u/Odd_Office_921

As someone with a film background, I wondered how Peter achieved this. My only two guesses are:

A.) They shot Ian McKellen strung up on wires against a green screen, fans blowing, and had the camera on a jib/crane that was rigged to pass by him to simulate his body falling away from the frame, later adding Glamdring in post.

B.) They plugged a close-up of Ian onto a CG body.

Can anyone confirm if either of these are correct, or if it was achieved differently? Either way, this is one of my favorite moments in the trilogy, mainly because of the sound effect of the sword catch along with the score.