The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring corrections

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - 139 corrections

Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Billy Boyd, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "make changes" when viewing mistakes, and click "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

When Arwen is fleeing from the Nazgul, she's pulling back on the reins, which is what you do if you're trying to slow a horse down, not if you're trying to spur it on to outrun pursuers. Can't be a different system to ours - it's got a bit in its mouth, so pulling on the reigns will inhibit forward movement and cause pain, slowing it down. [Character decision, not a movie mistake. Arwen could be trying to slow down for a second to look around for an escape route, something that is hard to do at high speeds.] Corrected by Twotall

In some of the Nazgul shots such as the ones from Bree after they stomp down the door and are riding into town or after they realize they had been stabbing pillows with their blades, you can see the covering several of the Ringwraiths use to hide their faces. The light makes the covering appear lighter than the black of their cloaks [There is nothing to say that the Ringwraiths don't actually wear some form of masks under their hoods. You never see any of them pull back their hoods, and when you see them in the Wraithworld, their outer trappings (cloaks and armor) are all gone. So this can be simply just another part of the Ringwraiths' clothing.] Corrected by Twotall

In the scene where Frodo is in Rivendell, after he's been healed, and he's looking over the railing into the valley. The railing comes up to his waist. This would make the railing much too short for the elves. Since the elves built Rivendell, shouldn't the railing come up higher on Frodo? [This has already been corrected. At this time, Bilbo has lived in Rivendell for some time, and it is clear he intends to stay the rest of his life. The Elves have simply been corteous enough to build hobbit-sized quarters for him, and it is in these Frodo wanders after he wakes up.] Corrected by Twotall

In the mines of Moria when the Fellowship are fighting the cave troll, the troll uses the spear to block Frodo, who runs into it before he is thrown against the wall. Watch when he runs into the spear. The troll's arm appears to be jarred from the impact and the entire spear moves. Frodo is a Hobbit, about 3 and 1/2 feet tall. His weight wouldn't be enough to move the spear. [Frodo is wearing a mithril shirt which is the strongest substance known in this world. If it can repel a spear it should be able to jar the person using it.]

When Frodo awakes in the bed in Rivendell, Frodo's shirt is open and the sheet low down on the bed in the first shot, and then his shirt's closed and the sheet pulled substantially higher in the next shot. [His shirt isn't closed at any point during this scene it just look closed because the camera angle changes and because Frodo's movements makes the shirt and undershirt change position. The sheet doesn't move further up either although it does look that way. In the first shot the sheet is just below the second latch on Frodo’s shirt, (counted from the top) when he starts moving into a sitting position the sheet is still just below the second latch until it slides down to around the third latch.]

In the scene where Boromir is holding the hilt of the sword Narsil in Rivendale when he moves his hand up to the tip and cuts his finger there is a close up on his fingers and the one next to the one with the drop of blood has a small line of blood on it as well, it probably came from an earlier take. [He cut both fingers.] Corrected by STP

In the scene when Galadriel is distributing gifts, she gives Merry and Pippin "daggers of the Noldorim", the blades of which are barely longer than their hands. If they had actually been daggers of the Noldorim (a race of Elves), they would have been the hobbit equivalent of a sword. [Merry and Pippin already have hobbit-scale swords, so Galadriel is giving them short-bladed knives to complement their existing weapons. There's no official length for a dagger - it's merely a short-bladed weapon, which seems to describe what she gives them quite nicely.] Corrected by Tailkinker

In the scene where Frodo is departing the Fellowship, Sam catches him and attempts to swim to the boat. It switches between Frodo and Sam talking for a while and then goes to an overall view of Sam going under, here's where you check the boat. No Frodo anywhere in sight. [First shot Sam's head goes underwater, next shot Frodo shouts, "Sam!" and then the third is a long wideshot of Frodo leaning over the right side of the boat (viewer's right), as the water ripples in the foreground. The back of Frodo's head and cloak ARE visible in this shot, just zoom in if necessary.] Corrected by Rikki

When Gandalf is leaving Bag End in a hurry, right after Frodo has received the Ring, he clearly bends down and passes below the light fixture in the main entrance hall without touching it. When he turns around to answer Frodo's question, the light fixture is swinging back and forth as if he bumped it. [If the light that you are referring to is the one I think it is, Gandalf's shoulder nudges the light.]

At Amon Hen during Aragorn’s fight with the Uruks, just after he screams "Elendil" Legolas and Gimli appears. Legolas aims his bow to the right of the screen but the arrow actually hits an Uruk on the left hand side of the screen. [Watch closer. Gimli is behind Legolas and throws an axe at the orc on the left the same time Legolas fires an arrow at an orc on the right.]

In the scene where the troll comes, it stabs Frodo but he is saved by his mithril. But wasn’t he against the wall and wouldn’t that crush him? Even if he wasn’t against the wall, wouldn’t he be pushed against it anyway? [In the book he gets bruised quite badly from the force in the stab, it's safe to assume he does in the film too even though they don't comment on it. The mithril saved him from being completely crushed but he still got bruised.]

When Frodo gets the ring out of the fire, he sees the markings. Right before the markings light up, you can barely see the outline of the markings engraved in the ring. [It is Gandalf who removes the One Ring out of the fire with prongs and places it into Frodo's hand. In the 1st extreme close-up of the Ring as Frodo turns it in his fingers, Frodo remarks, "I see nothing.", but when he says, "Wait!", in the next extreme close-up, some of the CG letters first appear as a faint thin outline and slowly begin to glow. This is part of the effect.] Corrected by Rikki

I think this is just in the extended version: During the last battle, when Legolas shoots about six Orcs in a row with his arrows, and one of the last Orcs falls before the arrow hits him. [The Uruk fall is not caused initially by Legolas's arrow. It trips on a log before he is hit probably due to the poor visibility inside his helmet. Also watch Legolas he adjusts his arm to account for the sudden increase in the Uruks forward and downwards motion. And just to be pedantic they are Uruk-hai not orcs.]

There is a shot in which the four Hobbits are running to get off the road. Merry has a green carrot leaf sticking out of each pocket. When they all settle under the log to avoid being seen, the carrots are gone. [Actually they're just hidden. Watch as Merry jumps in under the log, the carrots are visibly there. In the same shot he sits down, lifts his knee up and lowers his arm, and you no longer see the carrots. They're simply hidden behind his limbs.]

After leaving Lothlorien, the Fellowship paddle down the Anduin River towards the Falls of Rauros. Legolas, because of his keen Elven senses, looks to *his* left towards the river bank, on the *eastern shore*. The River Anduin flows from north to south, and they are heading south. The Uruk-hai arrive from the west, so he should really be looking to his right side, towards the western shore. [There are enemies approaching from both sides. Aragorn mentions that orcs are on the eastern shore yet they are attacked on the western. Thus Legolas could be looking at either direction and there would be orcs there, so it's not really a mistake.]

In a scene in the Moria mines, where the troll stings Frodo with his spear, it's on his right side. When he falls down, the spear is under his right hand. When the members of the Fellowship check him, the rips on his cloths (where the troll stings the spear) it is on the left side. [Go back and have a closer look at the shots and the spear the cave troll uses. The spear has a horizontal bar with three sharp points; the center point which is very long runs directly below the spear handle and two short points at each end. When the troll stabs Frodo, the long deadly point goes between *his* left arm and side, never actually stabbing Frodo. It is one of the short points that stabs into Frodo's chest, on *his* right side, thereby ripping his shirt on *his* right side.] Corrected by Rikki

During the fight scenes in Moria, Aragorn's bow is strung and he uses it both in Balin's Tomb and later on the stairs. He's also seen carrying it strung outside Moria, then the scene cuts away to 20 seconds of slow motion and music, and cuts back to Aragorn sheathing his sword and the bow is on his back, destrung. [Sorry, you're mistaken, the string is there, it is wrapped around the bow. Just before Aragorn sheaths his sword, in the close-up he says, "By nightfall these hills will be swarming with Orcs." and the string is visibly wrapped around the bow on his back. Then, after sheathing the sword, just after Aragorn helps Sam to his feet, he calls out, "Frodo!" and the string is still visibly wrapped around the bow on his back.] Corrected by Rikki

Near the end, when Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas are hearing Boromir's Horn, Legolas has four arrows in his quiver. But when Legolas looks at dying Boromir, his quiver is full. Later when they all near the river, Legolas has only two arrows. [Legolas reuses the arrows he's already shot, so that explains the full quiver. And when you see him by the river, who knows how many uruk-hai he has killed on his way to the river?]

In Jackson's films the word 'Uruk' is reserved for Saruman's mutated soldiers only, as opposed to the smaller common orc of Moria, Mordor, etc. But according to Tolkien, the term 'Uruk' is actually the orcs' own word for an orc, and the term 'Uruk-hai' is the orcs' term for a group of orcs. [Incorrect - Tolkien only uses Uruk-Hai to describe the large warrior orcs, like those created by Saruman. While the term Uruk is indeed the Orcish term for an Orc, and Uruk-Hai does literally translate to "Orc-People", Jackson's use of these terms is entirely in keeping with Tolkien's - they haven't changed anything.] Corrected by Tailkinker

When the Fellowship are taking a break right before the crebain come, Boromir is sword fighting with Merry and Pippin. There's a far away shot where Merry starts fighting Boromir. Then there's a close up shot where Pippin starts to fight Boromir. [Go back and advance that scene shot by shot and you will see that you are wrong. Boromir twirls his sword and ONLY LOOKS at Merry, but continues to fight with Pippin. It is PIPPIN'S shoulder, arm and sword (NO yellow vest) that are shown close-up, fighting with Boromir when the shot faces Boromir. Pippin has a white shirt, that has a decorative color thread running through it on the cuffs and on the front of the shirt. Pippin is fighting with Boromir the ENTIRE time, UNTIL Merry says, "You look good, Pippin." while chewing, at which point Boromir starts to fight with Merry.] Corrected by Rikki