How Viggo Mortensen’s Broken Toes Created That Iconic Scream In ‘The Two Towers’

In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), a brief moment of pain felt so exceptionally raw and real that it became iconic. When Aragorn believes that Merry and Pippin are dead, he kicks a heavy orc helmet in deep frustration and pain. Well, it turns out that Aragorn wasn’t alone in feeling the pain.

Actor Viggo Mortensen broke two toes while kicking the helmet, and his guttural scream is not just in sync with his character but with how he felt in that moment. The scene, which feels agonizingly real and brutal, was yet another example of Mortensen’s undeniable commitment to the craft.

So, what really happened during the shoot? And what can this teach us about unscripted moments in movies?

Let’s jump right in and explore.

The Scene And What Really Happened

Before we get into the details of Viggo Mortensen’s incredible (and painful) moment, let’s remind ourselves about what’s happening in the scene.

This sequence takes place in the second part of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) track the Uruk-hai and stumble upon a pile of charred armor and bodies. Evidence in the form of burnt armor leads them to believe Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) are dead.

The trio, who have always been overtly protective of the Hobbits, are devastated by the very possibility of two of their deaths. Aragorn kicks an orc helmet in furious grief, lets out a loud, anguished scream, and collapses to the ground. The moment is effortlessly powerful. But in reality, Mortensen’s pain was as raw as it could be. By kicking the heavy helmet hard across its rugged exterior, the actor shattered two toes. His scream and the collapse after it were nothing but a fine actor using real pain to fuel a realistic performance.

When Pain Becomes Performance

During the filming of a scene, great actors continuously process which emotion may be in sync with the one required in the moment and which might not be. If Mortensen were to have slipped, the effect of such an accident might have been comical and antithetical to what the scene demanded. What happened during the shooting of this scene was the opposite. Mortensen gave everything, and through brute force alone, shattered his toes.

It would have been entirely understandable if he had moved away immediately by asking for the take to be cut. Why? Because breaking your toes can be awfully painful. The stinging pain in the moment can make a person ask to be excused. But Mortensen did not do that. What he did was turn his own real pain into a realistic performance.

Mortensen combined two different kinds of pain in a scene that became far more realistic than one could have hoped for. During the scene, Aragorn (like Legolas and Gimli) feels emotional pain. By not having more than a few seconds to process it, Mortensen combined the emotional pain of his performance with the physical pain he felt at that precise moment.

Viggo Mortensen actually broke his bones, but stayed locked in as Aragorn. This unrivaled authenticity elevates a dramatic scene to a visceral one. It is a powerful example of a great actor taking what was in the script and evolving it into something so much deeper, more meaningful, and real. It is such emotional realism and commitment by its actors that make The Lord of the Rings one of the finest trilogies of all time.

How An Unscripted Moment Made The Final Cut

While shooting this scene, Peter Jackson wanted Viggo Mortensen to kick the helmet towards the camera (and consequently the audience). After 4 takes, Jackson noticed that Mortensen’s performances were good enough. However, he thought a fifth take might really be the one.

It turned out that during the fifth take, Viggo Mortensen kicked the helmet hard enough to break his toes. Now, at the time it happened, this wasn’t general knowledge, which only goes to show just how professional Mortensen is as an actor. Peter Jackson found the fifth take and Mortensen’s cry, coupled with his collapsing to the ground, extremely powerful. He had no idea about the accident and how it fuelled Mortensen’s on-screen pain.

Needless to say, all on-set accidents should be avoided at all costs, and it would have been much better had Mortensen not been injured at all. But the fact that he used the moment’s agony to elevate his performance is a testament to his unrelenting commitment to the film, its director, and most importantly, the craft of acting.

Summing It Up

Viggo Mortensen’s iconic scream may have come from real pain, but what makes the scene endure is the powerhouse performance the audience sees on screen. Most of us may not have known about Mortensen’s injury, but we were moved by what we saw and can only imagine Peter Jackson’s reaction when he witnessed this iconic moment on set.

Which is your favorite Aragorn moment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy? Tell us in the comments below.