EFAP Movies #59: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition 

Roses are red Running is hard They're taking the hobbits To Isengard.

Reposting this comment from the first upload: The injuries for the run across Rohan were as follows. Viggo had 2 broken toes from the infamous helmet kicking incident. Orlando had broken ribs from falling off of his horse. And JRD's size double had a DISLOCATED KNEE. Furthermore the way they were shot was from helicopter and not on a shot by shot basis. Peter would just tell them to start running in a vague direction and then spend the whole day basically flying around in the chopper getting tons of footage from various different angles. They had to run on those injuries for basically hours at a time. File that away in the, "shit no one will ever do again" section.

My thoughts dwell in Rivendell. My appetite feasts in the Shire. My courage belongs to Gondor. But my heart will forever lie within Rohan.

I don't usually do re-watchers, but i'll gladly rewatch this Efap.

The flag tearing and blowing away in edoras was unintentional. The timing was perfect. Everything came together perfectly in these films

the integration of chat was in fact worth it. appreciate the hours and hours of editing mauler. salted pork

"GANDALF! I thought you were dead???" - "I WAS!"

Faramir’s speech over the dead kid is the INSTANT win against cynical pretentious losers like George R.R. Martin who pretend these stories don’t expand on the enemies.

Théoden - 'And who will come. Elves? Dwarves?' Rags - 'WILD MEN!'

In the books, Rohan actually wasn't selling their horses to Isengard or Mordor, this was a false rumor. Boromir explains they'd sooner sell their own families than sell their horses. I imagine the rumor was started to cause further tension between Rohan and Gondor

I think the point of the woman sending her kids away on the horse was so that it wasn't as weighed down and could run faster, farther.

I watch my Extended Edition and the Extras about once a year and end up in tears every time, and I'm a grown ass man. Not many things make me as emotional as LotR. 60% of my tears come from watching the movies and the rest from the extras. The love, the care, the respect for the source material, the craftwork and passion, and the sheer dedication and hard work involved in making these movies is almost overwhelming to a movie buff. These aren't just great movies, they're a testament to what us humans are capable of on our best day when we put petty bullshit aside and work together...

What people don’t understand is how much the elves are sacrificing just being at Helms Deep. They could have just gone to the undying lands and not have to worry about Sauron. They are giving up paradise to fight in a battle facing certain death

And to think, Filoni would come along and steal Gandalf's return from Tolkien for his golden child Ahsoka, without understanding the context of what actually happened in LOTR.

After the reprimanding that saruman gave gandalf about "his love of the halflings leaf"...and he's got a stash of it up to the rafters!

RIP Bernard Hill. Cannot believe that the day I’m watching this is the day he died. Forth Eolingas!

I’m all here for the “Viggo broke his toe” meme. But either serious or as a joke there’s an irony to it all because 90% of people say did you know he broke his toe… but they are all factually incorrect. So, because it must be said (correctly), I am here to say…did you know in that shot that Viggo broke TWO TOES. Get wrecked nerds.

I had a friend who had never seen LOTR until just a couple months ago. He'd seen LOTR memes, and even was aware of the concept of "Gandalf the White" but did not know that Gandalf was just going to resurrect in the middle of the movie. To drinker's point, "You know he's not just going to die in the middle of fighting the Balrog"- He did die.

The open with Gandalf and the Balrog was a deliberate creative choice - Peter Jackson and his team felt there was a lot of dialogue heavy narrative to get through, so if they opened with a spectacular fight the audience would settle in for the rest. Drinker may not like it, but audience response confirms their decision was a good read of the overall impact of the experience.

I play a dwarf in our DnD group, and my movement speed is so slow I really empathize with Gimli in this movie. The battle is on the other side of the castle and I'm taking 3 turns to sprint over there yelling "I'M COMING, DON'T DIE FRIENDS!"

Always found it bizarre that Peter Jackson said that the "definitive edition" of Two Towers is the theatrical cut, and that the extended edition is just a "novelty for fans" who wants to see the extra scenes...

I disagree with Drinker’s take that the initial Balrog scene is some kind of foreshadowing that Gandalf lived. Mooler had it right: for people who didn’t know what would happen, seeing Gandalf falling hundreds of stories, in a cave, duking it out with a demon of the ancient world to collide with water is far more “yep, dude is dead” a response than “maybe somehow he survived!”

You know a film trilogy is good when you even rewatch the EFAP coverage of it multiple times.

Last time I was this early, the mainstream media still compared Avengers Endgame’s final battle to the Helm’s Deep.

What i love about gimlis axes is that before mlria, he does not have the double headed axe. He takes that axe (balins axe) from balins tomb. So cool

GANDALF!…..what is it Mr. Frodo?……Nothing, just a dream

To Drinker’s point about shooting the Uruks with arrows after the Deeping wall is breached instead of charging, they needed to close the breach immediately. They will not have a great enough volume of arrow fire to accomplish what the press of bodies in melee would.

I liked your digression on accents in fantasy, because I have been reading LotR to my kid at bedtime and it's been a fun exercise for my ability to impersonate (or, more accurately, caricature) certain accents and to depart from the default British accents in some places. The Rohirrim are cowboys, Sam is a good ol' sunthen boy, the elves are Finnish, and Denethor gets my Alex Jones impression.

I'm a massive metalhead, and Drinker's claim that LotR isn't metal is so baffling, I decided to go through my entire Spotify library to find every band that is either named after something Tolkien related or have an album that's Tolkien related (I won't make an effort to list specific songs because that would take too long, but some bands will be mentioned if I happen to see them and they have a song that qualifies). I'm also only going to include good bands, so no Amon Amarth. I'll also include the subgenre of metal they play to emphasize how widespread LotR is in metal. They are as follows: 1) Aran Angmar (black metal, name means "king of Angmar" in Sindarin) 2) Attacker (heavy/power metal, have an album called "Battle of Helm's Deep") 3) Blind Guardian (power metal, have an album called "Nightfall in Middle-earth") 4) Brocas Helm (epic heavy metal, have a song called "Helm's Deep") 5) Burzum (atmospheric black metal, name means "darkness" in Black Speech) 6) Cirith Ungol (doom metal) 7) Cromlech (epic doom metal, have a few songs like "For a Red Dawn," "Shadow and Flame," and "Turambar (Master of Doom/By Doom Mastered)") 8) Druadan Forest (epic black metal) 9) Dwarrowdelf (atmospheric black metal) 10) Eldamar (atmospheric black metal) 11) Emissary (heavy/power metal, have a song called "Tales of the Third Age") 12) Emyn Muil (epic black metal) 13) Firienholt (epic black metal, have a few songs like "Ashes of the Golden Hall" and "The Whispering Shadow") 14) Gorgoroth (black metal) 15) Graveland (black metal, have a song called "White Hand's Power") 16) Grimdor (black metal, have an album called "The Land of Shadow") 17) Isengard (black/folk metal) 18) Knight & Gallow (heavy metal, have a song called "Men of the West") 19) Megadeth (thrash metal, have a song called "This Day We Fight," and this song was used in the RotK EFAP Movies) 20) Moontowers (heavy metal, have a song called "Fear the White Hand") 21) Morgoth (death metal) 22) Morgul Blade (heavy metal) 23) Mumakil (grindcore) 24) Oathbringer (heavy/power metal, have songs such as "Moria" and "Morgoth") 25) Orodruin (doom metal) 26) Reverend Bizarre (doom metal, have a song called "Cirith Ungol") 27) Sauron (black/thrash metal) 28) Summoning (epic black metal, have lots of albums including "Minas Morgul" and "Dol Guldur") 29) Utumno (death metal) This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are so many metal bands who write about LotR and fantasy as a whole, it'd be impossible to count them. And no Gary, Led Zeppelin isn't a metal band. They do like LotR tho Edit: I've added more bands that I've either forgotten or discovered since I originally posted this to further prove the point and to share more recs

From what I remember, Haleth, the kid that Aragorn said "This is a good sword." to. His father was Hamas, the guy who asked for Gandalf staff. He died in the fight with the wargs. I feel like Aragorn would be aware of this, and as well as trying to encourage him for the battle to come. He's making him feel better about his father's death.

Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?

I feel the need to mention that Wormtongue only earned that name AFTER becoming Theoden King's advisier, and even then only with those who didn't trust him. You'll also notice that he's the only Rohirrim with black hair. It's implied that he's a Dunlending, at least by blood, which contributed to his negative reputation.

That marsh is actually a parking lot if I remember right from the behind the scenes videos. Aragorn's like "I'll never see 88 if I eat this swill."😂

Gotta compliment the editing. It's kind of mind-blowing how much personality you guys manage to add to the tokens with all the little animations and zooms.

53:51 apparently, the flag came off completely by accident, and PJ thought it was so great he put it in. Just one of many instances of coincidental brilliance

Watching The Lord of the Rings always makes me feel better, works especially well when I'm going through some hard times. There are no other movies which fill me with hope the way LOTR does. It's magical in a way, how much of an impact can movies have on us.

The perfect birthday present. Thank you all a massive amount.

When you mention that the world feels bigger than Frodo's journey, one of the things that comes to mind is how irrelevant that journey becomes in the grand scheme of things. Like, imagine if Helms Deep fell and Gondor was occupied. Maybe Frodo succeeds in his mission, but to what end? The World of Men is now toast. The Elves are probably gone by now, rowing to the East. Killing Sauron prevents a significant threat from returning, sure. But, it wasn't the be-all of the conflict in Middle Earth. It was one problem among many. That kind of scale puts a lot of the larger narrative into perspective.

Rewatched the first installment like 10 times already and your guys commentary is sublime. Cant wait

19:04 as a southern American how dare you appropriate my culture (this was hilarious 😂)

EFAP crew need to do a southerner dub of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Sorry Nerdrotic, Rohan does not give horses to Mordor. They refuse to sell them at any price and then orcs raid Rohan and steal horses.

1:17:04 come on Rags (and everyone for that matter), when counting Liv Tyler's on screen Dads how did you forget Bruce Willis?!

The discussion about Wormtongue is interesting, I see a parallel with Bilbo sparing Golumn. Both deserved death but neither HAD to be killed and in the end both had a role to play.

Ah, olden times, when 14 year-old boys fought wars, 12-year old girls were mothers, and most people died in their 30s because of dental complications.

The number of times Sam saves the day

The beginning of this video starts out with the near breaking of the EFAP fellowship Because of drinker's opinion on the balrog fight with gandolf

Every time I fly home from Japan I watch these extended additions. Man I love these

I’m here for this! I have a 9 yr drive today so listening to this will def help pass the time.

If you guys love Andy Serkis I highly recommend doing some sort of coverage on the Planet of the Apes movies, I’d argue he’s even more impressive as Caesar than as Gollum

Fantastic video thank you guys. I loved this so much

I love that they all just totally forget that Liv Tyler was in The Incredible Hulk

The Rohan pennant tearing off its pole was unintentional, but they kept filming. Where it lands among the party is obviously an intentional tie-in after the fact

I was in my 20s when I saw Gandalf fight the Balrog. I hadn't opened LoTR in over a decade at that point and totally forgot what happened and I had no idea Gandalf was coming back until there were mutterings of a Wizard in the forest. I thought they played the whole fight as almost like a dream sequence anyway?

It's a delight to hear EFAP discuss a great movie. I love the trashing on garbage movies, but this....this I dig.

Almost cancelled Drinker for comparing Gandalf v Balrog, to Marvel

In the books, there's a substance, The Shadow. It's like an evil presence that comes with evil deeds and evil beings. Light breaks the Shadow, most of the "magic" that Gandalf uses is light shining.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic from boyhood, and he described The Lord of the Rings in particular as a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision" (as he explained in a letter to his close friend and Jesuit priest, Robert Murray, 2nd December, 1953).

What they did differently they mentioned in the documentaries that taught me a trick in photoshop: transparent layering. Flesh is not opaque it’s transparent layers. Hold a flashlight to your hand to see

I always saw the intro scene to this movie as part of a nightmare frodo had. I never attributed it to "this is what actually happened right after gandalf fell". Because of frodos waking up and yelling gandalf.

I think the rule of cool is just strong enough to justify the first scene. Also, the added details of what happens when Gandalf falls makes his return feel more believable. I feel like if he just showed up and explained how he survived without us having seen the fall, it would feel a bit contrived. I'm very glad that we got to see Gandalf stab the Balrog in mid air. Extremely cool.

Really am glad I watched the Every Frame a Painting video on F For Fake right before watching this films because I kept noticing how they jumped between plots. And like being able to tell when the jump was about to happen was really neat.

What if the moth that came to Gandolf had gotten distracted by a street light on its way to pass the message? If not for the mission focus and self-discipline of the Moth, there would be no trilogy. #allhailthemoth

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Drinker must be confusing Gandalf fighting the Balrog with the trailer that literally showed Gandalf the White as to showing Gandalf survived. But the scene itself is a reference to Frodo having prophetic dreams like seeing his journey to Valinor at the end of his journey in the first book.

The cultural influence for Rohan is the Anglo-Saxons, the people Tolkien spent much of his life studying.

"Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing? Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning, Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning? " - Theoden son of Thengel, last king of Rohans second royal line

We need a GDELB with constant referencing to ladders.

Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than a dwarf and an elf competing for highest kill count. We don't deserve these movies.

Completely agree with the drinker. Havent read the books, but when I saw that scene, I kinda knew that he would come back in some form.

2:35 Chat was absolutely worth it but it blocks little moments like the Blind Guardian reference. Guess you can't have it all.

I fully agree with Drinker, being told that Gandalf is still alive before finding it for sure out spoiled a lot of the fear of "the white one" in the forest because it could only have been Saruman...until we find it is not.

Why is Drinker picking on the opening scene? Is he on his period or somethin'?! 😅 Seeing Gandalf fight the Balrog after falling doesn't mean he will come back. Most people actually assume that he died, just not immediately. If anything that scene just shows us how impossible it was for Gandalf to survive not only the Blarog, but also that deep fall. And he doesn't, he did in fact die after killing the Balrog. So it was reasonable to assume he wouldn't come back. I don't think it spoils us anything about Gandalf's return. I'm pretty sure most people won't assume Ilúvatar will bring Gandalf back to life after watching that opening...

Definitely Aragorn going for the two Hobbits who are endangered is real cool

This is great. After watching the EFAP mega mashup, I bought the extended editions. Thanks boys.

I think the sequencd at the start where gandalf fights the balrog as they fall could have been added to the part where he explained what happened to Aragorn and Co. Keep the opening scene up until where gandalf lets go and then cut to Frodo waking up from the nightmare. This way we could keep both scenes and all we do is shuffle where it occurs. Win win, and no need to remove anything methinks.

Talking about putting the ring up your butt and it making the poo disappear. Whats that look like from Saurons pov?

Rohan is a great culture especially worthy for preserving and defended against the Orcs, because as the Drinker says (16:10): the majesty of their landscape, the way they go into battle, ... etc, but most of all IMHO, because they have the DNA that produces the beautyy that is in Eowyn (Theoden's neice).

Every time rags says something stupid I just hear wolf telling him to shut the fuck up😂

2:33 Man drinker occasionally misses the mark some times, and this is the worst it’s ever been. Go to bed Drinker…

I know Tolkien insists that the war had not shaped what he had made, but so much of it touches on concepts only a man in that time could truly describe. It is cosmic luck we managed to get a trilogy as powerful as this.

"Randy The Ring Wraith and Aragorn The Toe." 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for all this Mauler. Ive always loved lotr i could quote the entire first movie of the top of my head lol. I had one other friend who loved it as much as i did, life happened and we don’t talk anymore. It means a lot to someone like me (who doesn’t have anybody in real life to share their passion for these movies) to listen to you guys and your takes. ❤

I forgot to mention it in the last video but I'll bring it up now. When Gandalf's is trying to open the door to the Mines of Moria, I'm pretty sure he tries the Charm of Making from Excalibur!

The alternate movie Aragon “riders of Rohan what news from the Mark?” Eòmer: “nope lalala I can’t hear you evil wizardman!!!”

I think the scene of Gandalf fighting the balrog is fine, but I can see where Drinker's coming from. While it doesn't directly spell out Gandalf's eventual return, it's conspicuous enough that genre-savvy watchers will probably question its place in the narrative. And the scene really doesn't lead anywhere by itself, so I think it's reasonable for the audience to be looking out for some kind of payoff, even if they don't know exactly what it will be. It's a kickass scene, for sure, but it dampens the surprise slightly from a narrative perspective, a bit like Chekhov's Gun.

The scene where they slide off the cliff and hide as rocks, you have to remember hobbits are very small, that's a big thing to keep in mind.

"In me dreams, there's that axe, stout and true, a gift from me da, forged in the fire of our mountain home. Its edge was sharp, could split a hair or cleave a goblin's skull. But that's all just echoes in the dark now, like tales told 'round a dying fire. The day it broke, I wasn't battling in the deep halls of Moria or standing firm on the fields before the gates of Minas Tirith. No, I was in the elven halls of Rivendell, bold as brass, thinking I could smash the One Ring to bits. My axe, bless its heart, it wasn't made for such work. When I swung it down, it was the end of more than just a piece of finely tempered steel. That axe and I, we'd been through the thick and thin, from the mines of my ancestors to the far reaches of the wild. It was more than just a tool; it was a part of my very soul. And when it shattered, I'll admit, part of me did too. There it lay, broken, a reminder of my folly. But, let me tell ye, the spirit of that axe, it's with me yet. In every step towards that cursed Mount Doom, in the frost of every breath in the chill air, its memory drives me forward. It's a testament, not to failure, but to the indomitable will of dwarves. It whispers to me in the wind, tells me that our true mettle is forged not in the weapons we wield, but in the courage we carry in our hearts. So, in me dreams, it ain't just the axe I see. It's the path it set me on, filled with danger and shadow, but also lit with the faint glimmer of hope. Hope that speaks of a day when no axe is needed, no sword drawn in anger. A dream of peace, that's what keeps me moving, even when the night is darkest." - Excerpt from the journal of Gimli, son of Glóin.

19:12 The funniest part about Americans pulling off British, Scottish or more European accents, is that I originally discovered the Critical Drinker while preparing for my role as Angus from MacBeth. I was trying to find some dialect coaching videos on the matter, my accent ended up sounding like a bizarre blend of the Despot of Antrim and David Tennant, not what I would consider a true world accent but it worked for the theatre.

I just love that this movie was blessed by the gods with how many unintentional stuff happening that fit JUST right in.

Drinker needs to re fucking think his opinion about the opening sequence with gandalf and the balrog, Glad you boys put him in his place. Showing them fighting in no way guarantees gandalf is being RESURRECTED. there are so many ways to interpret that scene with frodo jolting up. Why wouldnt the assumption be he's dead because they fell for a long ass time and hit the water pretty hard..

■ Oh... Gary thought RoP could be cancelled after season 2 while they have already started producing season 3 (to my absolute shock). ■ I think there's a Skyrim mod to include Helm's Deep in the game.

Praise the don❤

Dragonforce are a peak example of fantasy/nerdism and metal combining in an orchestra of audio references and spectacular fantasy opera. Highly recommended

Idk if anyone else notices but when Theodon is having his "where is the horse and the rider" moment it sounds like there is a secondary audio of a whispered version of the script layered in

These films are just such a joy.

In the movie dont the orcs have the white hand sigil? Unless im mistaken but if you wave a banner then you fight for that person so not so hard to put together.

If you needed a large supply of extras to fill out Uruk Hai costumes, there are few better places to look than NZ, the home of biggest Maori and Pacific Islander populations in the world

They should cast 'The Movie Cynic' to be Faramir for future releases

I don't think the opening scene gives away that gandalf is alive because they frame it as a dream. I always saw it as frodo sort of inventing a story in his head to cope with the situation. I never thought there was any indication that that first seen actually happened until you see him actually return in the forest

The thing about the wargs is that they look different based on who breeds them. So the Gundabad Wargs are going to look different than the wargs of Isengard. You may not like the look but thats why.