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
735 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.
735 Interesting Facts About The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Interesting Facts (29)
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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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In the middle of the battle, a one-eyed warrior on the wall of Helm's Deep turns to the camera and shows his empty, scarred socket. The man had come to set as an extra wearing an eye patch. Director Sir Peter Jackson politely asked what was under the patch, then asked whether he would be willing to appear without it. He was reluctant and hesitant at first, but said afterwards that the experience made him more at ease with his condition.
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Edoras sat in the middle of a national park. The New Zealand Conservation Association allowed filming on condition that the site be left exactly as it was found, which meant lifting most of the natural vegetation and grass and keeping it in a purpose-built nursery, since the shoot there would run for about sixteen months.
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The Dead Marshes were really a flooded parking lot, the very same one that stood in for the outside of the Mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Passengers on passing trains on the line next door could watch Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis at work on set.
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Helm's Deep's main gate was so heavy and so solidly built that the real battering ram meant to smash it could not get through until the gate had been weakened. Someone had done the job a little too well; on the Extended Edition DVD, Sir Peter Jackson says that if he ever had to defend a castle, he would want the WETA workshop staff to build the gate.
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Production Story (90)
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Erkenbrand, one of King Theoden's Army Lords in the novel, does not appear in the movie. In the book, he and Gandalf lead the Rohirrim's final charge against the Orc army while Éomer fights inside Helm's Deep with King Theoden, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. In the movie, Éomer is banished early on, and it is he who rides in with Gandalf to win the day against the Uruk-Hai.
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In the movie, Lord Elrond sends a company of Elves to Helm's Deep to fight beside the men of Rohan. That never happens in the book, where the Elves are busy defending their own lands from Sauron's forces at the same moment. The filmmakers put them in anyway, to show the Elves' sacrifice and avoid giving the impression that they leave all the fighting to humans.
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As Faramir's men approach Osgiliath, Minas Tirith was originally meant to be just visible against the rocks in the far distance. Sir Peter Jackson worried audiences would mistake it for Helm's Deep, so he removed the effect from the theatrical version, though it is back in the Extended Edition.
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Sean Astin made his short film The Long and Short of It (2003) during reshoots in New Zealand. Lucasfilm was showing Sir Peter Jackson the new high-definition digital video cameras used on Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), and Astin asked the Lucasfilm crew to stay one more day so he could borrow the camera. They agreed, and he shot the whole thing in six hours.
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The writers knew from the start that the whole final stretch of 'The Two Towers' (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) belonged in the third movie, not this one. Facing a defeated Saruman at Isengard also felt too anti-climactic, so that moved to the third film as well. As a result, Helm's Deep became this movie's natural climax, intercut with the simultaneous battles at Isengard and Osgilliath. The book mentions the first only after the fact, through Merry and Pippin, and the second never happens at all, since Frodo and Sam are never taken to Osgilliath.
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Arwen (Liv Tyler) was at one point going to fight alongside the Elves who join the men at Helm's Deep. That was a leftover from the Miramax treatment, which squeezed the one-thousand-plus-page novel into two movies and drew fury from fans online for treating J.R.R. Tolkien so loosely. Tyler had already trained with sword fighters when the writers decided the idea was not working and cut her from the battle. Since Arwen does not appear in the book The Two Towers, she was woven back in with material from the Appendices at the end of the novel, through flashbacks of her and Aragorn at Rivendell; the writers needed about a year to arrive at that solution.
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Sir Peter Jackson found Faramir's easy refusal of the Ring in the book anti-climactic and out of step with how the Ring maddens everyone else, from the Nazgûl to Gollum and Boromir. That is why he added the now-controversial subplot of Faramir's hubris and Frodo and Sam's captivity in Osgiliath.
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New Line Cinema wanted the movie to open with a prologue by Cate Blanchett recapping the first film. Sir Peter Jackson pushed back, wanting to plunge straight into the action and trusting that most viewers would remember what had happened. The irony is that a year earlier he had to talk the studio into the first movie's prologue, which New Line had demanded but then objected to over its length and Blanchett's narration.
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The Gollum glimpsed in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) is a completely different creation from the one in this film and the third. It was while shooting the second movie that Sir Peter Jackson realized Andy Serkis's physical performance had to drive the digital Gollum, so Weta Digital reworked one of the film's lead characters, scanning Serkis's face to borrow some of his features. (Jackson had also filmed a flashback for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) with Serkis as the original Smeagol, which settled the matter.) The catch was that Weta Digital had only two and a half months to redo two years' work. Serkis felt the finished Gollum looked like a cross between his father and his newborn baby.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The last conversation between Frodo and Sam was shot during reshoots after principal photography. At first the film was going to end on Gollum's monologue alone, but the makers felt Frodo and Sam needed some kind of reconciliation after their ugly clash at the climax.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Sam's closing monologue was never part of the plan. He was only meant to say "By rights we shouldn't even be here," and stare silently out the window. But while cutting the montage of victories across the battles, the team felt a narration was needed and decided to fold it into Sam's scene; new lines were written for Sean Astin in post-production and looped in.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
A scene cut from the theatrical version and restored for the Extended Edition DVD tells us more about Aragorn. He confirms to Eowyn that he is 87 years old and one of the Dunedain, descended from Númenor and blessed with long life, and adds that he is one of the last of his people, since the Northern Kingdom fell long ago. In Middle-earth's history, Númenor was an island kingdom granted, together with a longer lifespan than other Men, to the humans who survived a great war on Middle-earth millennia earlier. Over time the Númenoreans grew rich and powerful, and one faction made war on the Elves, coveting their immortality. The Valar (god-like beings) punished them by crushing their fleet and sinking the island of Númenor into the ocean. The faction that stayed loyal to the Elves, the Dunedain, was allowed to survive and settle in Middle-earth, founding Arnor (the Northern Kingdom) and Gondor (the Southern Kingdom). Gondor endured, but Arnor eventually crumbled under internal strife and attacks from the Witch-king of Angmar, leader of the Nazgûl/Ringwraiths. Aragorn descends directly from Isildur, one of the original Dunedain, and from his successors, the kings of Arnor.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The Extended Edition shows more of the Gondorian soldiers mistreating Gollum after they catch him at the forbidden pool. Director Peter Jackson says on the commentary track that they cut even harsher abuse as too much, such as soldiers standing on Gollum's fingers.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The movie carries the middle volume's title, but scenes from the book The Two Towers are spread over all three films. Boromir's death and funeral and the start of Aragorn's pursuit of the Orcs, which open the book, were used at the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). The book's final chapters run past the Battle of the Hornburg (Helm's Deep), up to Gandalf riding off with Pippin toward Minas Tirith and Frodo being taken by Orcs after the encounter with Shelob, but those scenes were moved to the start of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). The novel is also split in two halves, the first following Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf and the second Frodo and Sam; the movie deliberately cuts back and forth between the two parallel stories instead.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Frodo and Sam meet captain Faramir in the books too, but there the meeting is far friendlier: Faramir has foreseen Frodo's coming in a dream, quickly understands the mission and the danger of the One Ring, makes no attempt to take it, and sends them safely on toward Mordor. Once the end of the Two Towers novel (Frodo's encounter with Shelob) had been moved to the third movie, Frodo's story in the second film was left without a climax. That led to the subplot of Faramir's temptation, the detour to Osgilliath and Frodo's struggle against the Ring's growing hold, none of which is in the book. The writers had another problem: unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), no major character dies in this movie, which would have been an easy emotional peak.
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Gollum is a CGI character, but Sir Peter Jackson wanted him grounded in performance, so Andy Serkis, who voiced him, also played him in a motion-capture suit. Serkis acted out scenes on set with Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam) as well, to give them someone to play against, and in shots where Serkis was present, Gollum was composited over him in post-production.
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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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Although the book is titled 'The Two Towers', the novel's chapters are spread across three films. Boromir's death and Aragorn's pursuit come at the end of the first film, while Gandalf's journey to Minas Tirith and Frodo's encounter with Shelob come at the beginning of the third. Unlike the book, the film tells the two parallel stories in alternating fashion.
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In the book, Faramir treats Frodo far more kindly because he saw his arrival in a dream, and he does not try to take the Ring. In the film, however, Faramir's weakness for the Ring and the Osgiliath detail were added because Frodo's story needed a climax. Events such as Aragorn's disappearance after the Warg attack are also elements not in the book but added to fill the emotional void in the film.
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Behind the Scenes (425)
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When Aragorn washes up on the riverbank after the Warg drags him over the cliff and Arwen comes to him in a dream to revive him, the dialogue was written in English. Liv Tyler loved the Elvish language, though, and since both the characters and the actors could speak it, she persuaded Sir Peter Jackson to let them translate the scene. Everyone agreed it worked far better her way than as first planned.
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Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan spent so long up in the tree (Treebeard) during filming that they used the time between takes to write a screenplay. Climbing down from their "perches" was such a struggle that they were often left up there during breaks while the crew went off to eat, though someone was kind enough to hand their meals up.
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Forced perspective was only one of the tricks that made the Helm's Deep "bigiature" pass for the real thing. Sections far from the camera were built at a smaller scale so they would seem farther off, and every shot was filmed through smoke to deepen the sense of distance. During the design stage, parts of the model were populated with Action Man dolls as a scale reference.
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When Viggo Mortensen's tooth snapped while filming Helm's Deep, he was driven to Sir Peter Jackson's dentist in Wellington still in costume and smeared with black "orc blood," which he refused to have cleaned off because it would be a headache for continuity. Half an hour after the dentist was done, he was back on set.
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For a shot of Gollum crawling and splashing down a river after a fish, Andy Serkis really was in the water. It had snowed the night before and the snow had melted, but the river was still freezing. Worried that the cold would make Serkis forget about the cliff and go over it, Sir Peter Jackson stationed two crew members near the edge to stop him if he got too close. Serkis left the set wrapped in towels and aluminum foil.
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Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking the steel helmet by the orc pyre, and that very take is in the final cut. Sir Peter Jackson said he was struck by Aragorn's cry of anguish over the fate of the two Hobbits, only learning later that the pain was real and in his toes; he was just as impressed that Mortensen kept acting while so badly hurt. Mortensen later remarked that the injury got a mention on the DVD only because he was an actor, when the stunt crew suffered far worse injuries and simply pushed through.
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Gollum is a CGI creation, but Sir Peter Jackson wanted the character rooted in a performer, so Andy Serkis, who voices him, played him in a motion-capture suit. Serkis also played scenes on set with Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam) to give them a focal point, and whenever Serkis was actually in the frame, Gollum was laid over him in post-production.
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Treebeard needed between 28 and 48 hours of rendering per frame. For his scenes with Merry and Pippin, a 14-foot-tall puppet was built on a wheel, and Weta made urethane moulds of real tree bark and applied them to the sculpt to give him his wooden skin. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd sat on bicycle seats hidden in Treebeard's hands to stay comfortable and were left sitting there alone on set during breaks. The puppet was filmed against bluescreen.
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The main door of Helm's Deep was so heavy and so sturdily made that the real battering ram built to break it could not do the job until the door had been weakened. Someone had built it a little too well, and Sir Peter Jackson jokes on the Extended Edition DVD that if he ever had to defend a castle, he would want the WETA workshop guys to build the door.
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A single Gollum shot often took six hours to render, so WETA would set it running overnight and check the result in the morning. Every so often a glitch crept in: one morning the team found every hair on Gollum's head standing straight up in a sort of punk afro, and at other times his eyes would pop in and out of his head as he talked.
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Edoras was built in the middle of a national park. The Conservation Society of New Zealand allowed filming on the proviso that the site be returned in exactly the condition they found it, so most of the natural vegetation and grasses were lifted and kept in a purpose-built nursery for the roughly sixteen months that filming there would last.
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A behind-the-scenes special in the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) shows how the on-camera horses were trained. One of the horses playing Brego can be seen rehearsing the scene where Brego rescues Aragorn; they practiced with dummies standing in for Aragorn, and at one point the horse sits right on top of one.
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During the battle, a one-eyed warrior on the wall of Helm's Deep turns to the camera and shows his scarred, empty socket. He had come along as an extra wearing an eye patch, and Sir Peter Jackson politely asked to see what was underneath, then whether he would consider appearing sans eye patch. The man 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 chasing the Orcs, all three men are running hurt: Orlando Bloom with a couple of broken ribs from falling off a horse, Viggo Mortensen with two broken toes from kicking the helmet at the Orcs' funeral pyre, and Brett Beattie, Gimli's stunt double, with an injured knee. Sir Peter Jackson said all three were so committed that they kept going, often yelling "ouch" or "ow" as soon as "cut" was called.
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John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) lost the tip of his left middle finger in a farm accident when he was young, so special prosthetic fingertips were cast from his right middle finger. During the shoot he decided to prank Sir Peter Jackson: he cut the tip off a prosthetic, filled it with fake blood, walked up to Jackson and said, "Boss, I had an accident."
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Sean Astin was hurt twice in quick succession. First he drove a shard of glass into his foot underwater while filming Sam rushing out to Frodo's boat. The day after that wrapped, he shot the scene where Gollum leads them to the Black Gate and grabs Frodo and Sam to stop them rushing toward it; Andy Serkis seized Astin by the hair and pulled so hard the wig came right off, which hurt considerably.
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The Dead Marshes were in fact a flooded parking lot, the one that had already doubled for the outside of the mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), and passengers on the railway line next to it could see Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis at work.
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About two hundred to three hundred horses appear across the trilogy. Since most horse scenes are fierce battles where animals could easily be hurt, a horse and rider were fitted with the same kind of suit Andy Serkis wore and filmed in the studio galloping, rearing up and doing other "battle" moves, so the footage could be added digitally to the fighting. That way no horses were harmed.
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The Helm's Deep shoot was so punishing and dragged on for so many months that Jackson gave every extra a free T-shirt to mark the ordeal. There were so many extras that they would spot each other around New Zealand's main cities by their shirts. The front read "I Survived Helm's Deep" with the M crossed out, turning it into "hell." There were two versions: a black one with red printing on the back reading "Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai Battalion," and a blue one with silver printing reading "The Lord of the Rings Elf Regiment."
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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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Contains a major spoiler — show
The long unbroken shot of Gollum's final monologue, in which he plots to lead Frodo and Sam into a trap, was the first Gollum scene handed to Weta Digital and, because the 2-minute shot was so complex, the last one they finished. Andy Serkis first acted out the whole scene; then the camera operator reshot it as an empty background plate, repeating his earlier camera moves from memory. Later Serkis performed it again on a greenscreen stage so Weta could capture his performance for the Gollum animation, which then had to blend seamlessly into the background.
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Peter Jackson planned the battle on the Helm's Deep miniature, the one used in the film's wide shots, with 40,000 toy soldiers.
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John Howe was the lead designer of Middle-earth's evil forces for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and the Uruk-hai were the first army Peter Jackson signed off on.
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The Two Towers' Rohan scenes were filmed early in production, a stretch during which Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies's stunt double, Brett Beattie, piled up injuries.
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On The Two Towers, Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking an Orc helmet in the scene where he, Legolas and Gimli find the Uruk-hai remains and believe Merry and Pippin are dead, and that shot is in the film.
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During production of The Two Towers, Orlando Bloom fell from his horse and cracked three ribs and stunt double Brett Beattie dislocated a knee, leaving the actors in pain for two days of the first act's running sequence, which Peter Jackson jokingly dubbed "The Walking Wounded."
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Newcomer Joe Letteri oversaw the capture of Andy Serkis's performance for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
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When Andy Serkis was cast as Sméagol in 2001, Gollum's CGI model was redesigned so that Serkis's Sméagol would appear to turn into the CGI Gollum, and the crew reanimated every earlier shot in two months over Christmas 2001.
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Andy Serkis set the two personas apart in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by changing his voice and body for each, with contrasting camera angles reinforcing the split.
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Peter Jackson counts the key scene of Gollum's inner struggle among his favorites; it was written and directed by Fran Walsh.
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To spare themselves discomfort, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd sat on bicycle seats tucked into Treebeard's hands, and during breaks they stayed up there alone on set in the puppet's grip.
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The take of Viggo Mortensen kicking a steel helmet beside an orc fire, in which he broke two toes, is the one in the final cut. Sir Peter Jackson said he was genuinely moved by Aragorn's cry of pain over the two Hobbits, only to learn later that the pain was real and in his toes, and he was impressed that Mortensen kept acting through a serious injury. Mortensen later said the only reason it was mentioned on the DVD was that he is an actor, and that the stunt team got hurt far worse and tried to push past it.
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All three actors are running injured in the wide shots of Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli chasing the Orcs: Orlando Bloom with several broken ribs after a fall from a horse, Viggo Mortensen with two broken toes from kicking a helmet in the Orc funeral pyre scene, and Brett Beattie, Gimli's stunt double, with a hurt knee. Sir Peter Jackson said they were so dedicated that they kept shooting, often shouting "ouch" or "ow" the moment "cut" was called.
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Viggo Mortensen broke a tooth while filming Helm's Deep and was taken to Sir Peter Jackson's dentist in Wellington, still in costume and caked in black "orc blood," which he would not let anyone clean off because it would wreck continuity. Half an hour after the dentist finished, he was back on set.
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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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The four-month shoot of the Battle of Helm's Deep was an exhausting process for the actors, who worked under twenty hours of raw footage and artificial rain machines. Wanting to honor this grueling experience, Peter Jackson gave the extras special T-shirts reading 'I Survived Helm's Deep'; in the design, the 'm' in 'Helm's' was crossed out as a subtle nod to the word 'hell'.
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The area where Edoras was filmed was located within the boundaries of a national park. The New Zealand Conservation Society permitted the shoot on the condition that the region's natural texture would not be disturbed; for this reason, all vegetation was removed and protected in a special nursery.
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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 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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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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Brad Dourif chose to speak with an English accent throughout the shoot in order to reflect the spirit of the character Wormtongue. His performance was so convincing that when the shoot ended and he spoke in his own natural accent, Bernard Hill could not hide his astonishment, having assumed Dourif's English accent was fake.
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Andy Serkis personally entered the freezing water for that famous scene in which Gollum catches a fish in the river. Peter Jackson, fearing that Serkis would go numb from the cold and fall off the cliff, placed two crew members at the edge; at the end of the shoot the actor left the set wrapped in towels and aluminum foil.
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In the final scene where the Battle of Helm's Deep ends, an indistinct Rider of Rohan is visible at the far left of the frame. This character, who was actually planned to be Éomer, was played by Karl Urban's stunt double because Urban was not on set that day; Peter Jackson admitted that they forgot to digitally replace the stunt double's face with Urban's.
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Arwen was planned to fight alongside the Elf army at the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Liv Tyler even received sword training for it. However, when the screenwriting team realized that this approach was contrary to the spirit of the story, they moved the character to the flashback scenes in Rivendell, drawing on information from the appendices of the novel; finding this solution took about a year.
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The dawn shoots in which Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas chase the Uruk-hai came about after Viggo Mortensen persuaded the second unit members to camp at the shooting location. Mortensen's organizational skills were so impressive that actors and crew from other units, including Miranda Otto, joined him as well.
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Among the refugees at Helm's Deep are Elijah Wood's sister Hannah Wood and Viggo Mortensen's son Henry Mortensen. The child who hands Aragorn his sword is Philippa Boyens's son Callum Boyens; however, because Callum's voice changed during the dubbing stage, a different performer was used.
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Peter Jackson felt that Faramir's rejecting the Ring without hesitation in the book contradicted the Ring's seductive power over the Nazgûl, Gollum and Boromir. He therefore added the controversial subplot to the script, involving Faramir's pride and Frodo and Sam being taken to Osgiliath.
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The film's music was initially caught by the rule that it could not be nominated for the Academy Awards on the grounds that it contained themes from previous productions. Although the obstacle was removed after intense backlash against this rule, the music still failed to secure a nomination.
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Peter Jackson admits that he found the production process of the Warg attack sequence quite chaotic. The director states that, among the computer-generated creatures in the film, the Wargs are the design he finds least convincing, and that a much better result could have been achieved with a more planned storyboard.
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Although the film bears the name of the second book in the series, its plot is spread across three films. Events at the beginning of the book, such as Boromir's death, were moved to the first film, while final sections such as the encounter with Shelob were transferred to the third film; furthermore, the stories of Frodo and Aragorn, which are told separately in the book, were combined in the film through a parallel narrative.
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In Tolkien's text, Faramir is a wise figure who welcomes Frodo and Sam because he has seen them in a dream. Peter Jackson, in order to heighten the cinematic tension, resorted to dramatic plot devices not found in the book, such as the Osgiliath detour that tests Faramir's will against the Ring and Aragorn's disappearance after the Warg attack.
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The Battle of Helm's Deep begins when an elderly archer succumbs to excitement and accidentally shoots an Uruk-Hai. The 'Berserker' Uruks who sacrifice themselves to blow up the walls are psychotic killing machines that have lost the sensation of pain and are focused entirely on destruction.
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The sequence in which Samwise Gamgee drags Gollum by a rope is a nod to the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky in Samuel Beckett's play 'Waiting for Godot'. As an interesting detail, Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf, had taken on the role of Estragon in theatrical adaptations of the play.
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Characters & Cast (83)
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Gollum's pupils and posture tell you which side of him is in charge. "Treacherous Gollum" has narrow pupils and hunches his shoulders like a wild cat, sinister and predatory; "Friendly Gollum" (Smeagol) has slightly wider pupils and moves like a child, innocent and endearing. The contrast is clearest when the two halves of his personality argue with each other.
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Bernard Hill's role was played before him by Philip Stone in The Lord of the Rings (1978) and by Jack May in the BBC Radio adaptation. Stone appeared in S.O.S. Titanic (1979) as Arthur Rostron, captain of the R.M.S. Carpathia, the ship that rescued the Titanic's survivors, while Hill appeared in Titanic (1997) as the Titanic's own captain, Edward John Smith. Hill also acted opposite Jack May in The Bounty (1984).
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Gríma Wormtongue is played by Brad Dourif, who had earlier been another twisted, manipulative advisor, Piter de Vries, in Dune (1984). The difference is that Gríma gets a redemption arc in both the books and the movies of the Lord of the Rings, while Piter de Vries is rotten to the core in both the books and the films.
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Andy Serkis created Gollum by supplying his voice and movements on set and then performing in the motion capture suit; his scenes were shot both with and without him.
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Gollum was meant to be purely CGI, but Andy Serkis' audition tape impressed Peter Jackson so much that Serkis was used on set as well.
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Somewhere between two hundred and three hundred horses were used over the trilogy. Since most horse scenes were fierce battles in which the animals might be hurt, a horse and rider wore the same kind of suit as Andy Serkis and were filmed in a studio galloping, rearing and doing typical "battle" moves, and that footage was added digitally to the battle scenes. No horse was harmed as a result.
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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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Easter Eggs & References (32)
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Among the refugees at Helm's Deep are Elijah Wood's sister Hannah Wood and Viggo Mortensen's son Henry Mortensen. The boy who hands Aragorn his sword is Philippa Boyens's son Callum Boyens, but the voice in the final cut is not his: it had broken by the time of the looping sessions, so someone else was cast.
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Frodo, Sam and Gollum gazing down at the Black Gate echoes a shot of the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (1939). In both, the heroes find their destination heavily guarded with fresh armies arriving; later, one of the group (Dorothy, Frodo) is captured, and the heroes have to disguise themselves in enemy uniforms to move through hostile territory.
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Legolas surfing down the steps on an Uruk-hai shield may nod to how J.R.R. Tolkien first meant Bilbo to kill Smaug in the earliest drafts of The Hobbit: sneaking into the lair, stabbing the dragon through the bare patch on his chest with Sting (so deep that the blade vanished), then riding a golden bowl like a surfboard on the flood of blood pouring from Smaug's belly before emerging triumphantly from the mountain.
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Gandalf's closing line, "The Battle of Helm's Deep is over. The Battle of Middle-earth is about to begin," paraphrases one of Sir Winston Churchill's most famous World War II speeches, from June 18, 1940: "The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."
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As Gollum leads Frodo and Sam across the Dead Marshes, he says the bodies come from an ancient battle of "Elves and Men and Orcses." The armor on the bodies has the same interlacing pattern worn by the Elves (Elrond and Gil-Galad) in the Battle of the Last Alliance at the start of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), meaning they have lain there for at least 3021 years.
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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 other extras 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 is struck out, indicating "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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Contains a major spoiler — show
In Gandalf's last scene, where he announces that the battle of Helm's Deep is over and the battle of Middle-earth is about to begin, an unidentified Rohan rider sits at the far left. He was supposed to be Éomer, but Karl Urban was not on set that day, so his stand-in took the spot. On the audio commentary, Sir Peter Jackson admits they meant to replace the stand-in's head digitally with Urban's and simply forgot during post-production.
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Deeper Meaning (47)
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When Gollum hisses "murderer" and Smeagol cries and whimpers at the word, it hints at his past, the death of Deagol shown in a flashback in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Smeagol's genuine guilt and remorse over killing Deagol suggest that Smeagol, a.k.a. Gollum, was never evil to begin with, only a sad, gloomy, innocent creature tormented and twisted by the One Ring.
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Blending Christopher Lee's and Ian McKellen's faces and voices when Gandalf reappears in Fangorn Forest has an in-story logic: Gandalf now carries the same divine power as Saruman, but uncorrupted by Sauron's evil. That is why he says "I am Saruman as he should've been," and why in the next chapter he can break Saruman's staff; Saruman has abused his power, no longer deserves it, and Gandalf has replaced him as head of their order.
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Samwise Gamgee dragging Gollum along by a rope around his neck recalls Pozzo arriving with his slave Lucky on a long rope in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," and the three travelers share traits with that play's four main characters. Frodo has Vladimir's compassion and philosophical bent; Sam combines Vladimir, Estragon and Pozzo, cynical and harsh toward Gollum yet philosophical; and Gollum mixes Pozzo and Lucky, opportunistic and devious as Treacherous Gollum, childlike and servile as Friendly Gollum. Sir Ian McKellen has played Estragon in "Waiting for Godot," opposite Sir Patrick Stewart as Vladimir.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Early in the Battle of Helm's Deep, after the Uruks work themselves into a frenzy stamping their spear shafts and the old archer accidentally fires, killing one of them, the Uruk-Hai begin a conventional siege of the Deeping Wall, relying mostly on sturdy ladders to get troops over the walls. The first wave up the ladders wears loincloths and white metal masks and wields longer swords than the ordinary Uruk-Hai Soldiers. The movies never name them, but the table-top role-playing game and the licensed video games call them Berserker Uruks, warriors with no regard for their own lives who smear themselves in blood to whip up a psychotic killing frenzy. That explains why one of them happily sacrifices himself to blow up the Deeping Wall later on.
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The writers knew from the start that the whole final sequence of the novel 'The Two Towers' (Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob) should go into the third film rather than this one. Facing a defeated Saruman at Isengard was also judged too anti-climactic, so it moved to the third film as well. As a result, the battle of Helm's Deep, intercut with the simultaneous battles of Isengard and Osgiliath, became this film's natural climax. The book mentions the first only in hindsight, through Merry and Pippin, and the second does not appear in the book at all, since Frodo and Sam are never brought to Osgiliath.
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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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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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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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Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen's voices and faces being blended 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, but uncorrupted by Sauron's evil. This is why Gandalf says, 'I am Saruman, as he should have been,' and in the next chapter can break Saruman's staff: Saruman has abused his divine power, is unworthy of it, and has been replaced by Gandalf as the head of their order.
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Legolas using an Uruk-hai shield like a surfboard may be a nod to how J.R.R. Tolkien originally planned for Bilbo to kill Smaug in the first drafts of The Hobbit. Bilbo would sneak into Smaug's lair, plunge Sting into the bare spot on his chest (going in so deep that it would vanish completely), and then ride a golden cup like a surfboard over the massive torrent of blood gushing from Smaug's belly, emerging triumphantly from the mountain.
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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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The scene in which Samwise Gamgee violently drags Gollum by a rope around his neck resembles Pozzo's arrival dragging his slave Lucky by a long rope around his neck in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. Frodo, Sam and Gollum carry the traits of the four main characters in Waiting for Godot. Frodo has the traits of Vladimir (compassion and philosophical thought); Sam is a mixture of the traits of Vladimir, Estragon and Pozzo (mockery and harshness toward Gollum, but a philosophical outlook); and Gollum has a mixture of the traits of Pozzo and Lucky (opportunistic and cunning as Gollum the Treacherous, childlike and obedient as Gollum the Friend). Sir Ian McKellen played Estragon in Waiting for Godot and shared the lead with Sir Patrick Stewart.
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Career & Awards (25)
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Karl Urban on the trilogy: "The friendships that were formed in that... really endured. You felt like you went through something [together]. Just to be in the company of such incredibly talented people right throughout the production. And if you just look at that cast... I mean, these guys are incredible."
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Life & Family (4)
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Bernard Hill (King Théoden) died on May 5, 2024, aged 79. That same day, Elijah Wood (Frodo), Sean Astin (Sam), Billy Boyd (Pippin) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry) paid tribute to him at a Comic Con event in Liverpool, UK, which Hill had been due to attend before canceling a few days earlier.
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Reference databases
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Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — Wikipedia
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