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1. Which city is Gondor's capital?
Minas Tirith
Minas Tirith is the seven-tiered white city built against the mountain, and most of what is on screen is a huge Weta miniature, modeled partly on Mont Saint-Michel. Edoras is Rohan's capital, Rivendell is Elrond's house and Bree a village near the Shire.
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2. Who is ruling Gondor as steward?
Denethor
Denethor, played by John Noble, rules in the absence of a king and has no intention of handing the city to Aragorn. Grief for Boromir has unhinged him, and he ends on a pyre of his own making. Arathorn was Aragorn's father, and Théoden is king of Rohan.
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3. Which hobbit offers his service to Denethor?
Pippin
Pippin swears fealty to Denethor because Boromir died defending him, and is handed a Gondorian uniform and the job of singing while Faramir rides out. His finest hour is lighting the beacon that summons Rohan; Merry swears himself to Théoden instead.
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4. What is the giant spider that attacks Frodo called?
Shelob
Shelob lurks at Cirith Ungol, and in the book she attacks at the end of The Two Towers; the film moved her to the third part. Peter Jackson, who loathes spiders, had her modeled on the New Zealand tunnel-web, and Ungoliant is her mother in Tolkien's mythology.
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5. What gift helps Sam face Shelob?
Galadriel's phial
The phial holds the light of Eärendil's star, and Galadriel promised it would shine in dark places when every other light went out. Sam uses it to drive Shelob back from the paralyzed Frodo and then wounds her with Sting until she retreats into her tunnels.
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6. What is Aragorn's reforged sword called?
Andúril
Andúril, the Flame of the West, is reforged from the shards of Narsil, the sword Isildur used to cut the Ring from Sauron's hand. Orcrist is Thorin's blade in The Hobbit, Glamdring is Gandalf's and Sting is the knife Frodo carries.
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7. Who brings that sword to Aragorn?
Elrond
Elrond rides to the camp at Dunharrow with the reforged sword, tells Aragorn that Arwen is dying and urges him to take the Paths of the Dead. In the book Elrond stays in Rivendell and sends his sons south with the Rangers instead.
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8. Whom does Aragorn summon through the Paths of the Dead?
An army bound by an old oath
They are the Men of the Mountains, who swore an oath to Isildur and then failed to fight, and were cursed to linger until the oath was fulfilled. As Isildur's heir Aragorn can hold them to it, and he releases them once the battle below the city is won.
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9. Who defeats the Witch-king after Merry wounds him?
Éowyn
Éowyn rides to war disguised among the Rohirrim with Merry in front of her, and when the Witch-king boasts that no living man may hinder him she pulls off her helmet: 'I am no man.' Merry's stab behind the knee is what makes the kill possible.
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10. What is the great battle outside Minas Tirith called?
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
The Pelennor is the farmland between the city walls and the river; the Rohirrim's charge was shot on the plains around Twizel in the South Island. Dagorlad was the Last Alliance's battle thousands of years earlier, and Five Armies belongs to The Hobbit.
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11. What creatures carry towers and soldiers into that battle?
Mûmakil
Mûmakil is what the men of the south call their war elephants, and the hobbits' word is oliphaunt; the Haradrim fire from howdahs on their backs. Legolas brings one down single-handed and slides down its trunk, which Gimli rules still only counts as one.
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12. Where must the Ring be destroyed?
Mount Doom
Mount Doom is Orodruin, the volcano where Sauron forged the Ring, and the only fire hot enough to unmake it. Mount Ngauruhoe in Tongariro National Park stood in for it, and the climbing scenes were shot on the slopes of neighboring Ruapehu.
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13. Who says he cannot carry the Ring but can carry Frodo?
Sam
'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you,' Sam says on the slopes of Mount Doom, before hoisting Frodo onto his back. Sean Astin later titled his memoir of the shoot There and Back Again, borrowing the name of Bilbo's book.
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14. Who sings Into the West over the end credits?
Annie Lennox
Into the West was written by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Lennox, partly in memory of Cameron Duncan, a teenage New Zealand filmmaker who died of cancer during production. It won the Oscar for best original song.
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15. How many Oscars did the film win?
Eleven
The film won every one of its eleven nominations, tying Ben-Hur and Titanic for the most Oscars ever taken by a single film. It was the first fantasy film to win best picture, and Peter Jackson collected three statuettes himself that night.
