Bloopers> Bloopers: ROTK

The Return of the King Bloopers

Please note, many of these bloopers were taken from MovieMistakes.com

The horn that Denethor holds in his lap is slightly jagged where is was broken in half. When in the first movie you can clearly see that it had a smooth cut. And how did he get the horn anyway. It would most likely be at the bottom of the river. (by Kristen)
A note from Nevermore – Actually in the book it says that Boromir’s horn was brought to Denethor by the river.
In the movie version Frodo gets stapped by Shelob apparently in an area that is covered by the mithril vest.(by Cindi)
When Aragorn approaches the Black Gate, there is a shot where you can clearly see over his shoulder to Pippin, sitting with Gandalf. It is incredibly obvious that it is really Billy Boyd's female size double. (by Melvasaiel)
When Aragorn, Gandalf, Theoden, etc, approach Treebeard in Isengard, watch Theoden. He keeps kicking his horse as if the horse is trying to stop. A second later you see why; the horse lifts up it's tail and poops in the water. Lovely. (by Melvasaiel)
When Sam first picks Frodo up over his shoulder, Frodo's positioned so that his head is over Sam's right shoulder. In the next shot his head is over Sam's left shoulder. (by unknown)
added later... - If you watch, you also see that Sam's sword is sometimes on the wrong side. This is probably another case where the image on the screen is backwards, similar to the scene in TTT with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and the pile of dead Uruk-hai.(by Melvasaiel)
As Legolas walks along the top of the oliphant about to fire three arrows into its head, he draws his three arrows twice, once before and once after the camera change. (by unknown)
As Aragorn and co. are riding up to Isengard (right after the title appears on screen), we see a long shot of Merry and Pippin sitting among the rubble. Not only are they on opposite sides from the subsequent close-up, they are also both wearing their jackets; in the close-ups, neither is wearing a jacket. (by unknown)
In the scene when the Rohirrim come crashing down that slope, you briefly see Arwen just after they are down the slope. You dont see her face, but her sword, hair and dress are easy enough to recognise. (by annette vw)
When Gandalf and Pippin are first riding into Minas Tirith a couple of the shots clearly show Gandalf's feet in stirrups. Gandalf is supposed to be riding Shadowfax bareback. (by Rainshadow)
In Minas Tirith right after Denethor sends Faramir back out to Osgiliath, as he and his men are riding through the city, in one brief shot you can see that one of the soldiers behind Faramir is a woman. (by Rainshadow)
When Legolas is climbing up the oliphaunt during the battle of the Pelennor fields, there is a shot of him moving along the oliphaunt's side. During this shot, he pivots a bit on the rope he is holding. When he pivots towards the oliphaunts side, you can see the arrows in his quiver go through the side of the CGI oliphaunt.
At the end of the movie, when Frodo decides to not destroy the ring, he turns around towards Sam and then simply snatches the ring right through the golden chain, like a magician. I should think that the elven chain would be slightly more solid than that! (by Nilbelethiel)
In Return of the King, when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli enter the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn is not holding a torch (as seen from the back), but when it is necessary for the audience (and the characters) to see where they're heading, he whips out a torch. When he has to draw his sword/do some swordwork, however, the torch vanishes conveniently and he uses both hands to wield his sword. (by Sebastian)
In RotK when Gollum bites Frodo's finger off and is holding up the ring he pulls the rest of Frodo's finger out of the ring and throws it onto the ground. In the next shot where he's holding up the ring, the rest of Frodo's finger is no where to be seen on the ground. (by Roxanne B.)
When Frodo and Sam are walking around Mordor there is on shot where they are wearing orc armor. But then the armor mysteriously disappears and Frodo and Sam are wearing regular hobbit clothes again. If all of Frodo's were taken by the orcs, when did he get them back? (by Zoe)
At the end of RotK, Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo meet up with Gandalf in the cart. A shot is shown of 4 horses ahead of the cart, but then it is switched to Frodo and Bilbo inside the cart. Who's the fourth rider? At the Grey Havens, it's only Sam, Merry, and Pippin who could have been riding the horses. (by Sara)
When Arwen has the vision of her son and Aragorn, you can clearly see the glitch as the child runs from the forest scene into the palace scene. There's a blurred division of the two, and as the child runs over them, he makes a slight pause and a jerk. (by Melvasaiel)
Pippin's brooch (Oh, those brooches) is backwards in the Pellenor Fields where he's walking around looking for Merry. (by Melvasaiel)
I don't think it's a blooper after all, but Sam's brooch remains backwards throughout this movie too. I think it went backwards back in FOTR and has stayed that way ever since.(by Melvasaiel)
when Frodo and Sam are lying on the rock with the lava surrounding them at the end of the movie, when there is a close-up of just Frodo, you can see water rushing through the cracks in the rock. (by Melanie)
When the Nazgul flies past the orcs marching from the evil castle-like building by the stairs to Mordor, it flies very close to the orcs, with its beast flapping its mighty wings, probably creating large gusts of wind. Yet none of the torches being carried even flicker or blow.
When The Steward of Gondor is about to burn Faramir on the pyre, Gandalf dramatically bursts through the doors on Shadowfax. Look at the rider's face - it is obviously not Gandalf, but a double.
After Frodo has been wrapped in the spider web, Sam tries to rescue him and frees his face. In the next shots, the web is sometimes over Frodos chin and sometimes under it, although no one touched it. (by VeraNeidlein)
Strangely, Gimli switches positions with Legolas when they're leaving the Rohan camp for the Paths of the Dead. In the overhead shots, the dwarf's in front, and from the back shots, he's clinging on to Legolas' back.
When Gandalf and Pippin walk into the hall where Denethor is sitting, the back of Gandalf's cloak is clean and white. After Pippin offers his services to Denethor, Gandalf walks out on Denethor and when he turns around and starts to leave, the bottom of Gandalf's cloak is much dirtier.
During the scene between Denethor and Pippin in the Main Hall at Minas Tirith, Denethor is eating and has a red mark running down his chin. There is a shot from Pippin's perspective showing the right side of Denethor's chin with the mark. The next shot is from Denethor's left with Pippin in the background, and Denethor turns towards the camera and the mark is gone. The shot is then returned to Pippin's perspective, and the mark has returned for the rest of the scene.
You can see a severely wounded King Theoden lying partially under his horse on the Pelennor Fields after being attacked by the Witch King. The length of his legs are out of proportion, since you can see his waist above the horse's back, and a large part of his lower leg underneath the horse's belly
In the scene inside Mount Doom after Gollum bites Frodo's finger off and it appears they have both fallen into the lava, Sam looks over the edge of the cliff and sees Frodo hanging on. Sam offers his hand to help Frodo up and Frodo grabs Sam's hand and forearm with his left hand- the one with the missing finger. In the split second before the camera breaks away, you can plainly see Frodo's "missing" finger bent in half to give the appearance that it is gone, complete with the blood and gore seen just after the finger was bitten off initially.
At the end of the movie, when Sam and Frodo are helping Bilbo down to the dock where the elves are waiting, Frodo is on Bilbo's right, which means that Frodo is holding onto Bilbo with his left hand, the one that Gollum bit the finger off. Yet the finger is completely intact
Near the end of the movie, when the four hobbits are seated at the bar, Frodo passes a green mug of ale to Sam, yet in the direct shot of Sam's face when he drinks, the mug is red. Merry's mug goes from red to green.
In the scene where King Theoden is dying under his horse after Eowyn has slain the Witch King, there are three spots of mud on Theoden's right cheek that are so clear that they almost appear to be a tattoo. The camera cuts to Eowyn, then back to Theoden, and the spots on his face are faint, smudged, and in different locations. The camera cuts again from Theoden to Eowyn and back, and the spots are back to their original locations, pristine and unsmudged.
In the first scene in Edoras (the capital city of Rohan). The first pan over Edoras: You can see the pan is shown in reverse, with the smoke going into the chimney and the fire at the end is burning backwards. The flags are fluttering oddly as well.
In the final battle scene, when Aragorn and crew are creating a "diversion" outside the gates of Mordor, everyone is on horseback. Later in the scene, when Aragorn and the other warriors charge the enemy, they are on foot. Even if they did dismount, where are the horses?
In the scene where Frodo is stabbed by the huge spider and wrapped in its web, Sam thinks he's dead because he's not moving at all. From Sam's point of view Frodo's eyes are fixed wide open. A cut to a side view of Sam lifting Frodo shows Frodo's eyes shut. The next cut back to the original point of view shows Frodo's eyes back fixed open.
When Gollum accuses Sam of eating the lembas bread, the crumbs on his shoulder don't appear until the shot when Gollum brushes them away.
When Gollum drops the lembas from the ridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in fluttering away, and the wafers fall roughly 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 lying around unwrapped.
In the second half of the film, Frodo has a scar on his lower right cheek, close to his chin. Many times throughout the rest of the film the scar changes position and size on his cheek and also from his right cheek to his left cheek (most obviously on the slopes of Mount Doom when Sam is cradling his head).
According to the maps of Mordor, the tower of Barad-dur should not be visible through the Black Gates - it's far off to the east, with an outcrop of the Ash Mountains in the way. (by Tailkinker)
In the scene where the orcs and oliphaunts attack the white city there are many injured and dead. But when Aragorn and company are leaving the white city to march to Moria to cause the diversion there are no bodies or Oliphaunts or anything on the ground outside the city. Seems an awful lot of the dead and heavy load moved themselves away in a hurry.
In the scene where Aragorn suggests attacking the Black Gates in order to draw out the orcs and give Frodo safe passage. The amount of Gandalf's hair hanging loose from his pony tail varies from shot to shot. (by kendra jackson)
In the scene right after Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas jump of the ship, Legolas and Gimli continue their game of who kills the most orcs. There is a shot of Legolas where he shoots an arrow and says, "15" he makes the move to grab another arrow and shoots, but there is no arrow in his hand or in the bow when he shoots it and says, "16."
When Theoden is dying, in one of the shots after Eowyn has bent down and the camera cuts outward, a giant Oliphant carcass is lying not 20 yards from Theoden. In every other shot, even the birds-eye views, no Oliphant is anywhere near Theoden.
When Aragorn is talking with Elrond in Theoden's tent, a gust of wind which shakes the tent knocks over a suit of armor which makes no sound when it hits the ground.
At the crowning ceremony for King Aragorn, the four hobbits stand side by side, and Merry is a little taller than the other three. However, for the shot when everyone bows, the scale double for Merry is obviously the shortest of the four.
In the scene where Minas Tirith is being attacked by the orcs pouring from their siege towers, a pair of orcs hack their way through the human soldiers and start approaching Gandalf. One of the orcs swings his mace and strikes a nearby stone bench. The bench bounces noticeably from its place, instead of shattering or breaking.
When Sam rescues Frodo in the tower and gives him back the ring, Frodo puts it around his neck and you can see it against his bare chest. The chain is noticably much longer and thicker than the one he's been wearing previously.
In the scene where Legolas is taking down the oliphant, there's a shot of him reaching back to draw out arrows, then the shot switches to a different angle and he reaches back again to draw out arrows for shooting.