50 Fun Facts About The Two Towers

Tolkien's The Two Towers opens with the death of which character, a scene the films moved to the first movie?

Boromir falls defending Merry and Pippin, and his friends send his body down the River Anduin; Peter Jackson moved the ambush and his death to the climax of The Fellowship of the Ring.

What title did Tolkien give Book Four, the Frodo and Sam half of The Two Towers?

The Ring Goes East: Tolkien wanted each volume named after its two books, but the book titles were dropped in print, and his own fallback name for the whole volume was The Ring in the Shadow.

Which Orc captain from Mordor travels with the Uruk-hai who capture Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers?

Grishnákh guesses the hobbits carry the Ring and drags them off to search them himself; a Rider of Rohan spears him, and Merry and Pippin slip away into the forest.

Which Rider of Rohan leads the force that wipes out the Orcs carrying Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers?

Éomer rode the Orcs down without the king's leave and then lent horses to Aragorn's party; back at court he was thrown in prison for both.

Which actor voices Treebeard in the film The Two Towers, as well as playing Gimli?

John Rhys-Davies suffered so much under Gimli's prosthetic make-up that he ruled out a return for The Hobbit, saying he wasn't sure his face could take that punishment again.

Gandalf frees the King of Rohan from the influence of which of Saruman's spies?

Wormtongue is then offered a choice: ride to war beside the king to prove his loyalty, or go into exile. He chooses exile and flees to Saruman.

What is the capital of Rohan, to which Gandalf leads his three companions?

Edoras: at the doors of its Golden Hall the guards take everyone's weapons, but Gandalf pleads old age to keep his staff, then uses it minutes later to strike down the king's treacherous adviser.

In The Two Towers, what hard round object is hurled down from Orthanc at the end of Gandalf's parley with Saruman?

A palantír, one of the seven seeing-stones brought to Middle-earth: Saruman had used it to speak with Sauron, who used it to ensnare him, and that night Pippin steals it for a look.

In The Two Towers, Gandalf gallops away with Pippin to which city?

Minas Tirith, chief city of Gondor: Sauron has glimpsed Pippin and jumped to the wrong conclusion about which hobbit he is, and Gandalf rides off with him at once.

Frodo and Sam begin Book Four of The Two Towers lost among which barren hills and cliffs?

Emyn Muil: in this maze of rock the hobbits finally catch Gollum, who has trailed them since Moria, and Frodo makes him swear to serve as their guide.

In The Two Towers, Gollum guides Frodo and Sam across which bogland on the way to the Black Gate?

The Dead Marshes: faces of warriors killed in an ancient battle seem to float under the water, and Tolkien wrote that the landscape owed something to northern France after the Battle of the Somme, where he had served.

In The Two Towers, Sam overhears Gollum arguing with which alter ego about breaking his promise?

Sméagol, the name he bore before the Ring, is the half that wants to keep his oath to Frodo; Sam privately nicknames the two sides Slinker and Stinker.

In The Two Towers, which captain of Gondor's rangers captures Frodo and Sam in Ithilien?

Faramir resists the Ring that ruined his brother and lets the hobbits go; the film has him march them toward Gondor before he relents.

In The Two Towers, what is the Ithilien rangers' secret refuge behind a waterfall called?

Henneth Annûn means Window of the Sunset: Frodo and Sam are led in blindfolded, and their eyes are uncovered just as the evening sun shines through the curtain of falling water.

In The Two Towers, Gollum leads Frodo and Sam to which mountain pass, and into a great spider's lair?

Cirith Ungol means 'pass of the spider': Gollum leads the hobbits there on purpose, hoping she will kill Frodo so he can take back the Ring. The film saves the episode for The Return of the King.

In The Two Towers, what does Frodo hold up to drive Shelob back in her lair?

The Phial of Galadriel, her parting gift, holds a little of the light of Eärendil's star; when the spider later fells Frodo, Sam holds it up against her too.

In The Two Towers, Sam grabs which sword to fight off the spider that felled Frodo?

Sting: with it Sam stabs the spider and drives her off, then, believing Frodo dead, takes the Ring to carry on alone, only to overhear Orcs say his master is still alive.

Tolkien proposed the title The Two Towers in a letter to which publisher?

Rayner Unwin reviewed The Hobbit for his father at ten; when he later judged The Lord of the Rings a work of genius that might lose money, his father replied: 'then you may lose a thousand pounds.'

Jackson's film names the two towers as Orthanc and Barad-dûr, but Tolkien's own cover art pairs Orthanc with which tower?

Minas Morgul: Tolkien named the same pair in a note at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, though months earlier he had suggested leaving the identity of the two towers ambiguous.

In the film The Two Towers, which Elf leads the company of archers who arrive to help defend Helm's Deep?

Haldir's arrival is the film's invention: in Tolkien's book no Elven company comes to Helm's Deep, and in an earlier script Arwen was to fight there too.

In The Two Towers, which ancient race storms Isengard and traps Saruman?

The Ents wreck Isengard and flood it. In Tolkien's book they choose war at their own council; in the film they vote to stay out until Pippin steers Treebeard past the trees Saruman has felled.

In The Two Towers, which giant beast does Sam recite a Shire rhyme about, then see in battle in Ithilien?

An Oliphaunt: Sam had hoped to see one of the great beasts of the rhyme, and when one appears during an ambush he says nobody at home will ever believe him.

In The Two Towers, which Elvish waybread keeps Frodo and Sam going on the road to Mordor?

Lembas: when Frodo offers a piece to Gollum, he chokes on it and will not touch it again, so the hobbits' guide has to slip away and hunt food of his own.

In The Two Towers, what does Pippin let fall as a sign for Aragorn while the Orcs drive him along?

A brooch: Pippin darts from his guards for a moment and drops the clasp of his Elven cloak. Aragorn later finds it beside the trail and takes it as proof the hobbit is alive and has his wits about him.

The Return of the King premiered in Wellington, but in which city did the film The Two Towers hold its world premiere?

New York's Ziegfeld Theatre hosted it on 5 December 2002, two weeks before general release. Peter Jackson's home city had to wait a year, then turned out to line the streets for the final film.

The Two Towers led the 2002 worldwide box office, but which 2002 release out-grossed it in the United States?

Spider-Man beat it at home by about $60 million, but overseas ticket sales turned the tables, and The Two Towers finished more than $100 million ahead worldwide.

Which two Oscars did the film The Two Towers win at the 75th Academy Awards?

Sound Editing and Visual Effects were its only wins from six nominations. Howard Shore's score, which took the Oscar for the films either side of it, was not even nominated.

Which folk instrument carries the Rohan theme in Howard Shore's score for The Two Towers?

Hardanger fiddle: Norway's folk fiddle has extra strings under the bowed ones that are never touched but ring in sympathy, which gives the Rohan theme its haunting echo.

In The Two Towers, Tolkien represents the language of the Riders of Rohan with which real language?

Old English stands in for Rohan's tongue because Tolkien imagined it as an archaic cousin of the hobbits' everyday speech, which he wrote as modern English; the extended film even adds a funeral lament sung in it.

Uma Thurman later regretted turning down which Lord of the Rings role?

Éowyn: Thurman had just had her first child and, by her own account, felt housebound, so Miranda Otto took the part; she has since called it one of the worst decisions she ever made.

Bernard Hill plays which King of Rohan?

Théoden was first offered to Kevin Conway, who turned it down rather than spend months away filming in New Zealand. Hill, Titanic's Captain Smith, took the crown instead.

Which actor, hired for three weeks of voice work, ended up playing Gollum on set?

Andy Serkis so impressed Peter Jackson at his audition that he was brought on set to play the scenes opposite the hobbits, and the digital Gollum was redesigned around his face and movements.

Which effects company created Gollum for The Two Towers?

Weta Digital was set up in 1993 to make the effects for Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures; less than a decade later it was animating Gollum.

In The Two Towers, what happens to Merry and Pippin after they drink the water Treebeard gives them?

They grow taller: the draught makes them the tallest hobbits in history, and when the friends are reunited Gimli spots the change at once and Legolas guesses what they have been drinking.

What were Merry and Pippin's actors sitting on, hidden in the Treebeard puppet's hands?

Bicycle seats were built into the 14-foot puppet's hands, and getting down was such a job that Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd were often left perched up there through the breaks.

A favourite scene of Peter Jackson's in The Two Towers, Gollum's argument with himself, was written and directed by which colleague?

Fran Walsh wrote it with the hobbits as sleeping lumps in the background so their actors were not needed, and Jackson, with no one free to direct, told her: you wrote it, you should shoot it. She filmed it in a day.

Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking what at the Uruk-hai pyre in The Two Towers?

An Orc helmet: Mortensen stayed in character, and that take is the one in the film, because his cry of real pain suited Aragorn's grief for the hobbits so well.

Which actor ran across Rohan in The Two Towers nursing a rib injury from a fall off his horse?

Orlando Bloom ran the chase hurt alongside a co-star with broken toes and a stunt double with a damaged knee, so all three hunters seen sprinting across the plains were running injured.

The Orc army's roar at Helm's Deep was recorded from a stadium crowd at which sport?

Cricket: during a break in play, Peter Jackson himself conducted a stadium of New Zealand cricket fans through the Uruk-hai's war chants.

While filming Helm's Deep for The Two Towers, the battle extras traded insults in which language?

Māori: the local extras and stuntmen improvised too, and the moment when the Uruk-hai pound their spears before the charge grew out of something they did to pass the time on set.

In The Two Towers, which emblem do Saruman's Orcs bear on their shields?

A white hand on a black field: finding it on the shields of Orcs killed in the raid, beside an S-rune on their helmets, tells Aragorn that Saruman has learned of the quest and sent soldiers of his own.

Rohan's hilltop capital in The Two Towers was built as a set on which mountain?

Mount Sunday kept none of it: the set took months to build, yet once filming was over every building was dismantled and the hill was returned to its natural state.

In The Two Towers, what from the Shire do Merry and Pippin find among Saruman's stores at Isengard?

Pipe-weed: a barrel of Longbottom Leaf turns up in the flooded fortress, and the find nags at Aragorn, because it is the first sign that Saruman has been doing business in the hobbits' homeland.

In the film The Two Towers, Orcs riding which beasts attack Rohan's refugees on the road to Helm's Deep?

Wargs: the skirmish is the film's invention, and Peter Jackson used it to send Aragorn over a cliff and leave his friends believing him dead.

In The Two Towers, which meal does Sam cook in Ithilien, to the disgust of Gollum, who caught the meat?

Rabbit stew: Gollum wanted the rabbits raw and refused to fetch herbs for the pot, and the cooking fire cost the hobbits dearly, since its smoke led the rangers of Gondor straight to them.

The extended Two Towers ends with twelve minutes of credits naming whom?

Fan club members who joined the official club as charter members were promised their names on the DVD credits; the scroll is why the disc runs 235 minutes when the film itself ends at about 223.

Which line from the film The Two Towers made the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest movie quotes?

'My precious.' sits at number 85 on the 2005 list. The gulping voice that delivers it began, its actor has said, as an imitation of his cat coughing up a hairball.

In The Two Towers, Merry and Pippin escape their Orc captors into which ancient forest?

Fangorn: Aragorn tracks the hobbits to its edge and meets an old man whom Gimli takes for Saruman. He turns out to be Gandalf, back from the dead.

In the film The Two Towers, which horse finds Aragorn after his fall from the cliff?

Brego was played by a horse named Uraeus, and Viggo Mortensen grew so attached to him during the shoot that he bought him once filming was over.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings was first scripted as two films for which studio?

Miramax balked at the cost and asked for a single film, so Jackson took the project to New Line, which made it three; scenes first written to end part one were reshaped into The Two Towers.