[HCIsland]

I doubt it was thrown in at the last minute. Scenes like this one have to be well planned out.<P>They needed to have the crack there so that Ian McKellen could pull himself up enough to deliver the "fly you fools" line. The overhead shot of Gandalf being dragged to the edge is almost certainly a stuntman. Although a lot of that shot would be blue screen, the bridge (or at least the section he is standing on) is not. You can even see trails being left in the dirt by his fingers. There may have been a logistical safety concern of throwing down a stunt man on a bridge with a large crack in it.<P>H.C.