The movie was filmed in the same place as the first part of the trilogy in New Zealand, a large number of scenes took place in the mountains, parks and shows the stunning natural landscapes of the country. Mountains, rivers and lakes were used for filming. Since New Zealand has a very diverse natural scenery, it was possible to shoot all the countries and locations of Middle-earth.
Lowland
In movie
Scene where Frodo, Sam and Gollum stop to rest after a long journey. Gollum has gotten some rabbits, and Sam plans to put them out. But at that moment they hear the sounds of an army coming, they carefully sneak to the cliff and see Harad's men.
Timing: 1:43
Real
Scene was shot on the shores of Lake Whakatipu, which is located on New Zealand's South Island. Although the area looks very wild in the shot, there is a hiking trail along the lake, so you can get to the shooting point quite comfortably.
Mount Creighton
Road to Helm's Deep
In movie
Scene where The people of Edoras march in a long column to the fortress at Helm's Deep, with a large number of old men and children, so the column moves quite slowly. At the head of the column are Aragorn, Gimli and Evelyn, as well as her father, the King of Rohan.
Real
Scene was shot at a mountain lake located near Queenstown. There is a gorgeous view of the mountains from here, as well as a lot of dry vegetation perched on dark rocks, and the water in the lake is quite dark. All of this makes the view oppressive and sadly beautiful, which matches the mood of the scene.
Queenstown
The site of the battle with the wargs
In movie
Scene where A band of wargs will attack the colony going to Helm's Deep, they want to do it unexpectedly and gain an advantage. But Legolas notices them and manages to form a party led by Theoden. In the final battle, Aragorn, unable to disentangle himself from the saddle of a warg, falls off a cliff with him.
Real
Scene was shot On a small cliff, not far from the towns of Queenstown and Frankton, so close that you can see both towns perfectly from the cliff. The cliff is quite small and the drop from it is about a meter and a half, so the cameraman had to find a suitable angle so that the cliff seemed large and the settlements were not visible from below.
Queenstown
The road to Mordor
In movie
Scene where Frodo and Sam, after several days of traveling through the mountains, reach a point from which they can see almost all of Mordor, but they don't know the direct way there and they still have to travel through the mountains until they find a guide and the way to the mountain.
Timing: 00:04:19
Real
Scene was shot on the slope of Mount Ruapehu, in New Zealand. It is a rocky and lifeless slope, which is really suitable for filming Mordor. If you pay attention to the rock in the real photos and the shot from the movie, you can see that we found the exact location of the filming.
