Goofs for
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Several shots after Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn encounter Eomer and his men have been reversed (leaf-brooches are upside down, and Legolas' chest straps and quiver are on the wrong side).
  
  
• Continuity: When King Theoden is having his armor strapped on, his aide fastens the left shoulder strap, then we see the leg greaves being strapped on, and gloves being tied. In the next shot, the aide goes to fasten the left shoulder strap again, and there are no greaves on his legs or gloves on his hands.
  
  
• Continuity: At times the character Gimli is as tall as Aragorn's shoulders. At other times, he is much shorter. The same error can be seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) when Gandalf and Bilbo embrace.
  
  

• Continuity: The length of the chain in which Frodo carries the ring changes throughout the film
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end of the film, when Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath, the chain around Frodo's neck with the ring on repeatedly switches between being caught around one of his buttons and hanging freely between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gandalf the White first enters Theoden's hall, the position of his staff changes from being held perpendicular to the ground to being held parallel between shots. Director Peter Jackson noticed this error for the first time while recording the Director's Commentary for the Extended Edition of the DVD.
  
  
• Continuity: (Flipped shot) When Legolas says in Elvish, "There's something out there," the Elvish Brooches (leaf brooches holding their cloaks together) are facing the opposite direction. Peter Jackson first noticed this error while recording the Extended DVD Director commentary.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are entering Theoden's throne room for the first time, Gandalf turns quickly around when the doors close but in the next shot his head is centered.
  
  
• Continuity: Aragorn's sword disappears from his hand shortly before he falls off his horse, but reappears in its scabbard later.
  
  
• Continuity: When Treebeard is talking to Merry and Pippin at the Entmoot, the stars that can be seen behind him change.
  
  
• Continuity: The gash on Merry's face changes sides throughout the movie. Sometimes it is on his left brow, sometimes on the right.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Saruman is talking to the Uruk-Hai, they are obviously screaming and yelling, but there is no noise coming from them.
  
  
• Continuity: Gandalf's horse "Shadowfax" is obviously played by at least two different horses in the movie, as different markings can be seen on the horses.
  
  
• Continuity: Aragorn's beard repeatedly changes length between shots in King Theoden's hall.
  
  
• Continuity: Merry and Pippin switch position between shots when Merry is making his speech to Treebeard at the Entmoot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are in the Dead Marsh and the Nazgul flies over, Frodo goes after the ring with his left hand, which Sam grabs and holds. Frodo is then shown putting his right hand to his chest, but in the wide shot, his right hand is still lying at his side.
  
  
• Continuity: In the storeroom where Sam is suggesting that Frodo use the Ring to escape, Frodo is initially sitting in front of a barrel. When Faramir arrives, Frodo and Sam are sitting on a cloak and there are no barrels in sight.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gimli enters Helm's Deep for the first time, he speaks to Eowyn about Aragorn's fate. Before she speaks, Gimli's helmet is on and his axe is covered in blood. After she speaks, his helmet is off and his axe is clean.
  
  
• Continuity: In the battle at Helms Deep, when Aragorn unsheathes his sword, the shot is reversed (he draws it left-handed when he is right-handed).
  
  
• Continuity: When Legolas is pulling Gimli and Aragorn to safety using the rope during the battle of Helm's Deep, Gimli is on Aragorn's right side for every shot except the first close-up of Aragorn in Gimli, where he is clearly on Aragorn's left.
  
  
• Continuity: When Legolas shoots the rope of one of the big ladders, the previous shot has already shown the ladder to be past straight vertical position. The ladder should continue it's arc towards the wall, but instead it falls back.
  
  
• Continuity: When the main characters are standing on the cliff looking out towards Mordor, you can see Helm's Deep over their shoulders. The hole in the wall from the gunpowder is conspicuous by its absence.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A small gas pipe, leading to one of the large torches outside the Golden Hall, is briefly visible in some scenes in Edoras.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Shadowfax first appears, there are tracks across the paddock behind and to the right of him. Some say these are tire tracks, others argue that they could just as easily be the wheel ruts of a farm cart. In response, the first group say that the ruts are too far apart to be from a farm cart, and the space in between is too narrow, meaning that they are definitely those of a car or truck. You decide.
  
  
• Continuity: Legolas' eyes are brown for the majority of the battle of Helm's Deep, instead of their customary blue. However, it is reported that this particular color change came about when Orlando Bloom's blue contact lenses were forgotten during some of the shooting for this sequence.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the beginning of the movie, when Frodo and Sam are walking on the rocky mountain their rubber artificial feet can be clearly seen flapping around.
  
  
• Continuity: When Faramir is holding Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath, and is about to let them go, the shot of the Hobbits is reversed (leaf brooches face the wrong way).
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the initial shot when Theoden is talking to Gamling on the wall outside Helm's Deep, Gamling's mouth is moving like he's replying to Theoden's orders but no sound is heard.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the Rohirrim surround Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the beginning, you can see Éomer's lips moving in one of the wider shots and he obviously talks to the three but there is no sound coming out of his mouth.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Rohirrim surround Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and Éomer starts talking to them, the sunlight changes direction and intensity.
  
  
• Continuity: The Uruk-Hai camp right on the edge of Fangorn Forest when they are slaughtered by the Rohirrim. The next morning, when the Rohirrim surround Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and they talk about having "left none alive" and they look to where they stacked and burned the dead bodies, there is no forest in sight around the burning bodies.
  
  
• Continuity: When Merry and Pippin are dropped to the ground by the Uruk-Hai, Merry is lying very close to Pippin. In the next shot Pippin is obviously a few feet away for he has to crawl closer to Merry to be able to talk to him
  
  
• Continuity: When the Merry and Pippin are first seen being carried by the Uruk Hai, they are behind each other. In the next shot they are being carried beside each other.
  
  
• Continuity: After the Rohirrim surrounding Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are about to leave, you can just make out Eomer's sword falling out of its sheath. It can be seen in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: The position of Legolas' quiver changes from one side to the other and then back again in Fangorn forest.
  
  
• Continuity: When Aragorn is tracking the hobbits beside Fangorn forest, his ring is on his right hand. Later, when the "White Wizard" is approaching the ring has switched to his left hand.
  
  
• Continuity: Pippin's hands are tied, but when he falls under the horse, his hands are untied and apart. When Aragorn is working out what happened we see, in the flashbacks, that Pippin did not cut his bonds until after the horse incident.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Éomer mounts his horse after talking with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli his sword fall out of its scabbard (look over Aragorn's right shoulder).
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During Arwen's vision of Aragorn's (eventual) death, Aragorn's fingers do not move on his sword as many, many people have suggested - they are Arwen's fingers.
  
  
• Continuity: When Sam is telling Frodo to use the ring to escape Faramir, the light changes directions (from the left in the wide shot, from the right in the close-up).
  
  
• Continuity: In the "dream sequence" where Aragorn remembers his time with Arwen prior to embarking on the quest to destroy the ring they embrace and kiss. As they do so, Aragorn's left hand is alternately on her face/around her waist between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: (flipped shot) When Aragorn is tracking Merry and Pippin from the orc pyre to Fangorn Forest, his ring (usually on his left hand) is on his right forefinger and his glove (usually on his right) is on his left hand.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Théoden, Aragorn and the others ride out of Hornborg at the end of the battle, when they ride down the "bridge", one of the computer generated Orcs, on the side of the bridge that is closest to the camera, goes straight through one of the horses before he is thrown from the bridge. Also (and conversely), horsemen in the back of the column slash with their swords at invisible targets.
  
  
• Continuity: In Helms Deep, as Legolas throws the shield onto the stairs, he has his bow in his left hand. As he runs to jump onto the shield, the bow is gone. As he is sliding down the stairs, he is using the bow again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are hidden under the elvish cloak at the Black Gate, we can see from under the cape the feet of the enemy soldier through a gap in between the cloth and the floor. But in the next shoot when Frodo unfold the cape (that looks like a rock) we can see it was well buried in the dust and there is no possible gap.
  
  
• Continuity: When Legolas has to hand over his weapons, he takes the knives from his back. When Aragorn hands over his own sword, we see Legolas taking off his knives again in the background.
  
  
• Continuity: When Legolas is waiting on the wall for the Urak Hai battle to begin at Helms Deep his hands repeatedly change position on his bow between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Aragorn is lying on the river's shore, he forces himself onto an unsaddled horse. But, when he sees the Orc Army and starts to gallop towards Helms Deep, he is riding with a saddle.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gandalf and Theoden are talking outside town, near the burial mounds covered in white flowers, all the shots of Gandalf show the wind whipping his hair around, but in all the shots of Theoden there is not even a hint of a breeze in his hair.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frodo is sliding down the hill outside the Black Gate he has a pack on his back but when he covers Sam with his cloak the pack is gone
  
  
• Continuity: When Pippin climbs Treebeard, he has several smudges of blood on his face. These have disappeared seconds later, when Treebeard is holding both Pippin and Merry.
  
  
• Continuity: Just after Sam says "How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?" we cut to a shot of Aragorn which is a reversed shot - the scar on his lip is on the wrong side.
  
  
• Continuity: When Theoden the king grasps his sword, Gandalf's grey coat is not on the floor at the wide shot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As women and children enter Helm's Deep's caves, a rock stalactite swings back and forth after an extra touches it.
  
  
• Continuity: When the three ladders are raised on the Keep in the Helms Deep sequence, the wide and close-in shots alternate between the outer two ladders being about 30 feet apart and less than 5 feet apart, respectively (the third is in between them and never makes it up).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Very near the beginning of the Extended version, some of the real fog in a valley visible at a distance behind Frodo and Sam abruptly disappears. While some close-ups were filmed in studio, it is also possible that there was a delay in filming these "on location" shots.
  
  
• Continuity: After Legolas shoots two arrows into the shoulder region of the Uruk-Hai running with the torch, the arrows are nowhere to be seen in the shot that shows the runner diving into drain on the side of the wall of Helms Deep.
  
  
• Continuity: When Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf enter Edoras, they surrender their weapons. When Gimli pins Wormtongue to the floor, his axe blade can be seen next to his head.
  
  
• Continuity: When Theodred is buried, Gandalf's hair is grey and sticking out to the side, in the next shot it is Gandalf's usual color of long flowing white.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the cast list for the Extended Edition, 'John Noble''s name is misspelled, "Nogle".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At Helm's deep, several elves draw and shoot their bows (complete with sound effects) but no arrows are seen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the shot where Aragorn orders the men of Rohan to fire their arrows (just after the elves do from the wall at Helms Deep) his sword's blade disappears as it comes toward the camera.
  
  
• Continuity: When everyone is traveling to Helm's Deep, Gimli is riding on a horse. The head of his axe changes positions (blade down, blade up) several times when his is talking to people.
  
  
• Continuity: The orcs use axes to chop the trees into smaller logs, but, when the logs are thrown on the fire, the ends are smooth, as if cut with a saw.
  
  
• Continuity: Gamling's cloak is alternately over his shoulder and behind his back between shots as he is being instructed by Aragorn.
  
  
• Continuity: When Saruman tells the Orc to send out the Warg riders, his staff is in his right hand. In the next shot it's in his left hand.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Saruman tells the Orc to send out the Warg riders, a couple of seconds later the Orc's lips are moving in a reply, but no sound is heard.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Immediately after Legolas slides down the steps on the shield, a rain-sprinkler can be seen at the top of the frame during his close-up.
  
  
• Continuity: When Aragorn first comes to Helm's Deep, the cut on his shoulder disappears during the sequence when Theoden tells Gimli that he can defend his own keep.
  
  
• Continuity: When the orcs are carrying Merry and Pippin on their backs the wide shots show the orc carrying Pippin to be closer to the camera with the orc carrying Merry to his left. But in the close-ups they have swapped places with Pippin having to turn to his right to speak to Merry.
  
  
• Continuity: At Osgiliath. Frodo is seen walking toward the wall and clearly has no sword. When he stands on the wall and is about to be snatched by the Ring Wraith, Sam grabs him and they tumble down the stairs. Frodo pulls a sword and puts it to Sam's throat despite the fact that he had no sword and had been in Faramir's custody and would not have been left armed anyway.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Frodo and Faramir are watching Gollum in the pool from Henneth Annun, they see the full moon setting. However, a full moon sets at dawn, whereas the scene is set in the middle of the night.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Just as Ugluk and the troop of Uruk-Hai stop and Uruk asks, "What is it? What do you smell?" one of the Uruk-Hai fails to notice a bump in the terrain and goes sprawling to the floor.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the film when Gollum is crawling through the woods talking to himself, his hands and feet disappear into the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: Sam is using his stew pot to cook rabbit stew in Ithilien when the Gondorian rangers find the hobbits, at which time they place them under capture, seemingly leaving the stew pot behind, but Sam has it attached to his pack later when he, Frodo and Gollum are leaving Osgiliath.
  
  
• Continuity: When Gamling and Hama ride ahead of the Rohan civilians to scout, and Hama's horse starts to get nervous and Gamling asks what's wrong, Hama is on the right and Gamling is on the left. Then in the next shot they switch places. And when the warg jumps at Hama they switch places again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pippin crawls toward Merry to talk to him, Merry is laying on his back. In the next shot, only one second later, he is laying on his side.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the very end of the movie, when Gandalf, Theoden, and rest of the main characters who survived the battle of Helm's Deep ride over the hill together, and Gandalf says "The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin.", the actor portraying Eomer is clearly not Karl Urban. This shot was done during pickups when Karl Urban was not available, but WETA was supposed to cover up the actor's face with Karl Urban's.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: This was changed on the DVD, but on the original version of the movie, during the battle of Helms Deep the orks launched ropes with hooks on them at the top of the wall. They started to hoist the big ladders with the ropes. Two scenes later they pushed the ladders the rest of the way to the wall but the ropes were not there.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During several close-ups of Gandalf, like the scene in Théodan's hall, you can clearly see he's wearing contact lenses.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the second close-up of Legolas's eyes in Fangorn Forest, you can see that he is wearing contact lenses.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Uruks are first introduced in the movie, we see all of them standing in one place for a split second and then they begin to run.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Ents are destroying Isengard, there is a shot of Saruman that runs in reverse as he looks down from the top of the tower. One can tell from the motion of his hair and beard.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Theoden ride out in the helms deep battle, the back row of Rohirrim soldiers are swinging their swords at nothing.
  
  
• Continuity: While everyone was amazed by Legolas' skill in firing three arrows in quick succession whilst sliding down the stairs on an Uruk-shield, you can clearly see that each shot is cut when he is about half way down the stairs, i.e. he only had time to fire one arrow.
  
  
• Continuity: When Legolos is about to slide on the shield, his bow disappears when it shows the shot of his legs, yet in the next shot his bow is in his hand
  
  
• Continuity: When Eowyn is traveling to Helm's Deep, her hair hangs loose around her face. About the time she arrives at Helm's Deep, it is suddenly pulled back on each side.
  
  
• Continuity: When Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf first enter Theodens hall, Legolas is supporting Gandalf with his arm. When the door is shut behind them he lets go and in the next shot their arms are together again.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the gate to Mordor is opened, it is clearly seen to be as thick as the wall, and each corner is seen to be a right angle. There is no space at all in between the gate and the wall when it is closed, later on in the same scene. However, the gate opens on a curve, and so would get stuck every time it opened or closed, unless the wall was somehow retracted. We do not see the wall retracted at all, thus it is physically impossible for such a gate to exist.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the Rohirrim are searching for the body of Théodred at the fords of Isen, Éomer rolls over the body of a Rohan soldier. Next to him you can clearly see a piece of yellow and black striped tape (in the bottom left corner), possibly a marker.
  
  
• Continuity: During the battle of Helms Deep, when Legolas starts fighting with his knives you can clearly see there are no arrows left in his quiver. Later in the battle he's shooting arrows from his bow again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the son of King Theoden is carried to his forefathers graves his heavy scale mail armor is caught in the wind; a heavy looking item supposedly made from steel plates with tough leather on the backside, but none the less it flaps in the wind.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scenes of the capture of Gollum there is a breeze blowing Sam and Frodo's curly hair and surrounding grass clumps. Gollum's long stringy hair hangs straight and unmoving.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the battle with the Warg riders, a Warg and Orc fall across Gimli. Visibly struggling to lift them off, there is no change in effort or position when a second Warg puts it's weight on Gimli. This should be an addition of several hundred pounds.
  
  
• Continuity: In one of the aerial shots of the Uruk-Hai taking the hobbits to Isengaurd, Merry and Pippin are not on the backs of any of the Uruk-Hai. This is pointed out by Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan in the cast commentary on the extended edition.
  
  
• Continuity: While on their way to Helm's Deep, Gimli is telling tales to Eowin and Aragorn in order to while away the long hours of the trip. At several points, however, you can see the direction of the battle ax's head change from blade forward to blade backwards then forwards again, all within mere seconds of each other.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the battle of Helm's Deep, when the Uruk-hai are about to ram the gate, a camera is seen in the left.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In their very first scene when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are seen running on top of a mountain, you can see Gimli's boot/shoe fall off.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the Extended Edition, when Merry and Pippin find Saruman's food storage, You can hear Merry whispering "Saruman's store," but his lips do not move when he starts to say it.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Faramir's party is called back to Osgiliath, they stop on a ridge looking toward the city. In the distance, you can see Minas Tirith, which is west of Osgiliath; therefore the party is on the eastern side of the Anduin. Once they reach the city, one of the men of Gondor mentions that Mordor's forces have taken the eastern half of the city. So how did Faramir's party get to the western side? If they used the sewer that Faramir sends Frodo and Sam into later, why did he have to explain to them what those sewers were at that time? They'd already have been through them once.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Aragorn's line "You have some skill with a blade," the sword spin is clearly sped up to appear fast. The people and fire in the background move much too fast, looking like Keystone Cops.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Treebeard the ent is carrying Merry and Pippen through the forest explaining to them about the lack of Ent-wives, the location of the branches around his head keep moving. Either they are from the side of his head and his shoulder, two out of his head, or none at all.
  
  

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