Projects » The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Production Year: 2003
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Tagline: This Christmas the journey ends
Rating: 8.9/10 (129,643 votes)
Runtime: 201 min / 251 min (extended edition)
Country: New Zealand / USA
Language: English / Sindarin
Certification: Canada:14A/Australia:M/France:U/Germany:12 /Spain:13/UK:12A/USA:PG-13

Plot Outline: The War of the Ring reaches its climax as the dark lord Sauron sets his sights on Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. The members of the fellowship in Rohan are warned of the impending attack when Pippin cannot resist looking into Saruman's palantir and is briefly contacted by the dark lord. King Theoden is too proud to send his men to help without being asked, so Gandalf and Pippin ride to Minas Tirith to see that this request is sent. They meet opposition there from Denethor, steward of the city and father of Faramir and the late Boromir. Denethor's family has acted as temporary guardians of Gondor for centuries until a member of the true line of kings returns. This member is none other than Aragorn, who must overcome his own self-doubt before he can take on the role he was destined to fulfill. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam continue to carry the One Ring towards Mordor, guided by Gollum. What they don't know is that Gollum is leading them into a trap so that he can reclaim the Ring for himself. Though Sam suspects his deceit, Frodo is starting to be corrupted by the Ring's power and the mistrust of Sam this causes is fully exploited by Gollum. The only way good can prevail in this contest is if the Ring is destroyed, an event that is becoming harder every minute for Frodo to achieve. The fate of every living creature in Middle Earth will be decided once and for all as the Quest of the Ringbearer reaches its climax.

Awards

Won 11 Oscars. Another 96 wins & 62 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

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
Bloom .... Legolas
Hugo Weaving .... Elrond
Miranda Otto .... Eowyn
David Wenham .... Faramir
Noel Appleby .... Everard Proudfoot
Alexandra Astin .... Elanor Gamgee
John Bach .... Madril
Sean Bean .... Boromir
Cate Blanchett .... Galadriel
Sadwyn Brophy .... Eldarion
Alistair Browning .... Damrod
Bernard Hill .... Theoden

Trivia

Then 26-year-old Stuart Townsend was set to play Aragorn, but was let go after the six weeks of training and rehearsal and one day into filming because director Peter Jackson felt the character should be played by someone older. He was replaced by forty-one year old Viggo Mortensen
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.
Most of the lines Legolas says in the Extended Edition scene of the Paths of the Dead are direct quotes from the book.
New Line wanted Peter Jackson to start the film with a prologue done by Cate Blanchett, something that Jackson didn't want to do.
For the Special Extended Edition, the scene in which Pippin is looking for Merry after the battle on Pelennor Fields was digitally altered so that it appears to be night instead of day. According to Peter Jackson on the commentary track, this was done to make it appear that Pippin has been looking for hours instead of minutes, underlining the friendship between the two Hobbits. In the original edit, because it appears that Pippin has only been looking for a few minutes his reaction to finding Merry seems like he's overreacting.
John Rhys-Davies provides the voice of Treebeard (uncredited for this movie, but credited for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)).
A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.
The final reel of the film to be completed was done so only five days before the world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand. The premiere was the first time that Peter Jackson had seen the completed film.
When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
The first shot of Sam's arm coming into frame holding Sting towards Shelob is actually Peter Jackson's arm
EASTER EGGS: One the Extended Edition DVD, Disc 1, as per the first two movies, go to the scene selection menu, to the last page. Press down until a ring icon appears next to the "new scene" phrase; Up comes a satellite "interview" of Elijah Wood, given by Dominic Monaghan using a German accent. Do the same thing on disc 2 to uncover an MTV skit featuring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn pitching LOTR sequels to Peter Jackson.
Each of the cast members were given a gift on their last day of shooting, usually a prop that was significant to their roles. Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's dresses and her sword, Liv Tyler received Arwen's "dying dress", Bloom got one of Legolas' bows.
Horses owned by the production company were placed up for auction to the cast and crew after the film was shot. Viggo Mortenson purchased two horses, the one he rode for most of the film, and one for Liv Tyler's riding double.
The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.
Peter Jackson's children appear twice in the film: in Gondor, when the horsemen leave the city, and in Sam's wedding.
The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, Maisie McLeod-Riera, plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.
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 Mortensen's realizing it.
Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.
Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one
The film was originally going to end with a voice-over epilogue by Cate Blanchett's character, Galadriel, detailing the fate of the fellowship of the ring after the events of the movie.
The opening scene which tells the origin of Gollum was originally shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to be shown after Gollum remembers his real name (Smeagol) for the first time.
Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.
Peter Jackson is arachnophobic.
The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Robins (Deagol) accidentally blinked after being strangled. However, Peter Jackson liked that particular shot so much better than others that he decided to have the Weta Digital crew "freeze" the eyes. Second, in the shot where Smeagol falls on the rocks (just before Gollum begins to narrate), Andy Serkis' legs were considered to be too muscular and athletic, and so they were digitally thinned-down.
In the extended cut of the film, the song during the Houses of Healing sequence is sung by Liv Tyler.
When Frodo is writing the book, the top of the page notes that Sam was elected Mayor of Hobbiton.
The movie tied with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) to win the most Oscars (11) in a single year.

Goofs

Continuity: In the scene of Theoden's death, a black line appears and disappears between shots on the right side of Eowyn's forehead, over her eyebrow.
Revealing mistakes: Near the beginning of the film as the camera flies towards Rohan you can see the smoke pouring back into the chimneys rather than out of them.
Continuity: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right. Later when Sam draws his sword, it is back on his left side.
Continuity: When Sam is holding Frodo on his lap during the climb up Mt. Doom, the wound on Frodo's face has moved from his right cheek to his left. The footage for the entire scene has been flipped.
Continuity: When Gandalf, Pippin, and Merry are crossing through Edoras to the stables, a man and a large dog walk from right to left in the background. A few shots later, they walk past again.
Continuity: The position of Smeagol's hands around Deagol's throat changes noticeably between cuts.
Continuity: After Eowyn decapitates the Witch King's fellbeast, the severed head disappears.
Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are bewildered as the orc army marches out from the fortress by the bottom of the secret stair, they are lit from the bridge's direction by red and orange fiery colors. In the reverse shots of the bridge and the fortress, there is no orange light in the shot at all, only the ghostly green lighting.
Continuity: When the witch king's fell beast is killed, there are no oliphants lying on the ground nearby. When Merry stabs him in the back, he falls back wards and lies on the ground. Later, when Pippin finds Merry, he is lying by an oliphant and the fell beast's body is not there.
Continuity: When the orc and the Uruk-Hai fight over the mithril shirt in the tower, there is a short shot where the normally long-haired orc is bald.
Continuity: When Gandalf and Pippin are in Minas Tirith, and Gandalf is outside he starts coughing on his pipe smoke. On this wide shot, Pippin is tucked into bed. Then, in the next shot, he is up standing by his bed looking at his new Gondorian armor. He then gets Gandalf some water from the pitcher.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: Prior to Faramir's ride to re-capture Osgiliath, Gandalf challenges him. There is one shot where Faramir comments on the Men of Gondor there are a number of words before this phrase but his lips do not appear to moving.
Continuity: In the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn is carrying his sword in one hand and a torch in the other. When the Army of the Dead appears, Aragorn is still carrying the torch, but when the King of the Dead attacks him, Aragorn's torch is nowhere to be seen and we don't see it again for the rest of the sequence, nor do we ever see him drop it.
Continuity: When Pippin is seen climbing up the side of the beacon of Amon-Din, the Gondorian guard is on the side of the bridge closest to the beacon. In the following wide shot of the beacon, the guard is on the far side of the bridge.
Continuity: In the Voice of Saruman Scene, Treebeard starts and ends the scene in front of Orthanc's door. Throughout the scene, Treebeard is nowhere to be seen.
Continuity: Elrond's hair changes from being neatly tucked behind his ears to free flowing and back behind his ears again between shots as Arwen convinces him to re-forge the shards of Narsil.
Continuity: The amount of mud along with the ring in Deagol's hand lessens considerably with each shot of him looking at the ring, until the mud is completely gone by the time he is attacked by Smeagol.
Continuity: The two doors of the Black Gate continue to open as Aragorn and the others ride away from the approaching Orc army. When Aragorn rides as he shouts, Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers... when the age of men comes crashing down, at the top of the screen the closed gate is visible.
Continuity: After Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith, Merry and Pippin stand in the doorway. Their height reaches the middle of the ornate door carving in the close-up, but in their next wide shot running in, they are considerably lower. When Legolas and Aragorn walk in, also in a close-up, their height is just a bit higher on the carving than the two Hobbits' heights were. Then when Sam stands in the doorway his height also reaches the center of the carving.
Continuity: Sam rolls down Shelob's back, then he grabs Sting and takes a stance against Shelob. In the next wide shot, Sam stands ready and Shelob positions herself at the stairway. Frodo's wrapped body is not lying anywhere to be seen.
Continuity: At the end, when the four Hobbits are entering Grey Havens, Sam is wearing a yellow vest with brown buttons over a white shirt. When Frodo makes his way onto the ship and turns back to smile at his friends, Sam is no longer wearing the yellow vest. The vest is still not there when the three Hobbits turn to leave the Grey Havens. When Sam is holding his daughter, he is once again wearing the yellow vest.
Continuity: When at the Black Gate, the army of men are surrounded by Orcs, then after Aragorn's For Frodo line, they charge across the screen from left to right. When they are running, in a shot where Gandalf is seen on the very right of the screen, you can see through some gaps and there are no Orcs, just an open field.
Continuity: After Gorbag says, You touch it, and I'll stick this blade in your gut, Shagrat and Gorbag start to fight. A few shots later there's a close-up of Gorbag being bald - he's not wearing his hairpiece/wig in this shot-as he's being pushed towards the right of the screen by Shagrat, just before falling into the hole! (On the Extended Edition DVD Director/Writer commentary, writer Philippa Boyens actually admits that his wig falls off!)
Continuity: When Aragorn first meets the Army of the Dead, he is holding a torch in his left hand and a sword in his right hand. When he turns around to look at the rest of the undead, his torch and sword have switched hands. He then turns around again and the torch and sword are back where they originally were.
Crew or equipment visible: After Pippin draws his sword, the next shot is of Orcs running to the right of the screen. As that shot opens, click five or six frames in and two crewmembers are seen between the Orcs on the right of the screen, click a few more times and more crew members are visible in the middle, between the Orcs.
Continuity: When Gollum drops the lembas from the bridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in falling away, and the wafers fall generally straight down. However, when Sam finds it later, the lembas is still mostly wrapped in the leaves, with only a few morsels broken off and laying around unwrapped.
Continuity: After Gollum says, Clever Hobbits, to climb so high!, he jumps onto Frodo and Sam. Gollum then attacks Frodo and when he turns Frodo onto his back, Frodo's shirt is wide open at his neck/chest and the chain and Ring are gone. In the next close-up as Gollum chokes Frodo, and the following shots, the chain with the Ring is back.
Continuity: Before the charge of the Rohirrim, we see that Merry and Eowyn are near the middle of the group, but when we see Merry during the charge, look behind him. There are about five horsemen, behind whom are just empty fields.
Continuity: When Theoden reforms the line as the Mumakil approach, there are empty fields behind the horses. In the overhead shot of them charging, it is seen that there are still orcs in the background who should have been there in the previous shot.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Elrond comes to give the newly re-forged Narsil to Aragorn, a gust of wind suddenly blows up, knocking over a suit of armor in the background. The armor makes no noise as it crashes however.
Continuity: When Aragorn meets the army of the dead, the elf leaf that hold his cape together changes. First its pointing left, then right again etc.
Continuity: When Sam believes Frodo to be dead after his battle with Shelob, Frodo's eyes are open/closed/open between shots.
Revealing mistakes: In Shelob's Lair, when Samwise pulls the web from dead Frodo's face, Frodo blinks. However, Frodo is paralyzed with his eyes open.
Continuity: Nearing the end of the film where we see Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry having a drink at the Green Dragon, Frodo places four mugs on the table. The first sequence has two green mugs on the right and two brown mugs on the left. The second shot shows the mugs with a brown and green mug on each side of the table. Frodo puts the other brown mug in front of Merry, but in the next shot the other brown mug is in front of Pippin.
Continuity: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right.
Continuity: When Sam cuts Shelob's silk from around Frodo's face, it is completely cleared of silk in the close-up shots but remains covered with silk from the nose down in the long shots.
Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are on the rock at the foot of the exploding Mount Doom, there is a shot of Frodo's left hand where the hand is completely clean and the finger is still there.
Revealing mistakes: In a quick shot of Gandalf holding Pippin while riding Shadowfax in front of the Black Gate you can see Billy Boyd's double's face.
Continuity: When Aragorn is running back to join his fellow men, when the black gate is open, we can see the CGI flag of the rider that goes with him is going from left to right, but in the next shot, the wind is in the opposite direction.
Continuity: During the fight with Shelob, Sam is holding Frodo's sword which switches between Sam's right and left hand in between shots at least once.
Continuity: When Arwen is reading the book after she sees the vision, there is a picture on the right-hand page. When she drops the book there is no picture there.
Continuity: When Aragorn's party rides to the Black Gate, Eomer is shown as riding with them (he can be identified by the white plume on his helmet). When they reach the gate, Eomer is missing from most of the wide shots, although he's shown in at least one close-up.
Continuity: When Frodo finishes writing the book, he reaches for the stab wound on his shoulder with the writing quill in hand. Then Sam walks in and in the next shot, Frodo's hand is still by his shoulder, but the quill is gone.
Continuity: While Denethor is eating in the citadel hall and is asking Pippin if he knows how to sing, he has a smear of red wine/sauce/blood on his chin. In a subsequent shot, Denethor turns to the camera and the smear is gone. It then reappears as he looks back to Pippin.
Continuity: When Gandalf is speaking with the steward the end of his cloak alternates between clean and mud soaked.
Continuity: After the battle at Minas Tirith the clasp holding Pippin's cape together changes direction between shots.
Continuity: When Pippin finds Merry after the battle his leaf-brooch is pointing to the left, in the following shot is pointing to the right.
Continuity: When Sam stabs Shelob in the eye with Sting, the blade is covered with blood, but when it is knocked out of his hand in the next shot, it's perfectly clean.
Continuity: When Gandalf and Pippin are talking during the battle at Minias Tirith, Gandalf's sword has orc blood on it. Then the camera switches to Pippin and when it returns to Gandalf, his sword has no blood.
Continuity: The elf standing behind Elrond, Galadriel and Celeborn at the Grey Havens changes position several times between shots.
Continuity: When the Army of the Dead enters Minas Tirith, one of the battlements on the city's outer wall (near the bottom of the frame) changes its shape and position, losing a portion of its tower.
Continuity: Gollum sprinkles crumbs of the Lembas bread on Sam to incriminate him. When Sam gets up, the crumbs are gone. Then, they reappear when Gollum points them out.
Continuity: After defeating Shelob, Sam runs to Frodo. He lays Sting down next to him, on an area of dirt with a couple rocks sticking up. But later, when we see Sting glow blue, it's on perfectly level dirt ground.
Continuity: When Pippin takes the seeing stone from Gandalf's sleeping arms, he replaces it with a pitcher. This pitcher is absent when Gandalf wakes up.
Revealing mistakes: While Eowyn delivers the decapitating blow to the Witch King's Fell Beast, the path of her sword swing does not come close to matching the location of the eventual sword strike on the beast's neck.
Revealing mistakes: The aerial shot of Edoras (between the scene where Merry and Pippin are reunited with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf, and the scene where they do their drinking song on the table) is being shown backwards, as can be seen by watching the flow of the flag cloth in the wind.
Continuity: After Eowyn dodges the bite from the Witchking's fell beast, but before she is about to make her first swordstroke, there is already a bloody gash on the fell beast's neck.
Continuity: When Frodo flips Gollum/Smeagol over the cliff his back and shoulders are free of spider webs. But when he falls and has the vision, the spider webs are back.
Continuity: When Eowyn kills the Witch King, her arm is hurt and she keeps holding it close to her body. But when she stands up after Merry stabs him she uses her hurt arm to push herself up.
Continuity: When Merry and Pippin are dancing on the table at Rohan you can see Gandalf from behind bouncing up and down on his feet but when you see the front of him he is nodding his head and clapping.
Continuity: When Eowyn is fighting the Witch King, the strap holding her helmet is buckled, however, when she pulls off her helmet, there is no strap on it at all.
Revealing mistakes: After Frodo tells him to go home and he starts crying, the next close-up of Sam shows where his real and fake ear meet-right above the curl of hair.
Revealing mistakes: When Frodo is running through the stone gate at the Mount of Doom, you can see the surface beneath his feet is sliding away, so it looks like he is floating just above the ground.
Continuity: When Pippin saves Gandalf from being stabbed during the Minas Tirith battle Gandalfs hands change position when he is talking to Pippin.
Continuity: When Pippin climbs up to light the beacon, the weather is cloudy without a trace of sunshine. However, Gandalf below is in bright sunshine.
Continuity: One shot where the army of the dead reveal themselves in the cavern is flipped: As he turns to regard them appearing, Aragorn's leaf clasp is backwards and the torch and sword have changed hands.
Revealing mistakes: When Aragorn speaks to Legolas and Gimli before they enter the Path of the Death, you can see a green shimmer in the back showing the King of the Death, exactly in this moment a knight of rohan crosses between Aragorn and the entrance, but the shimmer which is supposed to be several yards behind him appears over him.
Continuity: When Sam deals the killing blow to Shelob, he is shown pulling Sting from her belly two times, first at the end of one view, then again about a second into a different view.
Continuity: In the Voice of Saruman, after Saruman has fallen onto the spiked wheel it begins to turn, causing the Palantir to fall from his robe. When it is shown splashing into the water, the wheel is not turning, but continues to turn after the Pelantir has landed on the ground.
Continuity: In the Voice of Saruman, when Pippin jumps from the horse and picks up the Palantir, the debris in the water changes position every time the scene changes.
Factual errors: When Legolas jumps on the back of the elephant, he goes to cut the rope to release the people. However, there are about three thick rows of ropes going through the back of the elephant. Legolas only cuts one. The other ones were already cut.
Factual errors: Before Eowyn makes a cut on the Beast's head, you see that before she even does her move, there is already a cut on the neck.
Revealing mistakes: Before the final battle at the Black Gate, Aragorn cuts the head off of Sauron's emissary. In the next scene, the emissary's horse, body, and severed head are nowhere to be seen.

Quotes

Sam: It must be getting near tea-time, leastways in decent places.
Gollum: We're not *in* decent places.

Galadriel: The power of the Three Rings is ended. The time has come... for the dominion of Men.
Elrond: I Aear c?n ven na mar.
[Elvish: The Sea calls us home]
Bilbo: I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure.
[Climbs on board with Elrond. Galadriel gets on boat with Celeborn]
Gandalf: Farewell... my brave Hobbits. My work is now finished. Here at last, on the shores of the sea... comes the end of our Fellowship. I will not say, Do not weep... not all tears are an evil.
[Heads to the ship, then turns around, waiting]
Gandalf: It is time, Frodo.
Sam: What does he mean?
Frodo: We set out to save the Shire, Sam. And it has been saved. But not for me.
Sam: You don't mean that. You can't leave.