--- title: How Viggo Mortensen Almost Died Filming Lord of the Rings description: One of the most iconic scenes in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was an actual life-and-death situation for star Viggo Mortensen. canonical: https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-17T17:05:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:06:14.896Z og:title: Director Feared for Star's Life Filming Lord of the Rings og:description: It was a close call for Aragorn og:url: https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1c195ced899438c/69876ff635ba6fceddc061a8/movie-sequels-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Return-of-the-King-Aragorn og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Director Feared for Star's Life Filming Lord of the Rings twitter:description: It was a close call for Aragorn twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1c195ced899438c/69876ff635ba6fceddc061a8/movie-sequels-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Lord of the Rings_ Actor Had a Major Brush With Danger During This Iconic Scene People Love  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 17, 2018 5:05 PM UTC  Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'New Line Cinema  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 17, 2018 5:05 PM UTC The final installment in [Peter Jackson’s](http://time.com/5066394/peter-jackson-harvey-weinstein-interview/) _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy may have come out nearly 15 years ago, but fans are still being treated to new [behind-the-scenes tidbits](http://time.com/4650389/ian-mckellen-gandalf-lord-of-the-rings-memories/) from the beloved movies. According to [_Entertainment Weekly_](https://ew.com/books/2018/10/16/lord-of-the-rings-5-things-you-didnt-know/?utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcontent=link&utm%5Fcampaign=entertainmentweekly%5Few&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fterm=80904D98-D170-11E8-932A-BCF34744363C&%5F%5Ftwitter%5Fimpression=true), Ian Nathan’s forthcoming book [_Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-Earth_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0008296650/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0008296650&linkId=14e16c82515d9205739e77ab9dc22005)—billed as a “definitive history of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga”—reveals that one of the most iconic scenes in _The Return of the King_ was an actual life-and-death situation for star Viggo Mortensen. Apparently, the sequence in which Aragorn delivers his rousing speech outside the Black Gate of Mordor was filmed in a section of the Rangipo Desert that was once used by the New Zealand military for training and was therefore covered in unexploded artillery shells. The film had designated a safe area away from the bombs prior to the shoot, but an improvising Mortensen rode outside this zone while filming, sufficiently freaking Jackson out. “Jackson remembers waiting for the explosion,” Nathan writes in the book. “Having found their perfect Aragorn, they were going to watch him get blown up by an unexploded New Zealand bomb.” Jackson’s latest project, a WWI archive movie called [_They Shall Not Grow Old_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PRZXV9C/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07PRZXV9C&linkId=093eb40f9e08cd9057c29082acc1fff7), opened at the London Film Festival on Tuesday. Watch the [_Return of the King_ ](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ITL7UG/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B009ITL7UG&linkId=b998a56ae95f903011e88f177806ec34)clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/"},"headline":"Lord of the Rings Actor Had a Major Brush With Danger During This Iconic Scene People Love","datePublished":"2018-10-17T17:05:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:06:14.896Z","description":"It was a close call for Aragorn","url":"https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Lord of the Rings"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1c195ced899438c/69876ff635ba6fceddc061a8/movie-sequels-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1c195ced899438c/69876ff635ba6fceddc061a8/movie-sequels-08.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Return-of-the-King-Aragorn","caption":"Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'","creditText":"New Line Cinema","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5427122/lord-of-the-rings-viggo-mortensen-bombs/","name":"Lord of the Rings Actor Had a Major Brush With Danger During This Iconic Scene People Love"}}]}] ```