The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Trivia: According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Lord of the Rings holds the record for the greatest number of false feet used in one movie: 60,000.

Trivia: While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that, during a conversation with Peter Jackson, Jackson addressed him as "Aragorn" for more than half an hour, and Mortensen didn't even realize it.

Trivia: Viggo Mortensen wasn't originally cast as Aragorn. Two weeks before shooting, Peter Jackson realized that his first choice for the role (Stuart Townsend) was too young and decided to offer the role to Mortensen.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring trivia picture

Trivia: When the Hobbits enter Bree, right after the wheel of the carriage passes in front of them, there is a man you see to the right who's holding a carrot and burps. That is Peter Jackson making a cameo appearance.

Trivia: When Merry and Pippin have just taken the dragon firework from Gandalf's cart and are in the tent tossing it back and forth, Pippin shrieks when it goes off. Apparently, Peter Jackson had told Billy Boyd it would only spark and fizzle, so he was fairly surprised when it shot off in his hands. He talks about this in the commentary on the DVD.

Trivia: Lawrence Makoare, the actor who plays the Uruk-hai leader Lurtz, later plays The Witch King of Angmar in The Return of the King. He also plays Gothmog, the orc commander in ROTK, plus several other Uruk-hai and orcs throughout the trilogy.

Trivia: During the scene before Bilbo's party, when Gandalf and Bilbo are inside Bag End, Gandalf hits his head on a beam upon entering Bilbo's study. This was actually unintentional, but Ian McKellen did such a good job of acting through it that Peter Jackson left it in the movie.

Trivia: When filming "Fellowship," the actors playing the Hobbits required hours of work just to get on their Hobbit feet. It was so long and terrible that Sean Astin (Sam) counted the amount of times they had to put their feet on when it never showed up on camera in that day of filming. The final count was 50.

Trivia: When running away from the Balrog, Boromir is the first to reach the bottomless stairs and Legolas pulls him back to safety. When this piece was shot, there were many retakes, and each time Sean Bean would get pulled back by Orlando Bloom, Bean would land back onto Bloom's soft lap, while Bloom would slam back onto the hard steps with the full weight of the two of them. As a result, Bloom had bruising on his backside and legs, for some time. Bloom joked, "I gave Sean a few beatings for that, I can tell ya." Cast commentary, extended DVD. (00:36:40)

Super Grover

Trivia: When the four Hobbits are in the woods running from the Ringwraiths, they run onto the boat at Buckleberry ferry and go to Bree. Merry, Pippin and Sam get on alright but Frodo has to jump. The first time the filmmakers shot this scene, Elijah Wood jumped right over the ferry and into the water on the other side.

Trivia: In all the close-up shots of Galadriel, you can see a reflection of a ball of white Christmas lights that was held up near the camera. The filmmakers did this to make her eyes look deeper and more complex.

Trivia: A pictorial cameo: The two portraits in oval frames hanging above the fireplace in Bag End are of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.

Trivia: Arwen and Aragorn are actually related. Arwen's father, Elrond and his brother Elros were half-elven. They were given a choice of whether they would like to become elves and become immortal; or be mortal and become the kings of Men. Elrond chose the elf option, and his brother the mortal one. Elrond had Arwen, while his brother's family tree went on for thousands of years, eventually resulting in Aragorn making Arwen Aragorn's first cousin many-times removed.

Trivia: The Orc blacksmiths beneath Isengard are the WETA workshop staff who made the weapons for the film.

Trivia: When Frodo falls over in the snow and loses the Ring, there's a close-up of the Ring, with Frodo in the background. A giant ring of six inches in diameter had to be used to keep both Frodo and the Ring in focus.

Trivia: Sean Bean (Boromir) was deathly afraid of riding in the helicopter that had to take the actors to and from the many filming locations. After the scene on Caradharas, the one where Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo, Bean refused to go anywhere else by helicopter. Many times he had to take a ski lift and climb many hundred feet in full Boromir gear to get to the set.

Trivia: According to the book, Frodo is the oldest of the Hobbits in the Fellowship, but Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo, is actually the youngest of all the Fellowship actors - he was seventeen when filming began. The actors who played the younger Hobbits (Merry, Samwise and Pippin) - Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin and Billy Boyd - ranged in age from 23 to 31 at the beginning of filming. Ironically, in the book Pippin is the youngest of the four Hobbits, whereas Billy Boyd, who played Pippin was actually the oldest of the four actors portraying the Hobbits.

megamii

Trivia: Alan Lee (a Tolkien artist and conceptual designer with John Howe) has a cameo as one of the nine men who received a Ring of power in the Prologue.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring mistake picture

Other mistake: When Sam and Frodo are in the field with the scarecrow, you can plainly see a car cruising past in the distance, from right to left. Further comment - there are two different shots which show the car moving from right to left. One starts at the top right distance, and in a shot a few seconds later the car has traveled down the road a bit and is more easily visible. Complicating matters is that the dust thrown up by the car looks similar to smoke from a chimney in the right distance, making some people think it is just the chimney. But chimneys don't move, and the smoke from the chimney is separate from the moving vehicle. [It is deleted on the DVD, but you can still see an obvious bit of image fakery on the hill just left of the smoking chimney. One can see the hill, tree, and surrounding area move up and down and shimmer slightly where someone has done a cut and paste to cover up the auto. The "car inclusive" scene appears on the National Geographic documentary, "Beyond the Movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Also, watch the music documentary on the Extended DVD - when it shows this scene the car is still in it. Bizarrely, in his commentary Peter Jackson said he never saw a car and doesn't know what people are talking about, but the production/post-production team say in their commentary that despite not thinking anyone would be able to see it, they took it out anyway.] (00:42:55)

More mistakes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sam: Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me.
Elrond: No, indeed. It is hardly possible to separate you even when he is summoned to a secret Council and you are not.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Question: In the scene where Gandalf and Saruman are fighting in the tower Saruman takes Gandalf's staff and sends him to the top of the tower. What happened to Gandalf's staff? When he escapes he somehow gets his staff back and uses it the rest of the movie. Is it another similar staff, or am I missing something?

Answer: It is a different staff. Look at the branches at the top of the staff.

Garlonuss

More questions & answers from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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