The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Trivia: Sam's line at the end of the film ("Well, I'm back") is also the last line of the novel.

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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)

Trivia: At the end of the film, young Elanor Gamgee is played by none other than Sean Astin's own daughter in a cameo. Not only that, but Frodo Gamgee (the baby) is played by Maisie McLeod-Riera, the daughter of Sarah McLeod, who plays Sam's wife, Rosie.

Trivia: Towards the end of the film, when Aragorn was crowned and Arwen appears, there is a brief shot of Eowyn and Faramir looking at each other and smiling. This is a reference to the book. In the book, Eowyn and Faramir fell in love when they met in Gondor.

Trivia: The New Zealand army was used as extras for Aragorn's Rohirrim/Gondorian army. Though its presence was appreciatedly efficient, its fighting was overly enthusiastic, and did not lean towards pretend fighting. Quite a few injuries were incurred as a result of the army's fierce fighting with the stunt doubles, and WETA weapons were often destroyed in the melee.

Super Grover

Trivia: Author J.R.R. Tolkien wanted this book to be titled "the War of the Ring." He felt that "The Return of the King" gave away the ending.

Trivia: In later years (according to the book), after he is about 100 years old, Sam also sails into the West to be with Frodo. There is a reference to this in the line from Annie Lennox's song 'Into the West': 'Don't say, we have come now to the end, white shores are calling - you and I will meet again.' Sam is allowed to sail because he also bore the burden of the One Ring to the Tower at Cirith Ungol, on their way to Mt. Doom.

Trivia: In the extended version when Grima Wormtounge stabs Saruman in the back on top of the tower, Christopher Lee corrected the crew on the fact that when a person is stabbed in the back of the chest, they do not scream (as the film crew wanted), in fact the air is pushed out of their lungs and they "groan" with an exhalation of air, very quietly, as their lungs have been punctured. From Peter Jackson's DVD commentary: "When I was shooting the stabbing shot with Christopher, as a director would I was explaining to him what he should do...And he says, 'Peter, have you ever heard the sound a man makes when he's stabbed in the back?' And I said, 'Um, no.' And he says 'Well, I have, and I know what to do.'" The crew said that they knew Christopher Lee had been in the British Royal Air Force Intelligence Service in World War Two, and they didn't really push him for more information about how he knew in such detail exactly what noise a person makes when this is done to them.

Trivia: (Extended Edition)The song sung in the Houses of Healing scene is sung by Liv Tyler.

Trivia: Dominic Monaghan (Merry) said in an interview that he and Billy Boyd (Pippin) were teamed up right from the start and did most of the training (fencing, canoeing, etc) together as well as the acting. Then they were separated for "Return of the King," to make the sadness Merry and Pippin feel when separated more genuine. According to Monaghan, neither he nor Boyd appreciated being separated for the third film, so the trick worked.

Trivia: Bruce Spence's mouth is enhanced with a cut laden prosthetic as the Mouth of Sauron, to represent the evil he has spoken for Sauron. During editing, the CG specialists toyed with the idea of having the mouth lie vertically on his face. Though the mouth chosen is horizontal, it's digitally enlarged by about 50% for this scene to fill the only opening within the helmet, creating the very disturbing unsettling image. (Extended Edition). (01:10:00)

Super Grover

Trivia: The quarry that Minas Tirith was built in was also the location that Helm's Deep was constructed in.

Trivia: Among other cameos in this last film are Howard Shore, at the 'drinking game', and as Pirates on the Corsair ship when Aragorn confronts them are: Rick Porras, co-producer; Andrew Lesnie, director of photography; Richard Taylor, WETA creative supervisor and Gino Acevedo, WETA prosthetics supervisor. After arriving on the Corsair ship, the first Orc that Aragorn kills on Pelennor fields, is Viggo's son Henry, who was a young boy in TTT. In pickups for RotK, 3-4 yrs later, he had since grown to be taller than his father and was given the Orc suit for a cameo. (Extended Edition)

Super Grover

Trivia: Peter Jackson originally filmed Aragorn fighting Sauron outside of the Black Gates during the final battle. When the filmmakers decided against this, they asked the CG animators to digitally insert a cave troll over the actor who played Sauron.

Trivia: In the scene of Aragorn's coronation, after he and Arwen are reunited, they walk along to stand before the hobbits. The dark-haired elf maiden standing in the background (who can be seen between Aragorn and Arwen) is none other than Jane Abbott, Liv Tyler's (Arwen) and Miranda Otto's (Eowyn) riding-double. (03:00:00)

Trivia: For the original shoot, Weta Workshop designed 169 orc costumes, and the actors who wore them were trained to move in what Peter Jackson dubbed the "Full-Diaper Walk". This bothered him so much that for pick-ups 2003, he requested a complete redesign of the orcs including armour, make-up and movement, meaning that large portions of the invasion of Osgiliath, Siege of Minas Tirith, Battle of Pelennor Fields and Siege of the Black Gate had to be reshot. The new orcs (including Gothmog and the other orc captains, who weren't in the original script) are wearing matching plate steel armour with red tunics.

Trivia: While Gothmog (played by Lawrence Makoare) is the only Orc identified in the film, here are the names of those un-named, who appear in the films: 1) Gorbag: the Orc (played by Stephen Ure) that argues over the mithril shirt and then fights with the Uruk in the Tower at Cirith Ungol, and later Sam stabs in the Tower when rescuing Frodo; 2) Shagrat: the large Uruk (played by Peter Tait) that argues with Gorbag over the mithril shirt; 3) Snaga: is Grishnákh's lieutenant in The Two Towers (he's played by Jed Brophy). He is the Orc who argues over food - Merry and Pippin - and tries to sneak up behind the Hobbits, but is killed by Uglúk.

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Trivia: Apparently Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam) portrayed the special relationship between Frodo and Sam so touchingly that the editors of the movie made a video clip of footage of the two characters together and set it to the song "I Got You" by Sonny and Cher.

Trivia: It always seemed illogical that when Faramir and his men were under attack by the Nazgul and retreating to Minas Tirith, Gandalf galloped out of the city to rescue them with Pippen astride. Why carry the extra burden of a Hobbit and put him in danger? Billy Boyd (Pippen) cleared up this inconsistency on the Extended DVD commentary. The scene was originally written so that Gandalf and Pippen are actually just arriving at Minas Tirith as the soldiers fall under attack, but this was later rewritten.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the second half of the film, Frodo has a scar on his lower right cheek, close to his chin. Many times throughout the rest of the film the scar changes position and size on his right cheek. It also appears on his left cheek in flipped shots (most obviously on the slopes of Mount Doom when Sam is cradling his head). (02:31:05 - 02:34:00)

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Gimli: Certainty of death; small chance of success...what are we waiting for?

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Answer: Aragorn is 210 years old when he dies. Some of the early texts give his age at death as 190, but Tolkien eventually confirmed that 210 is the correct age.

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