The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Continuity mistake: When the berserker Uruk-hai runs with a torch and Legolas is trying to kill him, we see that Legolas has only one arrow left on his back in the first shot, but in the second shot he has three arrows left. (01:08:55)

Continuity mistake: In the shot where you see Gandalf, Eomer and the Rohirrim riders appearing in the East, you can see that the Uruk-hai's shadow is pointing towards Gandalf, i.e. towards the direction the sun is supposedly coming from.(From the viewpoint of Gandalf and Rohirrim, as they ride down the hill towards the Uruk-hai.) (01:30:15)

Continuity mistake: When Sam (in voice over) says, "But in the end, it's only a passing thing..." we see Gandalf's hair down and messy, during the battle. Just as Éomer is riding past Gandalf and the others, shouting, "Stay out of the forest!" notice Gandalf's hair in the side shot, it is neat, and pulled back. In the next close-up of Gandalf, looking at the Uruk-hai running into the forest, his hair is down again. (01:38:00)

Super Grover

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Saruman is telling the Orc to send out his Warg riders, in the close-up, Saruman lets his staff hit the ground and then in the shot of his back, his staff goes down again and it is in the opposite hand. (01:36:40)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Upon entering the Golden Hall, when Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf first arrive at Edoras, watch Gandalf's staff. In the shots from behind, Gandalf uses the staff as a walking stick, but the shots taken from the front, show him keeping the staff at his side, perpendicular to his body. (01:17:50)

Continuity mistake: While looking at the Haradrim, in this first front shot Frodo says, "We've got to get moving. Come on, Sam," Frodo starts to back away and rise. Sam grabs his hand and pulls him, saying, "Mr Frodo," and Frodo's position is farther behind Sam. In the next back shot Sam and Frodo are lying evenly, side by side. Then in the next front shot as Sam says, "It's an Oliphaunt," Frodo's position is behind Sam and he is crouched higher than him too. (01:43:45)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: At the Armory, in the first close-up of Aragorn, he looks at a sword in his hand and tosses it down. The right sleeve of his coat is ripped almost all the way around at the seam by his shoulder, and the sleeve is folded over where it's ripped. When he tosses the sword down, there is a glimpse of his left sleeve, and it too is ripped and folded over at the seam. In his next close-up, the right sleeve's seam is ripped much less and it isn't folded over. The left sleeve however, is ripped like in the earlier shot. This is not a case of shot flipping. (00:52:45)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When the ladders are being raised to the Keep, we first see a wide shot of two ladders going up. The one on the right reaches the top of the Keep first. The next three quick shots show it differently. In the second quick shot, there are two ladders at the top already and a third ladder on their right, that is just hitting the top of the Keep. All those ladders are close together. Then just after Legolas grabs an arrow, the next far shot of the Keep shows two ladders spaced far apart, with a third one in the middle being raised. This is the one that Legolas causes to fall with his arrow. (01:17:20)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Theoden says "I will not risk open war", you can see Aragorn in the background taking the pipe out of his mouth, which he does again when he says "Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not".

Continuity mistake: After Haldir is struck in the back by an Uruk he falls to his knees dying. Aragorn runs up and grabs him but sees the elf is dead after his head falls back and lowers his body down before running off again. But he lets go of Haldir just above the ground and instead of just falling the rest of the way down the supposedly dead elf lowers his own head to the ground. (01:57:55)

Continuity mistake: Having seen the attack on the Haradrim, Frodo says, "Come on, Sam," and he is seized by one of Faramir's men. In the next shot, Sam is getting up off his right knee, that having been the place where they were lying and hiding to see the Haradrim and Mûmakil. The edge shown in this shot has green plants growing alongside, and the bush to the right of the edge is also very different than earlier shots. This edge does not look anything like the two different edges shown, in the earlier shots of them leaning over. This is now the third edge being offered. (01:45:05)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Sam lifts Frodo and says, "That there's some good in this world Mr Frodo and it's worth fighting for", Sam's face is wet with tears and his eyes are red and teary. In the next shot, when Faramir walks over, Sam's eyes are still red and teary and his face is still wet, but in the next shot, when Faramir kneels, Sam's face is dry and his eyes are no longer red and teary. (01:36:55)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When King Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli and what's left of the army are trying to stop the Uruk-hai from breaking in, Aragorn says, "Tell the women and children to head for the mountain pass.." and pushes Gamling toward the back entrance, so Gamling is in front of him. Then Theoden says his line about so much death and the next shot shows Aragorn and Gamling turning their heads. Now, Aragorn is closer to the back entrance than Gamling. (01:27:05)

Continuity mistake: When the Uruk-hai are sending the three huge ladders up on to the Keep, watch the last one just before Legolas cuts the rope that is pulling it up. The ladder has just passed the 90 degree/vertical point. Naturally, after that it starts gaining speed as it falls. Then it cuts to Legolas, who waits a second or two before firing his arrow. That would be plenty of time for the ladder to pass the point of no return, and hit the wall, so it would not have mattered if Legolas had shot it or not it would still have reached the Keep. (02:27:10)

Continuity mistake: In the stable, just as Aragorn takes Brego's lead rope from the Rohan, in the shot of Brego moving backward, the two knots at his halter are seen. In the next shot as Aragorn continues soothing Brego he moves in closer, the two knots seen differ from the previous shot and there is no excess rope on Brego's left knot. However as Aragorn unties the knot on Brego's right, the excess rope of his left knot is seen, which differs from the second shot. (01:31:00)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Theoden is going to kill Grima on the stone stairway, behind him are Gandalf and three of four guards that take up the whole width of the stair way. Right when Theoden is about to strike, Aragorn pops out of nowhere and stops him. How could he have gotten there in time if we didn't see him push through the other guards, or see him behind them?

Continuity mistake: When Gandalf and the rest of the riders on horseback are watching the Uruk-hai retreating into the trees, in Gandalf's close-up, sitting directly behind Gandalf's horse is another rider on a horse. That rider has a silver helmet with the decorative high ridges in the center. However, right before that shot is shown, there is a wide shot of all their backs and a rider with that kind of helmet is not sitting directly behind Gandalf's horse, but rather further behind him, way off to his right. The close-up shot immediately followed the wide shot. Extended DVD. (01:38:20)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: While Sam is cooking the rabbit stew, Frodo goes to his pack lying beside the broken stone statue to take out the plates. In Frodo's close-ups the trees and bushes near the statue are positioned differently and some are even different than the trees and bushes in the wide shots. (01:41:55)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: During the battle of Helm's Deep, a line of Uruk-hai with shields and a battering ram march up the causeway to the Keep. Then the wall below is breached, and in one shot of the wall exploding you can see, off to the right, that the Uruk-hai have reached the top of the causeway and are just standing there. Then in the close-up of the Uruk-hai on the causeway, they haven't reached the top yet. (01:09:10)

Continuity mistake: As Faramir recalls Boromir's speech, the Horn of Gondor is slung over Boromir's shoulder. In the shots from behind, the Horn is high up on his back, next to his cloak. In the shots from the front, the Horn is much lower at his hip, under his cloak. (00:31:55)

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)

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: During post-production, one of the effects technicians had to transport the first effects shots to a special location, since their computer could not send them all the way to Peter Jackson. After storing them in his iPod, he walked out into the street and was targeted by two thugs. After some serious sprinting, he managed to reach a hotel and save WETA's visual effects from falling into criminal hands.

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

Question: When Pippin and Merry are with the orcs (or uruk-hai or whatever they're called) one of the orcs keeps insisting on eating them. What does he mean when he says, "Do they give good sport?" And then he does this weird thing with his tongue to which Merry looks at him oddly. I don't know what he meant by that. (00:29:45)

Zinka17

Chosen answer: "Do they give good sport" is simply a way of asking whether they're being kept alive to provide later entertainment; could they be used in some sort of organised hunt, could they serve as gladiatorial fodder in an arena fight, that sort of thing. The weird thing with the tongue really just seems to be a sort of odd tic, designed to emphasise his rather disgusting nature.

Tailkinker

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.