Deleted scene from The Return of the King where Aragorn broke the laws of war

Some of the creepiest scenes in a film are the ones most viewers never got to see in theaters. Worse, in just five minutes of screen time, a noble king becomes a war criminal, and a few throwaway lines turn into a spy game that decides the fate of Middle-earth.

The scene in question features the Mouth of Sauron from Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The Dark Lord's emissary rides out of the Black Gate to meet Aragorn's army, waves Frodo's mithril shirt around, and loses his head. The scene never made it into the 2003 theatrical cut and only showed up in the extended edition in December 2004.

The biggest complaint about the scene dates back to the film release. In Tolkien book, Aragorn simply glares at the messenger, who is so terrified that he suddenly remembers he is an envoy under truce. Gandalf tells him to act like an ambassador if he wants to be treated like one, and the Mouth just scurries back to Mordor.

One fan pointed out that the execution doesn't fit even the movie version of Aragorn, who spared Gríma Wormtongue and let him go to Saruman, yet here he lops off the head of a negotiator whose only crime was terrible manners.

The real fun is happening between the lines. The Mouth keeps referring to a single "prisoner," even though he presents both Frodo's mail shirt and Sam's sword. He also lets slip that he has no idea why the West would care about a couple of hobbits, and Gandalf instantly reads that Mordor has no clue about the true mission. If Sauron had the Ring, the West would have known at once, and Sauron himself is fixated on the idea that Aragorn holds it – why else would a man with a handful of soldiers storm the Black Gate?

In test footage, the Mouth of Sauron mouth was digitally rotated 90 degrees, but the filmmakers wisely dropped that version.