Continuity mistake: Faramir and his men, along with Frodo and Sam, are looking out towards Osgiliath, when someone says, "Osgiliath burns, Mordor has come." Originally, Minas Tirith is seen as well, as it should be, at the base of the mountains behind Osgiliath, which is geographically correct. However, Peter Jackson was forced by studio heads to edit it out of the theatrical version, because it was felt that seeing Minas Tirith then would confuse some viewers, who would think that Minas Tirith was Helm's Deep. In the extended DVD, much to the satisfaction of PJ, Minas Tirith was put back in order to be geographically correct. As heard on Commentary, extended DVD. (01:20:40)
Super Grover
27th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
27th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: Near the Black Gate, when two of the men from the marching army are walking towards Frodo and Sam, the decorative scarves at their necks change positions and are hanging differently, than when they turn and walk away from the 'rock'. It is not windblown. (01:05:05)
27th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Trivia: Many of the major shots depicted in the movie are duplicates of Alan Lee's illustrations, in the LotR books, that had been published years before. In many shots, the actors were positioned in the same poses, as the drawings in the books. One example is, when Frodo pulls Gollum's head back and holds Sting up to his throat. (00:10:40)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: Legolas throws down the rope to Aragorn to help he and Gimli escape. Aragorn then grabs the rope with his left hand and holds onto Gimli and his sword with his right hand, plus Gimli's head is lower than Aragorn's. Legolas starts to hoist them up and in the next shot, Aragorn is holding onto the rope with his right hand and Gimli and the sword with his left. In the next shot of them, it's vice versa again. As they're reaching the top, Gimli's head is higher than Aragorn's. Nothing to do with spinning around - just look at the hands. (01:18:00)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Sam (in voice over) says, "But in the end, it's only a passing thing..." we see Gandalf's hair down and messy, during the battle. Just as Éomer is riding past Gandalf and the others, shouting, "Stay out of the forest!" notice Gandalf's hair in the side shot, it is neat, and pulled back. In the next close-up of Gandalf, looking at the Uruk-hai running into the forest, his hair is down again. (01:38:00)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Faramir and his Lieutenant are looking at the map, just after it's been unfolded, the Lieutenant puts his right hand out and points on the map with his right hand. In the following close-up, his left hand is doing the pointing on the map. All the close-up shots of the map were added later during pickups, to show more clearly where various characters are. (00:27:55)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the scene, Sam is cooking the rabbits. Behind Gollum, Frodo's coat and pack lay on the left side of the overturned stone carving. In the following close-up, when Frodo goes over to his pack to take out plates and spoons, his coat is now on the right of the overturned carving. In the next wide shot, it's on the left again. (01:41:50)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Trivia: Parts of the Rivendell scenes were shot as pickups, after filming was done. Sam in those shots is a much thinner hobbit, because after the final wrap, Sean Astin lost the weight he had gained to play Samwise Gamgee. (01:28:45)
26th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Revealing mistake: In the two scenes, when Frodo and Sam are both up on the rocks and later, down below, hiding out of view, the Black Gate is in front of them. Earlier, is the view inside the gate. The two Trolls are pulling and pushing the wood 'pulley', to open the gate, while walking on the tall ramp that curves around. When the gate is open, that ramp should be in full view, from the angle that Frodo and Sam are positioned, but it is not. (01:03:55 - 01:05:55)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Other mistake: Just as Gandalf and the Rohirrim are riding into the Uruk-hai and they clash, go slowly, frame by frame. Legolas will be on the right of the screen. Keep going frame by frame. You'll soon see a few pretty clear frames of Arwen with her sword, on her white horse. She's sitting to the right of Legolas. Her long hair is pulled back into a braid. She's wearing pink sleeves. She's the only one on the screen with that color, so you can't miss it (slow motion can be helpful but is unnecessary). The official reason for editing out Arwen (given on the DVD extras) was that during filming Peter Jackson intentionally leaked an image of Arwen at Helm's Deep online to gauge fan reactions, then backpedalled over her presence after overwhelmingly negative fan reactions. (01:30:40)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Legolas and another Elf are dragging Gimli back to the Keep, in the front view the Elf's quiver is empty. Yet in the next shot from behind, the Elf has many arrows in the quiver on his back. The arrows would be seen from the front, because they are way above his shoulder in the back shot. (01:13:40)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn are standing atop the wall and Legolas says, "Your friends are with you Aragorn," in this close-up we can see that Legolas' right braid is loose and half undone. As Legolas lets loose his first arrow in the rain, his right braid is perfect again. Various close-ups were done in pickups long after the principal photography. (01:00:40 - 01:04:05)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: In the extended DVD, when Gimli quips, "That's not bad for a pointy-eared Elvish princeling!" the back shot of Legolas shows him 'toying' with his bow, but in the front shot, his hands are apart holding the bow. (01:39:00)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: First a shot of the Uruks shooting up the second anchor to the Keep, then there's a shot of a line of Uruks pulling on the cable. In the next shot, an Uruk has his arm wrapped around the frame, between the rungs of the ladder. We can also see the feet of another Uruk, standing on the horizontal ladder. This 'real' ladder has a much narrower width than the CG ladder, we see going up in the next shot, which is wide enough to hold 3-4 Uruks, side by side, as it's being raised to the Keep. Then when it reaches the top of the Keep, it's the 'real' ladder again. There is a very noticeable difference between the real ladders and the WETA CG ladders, top or bottom. (01:17:10)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When the ladders are being raised to the Keep, we first see a wide shot of two ladders going up. The one on the right reaches the top of the Keep first. The next three quick shots show it differently. In the second quick shot, there are two ladders at the top already and a third ladder on their right, that is just hitting the top of the Keep. All those ladders are close together. Then just after Legolas grabs an arrow, the next far shot of the Keep shows two ladders spaced far apart, with a third one in the middle being raised. This is the one that Legolas causes to fall with his arrow. (01:17:20)
25th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: When Sam lifts Frodo and says, "That there's some good in this world Mr Frodo and it's worth fighting for", Sam's face is wet with tears and his eyes are red and teary. In the next shot, when Faramir walks over, Sam's eyes are still red and teary and his face is still wet, but in the next shot, when Faramir kneels, Sam's face is dry and his eyes are no longer red and teary. (01:36:55)
24th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: Merry wakes up to find Pippin drinking the Ent water. During this scene, Merry's cloak changes, to either with or without leaves on it and the amount and position of the leaves vary too. (01:08:15 - 01:10:00)
24th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Revealing mistake: When the Uruk-hai are running through the rock canyon while carrying the Hobbits, the Uruk with the painted white hand on his face holds up his right fist. In the theatrical release and regular DVD, a second Uruk then asks of the painted one, "What is it, what do you smell?" and he answers, "Manflesh." The very next shot is of Pippin saying, "Aragorn," followed immediately by the second Uruk saying, "They've picked up our trail." The Uruk who should have the painted hand on his face no longer does. He gives a low growl, then all the Uruk-hai run again. However, in the extended DVD, same scene, when the painted Uruk holds his fist up, it cuts to the Orcs hiding behind the rock, and the very next shot is of those two Uruks, and just like in the regular DVD, the Uruk who is supposed to have the painted hand on his face, does not. It is that Uruk who later in the scene says, "Manflesh," and unlike the regular DVD, without the painted hand on his face. Side note: It may be a different Uruk standing next to the 'second Uruk', in the questionable shots and that's why he doesn't have a painted face, but either way, it's still a mistake between shots. (00:14:50)
24th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: Merry's shirt is untucked under the front bottom of his vest when Pippin chases him and then as he sits on the roots of the tree. The tree starts to devour them. Just after the shot of hairy Hobbit toes, there is a close-up of Merry's jacket and vest, before panning to his face. It shows that his shirt is now tucked in, as well as in the far shot later, when Treebeard rescues them. (01:10:10)
24th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Continuity mistake: After the tree has buried Merry and Pippin in its roots, the close-up of those roots (gnarled and twisted) do not look anything like the roots of the tree in the far shot (straight and broad), when Treebeard says, "Away with you, you should not be waking." Not a case of distance - in the wide shot when Treebeard arrives, just after they're let go, you can compare that shot to the shot just before, and the roots are very different, regardless of the Hobbits' size. (01:10:45)
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.