The Lord of the Rings

This week our movie is Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers from 2002, based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. The plant movie stars in this case, are the Ent, or giant trees, which are capable of movement and turn out to be fierce warriors. In the Tolkien tale, the Ents are ancient trees that are embodied by spirits from a bygone age, and living in the Fanghorn forest. In the story, the Ents are lead by the ancient Treebeard, and fight back against the evil Saruman, whose minions are cutting down the forest to fuel their mighty furnaces.

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie poster
showing Treebeard

This is another movie in which plants are able to uproot themselves and move about, in this case to right a wrong. I’m a bit skeptical of walking trees, given the complex nature of tree physiology and mechanics, but who hasn’t listened to the rustling of wind in the trees, on a certain type of day, and imagined the trees to be talking! For some fantasy fun, take a look at the walking and fighting Ents in Peter Jackson’s version of The Two Towers: http://youtu.be/UTFP9QQzEL4