The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Continuity mistake: Gimli is lying with his face under the water, after jumping off the Deeping Wall and landing on the Uruk-hai. In the close-up, the right arm that grabs Gimli's shoulder to help him out of the water is Legolas' right arm. Yet, in the wide shot, suddenly it is Aragorn helping Gimli to his feet, not Legolas. (01:11:10)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: As Faramir holds the Horn of Gondor, the rope is attached to metal loops on the smaller half of the horn - without the mouthpiece. However, in FotR, when Boromir is hit with the third arrow and the Horn of Gondor is cloven in two, the rope is attached to the metal loops on the half with the long mouthpiece. (There are only two metal loops and they are permanently affixed.) (00:31:50)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Merry and Pippin were bound when taken by the Uruk-hai, and the bonds weren't cut until after they managed to escape during the fight. Yet, when the horse almost crashed down on Pippin, he had his arms spread out up near his face, not bound, even though they weren't cut until later. In the next shot, his hands are bound again. (00:31:15)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Uruk-hai stop to rest by Fangorn Forest, they drop Merry and Pippin right next to each other, yet Pippin then has to crawl some distance towards Merry so that he can speak to him. [On the Extended DVD, Peter Jackson says that parts of this scene were shot two years apart, and that in fact it was made up of shots for two distinct scenes. Either of these might explain this discontinuity in positioning.] (00:27:55)

Continuity mistake: When Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf are galloping towards Edoras, then stop and when they are riding up towards the entryway at the bottom of the hill, Shadowfax has a white rope around his neck. However, as they're riding through Edoras, passing the people, Shadowfax no longer has the white rope around his neck. (01:12:30 - 01:16:20)

Continuity mistake: When Theoden is spouting his poem about the horse and the rider, Gamling is putting the armour on his King but when the camera returns to a wide shot, he still only has his breast plate on. (02:42:00 - 00:55:35)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Merry and Pippin first enter Saruman's storeroom, in the close-up, Merry is holding an apple and a large glass carafe with wine. As the camera pans out, to show the whole storeroom, he is no longer holding the large glass carafe, but he is holding an apple and a turkey. Extended DVD. (01:40:20)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the opening close-up shot of this scene just before Gollum says, "We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious," Frodo and Sam are seen sleeping side by side. In the next wide shot of them they are sleeping perpendicular to each other. (01:38:35)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Merry is running away from the Orc in Fangorn Forest he has a big gash on the left side of his head, yet when he's in Treebeard's hands it has changed to his right side. Due to shot/scene flipping, this occurs numerous times. (00:28:30 - 00:39:00)

Continuity mistake: When Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli walk into Meduseld, Gandalf is seen arm-in-arm with Legolas, apparently leaning on the Elf for support, but when the camera cuts away and returns, Gandalf is not in contact with Legolas, but they are arm-in-arm again for the next shot. (01:18:00)

Continuity mistake: When Saruman and Wormtongue look down from Orthanc at the Uruk-hai army, it is spread out across the plain in front of the tower. What happened to the vast caverns which had been dug into the ground? Some are shown off to the left of shot, but the landscape had earlier been shown as much more pitted in other scenes. (00:17:30)

Continuity mistake: During Frodo and Sam's final scene in Osgiliath, you can clearly see that the chain Frodo is wearing has gotten much longer. In several shots while Frodo is on the ground, the chain hangs down below the shot, so you cannot see the Ring. (01:37:25)

Continuity mistake: After Hama says, "By order of Grima Wormtongue," we see Legolas handing a guard his bow, which he was carrying in his hand. Then in the front close-up of Legolas, we see him taking out the twin blades that are on his back and he even does the fancy spin with the blades in this shot. Then there is a shot of Gimli. Then in a side shot of Aragorn, Gandalf and Legolas, we see Legolas again taking out the twin blades that are on his back. (00:57:30)

Continuity mistake: During the Warg battle, just after Gimli falls off Arod, the Warg across the field lifts his face and spots Gimli. In the two close-up shots, directly behind the Warg, on his right, there are two arrows sticking up out of a dead body. However, in the wide shot that follows, there is no body with two arrows protruding, anywhere behind him. It is not the bodies to his side. (00:11:15)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In this shot, Pippin grabs some apples and a green ear of corn, then he puts it all into his left hand, starts to turn around and with his empty right hand he reaches for a floating cauliflower. The camera angle changes, and in the next shot, we see him holding an apple and corn in the right hand and another apple in his left hand. Floating to the right of him is no longer a cauliflower, but a green bottle. Extended DVD. (01:40:05)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Gimli is about to tell Eowyn that Aragorn fell, Gimli's axe has Orc blood on it, in the next shot there is no blood. There's not enough time for him to have cleaned his axe. (00:16:40)

Continuity mistake: Éowyn and many of the refugees are shown as they see Helm's Deep in the distance. In the first wide shot, Éothain and Freda are riding on the horse and a particular rock formation is seen way in the distance. They keep riding towards Helm's Deep, which we see in the next shot. In the children's next close-up, they are now right in front of that rock formation that was shown in the earlier shot. This is not due to zooming. The two pieces of footage were switched, so as to have their close-up seen last. (00:14:55)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Legolas throws down the rope to Aragorn to help he and Gimli escape. Aragorn then grabs the rope with his left hand and holds onto Gimli and his sword with his right hand, plus Gimli's head is lower than Aragorn's. Legolas starts to hoist them up and in the next shot, Aragorn is holding onto the rope with his right hand and Gimli and the sword with his left. In the next shot of them, it's vice versa again. As they're reaching the top, Gimli's head is higher than Aragorn's. Nothing to do with spinning around - just look at the hands. (01:18:00)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Berserker Uruk-hai with the torch runs to the bomb to detonate it, Aragorn yells at Legolas to stop him. Legolas fires an arrow with green short fletch (feathers), then you see the berserker hit by a long white fletched arrow, the kind the Lothlorien Elves use. A second time, Aragorn yells to Legolas to kill him, and then again, the arrow shot by Legolas is not the same type as the one that hits the Uruk-hai. The Uruk is not hit by arrows of another Elf, it is Legolas that hits him, twice. (01:08:50)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Grishnak grabs Merry in Fangorn and says, "Let's put a maggot hole in your belly", raising his blade to stab Merry in the stomach. When he's stomped by Treebeard he's farther away from Merry, not even in arm's reach to stab him. (00:39:20)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Merry and Pippin were bound when taken by the Uruk-hai, and the bonds weren't cut until after they managed to escape during the fight. Yet, when the horse almost crashed down on Pippin, he had his arms spread out up near his face, not bound, even though they weren't cut until later. In the next shot, his hands are bound again. (00:31:15)

More mistakes in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Gimli: Oh come on, we can take 'em.
Aragorn: It's a long way.
Gimli: Toss me.
Aragorn: What?
Gimli: I cannot jump the distance you'll have to toss me!...don't tell the elf.
Aragorn: Not a word.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Trivia: Many of the Wild Men in the film were portrayed by actual groups of bikers, motorcycling around New Zealand at the time. Commentary, extended DVD.

Super Grover

More trivia for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Question: Maybe I missed something, but why didn't Gandalf notice that Sam was not there? He acts surprised when Aragorn says that Frodo didn't go to Mordor alone, Sam went with him. Yet, he has already seen Merry and Pippin, and Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn are with him, and he knows that Frodo went on alone, so where does he think Sam is? Please excuse me if I missed something.

Answer: The movie makes it clear that Gandalf has lost some of his memory and his personality has changed. Gandalf actually did die and pass over to the "other side", as it were but was sent back to complete his task. However, he was sent back as a similar, but different entity. Gandalf the White does not have all the memories of Gandalf the Grey, at least at first. He doesn't even remember that he used to be called Gandalf the Grey until someone points this out to him. It is implied that Gandalf doesn't even remember Sam until Aragorn mentions him. Gandalf then searches his memories and remembers who Sam is and his eventual importance to Frodo's quest. When he finally remembers this, he is pleased that Sam went with Frodo, as he will play a crucial role near the end of the journey.

More questions & answers from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.