Sorry for having taken so long doing this. Been busy (am actually supposed to be writing a paper right now, but...)
The Two Towers
The plot's a little crazy, because there are so many different stories going on at once. If I miss something, may the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien haunt my dreams. Also, the stories are probably out of order. I'm doing this by memory and I haven't seen Towers in a while, so bear with me.
The film starts with Frodo and Sam out in the wilderness, continuing their trek to Mordor. Frodo has a dream in which he sees Gandalf falling with the Balrog. As they fall, they fight, and just as it appears they're going to land, Frodo jolts awake, screaming "Gandalf!"
Merry and Pippin are being taken to Isengard (Saruman's land) by the Uruk-Hai who captured them in the first film. One of the Uruks mentions that he smells "man-flesh," which Pippin takes to mean that Aragorn is tracking them. He tears off the broach of his cloak with his teeth and drops it as the Uruks run, leaving it as a clue.
Meanwhile, in the thus far unvisited kingdom of Rohan (specifically, the city of Edoras), King Theoden's sun, Theodred is dying of wounds suffered in battle. His cousin, Eowyn (Miranda Otto
) keeps a vigil at his bedside. Grima Wormtongue, an advisor to Theoden, enters and essentially tries to pick Eowyn up. She shoots him down, and he's pissed.
Eowyn implores her uncle to go to his son, but the withered king is basically a shell of himself. He can barely speak, and moving seems painful. Grima does the talking for him, and we can see that there's more to Mr. Wormtongue than meets the eye. When Eowyn's brother Eomer confronts Theoden about Saruman's rising power, Grima has him (and his warriors, the Rohirrim) thrown out of the kingdom for insubordination.
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli continue their search for the hobbits, and Aragorn finds Pippin's "leaf." They renew their search with new energy.
While Frodo and Sam sleep, they are stalked by the creature Gollum. Gollum makes a move for the Ring, but Frodo snaps awake, and a fight ensues. Gollum grabs Sam and tries to strangle him, but Frodo holds his sword (actually, Bilbo's old sword Sting) to Gollum's throat. Gollum releases Sam, and they take him hostage.
The Uruks stop their trip to Mordor briefly. An argument begins when a couple begin to complain that they "ain't had nothin' but maggoty bread for three stinkin' days." One of the orcs threatens to eat Merry and Pippin, but is held back ("They are not for eating!"). Another makes a move to kill them anyway, but gets his head cut off, and meat's back on the menu. As a feeding frenzy begins, Merry and Pippin start to escape, only to be stopped by the orc who first threatened them. However, just before he can have a Hobbit meal, he's impaled by a spear. Just as Merry's about to be crushed to death by a horse hoof, the film cuts away.
Frodo and Sam, and their new captive, make their way toward Mordor, with Gollum complaining about the Elvish rope that Sam is using as a leash "burning us." He promises to do whatever Frodo wants, as long as he takes the rope off. Gollum has been to Mordor before (he was captured by Sauron's forces and it was him who revealed that the Ring was in the Shire, setting all this off), and the hobbits are hopelessly lost. If Gollum acts as their guide, Frodo will undo the leash. Gollum agrees, and is freed. Sam doesn't trust Gollum, but he goes along with Frodo.
As the Fellowship (what I'll now refer to Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas as, so I don't have to write "Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas") closes in on the Uruks, they encounter the Rohirrim. Aragorn asks Eomer what news they have from Rohan. Eomer reveals that they have been expelled from the kingdom. Upon hearing that the Fellowship was tracking the Uruks, Eomer tells them that the Rohirrim had slaughtered the Uruks in the night. When Gimli asks if they saw any hobbits, Eomer shakes his head and says "We left none alive." The Rohirrim ride off, and the Fellowship find the pile of burnt Uruk corpses, but not before warning the Fellowship about the White Wizard. While kneeling in frustration, Aragorn notices prints and other evidence that Merry and Pippin managed to escape into Fangorn Forest.
GIMLI: Fangorn Forest! What madness drove them in there?
Merry and Pippin are on the run, and that pesky orc is still following them (though he's not exactly in the best shape of his life). They hear him coming, so they scale a nearby tree. Merry is pulled down from the tree, and the orc threatens to "cut a maggot hole" in his belly. Pippin screams, and the tree's...eyes open? The orc turns around, just in time to be crushed by a giant root-foot. Pippin loses his grip in fear, and the tree catches him. Merry tries to run, but the tree picks him up. Assuming they're little orcs, he starts to crush them. Merry and Pippin plead their case, but this tree has never heard of hobbits. But the White Wizard will know...
In the night, Frodo overhears Gollum talking to himself about the "preciousss" (the Ring). It turns out Gollum used to be a hobbit-like creature named Smeagol who was corrupted by the Ring. Upon hearing his real name, Smeagol softens.
The Fellowship enters Fangorn, searching for the hobbits. Suddenly, Legolas says that he sees the White Wizard. All three go for their weapons, but the man in a beam of light (whose face is obscured), disables their weapons. Suddenly, stepping out of the light is...GANDALF? Yep, turns out our favorite wizard survived the fall, and the battle with the Balrog. He "slipped into darkness," but was brought back as Gandalf the White. He "comes to you now at the turn of the tide."
More to come later... I really DO need to get to work.