60 Fun Facts About Return of the King

Who directed The Return of the King (2003)?

Jackson co-wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and shot all three films back to back in his native New Zealand.

Which actor plays Frodo Baggins?

Wood was only 18 when he was cast; his last scene shot for the film was Frodo finishing his book.

Which actor plays Aragorn, the ranger who must claim the throne of Gondor?

Mortensen sings on screen during the coronation scene, and famously headbutted the stunt team goodbye when pick-ups wrapped.

Who provides the performance for Sméagol and Gollum?

The film opens with Serkis on camera as Sméagol, before his deterioration into Gollum, which the earlier films had never shown.

How many Academy Awards did The Return of the King win at the 76th Oscars?

It won every category it was nominated in, the biggest clean sweep in Oscar history, beating the nine-for-nine records of Gigi and The Last Emperor.

With which two films does The Return of the King share the record for most Oscar wins?

Bernard Hill, who plays Théoden, was also in Titanic, so he starred in two of the three record-holders.

In which city was the film's world premiere held on 1 December 2003?

An estimated 100,000 people lined the streets for the premiere at the Embassy Theatre, more than a quarter of the city's population.

Which studio financed and distributed the film?

It remains the highest-grossing film ever released by New Line, and it was originally planned as the second of two Miramax films before the project moved.

Who composed the film's score?

Shore had to write seven minutes of music per day to keep up with the schedule, and the score effectively covers the entire running time.

Which singer performed the end-title song "Into the West"?

The song was partly inspired by the death from cancer of Cameron Duncan, a young New Zealand filmmaker who had befriended Peter Jackson.

Which actor plays Denethor, the Steward of Gondor?

For the pyre scene Noble actually threw a size double onto Billy Boyd, who then pushed his head into camera to complete the illusion.

Which character slays the Witch-king of Angmar at the Pelennor Fields?

Merry helps by stabbing the Witch-king first; in the book readers do not know Éowyn is on the field until she removes her helmet.

Which hobbit secretly lights the beacons to call Rohan to Gondor's aid?

The beacon-lighting sequence was invented for the movie; in the book Denethor had already ordered the beacons lit before Gandalf arrived.

Which giant spider traps Frodo in her lair?

Peter Jackson, an arachnophobe, took special joy in planning the sequence; the head design was picked by his children from a batch of sculpts.

What is the name of Aragorn's sword, reforged from the shards of Narsil?

The reforging scene was originally planned for The Two Towers and was inherited by the third film during editing.

Which actor's only scene was cut from the theatrical release, prompting a fan petition to restore it?

Lee said he would never understand the cut, and the two only reconciled when he was cast in Jackson's Hobbit films.

Which animal's cry was used to create the giant spider's shriek?

The shriek in turn inspired Weta's animators as they worked on the creature's movements.

The sound of the mûmakil is made from the beginning and end of which animal's roar?

For the siege, construction workers dropped real two-ton stone blocks from a crane to record the sound of missiles hitting the city.

How many visual effects shots does the film contain?

That is nearly three times the count of the first film; the planned 60 Pelennor shots ballooned to 250 and 50,000 digital characters became 200,000.

The Battle of the Black Gate was filmed at which location, a former minefield?

New Zealand soldiers were hired as extras while guides watched for unexploded mines.

Which New Zealand mountain served as the exterior of Mount Doom?

Wood, Astin and Serkis spent two hours there shooting the moment Sam lifts Frodo onto his back.

What is the running time of the Extended Edition released on DVD in December 2004?

Its final 11 minutes list the charter members of the official fan club who paid for a three-year membership.

The Return of the King was the second film ever to gross $1 billion worldwide. Which was the first?

It crossed the mark in the weekend of 20-22 February 2004, more than two months after release.

Which actress plays Éowyn?

Her presence on the battlefield is obvious to viewers because disguising Otto through long battle sequences would have been impractical.

Which actor plays Faramir, head of the Rangers defending Osgiliath?

In the Extended Edition his character finds love with Éowyn in the Houses of Healing, a subplot largely cut from the theatrical release.

Sean Astin's real daughter appears in the final scene as which character?

In the same scene, Sarah McLeod's daughter plays Sam and Rosie's younger son.

Who drew the sketched portraits of the cast that appear in the closing credits?

The idea of morphing each sketch into the actor's photograph was suggested by Ian McKellen.

What grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give the film?

It was the highest grade in the trilogy, and the film also holds a 94 on Metacritic.

The giant spider's body was modelled on which type of real spider?

Her lair was inspired by sandstone and sculpted out of the existing Caverns of Isengard set.

The huge set for Gondor's capital city was built at which quarry, out of the Helm's Deep set?

Helm's Deep's gate became the city's second gate, and its streets carried heraldic motifs for every house, inspired by Siena.

Who wrote the lyrics for "Into the West"?

Walsh is also one of the trilogy's three credited screenwriters and Jackson's partner.

Which soprano sings as Arwen has a vision of her future son?

Fleming also sings when Gollum recovers the One Ring inside Mount Doom.

Which flautist plays as Frodo and Sam climb Mount Doom?

Galway's flute and whistle return when the hobbits come home to the Shire.

In the Extended Edition, who kills Saruman?

Legolas then shoots Gríma; in the book Saruman's death happens much later, in front of Bag End during the Scouring of the Shire.

Which actor plays the Mouth of Sauron in the Extended Edition?

His mouth was digitally enlarged by 200 percent for an unsettling effect.

Which actor plays both the Witch-king of Angmar and the Orc commander Gothmog?

Gothmog was a late addition created because Jackson felt the Mordor Orcs looked pathetic next to the Uruk-hai; Craig Parker voices him.

In what year was Tolkien's The Return of the King first published in the UK?

It appeared on 20 October 1955, completing a novel Tolkien had conceived as a single work in six books.

Which title did Tolkien prefer for the third volume, feeling the published one revealed too much?

Publisher Rayner Unwin split the single work into three volumes and chose the final title over Tolkien's objection.

Which chapter, called the most important in the whole novel, was left out of the film entirely?

The screenwriters saw it as anticlimactic; scholars have read it as everything from a satire of socialism to early environmentalism.

In the book's appendices, how many consecutive terms does Sam serve as Mayor of the Shire?

Each term is seven years long; Sam later becomes the last of the ring-bearers to sail west, after Rosie's death.

In the book, who is crowned King of Rohan after Théoden's death?

In the film, Théoden's death speech naming his successor is trimmed and delivered to Éowyn instead of Merry.

Which Scottish critic attacked the completed novel in 1955 as "a boy's adventure story"?

Muir had praised The Fellowship of the Ring the year before, then compared the finished work to Rider Haggard.

Which poet's New York Times review called The Lord of the Rings a "masterpiece of the genre"?

Auden had been a student of Tolkien's at Oxford and became one of his most prominent defenders.

According to the appendices, what surname do Sam's children take?

The name honours Sam's planting of the mallorn tree that replaced the destroyed Party Tree.

Which company's RealFlow software was used to simulate the lava of Mount Doom?

Gollum's fall into the Crack of Doom was fully animated, unlike most shots, which morph between actors and digital doubles.

The film's record $125.1 million five-day Wednesday opening was beaten the following May by which film?

The record had previously belonged to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and Return of the King held it for only five months.

In the film, how many years after returning to the Shire does Frodo sail for the Undying Lands?

He leaves with Bilbo, Gandalf and the remaining Elves, still suffering from the Witch-king's wound at Weathertop.

Which actor burned his final Gimli prosthetic when shooting wrapped?

Rhys-Davies also voices Treebeard, so he plays two members of the alliance against Sauron.

Which 2017 Best Picture winner was the first since Return of the King to miss the National Board of Review's top ten?

Guillermo del Toro's fantasy romance was, like Jackson's film, a rare genre picture to take the top prize.

Which sounds were mixed into the noise of Sauron's fall?

Broken glass supplied the collapsing sounds as Barad-dûr came down.

Which character marries Rosie Cotton after the hobbits return home?

Sam's actor's real daughter and Sarah McLeod's real son play their children in the final scene.

In which city is Aragorn crowned king in the film?

In the book he is crowned in a tent on the Pelennor Fields before entering the city; the film stages a grand ceremony in the Citadel.

What object does Gandalf retrieve from Saruman at Isengard, which a hobbit later dares to look into?

The vision of a burning white tree tells Gandalf that Sauron will strike Gondor's capital next.

In which moment does the director's own hand appear on screen as an unofficial cameo?

Jackson also appears on the Corsair ship alongside Richard Taylor, Gino Acevedo, Rick Porras and Andrew Lesnie, though only Jackson is in the theatrical cut.

Roughly how many people were estimated to have lined the streets for the world premiere?

That was more than a quarter of the host city's population, turning out for the director and many of the stars.

At which Wellington venue did The Return of the King hold its world premiere on 1 December 2003?

More than a quarter of the city's population turned out, and the film reached US cinemas on 17 December.

John Howe's design for Minas Morgul was inspired by what personal experience?

The idea was that the Orcs had forced their twisted design onto a once-beautiful Gondorian city.

Why were all of the Witch-king's scenes re-shot during the 2003 pick-ups?

Weta also created the new 'über Orc' Gothmog after Jackson judged the Mordor Orcs pathetic next to the Uruk-hai.

How long was the assembly cut of the film that editor Annie Collins completed before post-production?

Théoden's charge alone went from 150 minutes of takes down to a finished 90 seconds.

How much music per day did Howard Shore have to write to keep pace with the film's schedule?

The score gives the Gondor theme its full introduction, crowned with an ascending coda unique to this film.