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* Continuity: When Christine faints there is a candle behind her that is not lit, but before she fainted it was lit.
* Continuity: Christine takes off the wedding veil that the Phantom gave her and drops it. When the Phantom is leaving, the veil is back on the mannequin, and then is gone when Meg walks past.
* Continuity: When Christine first lights a candle for her father after her first performance and Meg Giry comes, she lights the taper from a second candle, but the long shot shows only one candle is lit - the one Christine just lit.
* Crew or equipment visible: During Christine's first visit to the Phantom's lair, the shadows of the camera and camera crane are visible on her and the Phantom as he crosses in front of her at one point.
* Revealing mistakes: When Christine is visiting the cemetery, we see her pass the same set of tombstones (most notably a small stone with an iron fence and a much larger one shaped vaguely like a bed) from three or four different directions before she finally reaches her father's tomb.
* Continuity: When Meg steps out of the underground river and into the Phantom's lair, her brown pants are clearly soaked with water; a few moments later, when she finds the Phantom's mask in the bedchamber, her pants are perfectly dry.
* Continuity: Christine's hair is wild while running up the staris in "Why have you brought me here..." and then on the roof her hair is pulled back.
* Crew or equipment visible: During the chandelier scene, when the camera pans on the audience rushing out of the theater, several crew members are visible in street clothes in the top left corner.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: During the beginning of the "Masquerade" scene the singers lips are not matched to the music.
* Revealing mistakes: In the cemetery, the snowflakes that land on Christine's face do not melt.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the end of "Music of the Night" as the Phantom is laying Christine into her bed, his mouth and the audio are unsynchronized.
* Revealing mistakes: When Christine takes off the Phantom's mask during Don Juan his disfigurement spreads down where the skin was clear before.
* Anachronisms: During the Masquerade scene, when the phantom comes downstairs, he has not got the bag with the Don Juan Notes in his hand, but when he arrives at the bottom of the stairs, he throws the bag with the notes on the floor.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: During "Prima Donna" Carlotta's lips do not match the words being sung.
* Continuity: In the final scenes in the Phantom's lair, Christine is wearing a bridal veil but when the camera is changed to view the Phantom, the veil is missing and then re-appears when the camera is changed back to Christine.
* Revealing mistakes: During the chandelier scene, the crowd is running and you can see the knee pads on the women when their dresses come up.
* Both Gerard Butler and Patrick Wilson hated filming the water scenes.
* The sweeping camera angles during "All I Ask of You" made it necessary to shoot multiple takes of the kiss between Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson. Emmy Rossum had to ice her lips between takes to prevent them from swelling.
* Even though in the Andrew Lloyd Webber version the Phantom doesn't have a name, in the original book he's called Erik.
* All of the principal actors sang in the film except for Minnie Driver. Most of the actors have a background in musicals or opera, but Minnie Driver (a skilled singer) had no experience in opera and was dubbed by Margaret Preece, a singing teacher from Solihull, UK. Driver does however contribute the film's end title song, "Learn To Be Lonely," written specifically for the film by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
* The Phantom's white half-mask prop that Gerard Butler wore for the film sold for £6,350 on eBay.
* The most expensive independent film ever made.
* Gerard Butler's first days of filming were five weeks into production, where he and Emmy Rossum did "Past the Point of No Return" which took three days to film.
* Emmy Rossum was only 16 when this movie was filmed, the same age as her character Christine when the movie is set.
* The project was ready to begin filming in 1990 and was set to star Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman (the original stars of the stage version). Just before filming began, Andrew Lloyd Webber divorced Brightman and the project was put on hold.
* Shekhar Kapur was set to direct at one point.
* John Travolta and Antonio Banderas were both considered for the role of the Phantom. Banderas actually spent several years in vocal preparation, and sang the role of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration (1998) (TV).
* Keira Knightley auditioned for the role of Christine Daaé.
* Charlotte Church and 'Anne Hathaway' were considered for the role of Christine Daaé.
* While others have been mentioned through the years, Joel Schumacher was Andrew Lloyd Webber's choice for director since the movie project was conceived in the early '90s.
* It took four hours for Gerard Butler to be fitted with full makeup and prosthetics.
* Filming of the final lair scene took a week to complete.
* Katie Holmes was almost cast as Christine but the director said she was too old for the part.
* The movie was dubbed into Spanish by the actors and singers from the Madrid stage version. The main roles are played by Juan Carlos Barona (The Phantom), Julia Möeller (Christine), Paco Arrojo (Raoul), Yolanda Pérez Segoviano (Mme. Giry), Belén Marcos (Carlotta), Tony Cruz (Firmin), David Venancio Muro (André), Enrique Ferrer (Piangi) and Ana Esther Alborg (Meg Giry). The Spanish lyrics, however, are different from the Madrid version because of the need of lyrics that can be lip-synced with the screen actors.
* In April 2004 an audience of the stage version of "The Phantom of the Opera" in London were asked to stay behind at the end and record the sound effects for the movie. The sounds will be played during the chandelier crash.
* The same lead sculptors were used for the making of the film sets and for the original stage show in London.
* Neither Gerard Butler nor Emmy Rossum had seen the musical prior to receiving their roles.
* Joel Schumacher was chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber after he saw The Lost Boys (1987) and was impressed by Joel Schumacher's use of music.
* When the Phantom is taking Christine to his lair, he places her on a black horse for a while. This is not part of the show, but is a nod to the original book, where the Phantom uses a horse named Cesar to transport Christine part of the way.
* Andrew Lloyd Webber composed 15 minutes of new music for the film.
* Andrew Lloyd Webber only insisted that the actors do their own singing, after 'Joel Schumacher' requested that the cast would be relatively young.
* In the beginning of the movie, the retiring owner, Lefevre, says that the only way to please Carlotta is, "Grovel, grovel". This is part of a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, another one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's shows.
* The chandelier weighed 2.2 tons, cost $1.3 million, and was provided by Swarovski. It had a stunt double for riskier scenes. There was also a third chandelier made, that was equipped with electricity and lighting for the opening scene.
* The music is played by a 110-piece orchestra.
* The Phantom speaks only eight of his lines and sings the rest.
* In Christine's debut performance as the star of the Opera House, she wears a costume that is an exact replica of the outfit Empress Elizabeth (aka "Sisi") of Austria wears in her most famous portrait. This includes the white diaphanous dress with full, billowing skirt, as well as the diamond star-bursts in her hair and earrings. This is not surprising when one considers the fact that Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most important collectors of artwork from this period, and would be familiar with the portrait in question.
* For the auditions, a set was built and the actors wore costume.
* Because the chandelier scene is at the end of the film, as opposed to ending the first act as it does in the play, one of the lines in the song "Masquerade" had to be altered so that instead of referring to a "new chandelier" they talk of "friends that are here".
* Patrick Wilson (Raoul) was the first to be signed, then Gerard Butler (The Phantom), then Emmy Rossum (Christine).
* The theatre fire was an actual fire. Joel Schumacher wanted realism, so they destroyed the theatre for the scene.
* The screenplay was written in the south of France in 1989 by Joel Schumacher and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
* Emmy Rossum almost didn't get the part because her mother didn't want her to miss her family reunion. Luckily, director Joel Schumacher was able to convince her to leave early in order to sing for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
* The lit candelabras that rise from the water were not done with special effects or CGI lights: the special wicks ignited when they reached the air. This effect was done in one take and didn't work again after that.
* In the "Masquerade" scene, there is a pan up the stairs. When it reaches the top of the stairs, opera patrons dressed in cat masks strike the pose that the cats on the show "Cats" pose in any promotional material. "Cats" is also an Andrew Lloyd Webber show.
* At the end of the Masquerade scene, Raoul briefly enters a circular chamber full of mirrors. This is a reference to the original Phantom of the Opera novel, in which the Phantom used the mirrored chamber as a torture chamber to drive victims insane.
* Patrick Wilson did his own stunts.
* The instruction to "Keep your hand at the level of your eyes" is another reference from the book, in which the Phantom was adept at disposing of victims with the "Punjab lasso." Keeping one's hand at the level of one's eyes kept the Punjab lasso away from the victim's neck and was the only defense.
Pirates Of the Caribbean
* Errors in geography: Port Royal, Jamaica, is built on a low spit of sand south of Kingston Harbor, nowhere more than about ten feet above sea level. The movie set has it built atop hundred-foot basaltic cliffs.
* Factual errors: Elizabeth Swann's maid fills a bed warmer with red-hot coals and then places the warmer at the feet of Elizabeth, who is lying in bed. That's not the way bed warmers were used. They held warm, not red-hot, coals, and were placed in bed before one turned in and removed before the sleeper lay down. If used as shown in the movie, they would have barbecued one's feet.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Sparrow has no problems sliding down the rope using his handcuffs because the chain is long enough for him to be able to throw a loop of chain over the rope and grab it in his other hand. When he reaches the bottom, he lets go and the rope is released without his having to undo the cuffs or untie the rope (or even detach one of his hands as one viewer suggested).
* Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, the chains on Sparrow's handcuffs are long enough for him to be able to throw a loop of chain over the rope and grab it in his other hand, but later in the movie when Sparrow is trying to take off his handcuffs the chain is much shorter (not long enough to throw a loop over the rope as he did earlier).
* Continuity: When Captain Jack is escaping and fighting Will in the blacksmith's shop, his shirt cuffs keep altering from being under the manacles to being further up his arms. This also happens earlier on, when he is swinging in a circle to escape the guards at Port Royal.
* Continuity: When Barbossa is chasing the Interceptor, as he is shouting commands, in one shot his teeth are perfectly white, while in the rest of the movie they are decayed.
* Factual errors: The chest of cursed Aztec gold, which Cortez was said to have taken from Mexico, depicts four representations of the primary image of the Sun Gate from the Tiahuanaco civilization, outside La Paz, Bolivia.
* Continuity: Inside the treasure-filled cave, shafts of moonlight descend straight downward. However, the view outside shows the moon fairly low in the sky.
* Anachronisms: Jack's execution uses a trapdoor-style gallows. This was not invented until the 1800s.
* Anachronisms: At least twice during the movie, the left side of the ship is referred to as "port" (as in, "drop the port anchor"). "Larboard" was used until the 19th century when referring to the ship, and "port" was only for directions. "Hard a-port" or "turn to port" would have been used, but nothing referring to the port side of the ship until the 1800s.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth is being chased through her house and hides in the dining room closet, the amount of the rug that is flipped over changes. At one point a long section of the rug is turned back, later, the turned back portion is much smaller.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth takes the medallion out of the secret hiding place, her fingernails are short. When Captain Jack saves her from being shot during the battle between both ships, her nails are long and manicured.
* Continuity: When Jack is talking to the two guards on the dock, in the background you can see a man rowing a boat towards the ship by the cliffs. As the camera switches back and forth between the guards and Jack, you can see the progress of the rowboat. However, at one point the boat suddenly disappears, but wouldn't have had enough time to have rowed out of the camera's view.
* Continuity: During the fight between the pirates and Norrington's crew at the cave, one of the two guards from the dock had been killed just moments earlier is now alive again and fighting the pirates on the deck.
* Revealing mistakes: Shortly after having been rescued from the gallows, in one close-up Jack Sparrow can be seen wearing contact lenses (they were tinted lenses to stop him from squinting).
* Continuity: When Jack Sparrow first arrives, the sky is full of white clouds and light blue sky, implying that it is midday and the sun is high, however when we see the close-ups of Jack, the clouds have a deep yellow tint to them as if it is sunrise or sunset.
* Continuity: After Jack escapes from the Black Pearl's dungeon and grabs the rope (after the line "Thanks very much") his pony tail is above his bandana on the left side, not the right.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Will draws his sword on the Interceptor and tells Jack that his father wasn't a pirate, the sword makes a metallic scraping noise, despite being tucked in his belt without a sheath of any kind.
* Anachronisms: When Elizabeth discovers that the pirates are cursed, a pirate is seen sitting on the capstan playing a concertina. The concertina was not invented until 1829.
* Revealing mistakes: When Jack had just escaped and is flying around in circles around the pole, the soldiers are told to shoot him. Many of them continue to shoot, without reloading.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth is trying to save Captain Jack Sparrow just before he puts the chain of the handcuffs around her neck, the medallion is alternately in/out of her dress between shots.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl, she is hit by the bo's'n and puts her left hand to her face, palm outwards. In the next shot, her hand is palm inward.
* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Will has a tattoo on his wrist which is visible in some shots. We are not told that Will is free of tattoos and the fact that *we* know it to be an "elvish" nine is of no consequence - it's just a pretty pattern.
* Continuity: In the opening shots of young Elizabeth singing at the front of the ship, the posts on either side of her have rope on them (wrapped around them). Moments later, the post to her right has no rope wrapped around it or hanging from it.
* Revealing mistakes: After Will And Jack commandeer the Interceptor, the ship is viewed from above, sailing on a beam reach (a point of sail in which the boat is at 90 degrees to the wind). When Jack knocks Will off the ship with the boom, he jibes the boat, causing the sail to shift positions so suddenly. In order to do this from the previous position, he would have had to turn the ship almost completely around. This would have taken well over a minute. Jack did this in less that three seconds. The sail is also filled to the wrong side while it sweeps Will off the deck.
* Factual errors: HMS Dauntless and HMS Interceptor are shown flying the British Blue Ensign. Prior to 1864, the color of a Royal Navy vessel's ensign was determined by its posting. The color of the Caribbean squadron's ensign was red, as should have been the Dauntless' and Interceptor's (blue was the color of the south Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans).
* Continuity: When Jack is talking Barbossa just before their final fight, he picks up a large gold idol and tosses it away. In the next shot, the idol has returned to its original position.
* Crew or equipment visible: At the Isla del Muertes when Jack and Norrington are in the rowboat, discussing the dangers of ambush, (just after Jack's line, "Not if you're the one doing the ambushing"), a diver's green fin appears in the water to the right of the boat.
* Continuity: When Jack meets his crew in Tortuga, the hand Annamaria is using to point at Jack changes from her right to her left, then back to right again as they discuss replacing her ship.
* Continuity: When Jack and Barbossa are fighting, Barbossa plunges Jacks sword into Jack. When it goes in, it is below Jack's leather strap. When we see Jack as a skeleton, the sword is above the leather strap.
* Continuity: A shot opens with the full moon prominent in the frame. The moon is crossed by the sails of The Black Pearl at an angle that indicates that the moon is almost straight overhead. We pull back to show the ship gliding past, and when it has, we are looking at the horizon, where we see the full moon very close to setting.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth outs the medallion in her dress when she gets startled by her father's knock, the chain is long enough for it to fit between her breasts. Later, when the pirates are taking her into the cave the medallion falls a little below her neck
* Continuity: After Pintel and Ragetti capture Elizabeth at the governor's manor, there's a shot of the full moon coming out from behind the clouds. The clouds are moving to the right. Later, we see a shot of the moon getting covered by the clouds again. But this time, the clouds are moving to the left.
* Plot holes: After Pintel and Ragetti capture Elizabeth at the governor's manor, there's a shot shown of the full moon coming out from behind the clouds. We then cut to the interior of the prison where Jack first learns about the curse of the Black Pearl's crew. Then we see a shot of the moon getting covered by the clouds again. However, even though it would happen off screen, all the townspeople and officers would have also seen the pirates in their skeletal forms in town, and Elizabeth would have seen them on her way out to the Pearl. Yet she is surprised when she sees this later, as are the naval officers.
* Anachronisms: In the beginning of the Commodore's promotion ceremony "Rule Britannia" is played in the yard. The song was not composed until 1740.
* Continuity: When they are entering the cave the first time (so they can get the blood from Elizabeth) Captain Barbossa places the medallion around Elizabeth's neck and hair. However in the next shot Elizabeth's hair is not under the chain of the medallion (there is no way she could have done this herself because her hands were tied).
* Continuity: When Jack and Will board the Dauntless after walking under the water with the rowing boat over their heads, by the time they have climbed onto the deck and announced that they are taking over the ship their clothes are bone dry.
* Continuity: When Will Turner is bargaining for the lives of Elisabeth Swann and the crew of the Interceptor, Elisabeth's hair alternates being in and out of her face.
* Continuity: When Will challenges Jack in the their first encounter, Jack runs his sword along the left side of Will's blade in the wide shot, but in the close up from Will's side, Jack's blade is on the right side of Will's.
* Revealing mistakes: When Norrington arrives on the HMS Dauntless to fight the cursed pirates, some of the naval personal are fighting no one because the CGI skeletons weren't put in.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth has her hand cut in the first curse-lifting ceremony, the cut is made on the fleshy pad below her thumb. When she bandages the cut later, the bandages go down the middle of her palm, and wouldn't have covered the wound.
* Factual errors: In the mid-17th century, "Commodore" was simply a new title for captains that were in charge of squadrons, not a promotion. Commodore became a promotion in mid-to-late 19th century America.
* Continuity: When Elizabeth falls over the cliff, her hat falls off and is descending after her. In the next shot, the hat has disappeared.
* Continuity: When Jack is trying to unlock the prison door with the bone, he never takes it out when Will comes down the stairs. In the next scene, the bone is gone.
* Continuity: In the governor's mansion, when Ragetti and Pintel are chasing after Elizabeth, Ragetti is carrying a lighted torch in his hand. When the ashes and coals are dropped on him, he is still holding the torch as he tries to brush the ashes off. In the next shot, as he and Pintel exit the room, he is no longer carrying it. When he appears at the banister and jumps off the landing to corner Elizabeth, the torch is back in his hand.
* Continuity: When he first shows up in the movie bringing the sword to Governor Swann, Will Turner is almost clean shaven (just a trace of a little mustache). His next scene, at the blacksmith shop - which in the movie happens at the same day, maybe an hour later - Will has a little goatee and almost full mustache.
* Continuity: At governor Swann's house, Elizabeth uses hot coals from her bedpan to scare off one of the pirates. Later in the film, Barbossa says that he can't feel anything due to the curse, so why would the pirate Elizabeth attacked be affected by the coals?
* Factual errors: When Jack and Will are walking along the ocean floor toward the Dauntless breathing air trapped in an overturned boat they are holding above their bodies, the trapped air would have very quickly floated the boat - and anyone holding on to it - back to the surface.
* Plot holes: If Elizabeth Swann had a medallion in her possession, she should have also turned into a skeleton at the moonlight.
* Miscellaneous: At the end of the movie, Jack dives into the water and starts swimming towards the Black Pearl, which has White Sails. When he is pulled onto the ship, it has Black Sails.
* Crew or equipment visible: When Will is fighting the Pirates at Port Royal he is struck on the head by a looting Pirate. As Will starts to fall you can see the blue crash mat behind him.
* Continuity: As Jack Sparrow steps off of his sinking ship onto the dock for the first time, in the first shot, he puts out his right foot to step onto the dock. In the next shot, he steps onto the dock with his left foot without having put down his right.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: Before Elizabeth passes out and falls to the water, she is wearing a gold choker necklace. After she hits the water and is saved by Captain Jack Sparrow, the necklace is gone.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: At Commodore Norrington's promotion ceremony, the troops are given the command "right about face", which they proceed to execute. As the camera changes angles they have not completed the command, but you never hear the sound of their feet completing the last step of the maneuver.
* Crew or equipment visible: At the end of the movie when Jack Sparrow says "On deck, you scabrous dogs", there is a pirate on the left side of Jack. Behind him you can clearly see a man in a white t-shirt, hat and sun glasses.
* On August 10, 2002, a fire started on the soundstage where the movie was shot. Nobody was hurt and the damage was estimated to be $350,000.
* The movie is inspired by, and takes its theme from, the popular Walt Disney theme park ride of the same name.
* Stick around after the credits for an additional scene.
* References to the Disneyland attractions include (but are not limited to):
o three uses of the song "(Yo Ho, Yo Ho) A Pirate's Life for Me" by X. Atencio and George Bruns in the opening scene (sung by young Elizabeth), when Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, and in the end by Jack.
o The jail scenes, in which the prisoners try to tempt the dog who holds the key to their cell. Jack says, "That dog is never going to move" - although the movie dog eventually does, the one in the ride doesn't. Jack later tries to tempt it with a bone, as does one of the audio-animatronic pirates in the ride.
o The "burning town" sequence, and within it, the redheaded prostitute (who slaps Jack), and the "stuffed pirate" drinking the rum spurting out of a barrel
o Jack's initial discovery of Gibbs sleeping with the pigs
o The line "Dead men tell no tales", said by the macaw, which is repeated throughout the ride's narration
o A quick shot of a skeleton sprawled on the beach of the Isla de Muerta, with a crab nearby
o During the raid on the town, seen is a man being dunked into a well.
o A skeletal Barbossa drinks wine, which trickles through his exposed ribcage, as one of the skeletal pirates do.
o During the battle scene between the two ships, Black Pearl and the Interceptor Captain Barbosa refers to his crew as "bloomin cockroaches" just like the captain in the ride does when his ship attacks a local town fort.
o In Tortuga, we see a pirate drinking rum on top of two barrels and is wobbling just like in the ride.
o There are references to cursed treasure in the ride: old pirates speak of cursed treasure and how you probably don't believe in it, and the line "Who knows when that evil curse will strike the greedy beholders of this bewitched treasure."
o The woman wearing a red dress at Tortuga island that slaps Jack and he wonders if he deserved it is a character in the ride.
o Part of the Caribbean Beach Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is called "Port Royal".
* When Will wakes up after being knocked out, he looks out into the port and you can see the same girl who played the young Elizabeth sweeping at a doorway (Lucinda Dryzek).
* Jack Sparrow's line "...and then they made me their chief," is a tribute to British comedy series "The Fast Show" (1994), of which Johnny Depp is an ardent fan, so much so that he guest starred in one episode. The line was originally said by a character, played by Mark Williams, who usually appeared in a kitchen and is, in its entirety "...and then they made me their chief. Which was nice." The line has also been said by another character, in The Fast Show, Sir Roly Birkin (played by Paul Whitehouse), who blurts out random sentences during his drunken, mumbled ramblings. The Fast Show was shown in the US under the title "Brilliant". (Depp uses another Fast Show catchphrase (again from a Mark Williams character) in an unused version of the "parley" scene in the cave when he says, "I'll get me coat..." - this can be seen on the DVD.)
* The film's last spoken line - "Bring me that horizon" - was conceived by Johnny Depp on the morning the scene was filmed.
* The island Isla de Muerto is Spanish for "island of the dead". Tortuga is also Spanish, meaning "turtle".
* The ship used as HMS Interceptor is the an actual ship, the Lady Washington and is the official tall ship ambassador of the State of Washington. She can also be seen in Star Trek: Generations (1994) and was used as a reference for the RLS Legacy in Treasure Planet (2002).
* When returning from a night shoot on one of the Caribbean islands, Keira Knightley's boat struck a reef and went down. The only people aboard were Knightley, her mother and the boat's skipper, all of whom escaped unharmed and were rescued within a few hours. However, the incident ultimately determined that the rest of the island night shoots needed would complete filming in a studio, rather than on location.
* The title was originally just "Pirates of the Caribbean" but the name was changed in the hope that it would do well at the box office and a sequel could be made.
* The movie's world premiere was located at Disneyland Park at the Disneyland Resort in California, home to the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, on June 28, 2003. This was the first ever movie premiere at Disneyland.
* Johnny Depp's character, Captain Jack, is portrayed as having gold teeth in the film. These are real and Depp had his dentist implant those and others into his mouth for the production. Disney executive Michael Eisner thought there were too many and asked him to remove all but a few.
* Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski wanted to use the massive water tank in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico used for Titanic (1997) and Pearl Harbor (2001), but Peter Weir's film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) had the tank booked during the time Pirates was scheduled to shoot.
* The "walking under the row boat" scene is a direct homage to The Crimson Pirate (1952).
* The scene where Orlando Bloom impersonates Johnny Depp's performance was devised by Bloom who asked producer Jerry Bruckheimer if he could put it into the movie.
* Many of the crew got seasick while filming.
* The final cannon shot during the Black Pearl's siege of the town, billows into a Mickey Mouse head shape against the night sky
* In an attempt to ward off the seasickness that struck the rest of the cast and crew, Keira Knightley took a travel sickness pill... and fell asleep instead.
* Clothing and smears of charcoal were used to conceal Johnny Depp's numerous tattoos. The "Jack Sparrow" tattoo on his arm in the movie is a fake, but he got a real replica after finishing the film, in honor of his son Jack.
* The "Fort" in Port Royal is actually not on St. Vincent's, but at a closed down amusement park (Marineland) in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
* In the cave at Isla de Muerte, one of Barboassa's pirates can be seen with what appears to be a smoking beard. According to the legends of Blackbeard (a famous pirate) he used to attach slow burning fuses to his beard before a raid.
* When Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the screenwriters, originally pitched the movie to the Disney executives in the early '90s, it was rejected.
* Alan Silvestri was first suggested to provide the score but has been replaced by Klaus Badelt. However, some movie posters still show the credit "Music by Alan Silvestri". These posters also show a different story credit, omitting the fourth story writer Jay Wolpert: "Screen Story by Stuart Beattie and Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio".
* Governor Swann's first name is Weatherby, Commodore's is James, and Barbossa's is Hector.
* On the DVD commentary with director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, it is revealed that Captain Barbossa's first name is Hector.
* The substance sprayed on William Turner after the sword fight between him and Captain Jack Sparrow is actually powdered chocolate.
* The East Indian Trading Company really did brand pirates with a "P" but it was put on their foreheads instead of their arms.
* Industrial Light and Magic designers scanned turkey jerky to create the effect of decomposing skin when the pirates turn into their skeletal forms.
* The various "eunuch" lines were improvisations by Johnny Depp.
* When filming in the cave, excessive makeup was added to the characters so they wouldn't looked washed out on film. When the crew realized how cool the makeup looked on Johnny Depp, they continued to use it on him for the rest of the movie.
* Jimmy Buffett was offered a role as a pirate, but had to decline due to previous engagements.
* The words "pirate" and "piracy" are said 56 times.
* Johnny Depp wore contact lenses which served as sunglasses so he wouldn't be squinting in the sun all the time.
* According to the screenwriters' commentary on the DVD, Will Turner is the best swordsman in the film, Barbossa and Commodore Norrington are evenly matched, and Jack Sparrow is actually the worst.
* The monkey "Jack" is played by two capuchin monkeys. One is a 10-year old female named Tara, the other an 8-year old male named Levi.
* Voted number 4 in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films".
* The tattoo that Orlando Bloom got on his right wrist during The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) is covered throughout most of the film. It's visible during the sword-fight in the blacksmith shop when Will raises his sword to parry after Jack's "You're not a eunuch, are you?" and again below decks on the Interceptor where Elizabeth reveals she took the medallion and Will realizes it was his blood the pirates need to lift the curse - you can see it just as he reaches to touch the medallion on her chest.
* Keira Knightley's hair was extended because it was still short from her role in Bend It Like Beckham (2002).
* Having decided that pirates were the 18th century equivalent of rock stars, Johnny Depp's characterization of Sparrow was inspired by close observation of his friend Keith Richards, though he emphasized in interviews that it was not an impersonation.
* Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey, and Christopher Walken were all considered for the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.
* Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Tobey Maguire, and Christian Bale were all considered for the role of Will Turner. (Arwen! Christian Bale!)
More Lord of the rings
* Continuity: In the scene of Theoden's death, a black line appears and disappears between shots on the right side of Eowyn's forehead, over her eyebrow.
* Revealing mistakes: Near the beginning of the film as the camera flies towards Rohan you can see the smoke pouring back into the chimneys rather than out of them.
* Continuity: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right. Later when Sam draws his sword, it is back on his left side.
* Plot holes: At the Black Gates, although we see all the main characters on horseback to start with, when the battle actually starts *all* the horses have disappeared.
* Continuity: When Sam is holding Frodo on his lap during the climb up Mt. Doom, the wound on Frodo's face has moved from his right cheek to his left. The footage for the entire scene has been flipped.
* Continuity: The position of Smeagol's hands around Deagol's throat changes noticeably between cuts.
* Continuity: After Eowyn decapitates the Witch King's fellbeast, the severed head disappears.
* Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are bewildered as the orc army marches out from the fortress by the bottom of the secret stair, they are lit from the bridge's direction by red and orange fiery colors. In the reverse shots of the bridge and the fortress, there is no orange light in the shot at all, only the ghostly green lighting.
* Continuity: When the orc and the Uruk-Hai fight over the mithril shirt in the tower, there is a short shot where the normally long-haired orc is bald.
* Continuity: When Gandalf and Pippin are in Minas Tirith, and Gandalf is outside he starts coughing on his pipe smoke. On this wide shot, Pippin is tucked into bed. Then, in the next shot, he is up standing by his bed looking at his new Gondorian armor. He then gets Gandalf some water from the pitcher.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: Prior to Faramir's ride to re-capture Osgiliath, Gandalf challenges him. There is one shot where Faramir comments on the "Men of Gondor" there are a number of words before this phrase but his lips do not appear to moving.
* Continuity: In the "Voice of Saruman Scene", Treebeard starts and ends the scene in front of Orthanc's door. Throughout the scene, Treebeard is nowhere to be seen.
* Continuity: Elrond's hair changes from being neatly tucked behind his ears to free flowing and back behind his ears again between shots as Arwen convinces him to re-forge the shards of Narsil.
* Continuity: The amount of mud along with the ring in Deagol's hand lessens considerably with each shot of him looking at the ring, until the mud is completely gone by the time he is attacked by Smeagol.
* Continuity: The two doors of the Black Gate continue to open as Aragorn and the others ride away from the approaching Orc army. When Aragorn rides as he shouts, "Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers... when the age of men comes crashing down," at the top of the screen the "closed gate" is visible.
* Continuity: After Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith, Merry and Pippin stand in the doorway. Their height reaches the middle of the ornate door carving in the close-up, but in their next wide shot running in, they are considerably lower. When Legolas and Aragorn walk in, also in a close-up, their height is just a bit higher on the carving than the two Hobbits' heights were. Then when Sam stands in the doorway his height also reaches the center of the carving.
* Continuity: Sam rolls down Shelob's back, then he grabs Sting and takes a stance against Shelob. In the next wide shot, Sam stands ready and Shelob positions herself at the stairway. Frodo's wrapped body is not lying anywhere to be seen.
* Continuity: At the end, when the four Hobbits are entering Grey Havens, Sam is wearing a yellow vest with brown buttons over a white shirt. When Frodo makes his way onto the ship and turns back to smile at his friends, Sam is no longer wearing the yellow vest. The vest is still not there when the three Hobbits turn to leave the Grey Havens. When Sam is holding his daughter, he is once again wearing the yellow vest.
* Continuity: When at the Black Gate, the army of men are surrounded by Orcs, then after Aragorn's "For Frodo" line, they charge across the screen from left to right. When they are running, in a shot where Gandalf is seen on the very right of the screen, you can see through some gaps and there are no Orcs, just an open field.
* Continuity: After Gorbag says, "You touch it, and I'll stick this blade in your gut", Shagrat and Gorbag start to fight. A few shots later there's a close-up of Gorbag being bald - he's not wearing his hairpiece/wig in this shot-as he's being pushed towards the right of the screen by Shagrat, just before falling into the hole! (On the Extended Edition DVD Director/Writer commentary, writer Philippa Boyens actually admits that his wig falls off!)
* Continuity: When Aragorn first meets the Army of the Dead, he is holding a torch in his left hand and a sword in his right hand. When he turns around to look at the rest of the undead, his torch and sword have switched hands. He then turns around again and the torch and sword are back where they originally were.
* Crew or equipment visible: After Pippin draws his sword, the next shot is of Orcs running to the right of the screen. As that shot opens, click five or six frames in and two crewmembers are seen between the Orcs on the right of the screen, click a few more times and more crew members are visible in the middle, between the Orcs.
* Continuity: When Gollum drops the lembas from the bridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in falling away, and the wafers fall generally 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 laying around unwrapped.
* Continuity: After Gollum says, "Clever Hobbits, to climb so high!", he jumps onto Frodo and Sam. Gollum then attacks Frodo and when he turns Frodo onto his back, Frodo's shirt is wide open at his neck/chest and the chain and Ring are gone. In the next close-up as Gollum chokes Frodo, and the following shots, the chain with the Ring is back.
* Continuity: Before the charge of the Rohirrim, we see that Merry and Eowyn are near the middle of the group, but when we see Merry during the charge, look behind him. There are about five horsemen, behind whom are just empty fields.
* Continuity: When Theoden "reforms the line" as the Mumakil approach, there are empty fields behind the horses. In the overhead shot of them charging, it is seen that there are still orcs in the background who should have been there in the previous shot.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Elrond comes to give the newly re-forged Narsil to Aragorn, a gust of wind suddenly blows up, knocking over a suit of armor in the background. The armor makes no noise as it crashes however.
* Continuity: When Aragorn meets the army of the dead, the elf leaf that hold his cape together changes. First its pointing left, then right again etc.
* Continuity: When Sam believes Frodo to be dead after his battle with Shelob, Frodo's eyes are open/closed/open between shots.
* Revealing mistakes: In Shelob's Lair, when Samwise pulls the web from "dead" Frodo's face, Frodo blinks. However, Frodo is paralyzed with his eyes open.
* Continuity: Nearing the end of the film where we see Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry having a drink at the Green Dragon, Frodo places four mugs on the table. The first sequence has two green mugs on the right and two brown mugs on the left. The second shot shows the mugs with a brown and green mug on each side of the table. Frodo puts the other brown mug in front of Merry, but in the next shot the other brown mug is in front of Pippin.
* Continuity: When Sam and Frodo are climbing Mt. Doom, Sam's sword switches from his left side to his right.
* Continuity: When Sam cuts Shelob's silk from around Frodo's face, it is completely cleared of silk in the close-up shots but remains covered with silk from the nose down in the long shots.
* Continuity: When Frodo and Sam are on the rock at the foot of the exploding Mount Doom, there is a shot of Frodo's left hand where the hand is completely clean and the finger is still there.
* Revealing mistakes: In a quick shot of Gandalf holding Pippin while riding Shadowfax in front of the Black Gate you can see Billy Boyd's double's face.
* Continuity: When Aragorn is running back to join his fellow men, when the black gate is open, we can see the CGI flag of the rider that goes with him is going from left to right, but in the next shot, the wind is in the opposite direction.
* Continuity: During the fight with Shelob, Sam is holding Frodo's sword which switches between Sam's right and left hand in between shots at least once.
* Continuity: When Arwen is reading the book after she sees the vision, there is a picture on the right-hand page. When she drops the book there is no picture there.
* Continuity: When Aragorn's party rides to the Black Gate, Eomer is shown as riding with them (he can be identified by the white plume on his helmet). When they reach the gate, Eomer is missing from most of the wide shots, although he's shown in at least one close-up.
* Continuity: When Frodo finishes writing the book, he reaches for the stab wound on his shoulder with the writing quill in hand. Then Sam walks in and in the next shot, Frodo's hand is still by his shoulder, but the quill is gone.
* Continuity: While Denethor is eating in the citadel hall and is asking Pippin if he knows how to sing, he has a smear of red wine/sauce/blood on his chin. In a subsequent shot, Denethor turns to the camera and the smear is gone. It then reappears as he looks back to Pippin.
* Continuity: When Gandalf is speaking with "the steward" the end of his cloak alternates between clean and mud soaked.
* Continuity: After the battle at Minas Tirith the clasp holding Pippin's cape together changes direction between shots.
* Continuity: When Pippin finds Merry after the battle his leaf-brooch is pointing to the left, in the following shot is pointing to the right.
* Continuity: When Sam stabs Shelob in the eye with Sting, the blade is covered with blood, but when it is knocked out of his hand in the next shot, it's perfectly clean.
* Continuity: When Gandalf and Pippin are talking during the battle at Minias Tirith, Gandalf's sword has orc blood on it. Then the camera switches to Pippin and when it returns to Gandalf, his sword has no blood.
* Continuity: The elf standing behind Elrond, Galadriel and Celeborn at the Grey Havens changes position several times between shots.
* Continuity: When the Army of the Dead enters Minas Tirith, one of the battlements on the city's outer wall (near the bottom of the frame) changes its shape and position, losing a portion of its tower.
* Continuity: Gollum sprinkles crumbs of the Lembas bread on Sam to incriminate him. When Sam gets up, the crumbs are gone. Then, they reappear when Gollum points them out.
* Continuity: After defeating Shelob, Sam runs to Frodo. He lays Sting down next to him, on an area of dirt with a couple rocks sticking up. But later, when we see Sting glow blue, it's on perfectly level dirt ground.
* Continuity: When Pippin takes the seeing stone from Gandalf's sleeping arms, he replaces it with a pitcher. This pitcher is absent when Gandalf wakes up.
* Revealing mistakes: While Eowyn delivers the decapitating blow to the Witch King's Fell Beast, the path of her sword swing does not come close to matching the location of the eventual sword strike on the beast's neck.
* Revealing mistakes: The aerial shot of Edoras (between the scene where Merry and Pippin are reunited with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf, and the scene where they do their drinking song on the table) is being shown backwards, as can be seen by watching the flow of the flag cloth in the wind.
* Continuity: When Frodo flips Gollum/Smeagol over the cliff his back and shoulders are free of spider webs. But when he falls and has the vision, the spider webs are back.
* Continuity: When Eowyn kills the Witch King, her arm is hurt and she keeps holding it close to her body. But when she stands up after Merry stabs him she uses her hurt arm to push herself up.
* Continuity: When Merry and Pippin are dancing on the table at Rohan you can see Gandalf from behind bouncing up and down on his feet but when you see the front of him he is nodding his head and clapping.
* Continuity: When Eowyn is fighting the Witch King, the strap holding her helmet is buckled, however, when she pulls off her helmet, there is no strap on it at all.
* Continuity: When Eowyn pulls off her helmet to kill the Witch King her hair is fairly neat. In the next shot as she is crawling away and calling for Merry, her hair is very messy. Then when she is leaning over Theoden, her hair is neat again.
* Revealing mistakes: After Frodo tells him to go home and he starts crying, the next close-up of Sam shows where his real and fake ear meet-right above the curl of hair.
* Revealing mistakes: When Frodo is running through the stone gate at the Mount of Doom, you can see the surface beneath his feet is sliding away, so it looks like he is "floating" just above the ground.
* Continuity: When Pippin saves Gandalf from being stabbed during the Minas Tirith battle Gandalfs hands change position when he is talking to Pippin.
* Continuity: When Pippin climbs up to light the beacon, the weather is cloudy without a trace of sunshine. However, Gandalf below is in bright sunshine.
* Continuity: One shot where the army of the dead reveal themselves in the cavern is flipped: As he turns to regard them appearing, Aragorn's leaf clasp is backwards and the torch and sword have changed hands.
* Revealing mistakes: When Aragorn speaks to Legolas and Gimli before they enter the Path of the Death, you can see a green shimmer in the back showing the King of the Death, exactly in this moment a knight of rohan crosses between Aragorn and the entrance, but the shimmer which is supposed to be several yards behind him appears "over" him.
* Continuity: When Sam deals the killing blow to Shelob, he is shown pulling Sting from her belly two times, first at the end of one view, then again about a second into a different view.
* Continuity: In the Voice of Saruman, after Saruman has fallen onto the spiked wheel it begins to turn, causing the Palantir to fall from his robe. When it is shown splashing into the water, the wheel is not turning, but continues to turn after the Pelantir has landed on the ground.
* Continuity: In the Voice of Saruman, when Pippin jumps from the horse and picks up the Palantir, the debris in the water changes position every time the scene changes.
* Factual errors: When Legolas jumps on the back of the elephant, he goes to cut the rope to release the people. However, there are about three thick rows of ropes going through the back of the elephant. Legolas only cuts one. The other ones were already cut.
* Revealing mistakes: Before the final battle at the Black Gate, Aragorn cuts the head off of Sauron's emissary. In the next scene, the emissary's horse, body, and severed head are nowhere to be seen (Extended Edition).
* Continuity: When Pippin is recovering from looking into the Palantir, the shots alternate between Gandalf and Pippin. In the shots of Pippin, you can see Gandalf's hand holding the side of Pippin's face. In the shots of Gandalf, the hand is no longer there.
* Continuity: In the Extended Edition, the Evenstar falls and shatters as Aragorn challenges the Palantir. In the battle at the Morannon, the top of the jewel can be seen tucked under his leather shirt.
* Continuity: At the end of the movie when the four hobbits are at the Green Dragon and Sam works up the nerve to approach Rosie, Frodo has all 10 of his fingers. Gollum had bitten off the finger Frodo placed the One Ring on at Mount Doom.
* Then 26-year-old Stuart Townsend was set to play Aragorn, but was let go after the six weeks of training and rehearsal and one day into filming because director Peter Jackson felt the character should be played by someone older. He was replaced by forty-one year old Viggo Mortensen
* The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) were filmed simultaneously.
* Most of the lines Legolas says in the Extended Edition scene of the Paths of the Dead are direct quotes from the book.
* For the Special Extended Edition, the scene in which Pippin is looking for Merry after the battle on Pelennor Fields was digitally altered so that it appears to be night instead of day. According to Peter Jackson on the commentary track, this was done to make it appear that Pippin has been looking for hours instead of minutes, underlining the friendship between the two Hobbits. In the original edit, because it appears that Pippin has only been looking for a few minutes his reaction to finding Merry seems like he's overreacting.
* Cameo: [Howard Shore (composer of all three films) and Michael Semanick (recording engineer)] seen over Legolas' shoulder during the drinking game in the Golden Hall, in the Extended Edition.
* SDDS 8 channel decoders list the title of the film that it is decoding on its display. For this film, certain reels were labeled "Till Death for Glory" whereas others were labeled "Bejing Chicken".
* John Rhys-Davies provides the voice of Treebeard (uncredited for this movie, but credited for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)).
* The scene on the extended DVD version of the "Corsairs of Umbar" being attacked by the army of the dead includes several cameos. Peter Jackson is the one hit by Legolas' arrow. (In the commentary, he states that he performed 6 or 7 takes of the hit - without any padding.) Co-producer Rick Porras is seen with a "look of horror" as the ghostly hoard attacks at the very end of the scene.
* A normal major motion picture averages about 200 effects shots. This film had 1488.
* The final reel of the film to be completed was done so only five days before the world premiere in Wellington, New Zealand. The premiere was the first time that Peter Jackson had seen the completed film.
* When Gandalf rides out, using the light of his staff to ward off the fell beasts so Faramir's team can get back to Minas Tirith, you see that Pippin is on the horse with him, even though there would have been no reason to bring him along. The reason is that this scene was originally filmed to coincide with Gandalf and Pippin's arrival at Minas Tirith, but was pushed further back as the story evolved.
* The first shot of Sam's arm coming into frame holding Sting towards Shelob is actually Peter Jackson's arm
* Lawrence Makoare, when wearing the Gothmog makeup, was called "Pimplehead" by extras who didn't know his name.
* EASTER EGGS: One the Extended Edition DVD, Disc 1, as per the first two movies, go to the scene selection menu, to the last page. Press down until a ring icon appears next to the "new scene" phrase; Up comes a satellite "interview" of Elijah Wood, given by Dominic Monaghan using a German accent. Do the same thing on disc 2 to uncover an MTV skit featuring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn pitching LOTR sequels to Peter Jackson.
* In every installment of the trilogy, one character says the subtitle of the film. In Fellowship during the council scene Elrond refers to the nine as the "Fellowship of the Ring"; in the Two Towers it's Saruman who says "The Two Towers" during a voiceover; and finally in this film, Gandalf tells the steward of Gondor and he can't refuse the Return of the King.
* Each of the cast members were given a gift on their last day of shooting, usually a prop that was significant to their roles. Miranda Otto received one of Eowyn's dresses and her sword, Liv Tyler received Arwen's "dying dress", Orlando Bloom got one of Legolas' bows.
* Horses owned by the production company were placed up for auction to the cast and crew after the film was shot. Viggo Mortenson purchased two horses, the one he rode for most of the film, and one for Liv Tyler's riding double.
* The dead oliphant carcass used in this film is reportedly the largest prop ever built for a motion picture.
* Scenes were re-shot with the Witch King because his helmet was too similar to Sauron's in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and Peter Jackson was concerned that audiences would confuse the two.
* The original design for the Witch-King featured a helmet that resembled a bucket with a crown of spikes on top. However, after watching test footage, the producers thought it looked to similar to Sauron's helmet and that audiences would confuse the two. The redesign was made to pay homage to the Ringwraith designs. In addition, they also redesigned the Witch-King's mace. Peter Jackson said the original mace was OK but he wanted it bigger. Weta workshop enlarged it, but Peter Jackson wanted it bigger, so they made it bigger. In the end, it was so large and heavy, it had lost practical use for the fight scenes, in which it was replaced by a digital version.
* In the Extended Edition, the Mouth of Sauron is played by Australian actor Bruce Spence. Spence's real mouth was digitally enlarged to underscore his role in Sauron's service, as well as further give the character an un-human aspect.
* According to the cast commentary, although Lawrence Makoare was the person in the Witch-King's costume, his voice was later performed by Andy Serkis (also playing Gollum).
* The first film in the trilogy had 560 computer-generated effects. "The Two Towers" had 800 and "Return of the King" has 1500.
* Peter Jackson's children appear twice in the film: in Gondor, when the horsemen leave the city, and in Sam's wedding.
* Listed on the first release of the cast list for this film was Wi Kuki Kaa, who was to have appeared as a character named Ghân-buri-Ghân. In the book this character is the chieftain of the Woses, a group of wild men that inhabited the the Druadan Forest of Gondor who offered their assistance to the Rohirrim as they passed through. Ghân-buri-Ghân does not appear in either the theatrical or extended editions the film, nor is any mention of him made.
* The Grey Havens scene had to be shot three times, much to the dismay of the actors, who had to be crying for most of the scene. On the first try, it was discovered in viewing the dailies that Sean Astin was wearing the wrong shirt under his cloak. After shooting the scene a second time, the negatives were inadvertently exposed to light during processing, causing a white haze over the entire day's footage. It was finally captured successfully on the third try.
* Cameo: [Christian Rivers] Art Director and Storyboard Artist, appears as one of the Gondorian soldiers watching the beacon in Minas Tirith.
* Cameo: [Rick Porras] The other soldier watching the beacon at Minas Tirith is the co-producer.
* Additional scenes were filmed in New Zealand in 2003, in much the same way as new sequences were shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) prior to that film's release.
* Sean Astin's daughter, Alexandra Astin, plays Sam Gamgee's daughter, Elanor. Sarah McLeod's daughter, Maisie McLeod-Riera, plays Sam and Rosie's son Frodo.
* While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without Mortensen's realizing it.
* The battle scenes, which reportedly contain over 200,000 digital participants, are so huge that an extra room had to be built onto Weta Digital's effects facility to house all the computer equipment needed to render the scenes.
* Viggo Mortensen estimates that, during the course of filming the entire trilogy and including all takes, he killed every stuntman on the production at least fifty times.
* Cameo: [Royd Tolkien] (the author's great-grandson) as a Gondorian Ranger handing weapons to his fellow soldiers when the orcs are invading Osgiliath.
* Andy Serkis and Elijah Wood were given prop rings used in the movie by director Peter Jackson. They each thought they got the only one.
* The film was originally going to end with a voice-over epilogue by Cate Blanchett's character, Galadriel, detailing the fate of the fellowship of the ring after the events of the movie.
* The opening scene which tells the origin of Gollum was originally shot for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), to be shown after Gollum remembers his real name (Smeagol) for the first time.
* Facts and numbers about the trilogy: Over 6 million feet of film shot during production; 48,000 swords, axes, shields, and makeup prosthetics; 20,602 background actors cast; 19,000 costumes made by the wardrobe department; 10,000 crowd participants at New Zealand cricket game who made orc army grunts; 2,400 behind-the-scenes crew members at height of production; 1,600 pairs or prosthetic hobbit feet created; 250 horses used in one scene; 180 computer special-effects artists employed; 114 total speaking roles; 100 real locations in New Zealand used for backdrops; 50 tailors, cobblers, designers and others in wardrobe department; 30 actors trained to speak fictional dialects and languages; 7 total years of development for all three movies.
* The film was shipped to theatres under the name "Till Death For Glory".
* Theoden touching the spears of his soldiers before they charge into battle was Bernard Hill's idea.
* For the scene where Merry and Pippin are smoking their pipes at Isengard, Dominic Monaghan (Merry) had to drink a glass of milk beforehand to keep himself from throwing up while smoking the pipe.
* Broke the international box office record for an opening weekend, bringing in nearly $250 million.
* 'Billy Boyd' (Pippin) sang and composed the tune for the song in Denethor's hall (Tolkien wrote the lyric).
* Andy Serkis's first scene was on top of Mount Doom near the Cracks of Doom. His last scene was the scene were Gollum and Frodo are fighting and fall off the ledge.
* Gollum is missing his left ear lobe. This is due to an air trap in the casting that was made for Peter Jackson's approval of the figure. When looking at the casting, the design team concluded that it should stay that way since it looked like a battle wound that might have occurred during Gollum's past adventures.
* The last spoken line of the movie - "Well, I'm back." - is also the last line of the book.
* John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) originally auditioned for the role of Denethor.
* In the crowd shot of the scene of Aragorn's ascension you can see the blue banner with the silver swan of Dol Amroth being waved. The prince of Dol Amroth, Imrahil, isn't a major character in the story but is the one who discovers that Eowyn is still alive after her slaying of the Witch King.
* The Minas Tirith set was built on the same site as Helm's Deep, after the Helm's Deep scenes had been shot and pieces of Helm's Deep were altered and built on top and around the existing pieces for the Minas Tirith set.
* Peter Jackson is arachnophobic.
* The final day of filming on the trilogy actually happened over a month after this movie was theatrically released, and three weeks after the 2004 Academy Awards. Peter Jackson arranged to film one final shot of skulls on the floor in the tunnel of the Paths of the Dead, which was included in the Extended Edition of ROTK. He thought it was funny to be doing filming on a movie that had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
* The last words exchanged by Elrond and Aragorn are "I give hope to Men," "I keep none for myself," are taken from Appendix A, in which the Elvish translation of those lines (Onen i-Estel Edain, u-chebin estel anim) are the final words of Aragorn's mother, Gilraen. Estel, meaning hope, was also the name given to Aragorn before his true heritage is revealed to him.
* While filming Saruman's death scene (now on the extended DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell Christopher Lee how to react and breath after he was stabbed in the back. Lee, a WWII veteran with British special forces, assured the director that he knew what a man sounded like when stabbed in the back.
* The Oscar-winning end-title song, "Into The West", while being directly about Frodo's departure, was inspired by Cameron Duncan's struggle with death. The first time the song was ever played publicly was at his funeral.
* The end-credit portraits of each of the lead actors appearing alongside their name was the suggestion of Ian McKellen. The sketches were created by production designer 'Lee, Alan (II)' from production stills, although what is seen on the movie is actually a slight morph between the sketch and the original photograph.
* Lawrence Makoare plays both the Witch King and the orc Gothmog. At one point the two characters exchange dialogue, and later Eowyn fights both (she injures Gothmog, who is then killed trying to attack her, and she kills the Witch King).
* Andy Serkis's last day of filming was only a few weeks before the theatrical release. On the carpet of the floor of Peter Jackson's house, they filmed the facial reaction of Smeagol/Gollum when he realizes Frodo intends to destroy the ring. The resulting video was e-mailed to Weta Digital so the animators could replicate the shot with the CGI character.
* The "oil" that Denethor pours over himself and Faramir was a combination of water and glycerin, to achieve an appropriate glistening effect. Because this soaked the wigs and costumes, this scene had to be filmed in a single take.
* The "fall of Smeagol" scene had to be digitally touched-up in two ways. First, Thomas Ro
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Missing Charlie already!
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