed in The Fellowship of the Ring is an entirely different creation to the one that appears in The Two Towers. It was during the filming of the second movie that Peter Jackson realized that Andy Serkis's physical performance would have to be employed in the digital creation of Gollum. So Weta Digital had to alter the design of one of the lead characters in the film, scanning Serkis's face so that they would be able to incorporate some of his facial characteristics. (The fact that Jackson had also filmed a flashback to be included in The Return of the King with Serkis playing the original Smeagal only cemented this decision.) This ultimately meant however that Weta Digital had two and a half months to redo two years' work. Serkis himself thought that the final result looked like a combination of his father and his newborn baby.
New Line wanted Peter Jackson to start the film with a prologue done by Cate Blanchett, something that Jackson didn't want to do.
Stephen Sinclair's screenplay credit stems from when the film was being proposed to Miramax as a 2-parter.
Brad Dourif had to shave his eyebrows off, and because he was recalled several times during the trilogy's filming, he ended up doing that five times over the course of three years.
Bernard Hill would spend up to nine hours in make-up to become the aged Theoden. He wore contact lenses to give his eyes the milky look that very old people can have, but it wasn't sufficiently successful so his eyes were later tinkered with digitally.
The design for Gollum took over 100 maquette sculptures and over 1000 drawings to get right.
Tell-tale signs (grayer hair, blotchy skin) are introduced to show that the Uruk'hai are an inbred set of creatures, who are already starting to erode.
The dead horses that can be seen at the end of the battle scenes are all made of polystyrene.
As the Orcs have black blood, it was only natural that the inside of their mouths should not be pink but black as well. To achieve this, the Ork actors had to swill a liquorice-based mouthwash prior to each of their scenes.
The animatronic puppet of Treebeard was 14 feet high.
Peter Jackson and producer Barrie M. Osbourne actively campaigned for Andy Serkis to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Gollum. Academy regulations however forbid an actor to be nominated when he is not physically to be seen on screen, despite Serkis' active input into the role.
One of the few films to gross over $100 million in its first week. It reached the $200 million mark within 12 days (Spider-Man took 9 to do that), and 34 days to reach $300 million.
Sean Astin and Elijah Wood spent most of their scenes acting to an orange ping pong ball which was turned into Gollum in post-production.
559 people are listed in the end credits. This number is significantly higher on the Extended DVD Version.
The miniature of the Black Gates of Mordor was partly made of lead.
The Helms Deep battle took four months to shoot, all of it at night.
When Gollum eats a whole fish, it's actually Andy Serkis chewing on a fish-shaped lolly.
The scene where Gandalf calls for his horse and Shadowfax comes galloping across the fields and straight up his master was achieved in the very first take.
Early in pre-production Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke were down to play Eowyn and Faramir. Scheduling conflicts prevented this, but it meant that these two parts were cast relatively late into production.
Andy Serkis was pitched the role of Gollum by his agent who rang him up and asked him if he wanted to do three weeks' voiceover work in New Zealand.
The theatrical version contains roughly 800 special effects shots. The DVD Extended Edition adds about another 160 to that total.
Once Andy Serkis was cast as Gollum, the designers had to alter their concepts of the character that they had been working on for about three years to marry up with Serkis' features.
Miniature photography for the trilogy took up a total of 500 days.
When Merry and Pippin are being carried off on the back of the Uruk'hai, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are in reality being carried on the backs of two stuntmen wearing oversized costumes and a false enormous head to give the impression of height disparity.
Viggo Mortenson now owns the horse that his character Aragorn rides in the film. To build up the level of trust between man and beast, Mortenson would occasionally sleep in the stables with his horse.
A scene of a fresh-faced Aragorn meeting Arwen for the first time was filmed, but Peter Jackson was unable to find a suitable place for it.
Edoras is only ever filmed during the day as it was well nigh impossible to transport all the necessary night-time lighting equipment up to the location.
Most of the Helms Deep set was made of polystyrene.
Cate Blanchett has only three shots in this film.
One of the reasons for the casting of David Wenham was his part resemblance to Sean Bean, his on-screen brother.
Elijah Wood's sister is one of the refugees in Helms Deep. As is Henry Mortenson, Viggo's son. Philippa Boyens' son Callum is the boy who gives Aragorn his sword but that is not his voice in the final film. Callum's voice had broken by the time it came to do the looping, so a different voice was cast.
There were never more than 100 Uruk'hai at any time; the rest were all computer generated.
The 30 foot bigiature of Helms Deep was the first of the oversized miniatures constructed for the trilogy.
They couldn't recruit enough men in the 6 foot height area to play Uruk'hai so men from 5 foot high were cast as well. They were affectionately nicknamed the Uruk'Low.
Instead of being hired out, all the hero horses were actually bought for the production, to allow them the chance to get used to the comings and goings of film crews.
Conceptual artist John Howe was the model for Gollum's sinewy arms.
The Battle of Helms Deep features hundreds of spears made of cardboard tubes so that none of the charging horses would be injured.
The swooping camera that pulls back over the thousands of Orc and Uruk'hai soldiers is inspired by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will.
One of the chief incentives for Sean Astin to take the part of Sam was his own father who had previously worked with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh on The Frighteners (1996) and had been so enthused with their rapport, understanding of film and appreciation of their crew.
Forced perspective was just one of the tricks used on the Helms Deep bigiature to make it look like the real thing. This also involved filling parts of the model with Action Man dolls to make it look like it was filled with humans.
The scene where Theoden, Legolas and Gimli arrive at Helms Deep, having lost Aragorn, was Bernard Hill and Miranda Otto's first day on set.
Rohan armor weighed 22 kilograms dry and 24 wet.
It was clear to the writers from the very beginning that the entire final sequence of the novel (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) would be part of the third film, not this one. This tactical move meant the battle for Helms Deep became this film's natural climax.
David Wenham hadn't read the books when he joined the production as Faramir.
One of Peter Jackson's inspirations for the battle of Helms Deep was Cy Endfield's 1964 film Zulu.
Originally Liv Tyler's character Arwen (and love interest for Aragorn) was to be included in the fighting force of Elves who join the men in the battle of Helms Deep. This was a relic of the script treatment for Miramax which condensed all 3 books into 2 films, and met with fan fury on the Internet with its free and easy approach to Tolkien's work. Liv Tyler had even trained with swordfighters in preparation for her scenes, when the decision to remove her was made by the writers who realized that this approach wasn't working. Arwen, who doesn't appear in the book of The Two Towers, was ultimately reworked into the story by lifting elements from the Appendices at the back of the novel, utilizing flashbacks to her and Aragorn at Rivendell. It took the writers about a year to come up with this solution.
Another problem faced by the writers was that - unlike The Fellowship of the Ring - no major characters die in the course of The Two Towers, something which could have easily provided them with an emotional climax.
The Dead Marshes were actually a water-filled parking lot, the same one that had doubled up for outside the mines of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. Passengers in passing trains on the adjacent railway line were able to see Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis performing onset.
11,000 sandbags were used for the construction of the Dead Marshes set.
The bodies lying underwater in the Dead Marshes were made of silicone.
The location for Edoras was in the midst of a national park. The Conservation Society of New Zealand gave them permission to film there on the proviso that they returned it in exactly the same condition that they found it. This meant lifting most of the natural vegetation and grasses up and storing them in a purpose-built nursery, as filming in the location would last approximately 18 months.
Some of the physical inspirations for Gollum's wiry frame were resident artist (and Tolkien expert) John Howe and rock singer Iggy Pop.
Andy Serkis' hobby of rock-climbing came in very handy for his mainly on-all-fours performance as Gollum.
When Gollum spits in disgust at Sam's cooking of rabbits, that is Andy Serkis' very own spittle flying through the air.
Andy Serkis drank bottles and bottles of Gollum juice (in reality, a mixture of honey, lemon and ginger) to keep his throat lubricated for his intense vocal performance.
The big-ature model of Helms Deep stood 7 feet tall and measured 20 feet square.
The Ork juice that is poured down Merry's throat is a combination of peach juice and Sodastream cola concentrate.
In the wide shots of Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli running after the Orcs, John Rhys-Davies character (played by his stunt double Brett Beattie) drops something as he runs.
Several members of the cast returned to New Zealand when Peter Jackson thought of some more ideas for scenes.
The Orc battle cries for the Helm's Deep battle sequence were provided by a stadium of 25,000 cricket fans, who screamed the war chants, spelled out on the Diamond Vision screen, with Jackson himself leading the crowd.
Gollum/Smeagol is a CGI character, but Peter Jackson wanted the character to be performer-oriented, so actor Andy Serkis, the voice of Gollum, played the character in a motion capture suit. Serkis also played scenes with Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam) on set to give the actors a focal point. On those occasions when Serkis was actually in shot Gollum was composited over him in post production.
The set for the Helm's Deep battle scene was built on location in New Zealand over a period of seven months.
When arriving upon the set to film the scene in which Andy Serkis (Gollum) has to catch a fish, they discovered that it had snowed overnight. Peter Jackson had the snow cleared on the set (which included defrosting the river as well as the land surrounding it) by 1:00 PM.
The role of Eowyn, the White Lady of Rohan, was first offered to Irish actress name/nm0233145/">Alison Doody in December 1999, who had to decline the part because she had just given birth to her second daughter. name/nm0001584/">Miranda Otto then auditioned for the same role.
Director Cameo: [Peter Jackson] Wearing chainmail at Helm's Deep.
The Main Door of Helm's Deep was built so heavily and so well that the real battering ram that was built to knock down the gates failed to do so until the door was weakened. Someone had built the door a little bit too well and Peter Jackson can heard on the Extended Edition DVD commenting that if they had to defend a castle, he would want the WETA workshop guys to build the door.
On the wall of Helm's Deep during the battle, a one-eyed warrior turns to the camera, revealing his scarred empty socket. The performer who played him showed up as an extra, wearing an eye patch; director Peter Jackson politely asked to see what was under the patch, and then inquired if the gentleman would be interested in appearing in the film sans eye patch. The gentleman was reluctant at first and quite self-conscious, but afterward said the experience had made him more comfortable with his condition.
Between takes, name/nm0000374/">Brad Dourif stayed in character by continuing to speak with an English accent until all his footage had been completed. This was so convincing that, at the end, when he spoke with his normal voice again, name/nm0384060/">Bernard Hill thought that his English accent was real and that his American accent must be fake.
In the Extended Edition, Pippin tells Merry about a dream he had in which they smoked a large amount of pipeweed, and then Merry got sick. During filming, name/nm0597480/">Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry, did indeed get sick when he tried to smoke.
Cameo: ['Barrie Osborne' ] the executive producer appears as a Rohirrim soldier throwing a rock down on the Uruk-Hai attacking the gate at Helm's Deep.
John Rhys-Davies, also provided the voice for Treebeard.
Peter Jackson's children appear as cute Rohan refugee children.
The map that Faramir and Madril look at is the map featured in the books, drawn by Tolkien's son, Christopher.
The battle at Helm's Deep was edited down from twenty hours of footage, shot over a three month period with the rain machine battering down on the cast.
Viggo Mortensen broke two toes while kicking the steel helmet by the orc pyre, and that take is the one that actually appears in the movie. Peter Jackson said that was really impressed with the shout of pain Aragorn cried out for the fate of the two hobbits, realizing only later that it was pain already, but for his two toes instead. He was also impressed by the fact that Mortensen continued acting even if so seriously injured.
For one shot where Gollum is crawling and splashing down a river after a fish, Andy Serkis was actually in the water. It had been snowing the previous night, and the snow had been melted, but the water was still freezing cold.
To increase the number of Rohirrim riders, many of the men were actually women with beards glued on. Peter Jackson and others have noted that in many cases they were more skilled riders than the men.
In the wide shots of Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli running after the Orcs, all three performers are running injured. Orlando Bloom had a couple of broken ribs (from a fall off a horse); Aragorn had a broken toe (from kicking the helmet in the Orcs funeral pyre scene); and name/nm1397314/">Brett Beattie (Gimli's scale double) had a knee injury. Peter Jackson said that all three were very dedicated and continued to film the scene, often yelling ouch or ow after cut was called.
Viggo Mortensen's son, Henry Mortensen appears as an extra in some of the Helm's Deep sequences.
Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan spent so much time up the tree (TreeBeard) during the making of the the film that they spent their time between takes writing a screenplay. Additionally, it was so difficult to get up and down to their perches that they were left there during breaks while the rest of the crew went off to eat, though someone was kind enough to pass theirs up to them.
To make the many sparkling lights in Galadriel's eyes, the crew put white Christmas lights behind the camera.
['Alan Lee' ] The Concept Designer can be seen as the Rohan collecting weapons at Helm's Deep (to the left when Aragorn yell's Then I shall die as one of them!)
Gimli's armor weighed about 30kg (66lb).
A stuntman broke his leg playing the soldier who is hit by the bolt from the ballista type device used to hoist the ladders.
Movie theater prints of The Two Towers were labeled Grand Tour on the film can and the actual reels.
Dan Hennah the art director is getting suited up in the armory at Helm's Deep. Look over Aragorn's right shoulder after Legolas says They're frightened - I can see it in their eyes.
The first sequel to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture when the original film did not win the award itself, and the third sequel to be nominated for Best Picture.
There were so many extras used in the sequences at Helms Deep, and the filming went on for so many months that almost all the extras and principal actors got t-shirts reading I survived Helms Deep. There were so many of these shirts that extras would often meet other extras in New Zealand's main cities because they would recognize the shirts.
Viggo Mortensen was so impressed with the horse his character rides that he purchased him from the owners. The horse was shipped back to New Zealand for the additional shots that were filmed in 2002.
Sean Astin shot his short film The Long and Short of It (2003) during a re-shoot in New Zealand. LucasFilm was demoing their new High Definition Digital Video cameras (used on title/tt0121765/">Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)) for Peter Jackson, and Astin asked the Lucas Film crew if they could stay an extra day so he could use the camera to shoot his short film. They agreed, and Astin shot the film in six hours.
General release prints of the film were made from a digital master that has been digitally noise and grain reduced. As a result there is less grain but also digital noise reduction artifacts in the form of smearing of textures (the worst case is in a shot shortly after Aragorn falls off the cliff).
Prior to Emiliana Torrini, 'Bj?rk' was originally approached at several stages of the production to both co-write and sing Gollum's Song. She refused them all due to her pregnancy. Although she was not officially involved, producers did pick three artists with a similar sound, and asked her to choose. Her pick didn't work out, and after approaching her one final time to sing, the song went to Torrini.
Andy Serkis (Gollum) was ruled ineligible for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2003 Academy Awards because his character onscreen was computer generated.
While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as Aragorn for over half an hour without him realizing it.
WILHELM SCREAM: An Elvish warrior falls off the Deeping Wall and screams.
The sound of the fell beasts that the ringwraiths ride is actually the noise of a donkey.
When Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are in Osgiliath, Sam says, By rights we shouldn't even be here. In the original novel, Frodo and Sam never go to Osgiliath as prisoners of Faramir.
The scene where Gamling (>Bruce Hopkins) and Theoden Bernard Hill) get ready for the battle (speech from Gamling), Bruce Hopkins's sons, Tom and Joe, are sitting at the entrance of the room, their backs to the camera, as Refugees.
EASTER EGG: In the extended DVD version on the first movie disc, go to chapter 29-30 under the scene selection. Press down under chapter 30 and a gold ring will appear. It's a hidden extra of the MTV awards for Andy Serkis receiving best virtual performance.
Rendering Gollum would often take six hours for one shot, so WETA would leave the shot to render over night and check the results in the morning. Every now and again a computer glitch would occur, for instance, one morning the team woke up to find every hair on Gollum's head standing upright in a sort of punk looking afro, or his eyes would pop in and out of his head as he spoke.
One frame of Gollum would take around eight minutes to render, while one frame of Treebeard could take up to 48 hours to render.
The Deeping Wall blowing up and the boulder smashing into a tower in Osgiliath weren't created digitally, but by destroying the miniatures
Andy Serkis did the voices for the three orcs arguing with each other at the Fangorn Camp scene
In an earlier version of the script, Arwen was to have fought alongside Aragorn at Helm's Deep. Footage of Arwen fighting some Uruk-Hai was shot, but was not used in the final film.
The scene with the Orcs before the Battle for Helms Deep starts, where they stomp their spears into the ground, was inspired by the same act the stuntmen would do between takes to pass time. After seeing it, Jackson liked it, and put it in the movie.
Andy Serkis said that he based Gollum's voice on the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball.
The Lembas Bread that Sam and Frodo eat in the beginning of the film was actually shortbread cookies made by the art department
Early trailers for The Two Towers included a brief scene of ?owyn waiting to attack an Uruk-hai from behind a pillar; this scene is not included in either the theatrical version or the extended edition.
Gollum's pupils signal his frame of mind. Treacherous Gollum has narrow pupils; friendly Gollum has slightly wider pupils. This is most obvious in the scene when the two sides of his personality struggle with each other.
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) had lost the tip of his left middle finger in a farm accident when he was younger, so special prosthetic fingertips were made from a cast of his right middle finger.
Bernard Hill was originally considered for the role of Gandalf.
Bernard Hill cracked his sternum while riding his horse.
In the cave scene where Faramir lifts the Ring from under Frodo's shirt, >David Wenham was afraid of accidentally stabbing Elijah Wood so a swordsman was called on to do the scene.
During one take while filming the scene when Aragorn is floating down the river, Viggo Mortensen was dragged under water for many seconds. He managed to kick himself back up off a rock, perhaps saving his life. A safety team then rescued him and took him to shore.
Dedicated to Carla Fry, Brian Bansgrove and Brent Robb.
Many of Treebeard's lines come from the book, but were spoken by Tom Bombadil in the first volume.
The warg attack against the Rohirrim was originally supposed to be set at night, and at Edoras. After working on the Edoras set during the day, Peter Jackson decided that it was too windy and too cold to bring cast and crew back for a night scene, so the scene was re-written to happen during daylight.
On Miranda Otto's first day of shooting, Liv Tyler was said to have welcomed her with enthusiastic open arms, saying, I'm so glad there's another woman in this film.
The dawn shot of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas pursuing the orcs came about when Viggo Mortensen persuaded the second unit team to camp out on location. Mortenson's efforts in organizing the overnight trip were so effective that actors and crew from the other film units, including Miranda Otto, came out to join him.
In each film in the trilogy, the subtitle of the film is incorporated as dialogue. In this instance- Saruman: Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor, and the union of the two towers?
The scene of Denethor was removed in the theaterical version, which made his first appearance in The Return of the King. However, he appeared in the Extended Edition.
One time while Bernard Hill was in England, a woman came up to him and told him about how one of her children had died shortly before then, and that parents shouldn't have to bury their child. His confrontation with this woman affected him so much that he asked to have a line put in about it.
While the three hunters are surrounded by the Rohirrim, three or four cameras were used at once to get a more realistic shot.
The miniature of Orthanc tower ended up being 27 feet tall.
Viggo Mortensen lost a tooth during the shoot.
Andy Serkis said he based Gollum's desperation and cravings on the withdrawals of heroin addicts.
Orlando Bloomoriginally auditioned for the role of Faramir.

Goofs

Continuity: Several shots after Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn encounter Eomer and his men have been reversed (leaf-brooches are upside down, and Legolas' chest straps and quiver are on the wrong side).
Continuity: When King Theoden is having his armor strapped on, his aide fastens the left shoulder strap, then we see the leg greaves being strapped on, and gloves being tied. In the next shot, the aide goes to fasten the left shoulder strap again, and there are no greaves on his legs or gloves on his hands.
Continuity: At times the character Gimli is as tall as Aragorn's shoulders. At other times, he is much shorter.
Continuity: The length of the chain in which Frodo carries the ring changes throughout the film
Continuity: Near the end of the film, when Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath, the chain around Frodo's neck with the ring on repeatedly switches between being caught around one of his buttons and hanging freely between shots.
Continuity: When Gandalf the White first enters Theoden's hall, the position of his staff changes from being held perpendicular to the ground to being held parallel between shots. Director Peter Jackson noticed this error for the first time while recording the Director's Commentary for the Extended Edition of the DVD.
Continuity: (flipped shot) When Legolas says in Elvish, There's something out there, the Elvish Broaches (leaf broaches holding their cloaks together) are facing the opposite direction. Peter Jackson first noticed this error while recording the Extended DVD Director commentary.
Continuity: When Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are entering Theoden's throne room for the first time, Gandalf turns quickly around when the doors close but in the next shot his head is centered.
Continuity: Aragorn's sword disappears from his hand shortly before he falls off his horse, but reappears in its scabbard later.
Continuity: When Treebeard is talking to Merry and Pippin at the Entmoot, the stars that can be seen behind him change.
Continuity: The gash on Merry's face changes sides throughout the movie. Sometimes it is on his left brow, sometimes on the right.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Saruman is talking to the Uruk-Hai, they are obviously screaming and yelling, but there is no noise coming from them.
Continuity: Gandalf's horse Shadowfax is obviously played by at least two different horses in the movie, as different markings can be seen on the horses.
Continuity: Aragorn's beard repeatedly changes length between shots in King Theoden's hall.
Continuity: After the battle with the Wargs (on the way to Helm's Deep), when Aragorn is lying near the river and Arod, his horse comes, it has no saddle or bridle, just a simple rope. And then, when we see Aragorn riding towards the Helm's Deep again, the horse has full equipment.
Continuity: Merry and Pippin switch position between shots when Merry is making his speech to Treebeard at the Entmoot.
Continuity: When Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are in the Dead Marsh and the Nazgul flies over, Frodo goes after the ring with his left hand, which Sam grabs and holds. Frodo is then shown putting his right hand to his chest, but in the wide shot, his right hand is still lying at his side.
Continuity: In the storeroom where Sam is suggesting that Frodo use the Ring to escape, Frodo is initially sitting in front of a barrel. When Faramir arrives, Frodo and Sam are sitting on a cloak and there are no barrels in sight.
Continuity: When Gimli enters Helm's Deep for the first time, he speaks to Eowyn about Aragorn's fate. Before she speaks, Gimli's helmet is on and his axe is covered in blood. After she speaks, his helmet is off and his axe is clean.
Continuity: In the battle at Helms Deep, when Aragorn unsheathes his sword, the shot is reversed (he draws it left-handed when he is right-handed).
Continuity: When Legolas is pulling Gimli and Aragorn to safety using the rope during the battle of Helm's Deep, Gimli is on Aragorn's right side for every shot except the first close-up of Aragorn in Gimli, where he is clearly on Aragorn's left.
Continuity: When the main characters are standing on the cliff looking out towards Mordor, you can see Helm's Deep over their shoulders. The hole in the wall from the gunpowder is conspicuous by its absence.
Crew or equipment visible: A small gas pipe, leading to one of the large torches outside the Golden Hall, is briefly visible in some scenes in Edoras.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Shadowfax first appears, there are tracks across the paddock behind and to the right of him. Some say these are tire tracks, others argue that they could just as easily be the wheel ruts of a farm cart.
Continuity: Legolas' eyes are brown for the majority of the battle of Helm's Deep, instead of their customary blue. It has been pointed out that elves' eyes change color with their mood. However, a story is reported that, in fact, this particular color change came about when Orlando Bloom's blue contact lenses were forgotten during some of the shooting for this sequence.
Revealing mistakes: In the beginning of the movie, when Frodo and Sam are walking on the rocky mountain their rubber artificial feet can be clearly seen flapping around.
Continuity: When Faramir is holding Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath, and is about to let them go, the shot of the Hobbits is reversed (leaf brooches face the wrong way).
Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the initial shot when Theoden is talking to Gamling on the wall outside Helm's Deep, Gamling's mouth is moving like he's replying to Theoden's orders but no sound is heard.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the Rohirrim surround Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the beginning, you can see Éomer's lips moving in one of the wider shots and he obviously talks to the three but there is no sound coming out of his mouth.
Continuity: When the Rohirrim surround Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and Éomer starts talking to them, the sunlight changes direction and intensity.
Continuity: When Merry and Pippin are dropped to the ground by the Uruk-Hai, Merry is lying very close to Pippin. In the next shot Pippin is obviously a few feet away for he has to crawl closer to Merry to be able to talk to him
Continuity: Pippin's hands are tied, but when he falls under the horse, his hands are untied and apart. When Aragorn is working out what happened we see, in the flashbacks, that Pippin did not cut his bonds until after the horse incident.
Miscellaneous: When Éomer mounts his horse after talking with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli his sword fall out of its scabbard (look over Aragorn's right shoulder).
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During Arwen's vision of Aragorn's (eventual) death, Aragorn's fingers do not move on his sword as many, many people have suggested - they are Arwen's fingers.
Continuity: When Sam is telling Frodo to use the ring to escape Faramir, the light changes directions (from the left in the wide shot, from the right in the close-up).
Continuity: In the dream sequence where Aragorn remembers his time with Arwen prior to embarking on the quest to destroy the ring they embrace and kiss. As they do so, Aragorn's left hand is alternately on her face/around her waist between shots.
Continuity: (flipped shot) When Aragorn is tracking Merry and Pippin from the orc pyre to Fangorn Forest, his ring (usually on his left hand) is on his right forefinger and his glove (usually on his right) is on his left hand.
Revealing mistakes: As Théoden, Aragorn and the others ride out of Hornborg at the end of the battle, when they ride down the bridge one of the computer generated orcs, on the side of the bridge that is closest to the camera, goes straight through one of the horses before he is thrown from the bridge.
Continuity: In Helms Deep, as Legolas throws the shield onto the stairs, he has his bow in his left hand. As he runs to jump onto the shield, the bow is gone. As he is sliding down the stairs, he is using the bow again.
Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are hidden under the elvish cloak at the Black Gate, we can see from under the cape the feet of the enemy soldier through a gap in between the cloth and the floor. But in the next shoot when Frodo unfold the cape (that looks like a rock) we can see it was well buried in the dust and there is no possible gap.
Continuity: When Legolas has to hand over his weapons, he takes the knives from his back. When Aragorn hands over his own sword, we see Legolas taking off his knives again in the background.
Continuity: When Legolas is waiting on the wall for the Urak Hai battle to begin at Helms Deep his hands repeatedly change position on his bow between shots.
Continuity: When Aragorn is lying on the river's shore, he forces himself onto an unsaddled horse. But, when he sees the Orc Army and starts to gallop towards Helms Deep, he is riding with a saddle.
Continuity: When Gandalf and Theoden are talking outside town, near the burial mounds covered in white flowers, all the shots of Gandalf show the wind whipping his hair around, but in all the shots of Theoden there is not even a hint of a breeze in his hair.
Continuity: When Frodo is sliding down the hill outside the Black Gate he has a pack on his back but when he covers Sam with his cloak the pack is gone
Continuity: When Pippin climbs Treebeard, he has several smudges of blood on his face. These have disappeared seconds later, when Treebeard is holding both Pippin and Merry.
Continuity: Just after Sam says How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? we cut to a shot of Aragorn which is a reversed shot - the scar on his lip is on the wrong side.
Continuity: When Theoden the king grasps his sword, Gandalf's grey coat is not on the floor at the wide shot.
Revealing mistakes: As women and children enter Helm's Deep's caves, a rock stalactite swings back and forth after an extra touches it.
Continuity: When the three ladders are raised on the Keep in the Helms Deep sequence, the wide and close-in shots alternate between the outer two ladders being about 30 feet apart and less than 5 feet apart, respectively (the third is in between them and never makes it up).
Revealing mistakes: Very near the beginning of the Extended version, some of the real fog in a valley visible at a distance behind Frodo and Sam abruptly disappears. While some close-ups were filmed in studio, it is also possible that there was a delay in filming these on location shots.
Continuity: After Legolas shoots two arrows into the shoulder region of the Uruk-Hai running with the torch, the arrows are nowhere to be seen in the shot that shows the runner diving into drain on the side of the wall of Helms Deep.
Continuity: When Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf enter Edoras, they surrender their weapons. When Gimli pins Wormtongue to the floor, his axe blade can be seen next to his head.
Continuity: When Theodred is buried, Gandalf's hair is grey and sticking out to the side, in the next shot it is Gandalf's usual color of long flowing white.
Factual errors: In the cast list for the Extended Edition, 'John Noble' 's name is misspelled, Nogle.
Revealing mistakes: At Helm's deep, several elves draw and shoot their bows (complete with sound effects) but no arrows are seen.
Revealing mistakes: In the shot where Aragorn orders the men of Rohan to fire their arrows (just after the elves do from the wall at Helms Deep) his sword's blade disappears as it comes toward the camera.
Continuity: When everyone is traveling to Helm's Deep, Gimli is riding on a horse. The head of his axe changes positions (blade down, blade up) several times when his is talking to people.
Continuity: The orcs use axes to chop the trees into smaller logs, but, when the logs are thrown on the fire, the ends are smooth, as if cut with a saw.
Continuity: Gamling's cloak is alternately over his shoulder and behind his back between shots as he is being instructed by Aragorn.
Continuity: When Saruman tells the Orc to send out the Warg riders, his staff is in his right hand. In the next shot it's in his left hand.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Saruman tells the Orc to send out the Warg riders, a couple of seconds later the Orc's lips are moving in a reply, but no sound is heard.
Crew or equipment visible: Immediately after Legolas slides down the steps on the shield, a rain-sprinkler can be seen at the top of the frame during his close-up.
Continuity: When Gandalf and crew march into Theoden's house, Legolas is gripping Gandalf's arm when seen from the front, but not when seen from behind (and it looks as though Gandalf was expecting him to be gripping it, with his arm cocked).
Continuity: When Aragorn first comes to Helm's Deep, the cut on his shoulder disappears during the sequence when Theoden tells Gimli that he can defend his own keep.
Continuity: When the orcs are carrying Merry and Pippin on their backs the wide shots show the orc carrying Pippin to be closer to the camera with the orc carrying Merry to his left. But in the close-ups they have swapped places with Pippin having to turn to his right to speak to Merry.
Continuity: At Osgiliath. Frodo is seen walking toward the wall and clearly has no sword. When he stands on the wall and is about to be snatched by the Ring Wraith, Sam grabs him and they tumble down the stairs. Frodo pulls a sword and puts it to Sam's throat despite the fact that he had no sword and had been in Faramir's custody and would not have been left armed anyway.
Continuity: Shortly after Grima is introduced to gunpowder while in Isengard, he walks outside with Saruman, only to lean right and have the candle he is holding extinguished behind what looks to be a spike in the wall in the close-up. While it can be said the wind (seen in Saruman's hair) may have put it out, the spike is missing in the next shot.
Factual errors: When Frodo and Faramir are watching Gollum in the pool from Henneth Annun, they see the full moon setting. However, a full moon sets at dawn, whereas the scene is set in the middle of the night.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Just as Ugluk and the troop of Uruk-Hai stop and Uruk asks, What is it? What do you smell? one of the Uruk-Hai fails to notice a bump in the terrain and goes sprawling to the floor.
Revealing mistakes: At the end of the film when Gollum is crawling through the woods talking to himself, his hands and feet disappear into the ground.
Continuity: Sam is using his stew pot to cook rabbit stew in Ithilien when the Gondorian rangers find the hobbits, at which time they place them under capture, seemingly leaving the stew pot behind, but Sam has it attached to his pack later when he, Frodo and Gollum are leaving Osgiliath.

Quotes

Frodo: We are hobbits of the Shire. Frodo Baggins is my name, and this is Samwise Gamgee.
Faramir: Your bodyguard?
Sam: His gardener.

Frodo: I can't do this Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

Sam: Hey Stinker! Don't go getting too far ahead.
Frodo: Why do you do that?
Sam: What?
Frodo: Call him names, run him down all the time.
Sam: Because... because that's what he is, Mr. Frodo. There's naught left in him but lies and deceit. It's the ring he wants; it's all he cares about.
Frodo: You have no idea what it did to him... what it's still doing to him. I want to help him, Sam.
Sam: Why?
Frodo: Because I have to believe he can come back.
Sam: You can't save him, Mr. Frodo.
Frodo: [suddenly angry] What do you know about it? Nothing!
Frodo: [remorseful] I'm sorry, Sam. I don't know why I said that.
Sam: I do. It's the ring. You can't take your eyes off it, I've seen you. You're not eating. You barely sleep. It's taken a hold of you, Mr. Frodo. You have to fight it.
Frodo: I know what I have to do, Sam. The ring was entrusted to me. It's my task, mine, my own! [storms off]
Sam: Can't you hear yourself? Don't you know who you sound like?

Elrond: Our time here is ending, Arwen's time is ending. Let her go... let her take the ship into the West. Let her bear her love for you to the Undying Lands, there it will be ever green...
Aragorn: ...but never more than a memory.

[during the Battle of Helm's Deep, Gimli has killed an Uruk-Hai warrior]
Gimli: Legolas! Two already!
Legolas: I'm on seventeen!
Gimli: Huh? I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!
[kills another one] Legolas: [shoots two more arrows] Nineteen!