The Lord of the Rings (film): Difference between revisions

** Almost all hobbits in the movie have some form of an English accent, except for Pippin, for whom Billy Boyd used his native Scottish accent. (He had attempted a more conventional English accent, [[Throw It In|but switched back to the Scottish accent because the English accent ruined his comic timing]].) It was given the justification that, in the story, the Tooks are from a different area of the Shire that is much more hilly, reflecting the terrain of Scotland, as well as the fact that the Tooks invented golf.

* [[Action Bomb]]: In ''The Two Towers'', during the battle at Helm's Deep, the Uruk-hai placed a bomb in the drainage tunnel at Helm's Deep, with an Uruk with a torch blowing himself up to set it off.

* [[Action Film Quiet Drama Scene]]: The heartwarming and peaceful scenes of The Shire in ''Fellowship of the Ring'' (especially in the Director's Cut), filled with laughter, friendship and happy children (what a warrior lays down his life to protect) is what makes us actually care whether or not Frodo and the Fellowship defeat [[The Lord of the Rings]] or not.

* [[Action Girl]]: Éowyn aside, Arwen also has [[A Day in The Limelight|a moment in the limelight]] in the first film.

'''Merry:''' How do we know this Strider is a friend of Gandalf?<br />

'''Frodo:''' We have no choice but to trust him. }}

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by John Rhys-Davies in the DVD commentary.

{{quote| '''John:''' There you have your old pyroclastic lava flow, not a good thing to be... err... in. Added to which there may be a little bit of sulfur there and not too much oxygen.}}

* [[Despair Gambit]]: Sauron and his minions do a lot of this, often with considerable subtlety. Perhaps the most overt example is at the beginning of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, when the orcs start the siege by catapulting the heads of Gondorian soldiers into the city.

* [[Determinator]]: The Nazgûl; Frodo himself and Gollum to some extent.

* [[Digital Head Swap]]: One of the techniques used to create the proper scale for the Hobbits.

* [[Disney Death]]: Alongside Frodo's examples from the book that made it into the film, we also have Aragorn's plunge off of the cliff in ''The Two Towers'', alongside Gollum's 'death' right after going through Shelob's tunnel.

'''Gimli:''' He fell. }}

* [[Helmets Are Hardly Heroic]]: Unless you are a Rider of Rohan, or an Elf soldier, or a Dwarf, or a soldier of Gondor.

** It seems Sharpe has traded in his rifle for a sword and shield.

** Seems like somebody went from Flipper to carrying the [[Soul Jar]] of the [[Big Bad]].

** The scene at the black gates of Mordor appears to be an homage to the ''Wizard Of Oz''.

* [[Hopeless Suitor]]: Éowyn for Aragorn

* [[I Lied]]

{{quote| '''Frodo''': Sméagol promised!<br />

* [[Never Tell Me the Odds]]: In ''The Return Of The King'', when Aragorn suggests that Gondor march against Mordor as a diversion, Gimli comments, "Certainty of death, small chance of success... What are we waiting for?"

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: In ''The Two Towers'', Aragon stops Theoden from killing Wormtongue because too much blood had already been spilled. Wormtongue turns around and gives Saruman the secret to defeating the defenses at Helm's Deep thus causing nearly all the defenders to be killed. Too much blood indeed.

* [[Nightmare Face]]: In ''Fellowship of the Ring'', when Bilbo wants to take a look at the One Ring. [[Jump Scare|Holy crap]]!

** This may be a shout-out to Jackson's past as a maker of films that make fun of horror movies. In the book, Bilbo appears briefly to turn into a Gollum-like figure.

'''Aragorn''': ''This'' army. }}

** And then there's Gandalf giving a big speech to the Gondorians about how they can fight whatever comes through the gate. When the first thing through is three huge trolls, Gandalf gets a look on his face like, "Well, I wasn't expecting ''that''."

** There's also Saruman's reaction to the Ents trashing Isengard. It's exactly the face you'd expect to see if someone was woken up with the news that the trees had come alive and were trashing his yard.

** An arguable example is Boromir's deadpan "[[This Is Gonna Suck|They have a cave troll]]."

** This is a bit better explained in the extended edition, where it shows Bilbo spending some time packing up for his journey after returning from the party; Gandalf simply shows up while Bilbo is getting ready to leave.

* [[Off With His Head]]: Done several times, including to the Mouth of Sauron instead of the [[Death Glare]] from the book.

** Justified. Flowing water canonically disorients and confuses them almost to the point of helplessness. Only the presence of the One Ring combined with the will of their Captain managed to get them in the stream in the first place, and after that their horses were the ones in control.

* [[One-Man Army]]: Aragorn.

* [[Onrushing Army]]: The orcs ''love'' to charge. As do any humans fighting with them. Aragorn and his army do it too at the climax of ''Return Of The King''.

* [[Orcus On His Throne]]: Sauron is a rather less sketchy figure than in the novels; he is instead a ''literal'' flaming eye, on top of Barad-Dur. Peter Jackson originally planned for Sauron to [[One-Winged Angel|take physical form]] in the battle in front of the Black Gate, but thankfully thought better of it.

* [[Parenthetical Swearing]]: Gandalf manages to make the word "Steward" sound... like something it's not.

* [[Phosphor Essence]]: Galadriel glows with a bluish-white light when she explains how powerful and terrible she would become were she to accept the Ring.

* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: The removal of [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|Tom Bombadil]] and the excision of the Scouring of the Shire.

** [[Peter Jackson]] himself invoked this in his explanation as to his complete rewrite of the meetings of Faramir and Frodo's group: in the books, he lets them go free after learning of their quest and agreeing with it; in the film, he keeps them captive in order to take The Ring. Jackson said specifically this was because after the first book, the Ring's power to corrupt became an [[Informed Ability]] until it surfaced again at the tail-end of Return; in order to remind the viewer that it was basically evil incarnate, and keep with the rules Tolkien himself set, he had to have Faramir be tempted by the ring.

 

== Q through T ==

** [[Insistent Terminology|Irish is not a UK accent...]]

* [[Rain of Arrows]]: Elves, mostly. Orcs manage it during the siege of Minas Tirith with ''ballistae'', though.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Legolas' famous display of elf agility in mounting a horse in Two Towers was entirely improvised in post when Peter Jackson realized that, in throwing together the warg attack sequence, he had forgotten to shoot Orlando Bloom getting on a horse.

** Actually, Orlando Bloom fell off his horse and broke his rib and thus couldn't do the stunt.

* [[Recursive Translation]]: A particularly wonderful set of Chinese bootlegs for the first two films, although only the one from ''The Two Towers'' is currently available online.

* [[Rebel Prince]] is Aragorn.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Gimli and Legolas.

** Then he surfs down the trunk of an Oliphaunt in the third film.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Pippin's song in the third film.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: ''Six DVDs worth''.

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: {{spoiler|Aragorn to the Mouth of Sauron.}}

** [[Word of God|Ngila Dickson]] said specifically that she was a fan of designing spiffy gowns for Arwen.

* [[Vertigo Effect]]: Used by [[Peter Jackson]] in both ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' (when Frodo senses the arrival of the Black Rider in the Shire) and ''The Return of the King'' (Frodo's first look into Shelob's lair).

* [[Voice of the Legion]]: Galadriel gets a bit of this when she [[God Save Us From the Queen|goes off on a tangent]] while being tempted by the Ring. In the extended edition of ''Return of the King'', Saruman gains some echoes when he tries to intimidate/manipulate Theoden, Gandalf, Aragorn and the rest of the party from Helm's Deep.

* [[Wait Here]]: At Weathertop, Aragorn says he's going to have a look around and for the hobbits to "stay here." Naturally it doesn't work out exactly as planned.