Yes, the Lord Of The Rings films are very long movies, but if you haven't sat down to watch them yet, you should and soon because it's important to be on top of your pop culture knowledge. Plus, the series is freaking intense and amazing. It's quite literally the definition of a masterpiece.
Every time we watch The Lord of The Rings we always wonder, "Why didn't the eagles just fly them into Mount Doom to begin with?" Besides the fact that the eye would probably see them, one reddit user came up with the best fan theory ever this week. To sum it up, Gandalf's plan all along was to use the birds to fly them into Mordor. When he escapes Saruman's tower, he goes and tells the eagles of the plan. His plan is to bring the ring to them, where they can then fly the ring over. Well, then Gandalf goes and fights the Balrog and (spoiler alert) dies (ish?), but before he lets go of the cliff he yells, "Fly, you fools!" He is literally telling them to go to the eagles and fly. Mind blown, right?
In honor of that brilliant fan, we've discovered 25 facts about LOTR that we never knew existed until today.
1. John Rhys-Davies is 6’1!
That’s right, Gimli the dwarf is played by a man who is 6’1. He is the tallest of all the guys in the Fellowship.
2. Gandalf’s head bump was an accident.
In The Fellowship of The Ring when Gandalf hits his forehead on the ceiling beam of Bilbo’s house, it was not a part of the script, but since it looked so natural, Peter Jackson decided to keep it in the movie.
3. Christopher Lee met J.R.R. Tolkien.
Christopher Lee, AKA Saruman, was the only cast member to have met J.R.R Tolkien. He made his own tradition of reading the book once a year. He was also the first person to be cast in the movie.
4. Viggo Mortensen broke two toes in The Two Towers.
When Aragon, Gimli and Legolas are looking for Merry and Pippin by the remains of the Orc army, Mortensen kicked a steel helmet and broke two of his toes. That was the take that is used in the film because Peter Jackson thought his scream of pain looked like he was grieving over losing Merry and Pippin.
5. There was more than one ring used in the movie.
Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) were both given copies of the rings they used during filming when they wrapped on set.
6. The cast got matching tattoos!
During The Fellowship of The Ring, eight of the nine members of the fellowship got the word "nine" tattooed in elvish on their bodies. The only one who didn’t participate was John Rhys-Davies (Gimli). At the end of filming, Peter Jackson got one too—except his said "ten" in elvish.
7. Orlando Bloom is a stuntman extraordinaire.
Orlando Bloom (Legolas) is actually credited with many of his own stunts. He even broke a rib while filming one of the movies.
8. LOTR has the most Academy nominations of any series.
The Lord of The Rings trilogy has been nominated 30 times for Academy Awards, surpassing Star Wars and The Godfather.
9. They barely finished the movie on time.
Return of The King was finished just five days before the first screening, and the first time Peter Jackson saw the final cut was the night of the premiere.
10. The Battle of Helm’s Deep took four months to shoot.
And it was perfect!
11. Hobbiton took a year to prep for shooting.
They built the Hobbiton set a year prior to filming so that it looked natural. They had real vegetable gardens and even had sheep to eat the grass.
12. The Hobbits had to wake up earlier than everyone else.
Each Hobbit had their own makeup artist because it would take an hour an a half each morning to apply their Hobbit feet!
13. Viggo Mortensen wasn’t the first choice for Aragon.
Peter Jackson went to Daniel Day-Lewis and Russell Crowe about the part first. Russell really wanted to take the part but couldn’t commit to the long shoot. We are happy they couldn't take the role, because Viggo Mortensen was perfect for it!
14. Orlando Bloom didn’t audition for Legolas.
He actually auditioned to play Boromir’s brother Faramir. Of course, the part went to David Wenham, but they cast Orlando in a bigger part anyways, so it worked out for him in the end.
15. We could have had other weird cast members too!
Jake Gyllenhaal auditioned for the role of Frodo, and Liam Neeson turned down the role of Boromir. Originally Jackson wanted Lucy Lawless to play Galadriel and Uma Thurman to play Arwen.
16. Their budget was $500 million for all three movies.
They had $300 million for production and $200 million marketing costs.
17. They filmed a scene in a New Zealand parking lot.
In The Two Towers, the marshes of water filled with dead people were actually filmed in a parking lot that they filled up with water.
18. Many family members appear as extras in the movies.
Sean Astin’s real daughter plays Samwise’s daughter at the end of Return of The King. Elijah Woods’ sister Hannah and Viggo Mortensen’s son Henry are both refugees at Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers. Finally, Peter Jackson’s son and daughter play “cute Hobbit children” in The Fellowship of The Ring.
19. Aragon is 87 years old.
If you’ve read the book, you already know this, but in The Two Towers (extended edition) they mention that because he’s a descendent Dunedain, he has an abnormally long life.
20. Tolkien’s great grandson makes an appearance!
Royd Tolkien cameos in Return of The King as a Gondor soldier.
21. They filmed the Grey Haven scene at the very end three times.
The very end scene where everyone is crying for about 25 minutes? Yeah, that one. The first time, Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt. The second time the film negatives were exposed to the light and messed up the picture. The third time was the charm.
22. Eowyn and Faramir totally hook up.
In the extended edition, that is. Thankfully, we can’t deal with her home-wrecking into Aragon and Arwen’s relationship.
23. 1,460 eggs were served for breakfast for the cast and crew.
Every morning on the set someone had to cook 1,460 eggs. So. Many. Eggs.
24. They filmed all three movies simultaneously.
And it took 16 months (274 working days) to shoot them all.
25. Sean Bean is scared of helicopters.
He would only fly in one when it was necessary, otherwise he would hike up to where the crew was setting up each day.
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