Continuity mistake: In Faramir's hideout behind the waterfall, Sam tells Frodo, "Use the Ring, Mr Frodo, just this once..." When the camera is on Frodo alone, the camera lighting shines on Frodo's right side, with his left in shadow. When the angle of the camera changes to show both he and Sam, Frodo's left side is then lit. (00:41:00)
Revealing mistake: In the aerial shot approaching the Horse Kings village the banners are flapping the wrong way and the chimney smoke is going into the chimney, instead of out, revealing that it was shown in reverse.
Suggested correction: Which scene is that? I couldn't find it anywhere.
It's the scene where Eowyn exits the door angrily and walks towards the fire circle thinking, in the trailer she's on the left of the screen but in the movie she's on the right.
Continuity mistake: At the battle of Helm's Deep, after the wall is breached we see the water flow out. Then there is an aerial shot of orcs entering the pool of water. It cuts to a closeup of Aragorn lying on the ground just in front of the pool, a very short distance from the orcs. He should have been visible in the aerial shot.
Continuity mistake: Very near the start, when Frodo and Sam are talking, keep an eye on Sam's backpack. The blanket rolled up at the top of it moves up and down his back, without him adjusting it. (00:06:10)
Visible crew/equipment: When the wounded Aragorn gets up on Brego the next shot shows him ride towards the sun, and his shadow behind him. The same thing goes for the camera crew's shadow. The shadow of the crew is seen at the very beginning of this shot. And there are no rocks beside the camera because the camera moves 180 degrees to show open terrain.
Continuity mistake: When Faramir and his Lieutenant are looking at the map, just after it's been unfolded, the Lieutenant puts his right hand out and points on the map with his right hand. In the following close-up, his left hand is doing the pointing on the map. All the close-up shots of the map were added later during pickups, to show more clearly where various characters are. (00:27:55)
Continuity mistake: When Sam, Frodo and Gollum are watching the Haradrim and Oliphaunts from the hill, the sun is shining on the left side of Frodo's face and on the right side of Gollum's face. In fact, throughout the sequence, the sun's position seems to change quite a bit, even though the scene only lasts a few seconds. (01:18:20)
Deliberate mistake: During Theoden's attack, Arwen on a white horse is visible in about 3 frames. It was confirmed on the Commentary that Arwen took part in the Helm's Deep scenes as originally filmed, but was cut from them later, but apparently not completely, because she is seen in a number of shots. During the beginning of the attack, when the riders are still in the fortress, several shots end abruptly when only the white horse (different from Arod, its head is not covered with protection) is visible and not the rider. She is also seen riding down the causeway, in front of Legolas. Her hair was colored blonde, her body and clothing were shaded and colored green, to disguise her. (01:28:40)
Revealing mistake: Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes, towards Mordor. When Gollum runs across the first bit of the swamp, he treads into water; but the water does not move, nor does Gollum act like he has tread in water.
Continuity mistake: When Gamling is fighting the Warg scout, after Hama's death, Legolas jumps off the high rocks, and starts running towards the Orc. There are high rock ridges behind and to the left of Legolas. As soon as the Orc scout falls to the ground, in the next shot of Legolas, as he runs toward the Orc, that background is flat and there is only one rock ridge directly behind Legolas. (00:09:00)
Continuity mistake: Gimli yells, "Aragorn!" then as he jumps into the air, on that same wall, is a dead body hanging over the edge, next to the smoldering lantern. In the earlier shot, just before Aragorn lifts his head down below, as the camera panned over the Deeping Wall, there was no dead body lying at the top near the edge, next to a smoldering lantern. (01:10:20)
Revealing mistake: As Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli gear up for the battle of Helm's Deep in the Keep, Gimli puts on chainmail. After he says it's too tight in the chest, you see a back shot of Gimli standing facing Aragorn and Legolas. This man is obviously a scale double, as the body and posture are wrong.
Continuity mistake: At Edoras, as Éowyn says, "Now the Wildmen are moving through the Westfold, burning as they go, rick, cot and tree," Aragorn and Gimli sit at a table across the room. In this shot, the candle on their table has drippings going down the side of the candle. When Aragorn says, "You have two thousand good men..." the candle is taller and does not have those drippings. Aragorn says, "Open war is upon you..." and the candle now has more drippings than in that first shot. (01:27:35)
Revealing mistake: When Theoden says, "They will break upon this fortress like water on rock," the camera is in a crane shot which slowly creeps up, becoming a medium close-up of Aragorn. As the camera flies over the front wall of Helm's Deep in the shot where Theoden delivers his line, look down into the deepest level of the castle towards the left of the screen. Rohan citizens are bustling and moving. If you watch closely, you can see the lowest level of the castle jump and shake in the shot. This is because that lowest level wasn't there in reality and it was added in the computer. (Probably can be seen only in the Widescreen version).
Continuity mistake: In the extended edition of The Two Towers, during the 'Elvish Rope' scene near the beginning, the mist disappears and reappears between shots. When Frodo falls and lands at the bottom of the ravine, there is lots of thick, white mist swirling around, but when it cuts to a wider shot, it has nearly all disappeared within a second. In the next close-up shot of Frodo, it has reappeared again.
Continuity mistake: When the Warg Riders attack the people of Rohan en route to Helm's Deep, Aragorn falls off his horse with his sword in hand and it remains in his hand, however it is suddenly sheathed he prepares to grab a charging Warg.
Audio problem: When Gollum starts leading the hobbits, just after they let him go, he slips slightly on one slope and there is a sound of stones sliding down. But no stones are dislodged.
Character mistake: When the Rohirrim are preparing for the Helm's Deep battle, a man is shown sharpening a sword on a grindstone. He is doing it wrong, but it is the way that most people think is the right way. The stone should be spinning so that the blade is "shaving" it, even though that seems like it would dull the edge.
Continuity mistake: When Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli step inside Meduseld (the scene where they arrive at Edoras in Rohan), as they are approaching Theoden the angle of Gandalf's staff changes. It appears from the shots taken at the front to be at an angle so that Wormtongue doesn't see he's still carrying it, but when cutting to the shots from behind the group his staff is almost vertical.
Continuity mistake: When Brego (Aragorn's horse) wakes up Aragorn by the river, after he had been thrown off the cliff, Brego is light brown. A few scenes later, Aragorn spots Saruman's army marching towards Helm's Deep, and in this shot Brego is all black.
