The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King corrections

Theoden: You already did... Eowyn. My body is broken. You have to let me go. I go to my fathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed. Eowyn...

At Minas Tirith, after injured Faramir is carried up, Denethor walks away and sees the Orc army for the first time. In the next shot when the Troll lifts the rock onto the catapult, this catapult is totally different in the close-up and following wide shot. See more...

Trivia

Author J.R.R. Tolkien wanted this book to be titled "the War of the Ring." He felt that "The Return of the King" gave away the ending. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - 147 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)

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 the edit icon under an entry, then choose "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.

Corrections

In Minas Tirith, when Legolas appeared at the door of the room Frodo rested in, his collar was open. (Check the close-up shot of Legolas.) But when he was inside with the other fellowship members, his collar was fastened. [As Legolas walks in after Gimli, the top clasp on Legolas' high collar IS fastened - it is about 6 inches down from the top of the collar. The top corners of the collar material are merely angled out a bit in this shot. Then, it is after 2 shots of Frodo and 2 shots of Aragorn that Legolas is in the wide shot with everyone and the corners of the collar are straighter, which only required a flick of the finger.]

Corrected by Rikki Time

Sam and Pippin quite often sport 5 o'clock shadows, even though Hobbits do not have facial hair. [There are three types of hobbits: Stoors, Fallohides, and Harfoots. Only Fallohides are established to have no facial hair, the other two types may or may not. Who's to say that a five o' clock shadow is wrong? Also, in the books, Merry and Pippin grew taller and beards because of what Treebeard gave them to drink.]

When Sam picks up Frodo on Mount Doom after his "patriotic" speech, Frodo's head is on Sam's right side. In the next scene, where they see the doorway, Frodo's head is on Sam's left side. [They climbed a pretty long way up Mount Doom in the time between those two scenes; it's quite possible that Sam may have stopped to rest, put Frodo down, and then picked him up the other way when he was ready to go on.]

In the scene at Mount Doom when Gollum bites Frodo's finger off, he falls down in pain, next to Gollum. Then Gollum is ecstatic he got the ring, and it shows a top view of Gollum, and Frodo is several meters away from him. [Actually Gollum leaps from Frodo and lands a couple of meters away from him.]

In the Two Towers, as the Ents are about to attack Isengard, they have to walk from Fangorn Forest to Isengard. However, in Return of the King, the two are right next to each other. It's not that the Ents have taken root again, because you can see them walking around in the background. It was probably done deliberately, so that Merry and Pippin could see them walking out of the forest, but still a mistake. [A scene restored to the extended edition of TTT shows the Huorns, which are moving trees but not Ents, arrive at Helm's Deep and stomp the orcs to death, when they flee into the newly formed forest. This scene from the book was deleted from the theatrical edition of TTT for reasons of length, but explains why the forest is closer to Isengard in ROTK.]

Corrected by STP

In the scene where Pippin finds Merry under an Orc, look at the dead Mumak in the background. The size is drastically reduced from all the battle scenes. The foot, for example, looks like it could hardly step completely on Merry, a 3'8" Hobbit, let alone entire Rohirrim horses. [It looks the same size as it was earlier. A horse is not much longer than Merry is tall, and it does look like it could step on the Hobbit quite well. It is not at all drastically reduced.]

Time

In the scene where Theoden rides into Dunharrow, he asks "Where are the riders from Snowborn?" the answer is "None have come, my lord"; this is impossible, since Snowborn is a river or stream passing right next to the Rohirrim encampment. What this means is that they cannot come since they would have already been there. [It doesn't mean anything of the sort. The Snowbourn River does indeed run past Dunharrow, but it then runs north and east across Rohan, past Edoras, until it finally meets up with the Entwash. The Snowbourn that Theoden refers to, which is presumably a settlement of some description that takes its name from the river on which it lies, could be anywhere along the route.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

Eomer shoots an arrow at an Oliphaunt. In the first shot, front view, it is missing nearly its entire right tusk (it shows a bloody stump). In the shot from the rear view, it has an intact right tusk as it falls. (This scene occurs immediately after the one in which Eowyn & Merry charge at, hack at, and down an Oliphaunt). [In the side back shot, only the two small bottom tusks, the long top left tusk and the Mumak's trunk (which may be mistaken for the long right tusk in the quick shot) is clearly seen. We do not see the long right tusk on the other side of the trunk, as it is a short stump.]

Corrected by Rikki

In the book The Hobbit, the three trolls that captured the dwarves are turned to stone by being exposed to daylight. The extended DVD of FOTR has a scene which touches on this. However, there are plenty of trolls fighting in the daylight battles in ROTK. [Different types of troll - the ones seen towards the end are Olog-Hai, a special breed of troll created by Sauron. They're stronger, more intelligent, and can survive in sunlight, unlike the common trolls of the type encountered in the Hobbit.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

When Aragorn, Eomer, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli ride up to the black gate, after Aragorn says his bit, there's a shot of Merry, then Gimli, then Eomer. You can see Eomer is wearing a red bandana or hat of some sort under his helmet. [What's to say someone from Middle-Earth couldn't do that?]

Time

When Théoden is knocked under his horse by the Witch-King, it's obvious that the Fell Beast is attacking so Théoden is looking down at him, with the horse's legs pointing at the Fell Beast, yet after Éowyn destroys the Witch-King and Théoden passes away, we see a wide-shot of the whole scene. Éowyn's discarded helmet and the remains of the Witch-King are positioned at Théoden's head rather than feet. The attack all took part below Théoden, so how did everything shift to above his head? [Wrong. After Theoden dies, there is a wide shot of the area and the helmet near Theoden's head is his (use zoom if necessary) not Eowyn's. Plus the Witch King's remains are not near Theoden's head in this shot either.]

Corrected by Rikki

When Aragorn is releasing the Army of the Dead, in the background flags showing the white tree of Gondor can be seen (the same emblem that Aragorn wears on his armour at the black gate). Problem is, no Gondorian soldiers fought in the fields around Minas Tirith, so where did the flags come from? [They came from Rivendell. Arwen made them and Elrond (in the film) brought them. Though the sequence itself was not in the theatrical cut.]

At the Battle of Pelennor Fields Eowyn asks Merry to take hold of the reins. After he does she reaches out with her hand and grabs the spear of an on coming Orc. In the next shot it changes to a sword. [It's not a spear she grabs. Look closely and you'll see it's a sword. The orc is holding it at the bottom. If it were a spear, the orc would be holding it farther up.]

Time

In the shot where Frodo is hanging in Shelobs web struggling to escape you can tell that he has shoes on. [No he is not wearing shoes. What is seen is the outline of the ankle straps for the attached wire, which is already noted.]

Corrected by Rikki

On all the closeups of the Ring in Mount Doom, there are numerous flashes in the chamber that look like lightning flashes, or some other form of "blue" light. There wouldn't be any light of that color in the chamber because it is all fire and lava. [It's a chamber that has seen substantial amounts of magic used there - namely the forging of the Ring itself. Who's to say what sort of odd discharges there might be, particularly as we're focusing on the Ring - the target of all that magic power.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

At Isengard when Pippin jumps off Aragorn's horse to retrieve the palantir, the water is up above his waist when he reaches into the water for the palantir. But when he hands the palantir to Gandalf, his top half is still dry. [Pippin only reaches his arms down below water and his sleeves remain wet throughout the scene.]

When Faramir and his men are overwhelmed by Orcs, they retreat to Minas Tirith. Gandalf, with Pippin astride, gallops out from Minas Tirith on Shadowfax and drives off the Nazgul and the fell beasts. There is no reason for Gandalf to have ridden out with Pippin. [Gandalf is responsible for Pippin - he simply wanted to keep him close. Gandalf drives the Nazgul off with ease, so it's not as if the hobbit is in any danger by accompanying him.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

King Theoden tells Merry 'It is a three day gallop to Minas Tirith', but they arrive there the next day at dawn, as the siege of Gondor begins as they begin their ride, and the siege of Gondor goes on all night into dawn the next day, which is the time the Rohirrim arrive. [It is a three day ride from Edoras. Théoden and his men ride out from Duneharrow.]

On the DVD, in the scene where Gandalf is driving the carriage (with Frodo and Bilbo on board), in the zoomed out shot you can see four hobbits riding on ponies. There should only be three. Since Frodo is in the carriage, that would only leave Sam, Merry, and Pippen. These are the only hobbits going along, since they are the only ones at the harbor. [In the opening shot when Gandalf arrives in the wagon, all four Hobbits are on the ponies. Then in the next shot after Gandalf's close-up, as we hear Bilbo's voiceover, the four ponies have only three riders, one of the ponies is riderless. Use zoom, it is very clear.]

Corrected by Rikki

As Legolas walks along the top of the oliphant about to fire three arrows into its head, he draws his three arrows twice, once before and once after the camera change. [No. In the close-up his face twists up in anger at the Mumak and draws the first arrow. In the next shot from above, as he walks on top of the animal he places that arrow into his left hand and draws two more from behind, then puts the three together at the bow.]

Corrected by Rikki

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