10 Glaring Plot Holes You Didn't Realise The Movie Actually Solved

4. Why Not Just Use The Eagles? - The Lord Of The Rings

The Plot Hole: The eagles are the Tolkien equivalent of a bus - when they run properly they're great, but you can hardly rely on them.

They save Gandalf from Isengard and help in the Battle of the Black Gate, but for some reason no one thinks they could be used to fly the One Ring to Mordor, saving countless lives and two movies' run time in the process. It's only made worse in The Hobbit, where the eagles seem to be on Gandalf's speed-dial.

The Solution The Movie Gave Us:A recent fan theory has suggested this was Gandalf's original plan (that's really what he meant by "fly you fools"), but there's enough in the movies to suggest a more logical explanation.

One does not simply fly into Mordor. It may be easier than walking, but it's still fraught with danger. There's plenty of air-based threats and the risk is just too great; if something goes wrong here, the Ring is essentially back in Sauron's control. The final shot in The Two Towers hammers this home, showing the landscape of Mordor with fell beasts clearly patrolling the skies.

Although it's easy to dismiss this as flippant straw-grabbing, it's clearly the intended reading - in the director's commentary producer Philippa Boyens insists the Nazgûl are the obvious detterant after Jackson and Fran Walsh jokingly brought up the fan issue.