Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas encounter a mysteriously transformed Gandalf and battle Saruman's army at Helm's Deep. Merry and Pippin escape from the Orcs and must convince the Ents to join the battle against evil. Frodo and Sam face many perils on their continuing quest to save Middle-earth by destroying the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. The surviving members of the Fellowship of the Ring have split into three groups. It was very well received critically and was an enormous box-office success, making over $900 million worldwide (making it the fourth most successful film of all time at that point in time). Tolkien, although some of the later events are held over to the third movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It is an adaptation of the book The Two Towers, the second part of the three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. It is the second part in The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, following The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a film released on Wednesday, December 18, 2002, directed by Peter Jackson with a runtime of 179 minutes (2 hours, 59 minutes). For a list of other meanings, see Two Towers (disambiguation). The name Two Towers refers to more than one character, item or concept. This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers " I shan't call it the end, till we've cleared up the mess." - Sam