Lord Of The Rings Trilogy: 16 Easter Eggs, In-Jokes & References You Need To See

6. The Black Gate & The Wizard Of Oz - The Two Towers

Peter Jackson clearly felt like The Black Gate sequence in The Two Towers - in which Frodo, Sam and Gollum ponder how to get inside Mordor from the top of a ledge - had a lot in common with the likes of The Wizard of Oz, and set out to strike a clear comparison between his scene and the one from the classic 1939 movie starring Judy Garland. The scene in question sees Frodo, Sam and Gollum peering down from a ledge as a group of marching orcs enter Mordor via The Black Gate. In The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion find themselves in a visually similar scene when Toto leads them to the Wicked Witch's castle in an attempt to rescue Dorothy. Like Frodo and Sam, they look down as the Witch's evil army march in tune to the castle, before stealing their uniforms and going inside. So similar are these scenes, that somebody even juxtaposed them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jltNkaHybo