Viggo Mortensen Resurrected His Lord of the Rings Sword for New Movie

Viggo Mortensen hasn’t been tapped to appear as Aragorn in the next Lord of the Rings movie (yet), but his newest movie does feature him wielding Andúril, the sword of the king. The actor, who starred in and directed The Dead Don’t Hurt, admitted that when the story called for a sword, he decided to ask Peter Jackson (and later New Line Cinema) if it would be okay for him to just…use the one he had hanging around the house. That sword, of course, was a memento from his years working on Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson told him to ask “the movie company,” which we assume means either New Line or its parent company Warner Bros., and Mortensen got the all-clear.

The movie isn’t a swords-and-sorcery film, but rather a cowboy romance — but there’s still one scene that calls for a sword, and if you’ve got one of the best, why not use it?

“We had everything for this sequence with a knight,” Mortensen told GQ. “Everything was right, and then I said, well, we should have a sword. And I did look and there were some good ones and I thought, well, it might be kind of good to use [Aragorn’s sword] that I had because it’s really good.”

Here’s the official synopsis for The Dead Don’t Hurt:

The Dead Don’t Hurt is a story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s. Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the civil war separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union. This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances. When Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become. Both a tragic love story and a nuanced depiction of the conflict between revenge and forgiveness, The Dead Don’t Hurt is a portrait of a passionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.

You can see the film in select theaters now. You can also preorder it on Digital at participating retailers like Fandango at Home and Prime Video.