The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(2002)
PG-13 | 179 mins | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | 18 December 2002
Director:
Peter JacksonWriters:
Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, Peter JacksonProducers:
Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh, Peter JacksonCinematographer:
Andrew LesnieEditors:
D. Michael Horton, Jabez OlssenProduction Designer:
Grant MajorProduction Companies:
New Line CinemaThe Two Towers is the second episode in the film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy of novels of the same name. The three film episodes were shot simultaneously in 1999--2000 and were released in consecutive Decembers, from 2001 through 2003. The second episode of director-producer-writer Peter Jackson’s adventurous production is darker than the first, reflecting the mood of the original novel. For further information about the film trilogy, its first episode and background of the source book and its creator, J. R. R. Tolkien, please See Entry for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
There are no opening cast or crew credits in The Two Towers. Some of the cast is credited twice in the ending credits. In the first appearance, most of the lead performers are credited in individual title cards without a character name. The one exception appears in the middle of these credits and reads: “featuring Andy Serkis as Gollum.” The film editors’ credits read: “D. Michael Horton with Jabez Olssen.” Later, John Rhys-Davies, who also appears as dwarf “Gimli,” is credited as “Voice of Treebeard,” followed by all featured players in alphabetical order. The children of Jackson and writer Fran Walsh appear in the film and are credited onscreen as: “Cute Rohan Refugee Children Billy Jackson and Katie Jackson.” Their credit and those of “Hero Orcs” are presented later in the production crew, just before the list of doubles and stand-ins.
Ending credits include a “personal thanks” from the “Filmmakers” to several people ...
The Two Towers is the second episode in the film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy of novels of the same name. The three film episodes were shot simultaneously in 1999--2000 and were released in consecutive Decembers, from 2001 through 2003. The second episode of director-producer-writer Peter Jackson’s adventurous production is darker than the first, reflecting the mood of the original novel. For further information about the film trilogy, its first episode and background of the source book and its creator, J. R. R. Tolkien, please See Entry for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
There are no opening cast or crew credits in The Two Towers. Some of the cast is credited twice in the ending credits. In the first appearance, most of the lead performers are credited in individual title cards without a character name. The one exception appears in the middle of these credits and reads: “featuring Andy Serkis as Gollum.” The film editors’ credits read: “D. Michael Horton with Jabez Olssen.” Later, John Rhys-Davies, who also appears as dwarf “Gimli,” is credited as “Voice of Treebeard,” followed by all featured players in alphabetical order. The children of Jackson and writer Fran Walsh appear in the film and are credited onscreen as: “Cute Rohan Refugee Children Billy Jackson and Katie Jackson.” Their credit and those of “Hero Orcs” are presented later in the production crew, just before the list of doubles and stand-ins.
Ending credits include a “personal thanks” from the “Filmmakers” to several people and organizations “for their contribution to the making of this movie,” among them, E-Film and various New Zealand governmental agencies. Following is a “special thanks to Peter Nelson & Ken Kamins and to the thousands of others who helped make this film a reality.” The film is dedicated to “Carla Fry, Brian Bansgrove and Brent Robb, People we loved.” After the dedication, the following inscription in the Maori language appears: “He maungärongo kit e whenua, He whakaaro pai ki ngä tängata katoa.” Although many of the character and place names in Tolkien’s novels, such as “Barad-dûr,” “Théoden” and “Sméagol,” appear with diacritical marks, the film’s onscreen credits list them without the diacritics. Whenever characters speak in the Elvish language invented by Tolkien, subtitles are used.
The film begins with a reprisal of “Gandalf’s” fight with the Balrog and his plunge into the pit at Khazad-dum, this time shown as "Frodo’s" nightmare. Gandalf’s recounting of his experience after the battle with the Balrog appears as a montage with Ian McKellen’s voice-over narration. "Aragorn’s" conversation with "Elrond" is shown as a flashback with dialogue. Later in the film, as Elrond counsels "Arwen" about her short-lived future with Aragorn, he speaks in a voice-over as she is shown mourning at the crypt of an older, gray Aragorn, who has been laid out for his funeral. The scene quickly changes to winter many years later, showing Arwen, still in mourning at the crypt, which now has a metal sculpture of the dead Aragorn lying atop it.
The romance between Aragorn and Arwen, depicted in the film as flashbacks and dreams, did not appear as shown in Tolkien’s trilogy. According to a Dec 2002 Time article, HR review and other sources, the screenwriters based these scenes on information given in an appendix that Tolkien wrote after The Two Towers. The article reported that these scenes were filmed in the summer of 2002, after the principal filming of the trilogy had been completed. Also added in Sep 2002, according to the Time article, was Sam’s “there’s good in the world worth fighting for” monologue urging Frodo not to give up, which the screenwriters felt was needed to tie all of the story lines in the film together.
In addition to the Aragorn-Arwen romance sequences, the screenwriters took other liberties that were not in the book, but were true to the spirit of Tolkien’s oeuvre. In Tolkien’s novel, the battle of Helm’s Deep, which is central to the film, was only a brief episode. “Shelob,” a spider creature introduced in the second novel, is only mentioned by Gollum in the film, but will make her appearance in the third film. In the Time article, Jackson admitted that The Two Towers departed from Tolkien’s novels more than the other two films in the trilogy.
As noted in the film’s website and a Dec 2002 LAT article, the character Gollum was computer-generated, using Shakespearean actor Serkis’ voice and his own movements as a model. The LAT article reported that each scene containing Gollum was shot three times, the first time with Serkis, wearing a lycra suit fitted with motion-capture equipment, acting with the cast. The final digital character was added later to the second take of the scene, which was filmed without Serkis. Other CGI characters in the film were “Treebeard” and his fellow Ents.
The film was shot entirely in New Zealand. According to the film’s website, the battle at Helm’s Deep was filmed over four months in night shoots. A Dec 2002 AmCin article reported that "life-size" sets of the city of Edoras were built and filmed on a hill in New Zealand’s South Island. A castle and a wall of the Helm’s Deep fortress were built in a quarry in Wellington. Although Jackson considered filming the Dead Marshes sequence in an actual marsh at Te Anau, South Island, only a brief aerial shot was used, as the area was dangerous and difficult to tread. Instead, three sets were built at the Wellington studios. The shooting locations of the film trilogy have been prominently featured in Tourism New Zealand's website and television commercials to entice vacationers to the area.
According to a Dec 2001 article found on Zap2it.com, there was some question over whether the film would retain Tolkien’s title The Two Towers for the film, after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on 11 Sep 2001. According to a Dec 2002, HR article, executives of the film's distributor, New Line Cinema, noting the lack of Whoppers in Middle-earth and the inappropriateness of the dark film for younger school children, dropped Burger King as the film's promotional tie-in. Instead, New Line negotiated a two-year contract with Verizon Wireless, which plans to target a young, male audience. Within five days after The Two Towers was released, it broke box-office records by grossing $101.5 million, according to a Dec 2002 LADN article. A few weeks later, a Jan 2003 CNN.com article reported that Tolkien fans were celebrating the author's “eleventy-first” birthday, which is the Hobbit age that the character Bilbo Baggins celebrates at the beginning of the Rings trilogy.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was selected as one of AFI’s top ten films of 2002 and was nominated for Golden Globe awards for Best Picture--Drama and Best Direction. The film won Academy Awards fo Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Sound. SAG nominated the film's cast for the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Award. In addition, the film was nominated by the PGA for its Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award, and Jackson was nominated by the DGA for its Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film award. The film received BAFTAs for Achievement in Costume Design and Special Visual Effects.
In the mythical world of Middle-earth, many thousands of years ago, the seven remaining members of the Fellowship of the Ring have been forced to separate after the fall of the wizard, Gandalf the Grey, into the pit at Khazad-dum. Hobbits Merry and Pippin have been captured by the enemy Urak-Hai, and the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli and their noble-born Human leader Aragorn have vowed to rescue them. Threatening Middle-earth is the mounting danger of the disembodied Sauron, who, from his dark tower of Barad-dur in the land of Mordor, maintains control through his puppet, the corrupted wizard Saruman of Isengard, who resides in his own tower, Orthanc. The task of destroying the master ring of power forged by the evil lord Sauron has fallen to the Hobbit Frodo and his loyal friend Sam. Frodo and Sam must cast the ring into the fires of Mordor’s Mount Doom before Sauron can use its power to take over the world. However, the Hobbits are lost in the hills and the ring’s dark magic is wearing Frodo down, physically and mentally. Increasingly, Frodo relies on Sam’s buoyant spirit, although Sam sometimes doubts if they should attempt the dangerous task. When they discover Gollum, a previous owner of the ring who lost it to Frodo’s uncle, skulking nearby, Frodo feels pity, knowing that prolonged contact with the ring deformed the creature’s mind and body. Despite Sam’s suspicions about Gollum, who insanely refers to the ring as “my precious,” Frodo asks Gollum to guide them to Mordor. Meanwhile, Pippin and Merry are being carried by Urak-Hais, the creatures bred for war from Goblins and the ancient ...
In the mythical world of Middle-earth, many thousands of years ago, the seven remaining members of the Fellowship of the Ring have been forced to separate after the fall of the wizard, Gandalf the Grey, into the pit at Khazad-dum. Hobbits Merry and Pippin have been captured by the enemy Urak-Hai, and the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli and their noble-born Human leader Aragorn have vowed to rescue them. Threatening Middle-earth is the mounting danger of the disembodied Sauron, who, from his dark tower of Barad-dur in the land of Mordor, maintains control through his puppet, the corrupted wizard Saruman of Isengard, who resides in his own tower, Orthanc. The task of destroying the master ring of power forged by the evil lord Sauron has fallen to the Hobbit Frodo and his loyal friend Sam. Frodo and Sam must cast the ring into the fires of Mordor’s Mount Doom before Sauron can use its power to take over the world. However, the Hobbits are lost in the hills and the ring’s dark magic is wearing Frodo down, physically and mentally. Increasingly, Frodo relies on Sam’s buoyant spirit, although Sam sometimes doubts if they should attempt the dangerous task. When they discover Gollum, a previous owner of the ring who lost it to Frodo’s uncle, skulking nearby, Frodo feels pity, knowing that prolonged contact with the ring deformed the creature’s mind and body. Despite Sam’s suspicions about Gollum, who insanely refers to the ring as “my precious,” Frodo asks Gollum to guide them to Mordor. Meanwhile, Pippin and Merry are being carried by Urak-Hais, the creatures bred for war from Goblins and the ancient war-mongering Orcs at Saruman's foundry, toward Isengard, where Saruman is forming a great army and communicates with Sauron via a seeing stone. Of strategic significance to Sauron’s plans is the kingdom of Rohan, where Saruman has already planted his spy, Grima Wormtongue, as King Theoden’s advisor. Saruman has cast a spell aging the king’s body and destroying his mind, so that the king shows no comprehension when his niece Eowyn tells him that Theodred, his only son and heir, lies dying after battling with Orcs. When Wormtongue denies that the Orcs are enemies and banishes Eowyn’s brother Eomer as a traitor, Eomer leaves with 2,000 men loyal to the king. In the countryside, they fight the many bands of Saruman’s amassing army who are wreaking havoc in the kingdom. One night Eomer’s men defeat the Uraks and Orcs holding Pippin and Merry. The next day Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas cross paths with the victorious Humans, and by inspecting the battle scene, conclude that the Hobbits escaped into the Fanghorn Forest of talking trees. Inside the forest, still pursued by a lone Orc intent on eating them, Pippin and Merry are saved by Treebeard, a creature belonging to the race of tree shepherds known as Ents. While searching for Pippin and Merry in the forest, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas encounter a white wizard who they fear is Saruman. Instead, they learn that he is Gandalf, who, after falling through fire and water into darkness and timelessness, has been reborn as Gandalf the White. After explaining that he has been returned to Middle-earth to finish a task, Gandalf summons his horse Shadowfax and leads his companions to Rohan. Inside Theoden’s Golden Hall, Gandalf breaks the spell over Theoden, after which the king banishes Wormtongue. While grieving for his dead son, Theoden is alerted of Saruman’s approaching army by two children sent by a fallen village. The king, unwilling to engage in open warfare, orders his people to their fortress at Helm’s Deep, confident that the structure will protect them. Gandalf, who has misgivings about the fortress, convinces Aragorn to stay with the king, but before leaving, tells Aragorn to look to the east at dawn on the fifth day. To reach Mordor, Gollum takes Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes, where the weakened, mentally imbalanced Frodo falls in with the trapped souls. After being pulled out by Gollum, Frodo is nearly discovered by a ringwraith sent by Saruman. As they near Mordor’s gates, Sam and Frodo prepare to risk sneaking in behind an entering army. Gollum, afraid of losing his “precious” to Sauron, convinces them that he knows a secret way into Mordor. Sam still distrusts Gollum, but Frodo, who has realized that Gollum was once a being known as Smeagol who lived near his home, tells Sam that he wants to help him. Gollum, torn between loyalty to Frodo and his dark side that developed from exposure to the ring, battles with himself, but finally concludes that Frodo will take care of him. The next day, Sam and Frodo are captured by Humans from Gondor led by Faramir, the brother of former Fellowship member Boromir, who suspects they are spies. When Gollum is later found and threatened with death, Frodo, hoping to save him, admits that Gollum is his guide and lures the trusting creature to safety. After the guards capture the frightened Gollum, he thinks that Frodo betrayed him. Watching the disturbed Gollum argue with himself, Faramir learns about the ring Frodo bears and its power, and decides to take them back to Gondor. Although Sam suggests that Frodo escape by slipping on the ring, which will make him invisible, Frodo fears that Sauron, who can only sense him when he wears the ring, will find him. While preparing for the journey to Helm’s Deep, Aragorn becomes intrigued by the skilled swordsmanship of the noble Eowyn, but remains haunted by thoughts of Arwen, the Elf woman whom he loves. When Eowyn, who becomes increasingly attracted to Aragorn during the journey, asks him about the jewel he wears around his neck, he explains that it was given to him by Arwen, who he believes has left Middle-earth with her kinfolk for the "undying lands" in the West. Lapsing into a reverie, he recalls to himself how Arwen’s father Elrond told him that the time of the Elves in Middle-earth was over and that Arwen must leave with her people. Following Wormtongue's advice, Saruman sends Orcs riding vicious wolfbeasts called Wargs to attack Aragorn and his fellow travelers. Eowyn leads the women and children to Helm’s Deep on another path, while the men stay behind to fight. Although the king’s men are victorious, they suffer many casualties. Aragorn, who is dragged over a cliff into the churning waters of a river, is believed dead, but, unconscious and dreaming of Arwen, he floats to shore downriver and later reunites with the others at Helm’s Deep. In the Elf kingdom, all are preparing to leave, except Arwen, who considers abandoning immortality and family to remain behind for Aragorn’s return. By showing Arwen that by being immortal, she will eventually lose Aragorn, Elrond convinces her to join the Elves’ procession to the boats that will take them on their journey. Galadriel, the oldest of all the elves, is aware that Saruman has amassed an army of 10,000 to conquer Helm’s Deep and suggests to Elrond that they not abandon Middle-earth to Sauron’s dominion. At Helm’s Deep, shortly after Theoden, whose 300 men are mostly too young or too old for battle, confides to Aragorn that he feels alone and without alliances, an army of 200 Elf archers arrives to assist them. Meanwhile, Treebeard tells Pippin and Merry that the Ents have no interest in the affairs of men and wizards, but then, after finding more trees destroyed, calls a “gathering” of Ents to discuss whether to go to war. It is raining when Saruman’s forces reach the base of Helm’s Deep and the battle begins. Many of the enemy soldiers are killed by Elf arrows, but more scale the walls using ladders, and swords are drawn. At the same time, the Ents, who talk slowly, decide not to go to war. Treebeard offers to carry Merry and Pippin to the forest border nearest their Shire, but they ask instead to be taken toward Isengard where they hope to slip past the defenses, believing that the closer they are to danger, the farther they are from harm. Accepting their logic, Treebeard changes directions and upon seeing the destroyed trees near the Isengard border, calls out to the Ents, who gather from all over. Inside Helm’s Deep, after being forced to retreat to the fortress’ keep, Theoden feels defeated, until Aragorn suggests that they ride out to fight their enemy hand-to-hand. Defeat seems imminent until Aragorn recalls Gandalf’s words and looks to the east, where Gandalf and the 2,000 banished men of Rohan arrive to surprise the enemy from behind. As the defenders of Helm's Deep win the battle, angry Ents at Isengard destroy Saruman’s foundry and break down a dam, flooding the plains around the tower. In Gondor, Faramir is still planning to take the ring from Frodo, although Sam warns him that Boromir died trying. A ringwraith appears, to whom the weakened Frodo almost gives up the ring, but an arrow shot by Faramir sends it away. Although he is now safe, Frodo, still bewitched, turns on Sam and almost kills him. When his reason is restored, Frodo doubts that he has the strength to complete his mission. Inspired by the “great stories,” Sam says that all heroes doubt themselves, but they hold on, knowing that the good in the world is worth fighting for. Sam’s words are heeded by Faramir, who decides to release them. At Helm’s Deep, surveying the aftermath of battle, Gandalf predicts war for Middle-earth. Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam and Gollum have resumed their journey. Sam predicts that Frodo’s efforts will be put into songs and tales, and suggests that Frodo might become the most “famousist of hobbits.” Amused, Frodo says that “Samwise the Brave” is important to that story. Still feeling betrayed, Gollum mutters mysteriously to himself that “she” will make sure the Hobbits are dead, and then he can have his “precious” again. In a saccharine-sweet voice, Gollum calls out to the Hobbits to follow him and they continue on to Mordor and the fires of Mount Doom.
