In the scene where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli run up to search the burnt orc corpses for Merry and Pippin in Rohan, Aragorn kicks the metal Orc helmet on the ground. This particular bit was reshot several times and it is the last take they show in the film because Aragorn's scream and following sigh are so realistic. Well, that is because Viggo Mortensen actually broke two of his toes, when he kicked the helmet so hard in that take.

In order to get the stunt Elves riled up enough to be on the offensive during certain scenes, the very aggressive stunt Uruk-hai would nastily taunt and mock them incessantly on the set and even call them, "Cupcakes." It worked! Commentary, extended DVD.

Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan spent so much time on the Treebeard animatronic, that they spent their time in between shots writing a screenplay. They were also left there during breaks because it was such a hassle to get them up and down.

48,000 separate pieces of armour were made for all the different citizens of Middle Earth.

Elijah Wood describes this as "spontaneous, violent love." Apparently Viggo Mortensen and some stunt men enjoyed greeting co-workers by 'head-butting' each other. One night he convinced stunt man Sala Baker to head-butt Orlando Bloom, who jokingly swears he saw 'white light', after their heads smashed together. A bright red mark on Bloom's forehead was not appreciated by the make-up artist the next day. Mortensen was amused because Bloom had the "perfect, pale Elven complexion." Appendices, Extended DVD.

In the scene where Gollum is catching a fish in the river, Andy Serkis had to act out the scene first, so the computer animators has something to work with. However, when they got to the river, it had been snowing and the whole river had turned to ice. The crew had four hours to defrost the river and get rid of the snow so the scene could be shot. They managed to do it, but Serkis still had to perform the scene in near-freezing water with so many thermal suits, etc, that he could hardly move.

In the Extended Edition, Merry and Pippin are fighting about the Ent-draught. As the fight ensues, they are swallowed up by a tree. This is an homage to Old Man Willow, a character from the book "Fellowship of the Ring" that didn't make it in to the film adaptation. The hobbits are captured by the tree, until Tom Bombadil (who is also not in the film version) comes and saves them. Treebeard saves Merry and Pippin in the movie, using many of Tom's lines from the book.

Liv Tyler had filmed several scenes of her fighting in Helm's Deep. Eventually the filmmakers decided for her character not to show up at that time, and cut and edited her scenes out. For instance, she was also pulling Gimli and Aragorn up the rope back into the fortress.

In the shot at Helm's Deep right before the fighting begins, when Aragorn is standing in front of the elves and he draws his sword, the man he is blocking our view from is the designer of the elven armor making his cameo.

As some already know, JRR Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon. Some names in the books (and the films) have Old English meanings. Some examples: Frodo = wise, Theoden = king, Mordor = torture, Isengard = iron-hard, Orthanc = intelligence, Hasufel = grey-skinned, Arod = quick, Smeagol = intrigue.

Viggo Mortensen's son, Henry, makes a brief cameo as one of the children preparing for battle at Helm's Deep. Before Aragorn addresses Haleth, son of Hama, Henry Mortensen is the boy with the helmet, standing beside Haleth.

John Rhys-Davies is missing the end of his middle finger on his left hand due to a farming accident as a child. The make-up artists made artificial, gelatin fingertips for him to wear in the movies. Davies one day, cut the tip in half, put 'blood' in it and closed it up. He went over to Peter Jackson (unaware of the gelatin tip) and said, "Boss, I've had an accident, look what happened". Jackson saw a small cut, but Davies bent the tip back and it split open, gushing. Nice.

Almost certainly not deliberate, but the scene where Saruman is making gunpowder and Grima Wormtongue leans over with a candle, so Saruman gently edges him backwards, is almost identical to a scene in "Army of Darkness."

Jed Brophy plays the part of an Orc who has his head cut off by an Uruk at the Fangorn Forest, while they argue about eating the Hobbits. Ironically he also played one of the Rohan Warriors who rode into the same scene and killed the remaining UrukHai and Orcs. I too was a Rohan Rider in that shot and worked with Jed on the scene. The rider scene was actually shot a year after the Orc scene, even though they are only seconds apart in the film.

While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that, during a conversation, director Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for half an hour, and Mortensen didn't even realize it.

When filming the battle of Helm's Deep, the filmmakers used a computer program called "Massive," created by Steven Regelous. It uses Artificial Inteligence, AI, where each CG character has its own "mind." Huge battles can be created more realistically, because each CG character can be allocated a "side," and will then react/fight accordingly, in a variety of different styles (depending on the circumstances they find themselves in), rather than having to create and program each CG character individually. In the very first "Massive" battle test at WETA, the battle was between "silver" and "gold" characters, the producers found characters on both sides at the back running away. Needless to say, they fixed the flaw in the program.

Grima Wormtongue's eyes are not the same color, because he has a light blue contact in his right eye, and no contact over his left eye, which is a different shade of blue. He and the costume designers just thought he looked weirder with only one contact in. His eyebrows have also been shaved off.

Before he was cast as Legolas, Orlando Bloom was nearly killed in 1998 when he broke his back in a fall out of a window and fell three floors. He was told he may not walk again. He was operated on, and twelve days later he walked out of the hospital with the help of crutches.

There were days where Orlando Bloom (Legolas) was unable to wear his blue contact lenses, because they scratched his eyes. For those scenes his eyes were digitally colorized.

In the cave scene in which Faramir lifts the Ring from under Frodo's shirt, David Wenham was afraid of accidentally stabbing Elijah Wood, so a swordsman was brought in to do the scene.