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Description
Towers fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild crest curled and came foaming down upon the land.
.
The realm of Sauron is ended!

The climax of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy may well be my favorite scene in the whole saga. And that is in part, with apologies to Professor Tolkien and the purists, because it is so much better done in the film than in the book.

The novel gives the impression that the destruction of the Ring happened by mere accident, with Gollum tripping and falling into the fiery chasm; further writings by Tolkien explain that it was actually divine intervention that destroyed it, which, narratively speaking, isn't much better. In the film however, the Ring effectively destroys itself. At the very moment when it looks like the Ring has won, having finally overpowered Frodo and with Sauron within moments of retrieving it, its power turns on itself: it inadvertently makes Frodo and Gollum fight over it (mirroring the very first scene of the film with Sméagol and Déagol), and they both fall off the cliff. And it doesn't stop there. For a few moments the Ring floats in the lava, as if enticing Frodo, hanging over the edge, to follow it in its ruin. Only at the very moment where Frodo reaches out and grabs hold of Sam does the Ring, its final act of malice foiled, melt into the lava.

What follows is the stunning, beautiful, cathartic collapse of Barad-dûr, and the end of Sauron's power in Middle-earth. And here too it's good that the geography is changed somewhat in the films, because our heroes at the Black Gate get to watch the Dark Tower fall with their own eyes. There's nothing quite like the sight of the mighty Dark Lord watching powerlessly as all his works crumble beneath him, even as he himself is reduced to oblivion.

All in all, it's a brilliantly paced, magnificently executed scene, and has become for me an encouraging and comforting reminder that all tyrants, all empires, do indeed fall.

Description
Towers fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild crest curled and came foaming down upon the land.
.
The realm of Sauron is ended!

The climax of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy may well be my favorite scene in the whole saga. And that is in part, with apologies to Professor Tolkien and the purists, because it is so much better done in the film than in the book.

The novel gives the impression that the destruction of the Ring happened by mere accident, with Gollum tripping and falling into the fiery chasm; further writings by Tolkien explain that it was actually divine intervention that destroyed it, which, narratively speaking, isn't much better. In the film however, the Ring effectively destroys itself. At the very moment when it looks like the Ring has won, having finally overpowered Frodo and with Sauron within moments of retrieving it, its power turns on itself: it inadvertently makes Frodo and Gollum fight over it (mirroring the very first scene of the film with Sméagol and Déagol), and they both fall off the cliff. And it doesn't stop there. For a few moments the Ring floats in the lava, as if enticing Frodo, hanging over the edge, to follow it in its ruin. Only at the very moment where Frodo reaches out and grabs hold of Sam does the Ring, its final act of malice foiled, melt into the lava.

What follows is the stunning, beautiful, cathartic collapse of Barad-dûr, and the end of Sauron's power in Middle-earth. And here too it's good that the geography is changed somewhat in the films, because our heroes at the Black Gate get to watch the Dark Tower fall with their own eyes. There's nothing quite like the sight of the mighty Dark Lord watching powerlessly as all his works crumble beneath him, even as he himself is reduced to oblivion.

All in all, it's a brilliantly paced, magnificently executed scene, and has become for me an encouraging and comforting reminder that all tyrants, all empires, do indeed fall.