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Quotes

Pippin: I don't want to be in a battle, but waiting on the edge of one you can't escape is even worse.

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Mistakes

When Shelob retreats into her lair, Sam runs to Frodo and lays Sting down on the ground. It lies on dirt that has white rocks showing through underneath, which is even seen in the last overhead wide shot of Sam holding Frodo. Yet in the next close-up of Sting glowing blue, it is lying on plain dirt. See more...

Trivia

In the scene of Aragorn's coronation, after he and Arwen are reunited, they walk along to stand before the hobbits. The dark-haired elf maiden standing in the background (who can be seen between Aragorn and Arwen) is none other than Jane Abbott, Liv Tyler's (Arwen) riding-double. See more...

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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 149 corrections

Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, John Rhys-Davies, Miranda Otto, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, Billy Boyd, Cate Blanchett, Dominic Monaghan, Hugo Weaving, Karl Urban, Bernard Hill, David Wenham, John Noble, Liv Tyler (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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In the scene of Sam and Frodo on the slopes of Mount Doom, the entire scene has been flipped. Peter Jackson wanted the Hobbits to travel from left to right across the screen for all three movies, so the editors had to flip this scene to achieve that. This is also why any cuts/dirt smudges on their faces seem to change sides. Only when Frodo and Sam return to the Shire and go to the Grey Havens, do we see them traveling right to left. [This is incorrect. While in Emyn Muil Sam and Frodo travel from the right to the left, when they are encased in fog.]
Edit
When Theoden forbids Merry to go to war with the Rohirrim, Merry is with his white pony. In the wider shot of Merry watching Theoden ride off, his pony suddenly disappears. [When Theoden rides away from Merry, in the next shot as Merry turns to look at Theoden, note that the pony is several feet behind the Hobbit, as it turns away to its right. It then cuts to a shot of Theoden, Eomer and others riding off. It isn't until the third shot that we see Merry standing towards the right of the screen without the pony. There is enough time between the first and third shots for the pony to simply walk away from the commotion of all the riders.]
Edit Corrected by lmao Time
When Sam is fighting Shelob and stabs her in the eyes, there's gunk on Sting when he pulls it out - you can see it. But then, a shot later when Shelob throws Sting in the air, there's nothing on it. [This is already online, as mistake ID 62796.]
Edit
In the finale battle at the Black Gates, the good army is in a tight group surrounded by 10,000 orcs. If just 1/3 of those orcs had bows (which we never see in the final battle), and they volleyed into the group, 3000 men would have died right there (if not everyone, including Aragorn, Gandalf, the hobbits, etc). In all three films, the evil side has some sort of bowmen, but for some magical reason the army protecting the great eye and the orcs' leader, seems to have conveniently forgotten their bows. (Regardless of anyone's feelings, its a logical winning move for the orc, one that someone (PJ) left out, and no trees in Mordor to make bows is not a correction.) [Sauron is arrogant. He assumes there is no need for bows. He takes pleasure in causing suffering and so do the orcs. The orcs would have preferred to kill the intruders in combat rather than at range, Sauron would rather watch them be killed by ravaging orcs instead of an arrow, and "10,000" orcs should be more than enough to easily kill each and every one of these intruders. And, indeed, they would have been if the Ring had not been destroyed in time.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
Along with Titanic, this is the only movie to gross $1 billion worldwide and, according to Guinness World Records 2005 edition, it took nine weeks to achieve this as opposed to Titanic's 11 weeks. Therefore, it's the fastest to gross $1 billion ever. [Since Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest now reached $1 billion worldwide at a faster time, this is no longer valid.]
Edit
Sean Bean's contract was for all three films. That is why we see flashbacks of Boromir in this movie (Pippin remembering Boromir's death in Denethor's hall) and 'The Two Towers' (Boromir restraining Frodo at the Bridge of Khazad-Dum). In the Extended Editions, new footage of Boromir is seen in both films (Denethor hallucinating a vision of Boromir in this film and Boromir commanding his troops at Osgiliath in 'The Two Towers'). [The scenes had nothing to do with Sean Bean's contract. An actor's contract specifies that he will be paid for the work he does, not that the footage will be used in the final film. An example is Christopher Lee, whose contract was for all three films, but who was cut out of the third film entirely.]
Edit Corrected by MovieGuy
When Eowyn faces the Nazgul in combat, he once swings his morning-star horizontally. In the instant where the scene is shown from behind the Witch King, Eowyn dodges the weapon's had by leaning backwards; but then, as the same scene is shown from behind Eowyn, she suddenly ducks low to avoid it. [I just watched this several times, and what she does is take a tiny step backwards and then ducks straight down, in both shots.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
In ROTK (and in the first two) Orlando Bloom is usually wearing blue colored contacts. Yet sometimes the brown eyes are seen, regardless of the reason why he isn't wearing them. [It is explained in commentary that Bloom wore the contacts during all filming and simply the lighting made them appear darker. Not a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by OneHappyHusky
When the three hunters leave the mountains where the dead lived and see the corsair ships Legolas eyes are brown and not blue. It is not that they appear brown because they are dark blue, you can see the color of them. Extended DVD. [According to the commentary Bloom wore his contact during all filming and lighting caused them to appear darker. Not a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by OneHappyHusky
As Pippin is searching for Merry on the field of Pellenor, he spots something, looking down within a few feet of him. The scene cuts to a longer shot, and Pippen must run fifteen or twenty feet to get to Merry. [He does not look directly down on the ground. He seems to be looking in the right direction/height to me.]
Edit
The captain of Sauron's army, the deformed orc Gothmog, bears more than a passing similarity to the aliens in Peter Jackson's earlier film "Bad Taste" (1987). [This is not correct, nose, ears, basic jaw and cheek structure are all different.]
Edit
In the scene where the army is lining up in front of the Black Gate in preparation for the final battle, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are seen riding on Arod and Brego. This is very convenient considering these horses fled in terror from their masters at the Door of the Dead. [Arod and Brego fled back to the Rohirrim encampment, then were taken to Minas Tirith - on a long high-speed journey, a number of spare horses would have been taken along to act as replacements in the highly likely situation that some horses could become injured en route. Once the siege was lifted and the Mordor army defeated, they were reunited with their normal riders.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
During the ride of Rohan, there are a number of close-up shots showing characters as well as wide shots showing the whole army. In the close-up shots, the horses you see are brown, black or white, however, the wide shots are different. They show all brown or black horses, with the exception of Theoden's one white horse. [Rohan's army consist of over 6000 men on horses. There is no way you could tell that there are no white horses among those 6000 in the wide shots. Even if they're not on screen at the time they are still in the army.]
Edit
Before the charge of the Rohirrim, we see that Merry and Eowyn are near the middle of the group, but when we see Merry during the charge look behind him. There are about five horsemen but behind them there are just empty fields. [During a charge people might be moving sideways if there's an opening for them to advance. They won't stay in perfect formation.]
Edit
One look at the palantír is enough to make Pippin irresistibly drawn to it. When he steals it from Gandalf Merry takes quite a good look at it to and even looks into it while Pippin does. Merry should have been drawn to it just the same as Pippin, it's not something they could control. [Actually, it is something that can be controlled - it's down to strength of will and personality. Pippin is younger and less experienced than Merry, plus, as Merry comments on at least one occasion, his curiosity is near legendary. All of which combines to make him considerably more susceptible to the palantír than Merry is.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
The parting of Merry and Pippin takes place within two or three days after the Isengard battle. In the aftermath of Isengard they find one barrel each filled with pipeweed, yet when Merry says goodbye to Pippin all that is left is a small pouch. There is no way they could have smoked all that pipe weed in just a few days; it was month's worth. [Pipe weed from the Shire was lauded to be the best, and most coveted, so quite realistically Merry and Pip shared their good fortune with Gandalf (even Saruman confirms Gandalf's desire in FOTR), Gimli, Aragorn and the rest. Aside from that, those two Halflings could indeed have smoked non-stop after having gone without for a long time; Hobbits are known for their predilection for the pipe weed.]
Edit Corrected by lmao
At the very end, Aragorn is crowned king while still in Minas Tirith. He goes on to tell the people that 'we will re-build our land.' But why would he have to stay in Minas Tirith if he is actually heir to be king in Gondor? There would be no immediate need for him to do so. [Minas Tirith had become the capial city of Gondor when Osgiliath failed in the Third Age. Minas Tirith was the site of Aragorn Elessar's throne. He need not have left but he did travel throughout the ancient kingdoms.]
Edit Corrected by scwilliam
When the title shows, we see a shot moving to a flooded Isengard. If you look closely, you can see Merry and Pippin sitting on the wall; Pippin on the left and Merry on the right. But when in the close-up of the two of them, Merry is now on the left and Pippin is on the right. [The sequence is not in real time. They had enough time to switch places with each other.]
Edit Time
After Gollum attacks Frodo and Sam on Mount Doom, Sam fights Gollum off with his sword. He then turns around and calls out for Frodo. There is a brief medium shot of Frodo scrambling up the mountain (at about 01:20:35 on disk 2 of special edition). If you look carefully in the background, you can see snow and running water in the background. This is common on Mt. Ruapehu, where the scene was shot, but a bit out of place on Mt. Doom. [This very could be the ash from the mountain. A volcanic eruption does produce quite a bit of ash.]
Edit Corrected by XIII Time
In the final battle scene, when Aragorn and crew are creating a "diversion" outside the gates of Mordor, everyone is on horseback. Later in the scene, when Aragorn and the other warriors charge the enemy, they are on foot. Even if they did dismount, where are the horses? [In close combat with no room to manoeuvre, being on horseback can be a serious liability - the possibility of being pulled off and then killed before getting up is too high, so it makes sense to dismount. The Host would not want riderless horses around - the likelihood is that they'd spook and prove a danger to the soldiers around them - so they simply designated a couple of riders to lead the horses out of the combat zone. It would have taken some considerable time for the Mordor forces to surround them, so there was plenty of time for this to happen.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker Time

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