During one of the first movie shots of the outer wall of Helm's Deep, a voiceover of Grima Wormtongue (who is now back at Orthanc with Saruman) discusses that the barricade's one outside weakness is a 'drainpipe' that leads from inside the fortress to a nearby river. In this shot, the drainpipe cannot be more than a couple of feet high, as seen in comparison by the many rats running about inside of it. During the battle of Helm's Deep, however, when the Uruk-Hai are placing Saruman's explosives inside the pipe, and later when the Berserker Uruk is running in to light them, the pipe towers over the heads of all the enemy-much larger than the 'few feet' clearance seen earlier in the film. [In the first shot, the drainpipe is shown from inside the barricade, where the ground is higher than on the outside. During the "bomb" scene, the drainpipe is shown from the outside of the barricade, where the ground is "deeper" than inside, so the mouth of the pipe, which travels horizontally, is higher.]

When Faramir is talking to his generals regarding battle plans he is informed that a very large army has emptied out of Orthanc. Later in the movie Aragorn arrives at Helm's Deep and tells Theoden the same. How can a small army near Mordor find out about the Orcish army before the Rohirrim, who are next door to Orthanc? [SPOILER: You have to remember that Denethor, Steward of Gondor, has his own personal Palantir at his service and likely was watching Isengard even before the troops spilled forth. Indeed, since Sauron was 'guiding' his searches, he probably would have drawn Denethor to the spot in order to deflate his morale.]

When Elrond is telling Arwen to not stay with Aragorn, they have a vision of Aragorn lying dead with his hands grasping his sword, but in one scrolling shot his hand clearly re-grips his sword. [Aragorn is not re-gripping his sword, nor is he moving his fingers. Arwen's hand is resting on top of Aragorn's, and it is her hand that moves, not his.]

Gandalf is walking out from Fangorn Forest with Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli, and he stops to call Shadowfax. The shot where you can see his feet shows that he is wearing trainers/sneakers. [Gandalf the White wears white boots to match his new white robes. Understandably these look similar to sneakers, but aren't.]

When Gimli is talking to Eowyn about dwarf women, and his horse throws him, the axe in his hand goes flying. In the wide shot, the axe is shown going a fair distance from the horse, about 4 or 5 metres. In the shot of Gimli on the ground, the axe lands right next to him, only about 1 metre from where it flew out of his hand. [It has been shown numerous times before that Gimli carries multiple axes, strapped to his back and sides. The axe from his hand does fly off to the side; the axe that "lands right next to him" could easily be one of the other axes, dislodged during his fall. ]

When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are chasing the Uruk-hai just before the Rohan riders appear, they run between two rocky outcrops over a ridge. Aragorn signals to hide, and almost at once the riders appear. Strangely Aragorn can hear Uruk-hai on foot 1 day's march away, but not a group of riders 30 seconds ride away. Legolas, famous for his eyesight, obviously forgot to have a look over the ridge where he might have spotted the riders. [In order to hear the Uruk-hai, Aragorn had to lie down in perfect stillness and put his ear to rocky ground, which transmits sound much better. Remarks that he couldn't hear "a group of riders 30 seconds away" are ridiculous, as he DOES obviously react to the Riders' approach. As for Legolas not looking over the ridge, the Rohirrim came upon the three companions from *behind* them. The terrain in Rohan is so varied and the Rohirrim travel so swiftly that they could have easily appeared from out of virtually nowhere and caught the Companions by surprise.]

After Sam slides down the hill in front of the gate to Mordor, he ends up half-buried. Frodo goes and pulls him almost all the way out, but in the next shot, Sam is still buried. [Since he could not get him out completely, Frodo stops pulling and Sam slides back in again. That's when Frodo decides to use the cape.]

At the end of the film, after the battle of Helm's Deep, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the king ride their horses to the top of the hill to look at the lightning over Mordor. However, earlier in the film when they had been on the hill there was no sign of Mordor in the distance. [It is not the same hill and they are not looking in the same direction. Mordor would only be visible when seen from a particular viewpoint, which the earlier shots did not use.]

When Treebeard, Merry and Pippin exit Fangorn Forest and they see Isengard, you see a shot of Isengard taken from where they are standing. But on Faramir's map you can see that Isengard is to the west of the Misty Mountains, not to the east as it was when Treebeard looked upon it. This brings up the idea that Treebeard was going north, and not south. [Actually, if you look at official maps of Middle Earth you'll find that Isengard lies in a valley at the south end of the Misty Mountains. In this valley it has mountains to the East and West.]

During the battle at helm's deep, it starts raining hard before the battle begins. But the fires are still burning in the background. Also, the Uruk-Hai's fires are burning. With all that rain the fire would have been extinguished. Simple explanation - while CGI was used in places, lots of shots were genuine people, sets, water, etc. As such there are many instances when it's real water falling on real fire, and it doesn't go out - that's just how it was.]

When Gandalf first confronts Theoden, he throws his cloak off his shoulders and it can be seen falling to his feet, it then shows another full shot and the cloak is nowhere to be seen. [It's very brief, but you can see the cloak ? just after Gandalf says 'breathe the free air again' the camera moves up, and at the end of this overhead shot the cloak can be glimpsed, lying at the foot of the stairs up to the throne just where Gandalf dropped it.]

Just prior to the attack scene from the Orc riders you can see Aragon's horse changes from brown to white, then back to brown again. [There is one shot of Aragorn about to ride off where the main part of the horse you can see is the side of the saddle, and it's reflecting light and looks white, but the horse is definitely brown (you can see a bit of it at the edges of the shot).]

When Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach the black gate of Mordor, there is an army of men marching towards the gate. According to most film books they are Easterlings, who are marching from the east to Mordor to help Sauron. However, if you check a map of Middle-Earth you will that they are marching from the west, not the east. [There's only one entry to go to Mordor: the Black Gate where we see the army of men going through. Even if they come from the east , they have to pass round the Ash Mountains.]

Whilst Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are on the trail of Merry and Pippin at the beginning of the film there is a panning shot beside a mountain, when they are seen running. If you watch Orlando Bloom he slips on a rock and skids slightly before recovering his balance and running on. Surely Legolas, a member of the most graceful creatures on Middle-Earth, would be able to run over some rocks without slipping? [As Gimli says, the three companions had been traveling for THREE DAYS without food, or rest, or sign of their quarry. Even an Elf's stamina would be tested by something like that, and although Elves are indeed graceful, they are not utterly infallible. A small slip is not outside the realm of possibility.]

In any shots of Fangorn Forest from a distance it is an evergreen forest. However, when it is seen from close up or inside it is a deciduous forest. [The native beech forest of New Zealand where these scenes were filmed ARE evergreen and will look that way from distance. However they aren't coniferous forests (ie pines, firs etc) and the beech trees have actual leaves rather than needles, so I guess if you didn't know them you could mistake them for deciduous in a close-up shot. Just to avoid any confusion these trees aren't any relation to northern hemisphere beeches, they only grow in NZ]

Throughout the movie Gimli's axe keeps changing. It changes between a one-sided and double axe on several occasions. [He has two - there's at least one time when he's using his single-headed axe for something, and you see the double-headed one on his back.]

After Merry and Pippin escape from the Uruk-Hai, Merry has a deep cut over his right eye. Very often the cut changes. It starts out over his right eye all bloody, then it changes to his left eye and it is still bloody. Then it goes back to his right eye but is clean, then it disappears entirely and comes back later to over his right eye and not bloody. [The cut is bloody at first because it is fresh. After Merry has had time to clean the blood away, the cut is less noticeable, but it never "disappears entirely". It *is* hidden from view or partially obscured by Merry's hair, hanging in his face, in a couple of scenes, but if you look closely the cut is still evident.]

When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Eomer and the Riders of Rohan, Eomer says that they burnt all the bodies of the Orc company. He points towards where they Orcs are piled and from a distance there is a shot of smoke rising from a fire. There is no forest nearby. When the travellers reach the pile of dead Orcs they are only yards from the eaves Fangorn Forest, which is vast and would surely have been visible even from a distance. [The pile of corpses is actually far to the left of where the smoke is "appearing" over the obscuring hill -- the wind is blowing the smoke way off to one side. The next scene where Aragorn and company come upon the corpses bears this out, as the smoke isn't rising straight up in that scene either. Thus, when Eomer gestures towards the smoke, Fangorn is not visible because it's off the screen to the left.]

When one of the Uruk-hai captured hobbits drops his leaf brooch it gets stepped on and we can see it in a clear patch of mud. Later when Aragorn picks it up it's resting on fresh grass. [Aragorn had previously said that the Uruk-hai were a day's march ahead of them. Any mud would have been dried up in the bright sunlight that was shining overhead. This is also assuming that the brooch hadn't been kicked or stepped on or moved *again*; it's easily possible that one or more of the other dozens of Uruk-hai in the column kicked it or shuffled it out of the mud to a more grassy place.]

In the scene when Frodo and Sam hide from a Mordor soldier by making the cape look like a rock, the surroundings change after the soldier is gone. When they take the cape off there is a large rock nearby that was not there. When the soldier was looking at them, the only large rock visible was the cape itself. [Yes, because when the soldier was looking at them it was a closeup shot that showed the cape taking up almost the entire width of the screen. The large rock is not visible at this time because it is off the screen to the right.]