In the aftermath of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), the companions of Rivendell are forced to go their separate ways. Yet, the quest endures. Now stranded in the desolate crags leading to Mordor, Frodo and Sam must place their lives in the hands of Gollum--a deceitful, tormented creature battling his inner demons. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli race to aid Rohan, once a proud kingdom that now suffocates under the hypnotic spell of Saruman. But as the dark lords of Isengard and Barad-dûr unite under the shadow of the Two Towers, a formidable force of foul Uruk-hai marches on to crush the world of Men at Helm's Deep. With hope flickering and the fate of Middle-earth hanging in the balance, can a fractured resistance hold the line before darkness consumes all?
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The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, so as an in-joke, the soundtrack release included a photo of Jackson, composer Howard Shore, and two producers recreating the famous Abbey Road album cover walk, with Jackson going barefoot to play the Paul McCartney part.
Doing Gollum's raspy voice for every single line, take after take, wrecked Andy Serkis's throat, so the crew mixed him up a drink of honey, lemon and ginger in water that everyone started calling Gollum juice to keep his voice going.
In Tolkien's version, the 'two towers' of the title refer to Orthanc and Minas Morgul. Jackson's film swaps that second one out, pairing Orthanc with Barad-dur instead.
If you've only seen the theatrical cut, you've never actually seen Denethor in this film, he only appears once the Extended Edition adds his scenes back in.
Despite being nominated for Best Picture, The Two Towers is the only film in the trilogy that missed out on Best Director and Best Score nominations, and it walked away with just two wins, for Sound Editing and Visual Effects.
Gollum first hisses out 'my precious' in this film, and it's the only line from the entire trilogy to land a spot on the American Film Institute's top 100 movie quotes, coming in at number 85.
Production designer Alan Lee's very first job on joining the film back in 1997 was designing the model for Helm's Deep, years before the battle sequence would actually be filmed.
The Rohan shoot was rough on the cast in more ways than one. Alongside Mortensen's broken toes, Orlando Bloom cracked three ribs falling off a horse, and John Rhys-Davies' stunt double dislocated a kneecap.
Watch the trilogy back to back and you'll catch each film naming itself in dialogue. Elrond calls the group a 'Fellowship of the Ring' in the first, Saruman says 'the Two Towers' in the second, and Gandalf tells Denethor he can't deny the 'Return of the King' in the third.
Among the hundreds of blades welded together to form the Iron Throne, one of them has a much older claim to fame. Look carefully and you can spot Glamdring, the sword used by Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, hidden among the swords of vanquished kings and lords.
