FILM · 2002 · NEW ZEALAND
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
- Directed by
- Peter Jackson
- Runtime
- 179 min
- Studio
- New Line Cinema, WingNut Films, The Saul Zaentz Company
300 archived facts 8 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
Frodo Baggins and the other members of the Fellowship continue on their sacred quest to destroy the One Ring--but on separate paths. Their destinies lie at two towers--Orthanc Tower in Isengard, where the corrupt wizard Saruman awaits, and Sauron's fortress at Barad-dur, deep within the dark lands of Mordor.
300 Interesting Facts About The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Interesting Facts (124)
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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 Sir Peter Jackson politely asked to see what was under the patch, and then inquired if the gentleman would be interested in appearing in the movie 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.
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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 left 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 sixteen months.
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In the scene where Aragorn has washed up on the shore of the river that he fell in when the Warg dragged him off the cliff and Arwen comes to him in a dream to revive him, the dialogue was originally in English. But Liv Tyler was entranced by the Elvish language, and since both characters and cast members knew how to speak it, she talked Sir Peter Jackson into letting them translate the script for that scene. Everyone agreed that it turned out much better her way, than the way it had been originally planned.
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The main door of Helm's Deep was built so heavy, 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 director Sir Peter Jackson can be 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.
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To ensure the safety of the more than three hundred horses used throughout the trilogy, motion capture technology was employed in dangerous battle scenes. The movements of horses and riders, recorded in the studio with special suits, were integrated into the battle scenes digitally, preventing the animals from being put at risk.
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Rendering a single frame of Gollum sometimes took up to six hours; the WETA team would leave the rendering process overnight and check the results in the morning. Software errors that occurred from time to time led to absurd images, such as Gollum's hair turning into a punk-style afro or his eyes popping out of his head while speaking.
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For the scene where Gollum crawls through the river hunting fish, Andy Serkis had to enter freezing cold water. Worried that the actor might not notice the cliff edge because of the cold and fall, Peter Jackson stationed two crew members at the side; after the shoot, Serkis left the set wrapped in towels and aluminium foil.
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The sunrise scene in which Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas chase the Uruk-hai came about after Viggo Mortensen persuaded the second unit crew to camp out on location. Mortensen's organisation was so successful that cast members from other units, including Miranda Otto, and crew members joined them as well.
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Elijah Wood's sister Hannah Wood and Viggo Mortensen's son Henry Mortensen are among the refugees at Helm's Deep. The boy who hands Aragorn his sword is Philippa Boyens's son Callum Boyens; however, because Callum's voice had changed by the dubbing stage, a different voice was used in the scene.
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The forced perspective technique used in the Helm's Deep scenes was designed to perfect the perception of depth. The distant parts of the set were built at a smaller scale, Action Man figures were used as scale references during the design stage, and atmospheric depth was reinforced with a constantly smoky environment.
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The long monologue in which Gollum explains his plan to trap Frodo and Sam was the first Gollum scene sent to Weta Digital, but due to its technical complexity it became the sequence that took the longest to complete. After Andy Serkis's performance, the camera operator memorised the movements and shot the scene without Serkis; Serkis then performed the same actions in front of a green screen, and this footage was digitally integrated into the background.
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John Rhys-Davies had lost the tip of his left middle finger in an accident in his youth, so during filming he used prosthetics made from a mold taken of his right finger. One day the actor cut off the tip of the prosthetic and filled it with fake blood, playing an unforgettable prank on Peter Jackson.
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Karl Urban was cast as Éomer by Peter Jackson after Jackson watched the editing of the film 'The Price of Milk'; the film's director, Harry Sinclair, also played Isildur in the trilogy.
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The screenwriters decided from the outset that Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob, the finale of the novel 'The Two Towers', belonged in the third film. Likewise, Saruman's defeat at Isengard was moved to the third film, on the reasoning that it would weaken the flow of the story. This strategic move allowed the Battle of Helm's Deep to become the film's natural climax, and that battle was blended with the simultaneous conflicts at Isengard and Osgiliath.
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In the film, Elrond sends a company of Elves to aid the soldiers of Rohan. In the book this does not happen, since the Elves are busy defending their own lands against Sauron's forces; the change was made in the film to show the Elves' sacrifice and to emphasize that they did not leave the entire burden to Men.
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Gollum, who appears for a brief moment in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is a completely different design from the character we see in this film. When Peter Jackson decided that Andy Serkis's physical performance had to be transferred to the digital Gollum, Weta Digital had to redesign two years of work in two and a half months. Serkis has said that the final result looked like a cross between his own father and his newborn baby.
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Arwen was planned to be included in the company of Elves fighting at the Battle of Helm's Deep. This was a leftover from the Miramax era of the script and drew backlash from fans; realizing that this approach did not work, the screenwriters removed Arwen from the battle scene. Arwen's story was reworked using material from the book's appendices and by focusing on her past memories with Aragorn in Rivendell.
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New Line Cinema wanted the film to open with a prologue in which Cate Blanchett summarized the previous events. Jackson resisted this, believing that audiences remembered the events and wanting to get straight into the action; indeed, a similar prologue debate had arisen on the first film.
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A scene cut from the film and later added to the Extended DVD provides more information about Aragorn. He tells Éowyn that he is 87 years old and a Dúnedain of Númenórean descent, blessed with a long life. He adds that he is one of the last of his people, because the Northern Kingdom was destroyed long ago. In Middle-earth history, Númenor was an island kingdom granted to the people who survived a great war thousands of years earlier, and they had longer lifespans than ordinary humans. Over time the Númenóreans became very wealthy and powerful, and a faction, in its desire for immortality, went to war against the Elves. The Valar (god-like beings) punished these Númenóreans by crushing their fleet and sinking the island of Númenor into the ocean. The Dúnedain faction that remained loyal to the Elves was allowed to survive and settled in Middle-earth, founding Arnor (the Northern Kingdom) and Gondor (the Southern Kingdom). While Gondor endured, Arnor collapsed as a result of internal conflicts and the attacks of the Witch-king of Angmar, leader of the Nazgûl. Aragorn is a direct descendant of Isildur, one of the original Dúnedain, and of his kings of Arnor.
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When Gollum says 'murderer' and Sméagol, hearing it, breaks down weeping, this is a hint at Sméagol's past (the scene of Déagol's death in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). The genuine guilt and remorse Sméagol feels over killing Déagol are valid signs that Sméagol (Gollum) was not evil from the start, but merely a sad, gloomy and innocent creature tortured and corrupted by the One Ring.
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While Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes, he says the corpses are 'Elf, Man and Orc' left over from a very old war. The armor of the corpses in the marsh has the same weave pattern as the armor the Elves (Elrond and Gil-galad) wore at the Battle of the Last Alliance at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, meaning the corpses have been there for at least 3021 years.
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When Aragorn introduces himself and his companions to Éomer, he mentions his father and Gimli's father, but refers to Legolas only as 'from the woodland realm.' After seeing what Thranduil is like in The Hobbit trilogy, it is quite likely that Legolas did not want to be mentioned alongside his father.
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The shot showing Frodo, Sam and Gollum looking toward the Black Gate mirrors a similar shot of the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Both groups of heroes find their goal heavily guarded while new armies arrive. In both stories, one of the characters (Dorothy, Frodo) is captured, and to move through enemy territory all the heroes must wear enemy uniforms.
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Gollum bears similarities to Grendel in the film Beowulf (2007), adapted from the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Both characters are computer-generated, both are humanoid creatures living in a lake beneath or within a mountain, and both are portrayed as savage on the outside but childlike within.
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Production Story (28)
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Originally, one of the concept drawings of Gollum showed him with skeletal nostrils for a nose. However, that idea was dropped because Weta Digital's concept artists felt that the skeletal nose made Gollum too unsympathetic and "zombie-like." Another concept showed Gollum with a small potbelly. That idea was dropped as well.
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The character of Erkenbrand, one of King Theoden's Army Lords in the novel, was left out of the movie. In the book, it was he and Gandalf who led the final charge of the Rohirrim against the Orc army, while Éomer is fighting the battle from within Helm's Deep, alongside King Theoden, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. In the movie, Éomer is sent away early on, and it is he who secures the victory against the Uruk-Hai together with Gandalf.
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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' voice-over work in New Zealand. However, director Sir Peter Jackson was so blown away by Serkis's audition that he decided to have him perform the movements for Gollum, as well.
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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, Sir 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 take place during daylight.
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In the movie, Lord Elrond dispatches a squadron of Elves to Helm's Deep to assist the Rohan soldiers. This doesn't happen in the book, since the Elves are occupied with defending their own homes from attacks by Sauron's forces at the same time. However, the decision was made to include Elves in this movie to show their sacrifices and avoid the suggestion that the Elves leave all the fighting in the movies to humans.
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Shortly before being cast in this film, Karl Urban starred in The Price of Milk (2000), directed by Harry Sinclair, who played Isildur in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sir Peter Jackson was inspired to cast Urban as Éomer after seeing a rough cut of The Price of Milk that Sinclair prepared for him.
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One of the main reasons Sean Astin took the part of Samwise Gamgee was the advice of his stepfather John Astin, who had previously worked with director Sir Peter Jackson and Dame Fran Walsh on The Frighteners (1996) and had been enthused with their rapport, understanding of film, and appreciation of their crew.
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Originally, while Faramir's group is approaching Osgiliath, the city of Minas Tirith would have been just visible in the background, lying against the rocks in the far distance. However, Sir Peter Jackson was afraid that people would confuse it with Helm's Deep and had the effect removed from the theatrical version, though he did include it in the Extended Edition.
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Sean Astin shot his short movie The Long and Short of It (2003) during a re-shoot in New Zealand. Lucasfilm was demonstrating its new high-definition digital video cameras (used on Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)) for Sir Peter Jackson, and Astin asked the Lucasfilm crew if they could stay an extra day so he could use the camera to shoot his short movie. They agreed, and Astin shot the movie in six hours.
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General release prints of this movie 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).
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It was clear to the writers from the beginning that the entire final sequence of the novel 'The Two Towers' (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) would have to be part of the third movie, not this one. Also, the confrontation with a defeated Saruman at Isengard was deemed to be too anti-climactic, and was therefore moved to the third movie, as well. This tactical move meant that the battle for Helm's Deep became this movie's natural climax, intercut with scenes from the concurrent battles of Isengard and Osgilliath. The former is mentioned in the book, but only retrospectively described by Merry and Pippin; the latter never happens in the book, as Frodo and Sam are never brought to Osgilliath.
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Originally, Arwen (Liv Tyler) was to be included in the fighting force of Elves who join the men in the battle of Helm's Deep. This was a relic of the script treatment for Miramax, which condensed the one-thousand-plus-page novel into two movies and met with fan fury on the internet for its free-and-easy approach to J.R.R. Tolkien's work. Tyler had even trained with sword fighters 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 individual book of The Two Towers, was ultimately re-worked 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.
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Sir Peter Jackson felt that in the book, Faramir's casual refusal to seek the Ring was anti-climactic and inconsistent with the Ring's maddening temptation of other characters, such as the Nazgûl, Gollum, and Boromir. For this reason, he added the now-controversial subplot involving Faramir's hubris and the captivity of Frodo and Sam in Osgiliath.
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Peter Jackson said that for reasons he could not explain, he felt that "Gollum's Song" should be performed by an Icelandic singer. Björk was approached several times to co-write and sing the song, but she refused them all, due to her pregnancy. Although Björk 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, Emiliana Torrini was approached.
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New Line Cinema wanted Sir Peter Jackson to start the movie with a prologue done by Cate Blanchett recapping the events of the previous movie. Jackson resisted this, as he wanted to get back into the action immediately and thought that most viewers would still remember prior events. Ironically, a year earlier, New Line Cinema had insisted on a prologue to open the first movie, but disagreed with its length and narration by Blanchett, something that Jackson had to convince the studio of.
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The background score heard in the film's official trailer is the orchestra version of Lux Aeterna, written and composed by Clint Mansell. This composition was the leitmotif of the Darren Aronofsky film Requiem for a Dream (2000).
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The Gollum briefly glimpsed in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) is an entirely different creation from the one that appears in this and the third movie. It was during the filming of the second movie that Sir 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 movie, 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 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), with Serkis playing the original Smeagol, only cemented this decision). This ultimately meant, however, that Weta Digital had only two and a half months to redo two years' work. Serkis thought that the final result looked like a combination of his father and his newborn baby.
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It was clear to the writers from the beginning that the entire final sequence of the novel 'The Two Towers' (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) would have to be part of the third movie, not this one. Also, the confrontation with a defeated Saruman at Isengard was deemed to be too anti-climactic, and was therefore moved to the third movie, as well. This tactical move meant that the battle for Helm's Deep became this movie's natural climax, intercut with scenes from the concurrent battles of Isengard and Osgilliath. The former is mentioned in the book, but only retrospectively described by Merry and Pippin; the latter never happens in the book, as Frodo and Sam are never brought to Osgilliath.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The Extended Edition adds more scenes of Gondorian soldiers mistreating Gollum after they catch him in the forbidden pool. According to director Peter Jackson on the commentary track, there was even more abuse that they left out for being excessive, like soldiers standing on Gollum's fingers.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Although Frodo and Sam also encounter captain Faramir in the books, their meeting is much more congenial, as Faramir has foreseen Frodo's coming in a dream. He quickly realizes the nature of the mission that Frodo has undertaken, and acknowledges the dangers of the One Ring. As such, he makes no attempt to take it from Frodo, and puts them safely on their path to Mordor. Since it had already been decided that the ending of the Two Towers novel (Frodo's encounter with Shelob) would be moved over to the third movie, this meant that Frodo's storyline in the second film lacked a climax. This had led to the subplot involving Faramir's temptation by the Ring, the detour to Osgilliath, and Frodo's struggle with the Ring's growing influence, none of which appear in the book. Another problem faced by the writers was that, unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), no major characters die in the course of this movie, something which could have easily provided them with an emotional climax. This may have led to the addition of the sequence where Aragorn goes temporarily missing following the Warg attack, neither of which happens in the Two Towers novel. The Warg attack may have been inspired by a section of the first book, where the Fellowship gets attacked by Wargs while making their way to Moria, though.
Behind the Scenes (89)
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The dawn shot of Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas pursuing the Uruk-hai came about when Viggo Mortensen persuaded the second unit team to camp out on location. Mortensen'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.
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In the scene where Aragorn has washed up on the shore of the river that he fell in when the Warg dragged him off the cliff and Arwen comes to him in a dream to revive him, the dialogue was originally in English. But Liv Tyler was entranced by the Elvish language, and since both characters and cast members knew how to speak it, she talked Sir Peter Jackson into letting them translate the script for that scene. Everyone agreed that it turned out much better her way, than the way it had been originally planned.
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Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan spent so much time up the tree (Treebeard) during the making of this movie that they spent their time between takes writing a screenplay. Additionally, it was so difficult to get up and down from 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.
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The dark liquid that the Uruk-hai forces Merry to drink is known as "grog." For filming, the liquid consisted of peach drink and SodaStream Cola. Dominic Monaghan said it "couldn't be more sticky. [It had] the consistency of liquid glue." In the scene, his first retch was acted, but his second retch was genuine.
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Forced perspective was just one of the tricks used on the Helm's Deep "bigiature" to make it look like the real thing. Parts of the set that were far away from camera were built to a smaller scale, to make them look further away. The shots were also always made in smoke, to increase the sense of atmospheric distance. During the design process, parts of the model were filled with Action Man dolls to provide a scale reference.
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When his tooth snapped during Helm's Deep filming, Viggo Mortensen was driven to Sir Peter Jackson's dentist in Wellington. He was still wearing his costume and covered in black "orc blood", which he declined to have cleaned off as it would be troublesome for continuity. He was back on set half an hour after the dentist finished with him.
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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 melted, but the water was still freezing cold. Sir Peter Jackson was worried that Serkis would forget about the cliff due to the cold and would fall off, so he put two crew members near the edge to stop him in the event that he got too close. Serkis walked off the set wearing towels and aluminum foil.
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Viggo Mortensen broke two toes while kicking the steel helmet by the orc pyre, and that take is the one that appears in the final cut. Director Sir Peter Jackson said that he was really impressed with the shout of pain Aragorn cried out for the fate of the two Hobbits, realizing only later that it was real pain for his toes. He was also impressed by the fact that Mortensen continued acting, even while so seriously injured. Mortensen later remarked that the only reason it was even mentioned, on the DVD release, was because he was an actor, and that the stunt crew were injured far worse and pushed through it.
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Treebeard took between 28 and 48 hours per frame to render. For scenes where he interacts with Merry and Pippin, a 14-foot-tall puppet was built on a wheel. Weta took urethane moulds of tree bark and applied them to the sculpt of Treebeard to create his wooden skin. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd sat on bicycle seats concealed into Treebeard's hands to avoid discomfort and were left alone on set sitting in the puppet's hands during breaks. The puppet was shot against bluescreen.
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The main door of Helm's Deep was built so heavy and so well that the real battering ram built to knock down the gates failed to do so until the door was weakened. Someone had built the door a little too well, and director Sir Peter Jackson can be 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.
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Rendering Gollum would often take six hours for one shot, so WETA would leave the shot to render overnight 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.
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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 left 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 sixteen months.
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In the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), a behind-the-scenes special shows the process the on-camera horses went through. One of the horses playing Brego can be seen training for the scene in which Brego rescues Aragorn. The horses were originally trained with dummies representing Aragorn, and at one point the horse sits on top of the dummy.
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Viggo Mortensen broke a tooth during the shoot. He immediately wanted to continue filming and requested super glue to reattach the broken tooth so he could use the pain for his character. Producer Barrie M. Osborne told him that they were taking him to a dentist and that they would finish filming afterwards.
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Between takes, 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, Bernard Hill thought that his English accent was real and that his American accent must be fake.
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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 Sir Peter Jackson politely asked to see what was under the patch, and then inquired if the gentleman would be interested in appearing in the movie 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.
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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 falling off a horse). Viggo Mortensen had two broken toes (from kicking the helmet in the Orcs' funeral pyre scene). Brett Beattie (Gimli's stunt double) had a knee injury. Sir Peter Jackson said that all three were very dedicated and continued to film the scene, often yelling "ouch" or "ow" after "cut" was called.
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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. During shooting, he decided to pull a prank on director Sir Peter Jackson. He cut the tip off the prosthetic finger and filled it with fake blood, then went up to Jackson and said "Boss, I had an accident."
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Peter Jackson said that the Warg scene was chaotic to shoot and that the wargs were the only computer-generated creatures he felt could have looked more convincing. He also thought the scene itself could have turned out better if his team had a more organized storyboard layout for the battle.
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Sean Astin suffered two injuries in rapid succession. First, he impaled his foot on a piece of glass underwater while filming the scene in which Sam rushes out to Frodo's boat. The day after that scene wrapped, he filmed the scene in which Gollum leads Frodo and Sam to the Black Gate. During that scene, Gollum grabs Frodo and Sam to stop them from rushing towards the Gate. Andy Serkis grabbed Astin by the hair and pulled so hard that he yanked the wig right off his head, causing him considerable pain.
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The Dead Marshes were actually a water-filled parking lot, the same one that had doubled for outside the mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Passengers in passing trains on the adjacent railway line were able to see Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Andy Serkis performing on-set.
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About two hundred to three hundred horses were used in the trilogy. Because most of the scenes involving horses are intense battle scenes, where the horses could likely be harmed, a horse and rider were fitted with the same type of suit that Andy Serkis wore for his role, and were filmed in the studio doing typical "battle" things, like galloping and rearing up, so the footage could be inserted digitally into the battle scenes. In that way, no horses were hurt.
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The filming of the Helm's Deep sequences was so grueling and went on for so many months that Jackson gave all the extras a free T-shirt to commemorate the experience. There were so many extras that they would often recognize each other in New Zealand's main cities by wearing the shirts. On the front of the shirt was the statement "I Survived Helm's Deep", with the letter M struck out, indicating the "hell" of the experience. Two versions existed. One was in black, with red printing on the back that read "Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai Battalion". The other was in blue with silver printing on the back that read "The Lord of the Rings Elf Regiment".
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Viggo Mortensen broke two toes while kicking the steel helmet by the orc pyre, and that take is the one that appears in the final cut. Director Sir Peter Jackson said that he was really impressed with the shout of pain Aragorn cried out for the fate of the two Hobbits, realizing only later that it was real pain for his toes. He was also impressed by the fact that Mortensen continued acting, even while so seriously injured. Mortensen later remarked that the only reason it was even mentioned, on the DVD release, was because he was an actor, and that the stunt crew were injured far worse and pushed through it.
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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 falling off a horse). Viggo Mortensen had two broken toes (from kicking the helmet in the Orcs funeral pyre scene). Brett Beattie (Gimli's stunt double) had a knee injury. Sir Peter Jackson said that all three were very dedicated and continued to film the scene, often yelling "ouch" or "ow" after "cut" was called.
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When his tooth snapped during Helm's Deep filming, Viggo Mortensen was driven to Sir Peter Jackson's dentist in Wellington. He was still wearing his costume and covered in black "orc blood", which he declined to have cleaned off as it would be troublesome for continuity. He was back on set half an hour after the dentist finished with him.
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The Rohan rider seen in the final scene, where Gandalf heralds the victory at Helm's Deep, is actually Karl Urban's stunt double. Peter Jackson admitted that because Urban was not on set that day, they planned to digitally replace the stunt double's face, but forgot to do so during post-production.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The long continuous shot of Gollum as he delivers his final monologue about luring Frodo and Sam into a trap was the first Gollum scene delivered to Weta Digital for post-production. Due to the complexity of the 2-minute shot, it was the last one that they finished. It involved Andy Serkis acting out the full scene, after which the camera operator had to reshoot it as a background scene without Serkis, memorizing the camera movements he had previously made. Serkis later had to re-enact the scene on a greenscreen set in the studio, so that Weta could record his performance and incorporate it into the Gollum animation, which of course had to be seamlessly blended into the background scene.
Characters & Cast (13)
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Gollum's pupils and body language signal his frame of mind. "Treacherous Gollum" has narrow pupils and his shoulders are hunched up like a wild cat, making him appear sinister and predator-like. "Friendly Gollum" (Smeagol) has slightly wider pupils and his body movements are similar to the movements made by a child, making him look innocent and cute. This is most obvious in the scene when the two sides of his personality struggle with each other.
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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' voice-over work in New Zealand. However, director Sir Peter Jackson was so blown away by Serkis's audition that he decided to have him perform the movements for Gollum, as well.
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Easter Eggs & References (33)
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Elijah Wood's sister Hannah Wood is one of the refugees in Helm's Deep, as is Henry Mortensen, Viggo Mortensen's son. Philippa Boyens's son Callum Boyens is the boy who gives Aragorn his sword, but that isn't his voice in the final cut. Callum's voice had changed by the time it came to do the looping, so a different voice was cast.
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The shot of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum looking down at the Black Gate mirrors a similar shot in The Wizard of Oz (1939) featuring the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. Both sets of heroes find their destination heavily guarded, with new armies arriving. Later in both stories, one of the characters (Dorothy, Frodo) is captured, and in order to move around in the enemy's territory, all the heroes must dress in enemy uniforms.
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When Aragorn introduces himself and his companions to Eomer, he mentions both his father and Gimli's, but only refers to Legolas as being from the woodland realm. After seeing what Thranduil was like in The Hobbit trilogy, it's entirely possible that Legolas might not want to be associated with his father.
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Gandalf's line near the end declaring that "The Battle of Helm's Deep is over. The Battle of Middle-earth is about to begin." is paraphrased from part of one of Sir Winston Churchill's most famous speeches of World War II, of June 18, 1940: "The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."
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Gollum leads Frodo and Sam across the Dead Marshes, and says the bodies are from a battle long ago, of "Elves and Men and Orcses." The armor of the bodies in the marsh has the same interlacing style pattern worn by the Elves (Elrond and Gil-Galad) in the Battle of the Last Alliance at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), meaning that these bodies have been there for at least 3021 years.
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While talking with Aragorn before the Battle of Helm's Deep, Legolas mentions three hundred against ten thousand. This is a reference to the Battle of Thermopylae, where three hundred Spartans killed ten thousand Persians. David Wenham appeared in the 2006 film 300, which is about this event.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
In Gandalf's final scene, where he says that the battle of Helm's Deep is over and the battle of Middle-earth is about to begin, an unknown Rohan rider is seen on the far left. This was originally meant to be Éomer, but since Karl Urban was not on set that day, his stand-in replaced him. On the audio commentary, Sir Peter Jackson admits that they planned to digitally replace the head of the stand-in with Urban's, but they simply forgot to do that during post-production.
Deeper Meaning (9)
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When Gollum says "murderer," and Smeagol cries and whimpers at the sound of it, this is a clue to Smeagol's past (Deagol's death flashback in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)). Smeagol's genuine feelings of guilt and remorse over murdering Deagol are valid hints that Smeagol, a.k.a. Gollum, was never evil from the beginning, but was merely a sad, gloomy, and innocent creature who was tortured and corrupted by the One Ring.
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The mixture of Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen's voices and faces during Gandalf's reappearance in Fangorn Forest actually has an in-universe explanation: at this point, Gandalf is channeling the same divine power as Saruman, only he isn't corrupted by Sauron's evil. This is why Gandalf says, "I am Saruman as he should've been" and why he is able to break Saruman's staff in the next chapter: Saruman has misused his divine power, is unworthy of it, and has been replaced by Gandalf as the head of their order.
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The scene where Samwise Gamgee is violently dragging Gollum by a rope around his neck is similar to the scene where Pozzo arrives dragging his slave Lucky by the neck with a long piece of rope in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot." Frodo, Sam, and Gollum have character elements of the four main characters in "Waiting for Godot." Frodo has the character elements of Vladimir (compassion and philosophical thinking), Sam has a combination of Vladimir, Estragon and Pozzo's characteristics (cynicism and harshness towards Gollum, and yet has a philosophical outlook), while Gollum has a combination of Pozzo and Lucky's characteristics (opportunistic and devious as Treacherous Gollum, and childlike and servile as Friendly Gollum). Sir Ian McKellen played the role of Estragon in "Waiting for Godot" co-starring with Sir Patrick Stewart as Vladimir.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Gollum's Song, sung by Emiliana Torrini and played over the credits, ends with 'You are lost, you can never go home.' While it's ambiguous who exactly this is directed towards, by the end of the quest Frodo at least suffers a tragic case of You Can't Go Home Again.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
During the beginning part of the Battle of Helm's Deep, after the Uruks work themselves into a frenzy by stamping their spear shafts and the elderly archer accidentally lets his arrow loose, killing an Uruk, the Uruk-Hai begin to lay siege to the Deeping Wall of Helm's Deep with traditional siege methods, mainly relying on strong ladders to get troops into the fortress via over the walls. The initial troops going up on the walls are Uruk-Hai soldiers in loincloths and masks of white metal wielding longer swords than those the normal Uruk-Hai Soldiers are wielding. While no official name has been given to these Uruks in the movies, in the table-top role-playing game and the licensed video games, they are called Berserker Uruks, who have no regard to their own lives and actually coat themselves in blood to whip themselves into a psychotic killing frenzy. This explains why one of them also freely sacrifices his own life to blow up the Deeping Wall later on.
Career & Awards (1)
Life & Family (3)
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Sadly, Bernard Hill (King Théoden) passed away on May 5, 2024, at the age of 79. Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Astin (Sam), Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) honored him at a Comic Con event in Liverpool, UK, which took place on the day he died. Hill was supposed to attend the event, but he canceled a few days before.
Related pages
- Sean Bean — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers comes up in the facts on that page
- Kate Winslet — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers comes up in the facts on that page
- Alison Doody — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers comes up in the facts on that page
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
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