The Return of the King

The War of the Ring reaches its climax as the dark lord Sauron sets his sights on Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor. The members of the fellowship in Rohan are warned of the impending attack when Pippin cannot resist looking into Saruman's palantir and is briefly contacted by the dark lord. King Theoden is too proud to send his men to help without being asked, so Gandalf and Pippin ride to Minas Tirith to see that this request is sent. They meet opposition there from Denethor, steward of the city and father of Faramir and the late Boromir. Denethor's family has acted as temorary guardians of Gondor for centuries until a member of the true line of kings returns. This member is none other than Aragorn, who must overcome his own self-doubt before he can take on the role he was destined to fulfill. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam continue to carry the One Ring towards Gondor, guided by Gollum. What they don't know is that Gollum is leading them into a trap so that he can reclaim the Ring for himself. Though Sam suspects his deceit, Frodo is starting to be corrupted by the Ring's power and the mistrust of Sam this causes is fully exploited by Gollum. The only way good can prevail in this contest is if the Ring is destroyed, an event that is becoming harder every minute for Frodo to achieve. The fate of every living creature in Middle Earth will be decided once and for all as the Quest of the Ringbearer reaches its climax.

Then 26-year-old Stuart Townsend was set to play Aragorn, but was let go after the six weeks of training and rehearsal and one day into filming because director Peter Jackson felt the character should be played by someone older. He was replaced by forty-one year old Viggo Mortensen

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King were filmed simultaneously.

Most of the lines Legolas says in the Extended Edition scene of the Paths of the Dead are direct quotes from the book.

Cameo: the composer of all three films, is seen standing next to Legolas, during a drinking game in the Golden Hall, in the early part of the Extend Edition.

SDDS 8 channel decoders list the title of the film that it is decoding on its display. For this film, certain reels were labeled "Till Death for Glory" whereas others were labeled "Bejing Chicken".

The design of Minas Tirith, apart from Tolkien's seven-tiered description, was based on the French island citadel of Mont St. Michel.

John Rhys-Davies provides the voice of Treebeard (uncredited for ROTK, but credited for TTT).

The scene on the extended DVD version of the "Corsairs of Umbar" being attacked by the army of the dead includes several cameos. Peter Jackson is the one hit by Legolas' arrow. (In the commentary, he states that he performed 6 or 7 takes of the hit - without any padding.) Co-producer Rick Porras is seen with a "look of horror" as the ghostly hoard attacks at the very end of the scene.

A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.

The final reel of the film to be completed was done so only five days before the world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand. The premiere was the first time that Peter Jackson had seen the completed film.

When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.

The first shot of Sam's arm coming into frame holding Sting towards Shelob,is actually Peter Jackson's arm

Lawrence Makoare, when wearing the Gothmog makeup, was called "Pimplehead" by extras who didn't know his name.

One the Extended Edition DVD, Disc 1, as per the first two movies, go to the scene selection menu, to the last page. Press down until a ring icon appears next to the "new scene" phrase; Up comes a satellite "interview" of Elijah Wood, given by Dominic Monaghan using a German accent. Do the same thing on disc 2 to uncover an MTV skit featuring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn pitching LOTR sequels to Peter Jackson.

In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.

Scenes were re-shot with the Witch King because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.

The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.

Peter Jackson's children appear twice in the film: in Gondor, when the horsemen leave the city, and in Sam's wedding.

Director Cameo: One of the mercenaries on the boats headed for Minas Tirtith.

Cameo: Art Director and Storyboard Artist, appears as one of the Gondorian soldiers watching the beacon in Minas Tirith.

Cameo: The other soldier watching the beacon at Minas Tirith is the co-producer.

Additional scenes were filmed in New Zealand in 2003, in much the same way as new sequences were shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) prior to that film's release.

Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, 'Maisie McLeod-Riera', plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.

While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without Mortensen's realizing it.

The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.

Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.

Cameo: the author's great-grandson as a Gondorian Ranger handing weapons to his fellow soldiers when the orcs are invading Osgiliath.

Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one.

The film was originally going to end with a voice-over epilogue by Cate Blanchett's character, Galadriel, detailing the fate of the fellowship of the ring after the events of the movie.

The opening scene which tells the origin of Gollum was originally shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, to be shown after Gollum remembers his real name (Smeagol) for the first time.

Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.

The film was shipped to theatres under the name "Till Death For Glory".

Theoden touching the spears of his soldiers before they charge into battle was Bernard Hill's idea.

For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.

Broke the international box office record for an opening weekend, bringing in nearly $250 million.

Billy Boyd (Pippin) sang and composed the tune for the song in Denethor's hall (Tolkien wrote the lyric).

Andy Serkis's first scene was on top of Mount Doom near the Cracks of Doom. His last scene was the scene were Gollum and Frodo are fighting and fall off the ledge.

Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.

The last spoken line of the movie - "Well, I'm back." - is also the last line of the book.

John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.

In the crowd shot of the scene of Aragorn's ascension you can see the blue banner with the silver swan of Dol Amroth being waved. The prince of Dol Amroth, Imrahil, isn't a major character in the story but is the one who discovers that Eowyen is still alive after her slaying of the Witch King.

The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built ontop and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.

Peter Jackson is arachnophobic.

Scenes were shot that involved Aragorn tackling Sauron one-on-one while outside the Black Gate. In the scene, Sauron would have appeared taller than the Sauron we see at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring. Once footage was reviewed, however, it was decided that to include this scene would pervert Tolkien's ideas. Footage from the fight remains: Aragorn's charge outside the Black Gate was to take him into the fight. Temp work on this scene can be seen on the third disc of the Return of the King Extended Edition DVD.

In the scene when Denethor burns Faramir on the pyre, the pyre could not truly be on fire because Gandalf's horse would not go near it. To solve this, the crew reflected a real fire onto a pane of glass in front of the camera so that it looks as though the pyre is burning.

In the extended cut of the film, the song during the Houses of Healing sequence is sung by Liv Tyler.

According to a magazine article, Peter Jackson hated the Army of the Dead; he thought it was too unbelievable. He kept it in the script because he did not wish to disappoint diehard fans of the book trilogy.

Dominic Monaghan was allergic to the elven cloaks the Fellowship wore. Before scenes were shot, Peter Jackson used to joke around and say "Are we ready to go? Does Dom have his cape on?"

The confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf from the second book was filmed but was not included in the final cut for reasons of length and pacing. The scene will be included on the DVD.

To create realistic galloping horses for the largely CGI horseback army, they took some footage of a horse in a motion-capture suit.

The live-action Rohan army is made up of several hundred New Zealander extras, who responded to an open casting call for anyone who could ride a horse.

When Frodo is writing the book, the top of the page notes that Sam was elected Mayor of Hobbiton.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy became the most nominated film series in Academy Award history with 30 nominations, surpassing both the Godfather trilogy (28) and the Star Wars franchise (21).

The first sci-fi/fantasy movie to win a top category since 1990 (Whoopi Goldberg won Best Supporting Actress for the fantasy film Ghost (1990)).

The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III and the only time that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.

The movie tied with Ben-Hur and Titanic to win the most Oscars (11) in a single year.

It broke another record by winning all the Oscars for which it was nominated (11 out of 11). The previous record was nine out of nine by The Last Emperor and nine out of nine by Gigi.

The deformed orc leader Gothmog is based on the alien leader from Peter Jackson's earlier movie Bad Taste.

Ian McKellen's first day of shooting on the trilogy was Gandalf's first scene, arriving in Hobbiton. His second day of shooting was Gandalf's final scene of the film, at the Gray Havens.

In the scene where the Hobbits return to Hobbiton, three of the hobbits had slight problems during the shoot. Elijah Wood had a hard time controlling his pony, Sean Astin was allergic to the ponies, and Dominic Monaghan was in a really bad mood because of technical aspects revolving around the scene. Billy Boyd was "in stitches" during the shoot.

The London Daily Mail reported (5 December 2003) that the stars of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy were paid bonuses on top of their salaries, depending on how long cast members spent on the three films. The hobbit actors, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan received bonuses of between 430,000 and 560,000 per film. Bernard Hill and Ian McKellen earned 312,000 per film, with Liv Tyler making a little less.

In February 2004, became second film to break the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office revenue (Titanic was the first).

Wilhelm scream: When a Southron/Haradrim is knocked off an Oliphaunt/Mumakil by Legolas.

Wilhelm scream: During the Retreat from Osgiliath, when Faramir is leading his men in a frenzied charge back to Minas Tirith, a fell beast picks one of the soldiers off his horse.

The character of Irolas was originally written to be Beregond, a character who appears in the book. Irolas does not appear in the book, but he is identified as being Beregond's brother.

The scene of the Rohirrim charging the Pelennor had to be filmed 52 times before the crew were satisfied with the take. During this process, about 60 of the 280 horses participating had to drop out for various reasons.

To get enough extras for the Battle of the Pelennor fields, a few hundred members of the New Zealand army were brought in. They apparently were so enthusiastic during the battle scenes that they kept breaking the wooden swords and spears they were given.

At 35 letters "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" has the longest title of any Best Picture Oscar winner in history. It surpasses the record previously held by Around the World in Eighty Days which has 26.

Peter Jackson purposely avoided filming Frodo's left hand after the Mordor scenes to avoid conflicts as to the positioning of the wound on the index finger. It is only seen twice: when the Fellowship is re-united (the hand is bandaged) and when Frodo is writing his final pages in the Red Book (before he turns back to add the title).

The deformed Orc leader Gothmog is only mentioned once in the original novel of "The Lord of the Rings" - identified only as by name and as the Lieutenant of Morgul. His race is not given; it was the filmmakers choice to make him an Orc. The name Gothmog is shared with the leader of the Balrogs in Morgoth's army in "The Silmarillion", Tolkien's history of Middle-Earth centuries before the events in "The Lord of the Rings".

Alison Doody had been asked by Peter Jackson to play Eowyn, but had to decline the role due to her pregnancy and to the 18 months commitment.

Won the Science Fiction Achievement Award (Hugo Award) for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2004. This makes it the first work to take the top film honors in both the Oscars and the Hugos. The "profane acceptance speech" Gollum made for the MTV Movie Awards won the Hugo for Best Dramatic presentation, Short Form.

Originally, Aragorn was to have fought the physical embodiment of Sauron during the climactic battle at the Black Gate, but was not used in the final film. Aragorn's fight with a troll at the Black Gate uses footage from the Aragorn/Sauron battle.

Special care was taken to make sure that the destruction of Sauron's tower of Barad-dur did not resemble the destruction of the World Trade Center. For this reason, it disintegrates from the ground up, and the sound was made from breaking glass, so that it would not sound or look as if it were exploding.

Like Billy Boyd earlier in the film, Viggo Mortensen also composed the tune and sung the part to the song Aragorn sings at his coronation. The translation of the Elvish words runs "Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come. In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world." This is, according to the lore of Middle Earth, the same verse Elendil sung when he first arrived in Middle Earth from Númenor.

A scene was cut from the finished film that showed Eowyn (Miranda Otto) stripping away her regular clothes and then dressing herself in the armor of a Rohan warrior.

The runes on the helmet worn by the Mouth of Sauron, when transliterated, say "Lammen Gorthaur". Lammen means voice, and Gorthaur, which is mentioned in the Silmarillion, means Dread Abomination, another title by which Sauron was known. The complete phrase, "Voice of the Dread Abomination", identifies the speaker as the Mouth of Sauron.

Continuity error: In the scene of Theoden's death, a black line appears and disappears between shots on the right side of Eowyn's forehead, over her eyebrow.

Revealing mistake: Near the beginning of the film as the camera flies towards Rohan you can see the smoke pouring back into the chimneys rather than out of them.

Continuity error: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right. Later when Sam draws his sword, it is back on his left side.

Continuity error: When Sam is holding Frodo on his lap during the climb up Mt. Doom, the wound on Frodo's face has moved from his right cheek to his left. The footage for the entire scene has been flipped.

Continuity error: In the "council" scene after Pippin's run in with the palantir, a man and a large dog walk from right to left behind Aragorn, Legolas, etc. Later in the same scene they walk past again.

Continuity error: When the Hobbits are back at the Green Dragon Frodo puts the other brown mug in front of Merry, but in the next shot the other brown mug is in front of Pippin.

Continuity error: The position of Sméagol's hands around Deagol's throat changes noticeably between cuts.

Continuity error: After Aragorn decapitates the Mouth of Sauron at the Black Gate, the head, body, and horse disappear as they fall back toward the army.

Continuity error: When the orc and the Uruk-Hai fight over the mithril shirt in the tower, there is a short shot where the normally long-haired orc is bald.

Continuity error: When Gandalf and Pippin are in Rohan, and Gandalf is outside he starts coughing on his pipe smoke. On this wide shot, Pippin is tucked into bed. Then, in the next shot, he is up standing by his bed looking at his new Rohanian armor. He then gets Gandalf some water from the pitcher.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: Prior to Faramir's ride to re-capture Osgiliath, Gandalf challenges him. There is one shot where Faramir comments on the "Men of Gondor" there are a number of words before this phrase but his lips do not appear to moving.

Continuity error: The front door to Bag End, as seen in The Fellowship of the Ring, is much taller than Bilbo, Frodo or Sam, yet at the end of the movie Sam and his wife have to duck under the door to get inside.

Continuity error: Before the final battle at the Black Gate, Aragorn cuts the head off of Sauron's emissary. In the next scene, the emissary's horse, body, and severed head are nowhere to be seen.

Continuity error: In the scene in Pippin's room at Minas Tirith, we initially see Gandalf standing outside on the balcony in the foreground. Pippin is in the room, lying on the bed. A moment later, when the we cut to Pippin inside, he is standing by the bed as he looks at his Gondor uniform.

Continuity error: When Aragorn is dreaming of Arwen, the interior of his tent is dark. However, when he is startled awake to go to Elrond, there is a light in the tent. The angle of the light makes it clear that it is coming from a source off-camera, to the left of the soldier at the door.

Continuity error: When Pippin is using the Palantír and Gandalf awakes with a start, the pitcher that Pippin placed in his arms is absent.

Continuity error: In the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn is carrying his sword in one hand and a torch in the other. When the Army of the Dead appears, Aragorn is still carrying the torch, but when the King of the Dead attacks him, Aragorn's torch is nowhere to be seen and we don't see it again for the rest of the sequence, nor do we ever see him drop it.

Continuity error: When Pippin is seen climbing up the side of the beacon of Amon-Din, the Gondorian guard is on the side of the bridge closest to the beacon. In the following wide shot of the beacon, the guard is on the far side of the bridge.

Continuity error: In the "Voice of Saruman Scene", Treebeard starts and ends the scene in front of Orthanc's door. Throughout the scene, Treebeard is nowhere to be seen.

Continuity error: Elrond's hair changes from being neatly tucked behind his ears to free flowing and back behind his ears again between shots as Arwen convinces him to re-forge the shards of Narsil.

Continuity error: The amount of mud along with the ring in Deagol's hand lessens considerably with each shot of him looking at the ring, until the mud is completely gone by the time he is attacked by Sméagol.

Continuity error: The two doors of the Black Gate continue to open as Aragorn and the others ride away from the approaching Orc army. When Aragorn rides as he shouts, "Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers....when the age of men comes crashing down," at the top of the screen the "closed gate" is visible.

Continuity error: After Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith, Merry and Pippin stand in the doorway. Their height reaches the middle of the ornate door carving in the close-up, but in their next wide shot running in, they are considerably lower. When Legolas and Aragorn walk in, also in a close-up, their height is just a bit higher on the carving than the two Hobbits' heights were. Then when Sam stands in the doorway his height also reaches the center of the carving.

Continuity error: Sam rolls down Shelob's back, then he grabs Sting and takes a stance against Shelob. In the next wide shot, Sam stands ready and Shelob positions herself at the stairway. Frodo's wrapped body is not lying anywhere to be seen.

Continuity error: At the end, when the four Hobbits are entering Grey Havens, Sam is wearing a yellow vest with brown buttons over a white shirt. When Frodo makes his way onto the ship and turns back to smile at his friends, Sam is no longer wearing the yellow vest. The vest is still not there when the three Hobbits turn to leave the Grey Havens. When Sam is holding his daughter, he is once again wearing the yellow vest.

Continuity error: When at the Black Gate, the army of men are surrounded by Orcs, then after Aragorn's "For Frodo" line, they charge across the screen from left to right. When they are running, in a shot where Gandalf is seen on the very right of the screen, you can see through some gaps and there are no Orcs, just an open field.

Continuity error: After Gorbag says, "You touch it, and I'll stick this blade in your gut", Shagrat and Gorbag start to fight. A few shots later there's a close-up of Gorbag being bald - he's not wearing his hairpiece/wig in this shot-as he's being pushed towards the right of the screen by Shagrat, just before falling into the hole! (On the Extended Edition DVD Director/Writer commentary, writer Philippa Boyens actually admits that his wig falls off!)

Crew or equipment visible: After Pippin draws his sword, the next shot is of Orcs running to the right of the screen. As that shot opens, click five or six frames in and two crewmembers are seen between the Orcs on the right of the screen, click a few more times and more crew members are visible in the middle, between the Orcs.

Continuity error: When Gollum drops the lembas from the bridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in falling away, and the wafers fall generally straight down. However, when Sam finds it later, the lembas is still mostly wrapped in the leaves, with only a few morsels broken off and laying around unwrapped.

Continuity error: After Gollum says, "Clever Hobbits, to climb so high!", he jumps onto Frodo and Sam. Gollum then attacks Frodo and when he turns Frodo onto his back, Frodo's shirt is wide open at his neck/chest and the chain and Ring are gone. In the next close-up as Gollum chokes Frodo, and the following shots, the chain with the Ring is back.

Continuity error: Before the charge of the Rohirrim, we see that Merry and Eowyn are near the middle of the group, but when we see Merry during the charge, look behind him. There are about five horsemen, behind whom are just empty fields.

Continuity error: When Theoden "reforms the line" as the Mumakil approach, there are empty fields behind the horses. In the overhead shot of them charging, it is seen that there are still orcs in the background who should have been there in the previous shot.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Elrond comes to give the newly re-forged Narsil to Aragorn, a gust of wind suddenly blows up, knocking over a suit of armor in the background. The armor makes no noise as it crashes however.

Continuity error: When Aragorn meets the army of the dead his the elf leaf that hold his cape together changes. First its pointing left, then right again etc.

Continuity error: When Sam believes Frodo to be dead after his battle with Shelob, Frodo's eyes are open/closed/open between shots.

Revealing mistake: In Shelob's Lair, when Samwise pulls the web from "dead" Frodo's face, Frodo blinks. However, Frodo is paralyzed with his eyes open.

Continuity error: Nearing the end of the film where we see Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry having a drink at the Green Dragon, Frodo places four mugs on the table. The first sequence has two green mugs on the right and two brown mugs on the left. The second shot shows the mugs with a brown and green mug on each side of the table.

Continuity error: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right.

Continuity error: When Sam cuts Shelob's silk from around Frodo's face, it is completely cleared of silk in the close-up shots but remains covered with silk from the nose down in the long shots.

Continuity error: When Frodo and Sam are on the rock at the foot of the exploding Mount Doom, there is a shot of Frodo's left hand where the hand is completely clean and the finger is still there.

Revealing mistake: In a quick shot of Gandalf holding Pippin while riding Shadowfax in front of the Black Gate you can see Billy Boyd's double's face.

Continuity error: When Aragorn is running back to join his fellow men, when the black gate is open, we can see the CGI flag of the rider that goes with him is going from left to right, but in the next shot, the wind is in the opposite direction.

Continuity error: During the fight with Shelob, Sam is holding Frodo's sword which switches between Sam's right and left hand in between shots at least once.

Continuity error: When Arwen is reading the book after she sees the vision, there is a picture on the right-hand page. When she drops the book there is no picture there.

Continuity error: When Aragorn's party rides to the Black Gate, Eomer is shown as riding with them (he can be identified by the white plume on his helmet). When they reach the gate, Eomer is missing from most of the wide shots, although he's shown in at least one close-up.

Continuity error: When Frodo finishes writing the book, he reaches for the stab wound on his shoulder with the writing quill in hand. Then Sam walks in and in the next shot, Frodo's hand is still by his shoulder, but the quill is gone.

Continuity error: While Denethor is eating in the citadel hall and is asking Pippin if he knows how to sing, he has a smear of red wine/sauce/blood on his chin. In a subsequent shot, Denethor turns to the camera and the smear is gone. It then reappears as he looks back to Pippin.

Continuity error: When Gandalf is speaking with "the steward" the end of his cloak alternates between clean and mud soaked.

Continuity error: After the battle at Minas Tirith the clasp holding Pippin's cape together changes direction between shots.

Continuity error: When Pippin finds Merry after the battle his leaf-brooch is pointing to the left, in the following shot is pointing to the right.

Continuity error: When Sam stabs Shelob in the eye with Sting, the blade is covered with blood, but when it is knocked out of his hand in the next shot, it's perfectly clean.

Continuity error: The elf standing behind Elrond, Galadriel and Celeborn at the Grey Havens changes position several times between shots.

Continuity error: When the Army of the Dead enters Minas Tirith, one of the battlements on the city's outer wall (near the bottom of the frame) changes its shape and position, losing a portion of its tower.

Continuity error: Gollum sprinkles crumbs of the Lembas bread on Sam to incriminate him. When Sam gets up, the crumbs are gone. Then, they reappear when Gollum points them out.

Continuity error: After defeating Shelob, Sam runs to Frodo. He lays Sting down next to him, on an area of dirt with a couple rocks sticking up. But later, when we see Sting glow blue, it's on perfectly level dirt ground.

Continuity error: When Sam stabs the Orc with Sting, you can see blood on both the Orc and the sword. After he pulls it out, there is no blood.

Continuity error: When Pippin takes the seeing stone from Gandalf's sleeping arms, he replaces it with a pitcher. This pitcher is absent when Gandalf wakes up.

Revealing mistake: While Eowyn delivers the decapitating blow to the Witch King's Fell Beast, the path of her sword swing does not come close to matching the location of the eventual sword strike on the wyvern's neck.

Revealing mistake: The aerial shot of Edoras (between the scene where Merry and Pippin are reunited with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf, and the scene where they do their drinking song on the table) is being shown backwards, as can be seen by watching the flow of the flag cloth in the wind.

Continuity error: After Eowyn dodges the bite from the Witchking's fell beast, but before she is about to make her first swordstroke, there is already a bloody gash on the fell beast's neck.

Continuity error: When Frodo flips Gollum/Smeagol over the cliff his back and shoulders are free of spider webs. But when he falls and has the vision, the spider webs are back.

Continuity error: When Eowyn kills the Witch King, her arm is hurt and she keeps holding it close to her body. But when she stands up after Merry stabs him she uses her hurt arm to push herself up.

Continuity error: When Merry and Pippin are dancing on the table at Rohan you can see Gandalf from behind bouncing up and down on his feet but when you see the front of him he is nodding his head and clapping.

Continuity error: When the Witch-King grabs Eowyn by the neck, the strap holding her helmet is buckled under her chin. However when Eowyn rips off her helmet, the strap is unbuckled.

Revealing mistake: After Frodo tells him to go home and he starts crying, the next close-up of Sam shows where his real and fake ear meet-right above the curl of hair.

Revealing mistake: When Frodo is running through the stone gate at the Mount of Doom, you can see the surface beneath his feet is sliding away, so it looks like he is "floating" just above the ground.

Continuity error: When the witch king's fell beast is killed, there are no oliphants lying on the ground nearby. When Merry stabs him in the back, he falls backwards and lies on the ground. Later, when Pippin finds Merry, he is lying by an oliphant and the fell beast's body is not there.

Continuity error: When Pippin saves Gandalf from being stabbed during the Minas Tirith battle Gandalfs hands change position when he is talking to Pippin.

When Aragorn reveals Anduril to the King of the Dead, some prints of the film has his reply as "That blade was broken", while in other prints his response is "That line was broken."

In some prints, the subtitles during Aragorn and Elrond's conversation (I give hope to men, I have kept none for myself) are missing.

In the theatrical version, Pippin finds Merry on the Pelennor Fields during the day or late afternoon. In the Extended Edition, this scene is set at night time.

In the theatrical version, there was a lengthy delay between when Frodo is with the eagles after being picked up, and when he's in bed, when there's nothing but darkness. A large number of people in the theaters thought that was the end of the movie, and some started to get up. This has been removed in the original DVD.

In December 2004, an extended edition of the movie was released on DVD, containing 50 minutes of new footage. It a complete recut of the movie and so almost every scene contains small changes in pacing, music, framing, etc. Some use slightly altered takes. Major changes are listed below (spoiler warning):

* Some extra dialogue in Merry and Pippin's first scene at Isengard, making them seem a little "stoned" from the pipeweed.

* A final confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman has been restored, including the final fates of Saruman and Grima Wormtongue and a slightly different acquisition of the Palantir.

* The celebration at Edoras has a few extra little snippets, most notably a drinking game between Legolas and Gimli.

* Right before Pippin takes the Palantir, Aragorn enters the Great Hall and has a conversation with Eowyn about a dream she had.

* Extra dialogue from Merry when Gandalf and Pippin leave.

* An extra line of dialogue when Pippin meets Denethor

* After Gandalf storms out of the White Tower, he has a long monologue explaining the history of Gondor to Pippin.

* A new scene with Frodo, Sam and Gollum centered on the discovery of a ruined and defaced statue at the crossroads.

* When Pippin and Gandalf are talking on the balcony, an alternate take is used in which Gandalf chokes on his pipe smoke.

* After Frodo and Sam begin climbing the stairs, Sam warns and threatens Gollum not to betray them.

* Additional footage when the Orcs cross the river showing they take the Gondorians by surprise.

* More dialogue from Faramir and more violence as well.

* A scene in which Merry asks to serve Theoden and Gimli and Legolas wonder what is happening in Gimli's home.

* After Faramir arrives in Gondor, there is a scene where Denethor confronts him for not taking the Ring, which includes an appearance by Boromir.

* An additional scene between Pippin and Faramir before the former swears fealty to Denethor.

* Additional dialogue when Faramir is riding out of Gondor.

* Additional lines from Eomer after he tells Eowyn not to encourage Merry.

* An additional line of dialogue when Aragorn says farewell to Eowyn.

* More dialogue from Legolas when he explains the Paths of the Dead. The Paths of the Dead sequence is heavily revised, including the appearance of thousands of skulls, whispy ghosts, an earthquake and Aragorn's emergence from the mountain.

* We see Gothmog dismounting the warg as the siege of Gondor begins; additional action during the siege of Gondor, including the Orcs using a small battering ram on the gates and cheering on the approach of Grond.

* A new scene in which Aragorn attacks the Corsair ships, which includes a cameo by Peter Jackson.

* A scouting report is brought to Theoden on his way to Gondor; a conversation between Merry and Eowyn.

* More footage as Denethor takes Faramir to be cremated alive.

* As Gandalf is riding to rescue Faramir, he is attacked by the Witch King.

* The charge of the Rohirrim is moved to after this scene.

* Another line of dialogue before Denethor lights his pyre.

* More action during the battle of the Pelennor, including a fight between Gothmog and Eowyn.

* After Eowyn kills the Witch King, Gothmog tries to finish her off.

* Pippin's search for Merry is much longer and he finds him at night.

* Eomer finds Eowyn on the field and mourns when he thinks she is dead. A restored healing sequence between Aragorn and Eowyn.

* A much longer fight among the Orcs in the tower of Cirith Ungol.

* After Sam rescues Frodo, we see a surviving Orc sneaking off with the Mithril shirt.

* Aragorn finds a Palantir in the White Tower and confronts Sauron.

* Faramir and Eowyn meet in Minas Tirith after Aragorn leaves.

* Frodo and Sam are captured by Orcs while trying to get to Mount Doom.

* Near Mt. Doom, Frodo and Sam throw away the last of their gear.

* While resting, Sam sees a star through the clouds.

* At the Black Gate, the Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Pippin, Merry, and Eomer are first confronted by the Mouth of Sauron. (This also induces a goof as he has disappeared when they retreat fom the gate.)

* More dialogue when Gollum (acting as Smeagol) attacks Frodo on Mt. Doom.