The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Corrected entry: Obscure one, here; in one of the books released about Lord of the Rings, it discusses the difference between normal Gondorion helmets and Citadel Guard helmets. Citadel Guards helmets have bronze wings carved to the side of them. Yet, when Pippin is made a Citadel Guard, he is given a standard Gondorion helmet. I also think he's given the wrong armor, too; he's given what looks like the armor of the Fountain Guard instead of the Citadel Guard.

Correction: Pippin's armor is actually Faramir's childhood armor. This point will likely be made clear in the Extended Edition, and is confirmed in the Weapons and Warfare book.

Corrected entry: When Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas etc. are approaching the Black Gate, you can see Gimli on the back of Eomer's horse. Yet when Gimli speaks his line you can see part of Legolas' arm and chest in front of him. In the next (wide) shot Gimli is on Eomer's horse again.

Correction: That's Merry on Eomer's horse.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Numerology comes into fruition in this movie a lot. The number three comes a number of times. There are of course the three heroes, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and the ring party consisting of Sam, Frodo and Gollum. When Sam and Frodo are rescued there are the three eagles which come to rescue them. At the end of the film it is stated that the time of the elves is over and thus their three rings are cast aside for the time of man. Also Sam's house is the number three.

Tobin OReilly

Correction: Sorry, but this is crossing the line into "coincidence". All of these "items" are directly from the books, and Tolkien was every bit the dry, professorial type who would have had no truck with numerology.

Phil C.

Corrected entry: In the first movie, it is established that hobbit children have pointed ears. Yet Elanor, whom we see at the very end, does not have them.

PeterNZ

Correction: Elanor does have pointed ears - visible when being carried by her father.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: In the scene where Aragorn is saddling up to enter the Paths of the Dead, he straps Anduril on to Brego. When Eowyn approaches and the camera shot changes from Aragorn's right to his left, Anduril is clasped under Aragorn's left arm. When the shot changes back to the right view, Anduril is again strapped on Brego.

Correction: What is under his left arm is Anduril, what is strapped to Brego's saddle is the sheath.

Corrected entry: Early in the film, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are camped out inside a diamond-shaped structure. When the structure is shown from the outside, the diamond appears taller and thinner than when shown from inside looking out.

Jon Nicholas

Correction: The upper edge of the diamond is built out as well as up, so its appearance changes a lot depending on the camera angle.

STP

Corrected entry: At the end when Gandalf says goodbye to the hobbits, there is shot of him holding his staff in his right hand. A ring can be seen on his finger. After Frodo says goodbye to the hobbits, Gandalf is shown again, only the ring is on his left hand.

Correction: The ring is on his left hand, middle finger, the entire scene.

Corrected entry: Right after the dead guys clear the battlefield, there are a few shots of the heroes and it is very smoky in the background. Through the smoke we can see rolling hills in the near background. The problem is, these are not supposed to be there, when we see all the overhead shots, it is an enormous flat plain with a river and a city, etc. It just doesn't match up.

Sol Parker

Correction: Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, is built into a mountainside, which is seen from most shots of it. It follows that it's part of a mountain range with foothills. Pellenor Fields, the plains, lie between Minas Tirith and Osgiliath, while the hills behind Minas Tirith and beside the Fields, where you see the Riders of Rohan line up on. This is why you'd see the hills while looking through the dead guys, who are standing between the camera and Minas Tirith.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Legolas and Aragorn are talking outside the hall in Edoras, Legolas has a bump of some sort on his forehead. Just after he says "He is here", the bump disappears, never to be seen again.

Correction: It's not a bump. As he's talking, he creases his forehead and moves his eyebrows in deep concentration. The "bump" is a shadow on his face in one of these creases and you can see it come and go throughout the scene when there is no cuts to a different shot.

Corrected entry: The mountain that Sam and Frodo came tumbling down outside the Black Gate in The Two Towers was gone when Aragorn and the rest show up there in Return of The King.

Correction: That ridge was offset from the center of the Gate, considerably to the right. When Aragorn and company take the last stand before the Gate, they're in the center, to the left of the ridge (as seen by the cameras).

Corrected entry: Throughout the three films, Mount Doom is always shown spewing lava from its summit. This suggests that the lava is full to the brim. When Frodo and company reach the mountain, however, there's a large, open door leading into the center of the mountain. There is no evidence that lava has ever flowed through the door. Once inside, the lava level is hundreds of feet below them, but moments before lava was still spewing out the very top of the mountain.

Jon Nicholas

Correction: It is quite possible as with any volcano that there are separate lava tubes at the surface, obviously the entire mountain could not be hollow because it would collapse in on itself.

Sol Parker

Corrected entry: How did Shelob's sting get through Frodo if he was wearing his mithril vest? Its obvious he wasn't stung higher or lower than where the vest was. The scar we later see is too large for the stinger to be small enough to have slipped between the links of the vest.

Correction: The scar from Shelob's sting is around the area of the neckline of the Mithril coat.

Super Grover

Corrected entry: When Gandalf and Pippin are talking about death, there are spots of what seems to be water on Gandalf's sword, they change between shots. It's not orc blood because it is clear.

Sol Parker

Correction: It is possible that it was water drops on his sword. I am sure that some of the people or soldiers were using water to help put out the fires. It is possible that Gandalf was splashed with some water, even though we did not see it specifically happen.

Bruce Minnick

Corrected entry: When Frodo runs into Shelob's spider webs (the one where Gollum is on the other side) you can see that he is about a foot from the ground as if he jumped into the webs. Really he only ran into them so his feet should still be touching the ground.

Correction: Shelob's webs are very elastic. It's entirely feasible that his momentum carried him into the webs, he contorted the shape, then the webs sprung back, this time with him in the air.

Corrected entry: In the scene at the top of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, Sam says something to the shirtless Frodo like, "We better find you some clothes Mr. Frodo". They leave the tower wearing orc armor; however, within the next few scenes the hobbits shed their armor only to reveal Frodo wearing his original clothes.

Correction: They find Frodo's clothes, they'd been removed by the orcs, but not lost. Frodo was merely wearing the clothes under the armor.

Corrected entry: In the final scenes of the movie, when Frodo is writing in his book you can see that it is written in fairly large calligraphic script on parchment paper. The final book is too thin to contain both "There and Back Again" (The Hobbit) and "The Lord of the Rings". The text is larger than book print, parchment is thicker than paper, and my copy of the Hobbit is thicker than that book.

Correction: Though they share the same titles, it's never suggested that the stories that Frodo and Bilbo have penned are identical to, or even bear any resemblance to the text of Tolkein's works. There's no reason they ought to be the same length or that Frodo's account shouldn't fit into a smaller space.

Corrected entry: After Sam stabs the orc who is about to stab Frodo, Sting no longer glows blue. However, there were loads of orcs downstairs, about 7 metres away.

Correction: The orcs downstairs are all dead. They died when they were fighting each other. Sam was able to rescue Frodo without a problem because of this.

Corrected entry: In the Two Towers Faramir is shown holding Boromir's broken horn. In Return of the King their father has it despite the fact that Faramir is still in Osgiliath.

Correction: A day or two has passed at this point - Faramir could have sent the horn to his father in the interim.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: As Aragorn rides toward the Black Gate, an accompanying soldier holds the black flag of Gondor. The flag appears completely white as they retreat when the army of Mordor begins to march out. It is black again in the next shot.

Correction: It is the same flag. If you watch carefully as they ride towards the Black Gate, when the flag 'flaps' in certain ways, it appears to change to a silvery/white colour. I believe that this is just the type of fabric used for the flag that causes this rather than them using a white flag.

Richard Holmes

Corrected entry: How could Eowyn have cut the nazgul's "steed's" head clean off? It had armour on and her sword wasn't as long as the neck was wide.

gandolfs dad

Correction: There was only armor on the head, and she takes several quick slices.

Sol Parker

Continuity mistake: As Sam lies sleeping, Gollum sprinkles lembas crumbs on Sam's right side. 1st shot, the grey blanket completely covers Sam as Gollum begins to sprinkle it. 2nd shot, the blanket is at Sam's shoulder with a just a bit of cloak and sleeve showing. 3rd shot, the blanket is completely covering Sam's shoulders as the lembas is shown only on the blanket. Then Sam stands and the blanket is now on the ground (as mentioned in another mistake, there are no crumbs at all when he stands). Later, when Gollum accuses Sam in the 'framing' shot, the lembas crumbs are shown on Sam's cloak even though it was the grey blanket Gollum sprinkled it on earlier. (01:02:05)

Super Grover

More mistakes in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Legolas: So, it's a drinking game?
Gimli: Last one standing wins!
Legolas: [after several drinks.] I...I feel something-a slight tingle in my fingers. I think it's affecting me!
Gimli: Ahh...what'd I say? He can't hold his liquor... [falls over.].
Legolas: Game over.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King trivia picture

Trivia: When Gandalf is talking about the gathering of the armies of Sauron, the next shot shows the Corsairs on a ship. Walking from right to left is Peter Jackson in a cameo as a Corsair pirate. In the extended version he is pierced in the chest by Legolas' arrow and dramatically dies. (00:38:30)

More trivia for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Question: When Déagol finds the ring, Sméagol asks to have it. When Déagol asks why, Sméagol says because it's his birthday and that he wanted it. Was it really Sméagol's birthday or was he already so quickly drawn by the ring's power that he only claimed it was in hopes that Déagol would hand it over?

Answer: In the book, it absolutely was his birthday.

Brian Katcher

What chapter in the book where smeagol kills deagol?

DFirst1

The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter two 'The Shadow of the Past.'.

Brian Katcher

Answer: It probably wasn't his birthday on that exact day, that would be too much of a coincidence. But close is definitely possible, or at least closer than Deagol's. Both were immediately drawn by the ring, heavily enough that they fought over it and Smeagol becoming the ultimate winner. Both did everything to keep it.

lionhead

More questions & answers from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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