LOTR III. Flight into Peril

A forum for our members to collaborate on scripts adapted from Tolkien's works, patterned on the massive LOTR screenplay authored by ToshoftheWuffingas.
ToshoftheWuffingas
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

Prim, I think the Prof was fairly subtle in his introductions of Arwen. In fact I am a bit more heavy-handed and only subtle in comparison to the sledge-hammer that was PJ.

Voronwë, I've been thinking a bit more about your comment on the break in Frodo's line. I inserted a revision though I think it a bit clumsy. You are right that the two separate thoughts need a pause of some sort.
However it made me think that this treatment of LOTR if it works at all does so through a collaboration between my imagination and the reader's. I try to fit in all the visual clues to help people imagine it in their minds freshly and try overall to retell a good story but I hope each reader fits in their own ideas and interpretations, especially because if I try to pin down everything it risks being unwieldy.
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

I think this episode works best delivered in two parts rather than three so here is the final part.


Fade to Sam, his pack before him on a table. He is muttering to himself.

Sam: ‘ My cooking pots, a box of salt, a bit of pipeweed but not near enough, flint and tinder, clothes, a few things the master forgot. What else now? Oh, there’s no rope! I’m sure to need some. It’s too late now though.’ Elrond walks in leading the others. They gather around him and he speaks in a low voice.

Elrond: ‘This is my last word. I call you together as the Fellowship of the Ring. The Ring-bearer has vowed to find his way to Mount Doom. You go to help him on his journey but no oath is laid upon you for you do not know the strength of your hearts.’

Gimli, (standing the other side of Legolas who looks in turn from Elrond to Gimli.): ‘It is faithless to say farewell when the road darkens.’

Elrond: ‘He should not vow to walk in the dark who has not yet seen the nightfall.’

Gimli: ‘ Yet an oath may strengthen a quaking heart.’

Elrond: ‘Or may break it.’ Legolas raises his eyebrows and suppresses a small smile.
Cut to a scene outside the building. Aragorn sits on the veranda his head bowed to his knees. Sam is fidgetting next to Bill who is heavily laden. The packs are scattered around. Arwen appears at the far end of the long veranda, pauses (a brief cut to a close-up of her grave still face) and walks inside a doorway and Aragorn rises and walks down the veranda to follow her in. Pippin goes to follow him but Gandalf catches his sleeve and stops him.
Cut to the Fellowship standing before Rivendell’s bridge. They are wearing padded clothes and furs and bearing their packs. Pine trees are whipping around in the distance. Aragorn strides forward across the bridge. Boromir follows. Cut to Boromir who takes his horn and blows a great blast that echoes away in the valley.

Boromir: ‘We may walk in the shadows after this but I will not set out like a thief in the night.’
Cut to a long shot of the whole fellowship crossing the bridge, Legolas is at the back.
Fades to brief scenes of the fellowship on high, bleak heather-covered moors, scrambling down gullies, crossing small fast rocky streams, sleeping inside small dense thickets and sitting as they eat a meal while Legolas and Aragorn scan the horizon. They look cold the whole time.
Fade to a distant view of a snow-covered mountain range. Cut to the fellowship looking into the distance and Aragorn is pointing.

Aragorn: ‘Those three peaks mark the Redhorn Pass.’

Gimli: ‘And close by is our ancient home of Khazad-dûm, that the Elves call Moria. We have never forgotten it.’

Aragorn: ‘Elves too once lived in these lands but they left long ago to go over the sea. Now this land is strangely silent. I hear no bird song.’
Cut to Frodo asleep wrapped in a blanket. Aragorn and Gandalf sit close together behind him and whisper. Frodo opens his eyes and listens.

Gandalf: ‘The snows are coming south early. They may block our crossing.’

Aragorn: ‘ I have always known the pass to be clear. We have to try it. There is no other way.’

Gandalf: ‘ There is another way. The secret way I told you of before.’

Aragorn: ‘ Say nothing of it to the others unless we are left with no other choice. It is an evil way.’ Frodo frowns as if he is trying to understand what they say and the camera rises from his face and zooms steadily towards a knife-edged sharp snow-covered peak that glows red with the setting sun.
Fade to the fellowship getting ready to set out. Boromir appears with a large bundle of sticks.

Boromir: ‘I have travelled in high mountains near my home. We must take enough dry wood to burn against the bitter cold.’
Cut to a few quick shots of the company ascending a trail, carrying bundles of sticks on top of their large packs. Cut to a close-up of Frodo. He is looking down watching the path. A snow-flake drifts past him then another hits his face. He looks up. Cut to thick snow falling between them. Pippin scrapes up a snowball and throws it at the back of Boromir’s neck. He turns and grins.

Cut to Sam: ‘ Can’t you send this snow to Hobbiton Gandalf? They like to wake up to a bit of snow once in a while.’ Cut to Aragorn and Boromir.

Aragorn: ‘Snow seldom falls so heavily here. Even in winter this pass is usually clear.’

Boromir: ‘Sauron can raise storms in his mountain borders but those are almost three hundred leagues away.’
Cut to the company sheltering at night beneath an overhanging cliff. The snow is blowing horizontally and the wind is shrieking. A boulder bounces off the cliff above them.

Gimli: ‘ This is no normal weather.’

Gandalf: ‘Caradhras the Redhorn was a mountain with an evil name long before Sauron. I think it does not wish us to pass’

Aragorn: ‘ We cannot go forward in this weather. Beyond here is a bare open slope with no shelter.’ Cut to the miserable and shivering hobbits.

Sam: ‘If this is shelter then one wall and no roof makes a house.’ Cut back to the company.

Boromir: ‘Then we have to build a fire now. The halflings will die of the cold otherwise.’ He starts to stack the faggots.

Gimli: ‘What hope have we of lighting it?’
Gandalf: ‘If I must use my power then I will reveal myself to all who can see and we must say farewell to stealth. Naur an edraith! ‘ He thrusts his staff into the wood-pile which bursts into green and blue flame.
Cut to the company clustered around the fire. Fade to a morning light and burnt out ashes.

Legolas leaps over a snow drift back among them: ‘Beyond us are great drifts for miles but behind us the snow only lasts for a few hundred paces.’

Boromir: ‘To go on is folly then. Come Aragorn, we can clear a path back by ourselves.’ He starts walking into the snow, pushing it aside with his arms.
Cut to a high wall of snow. Boromir suddenly appears out of it, creating an arched exit. Aragorn follows with Pippin on his back then Gandalf with Frodo, Legolas with Merry and finally Gimli leads Sam on Bill.

Gandalf turns and looks back: ‘Caradhras has defeated us.’ The camera rises again to the knife-edged slopes of the red tinged mountain.
Cut to the fellowship in a night-time camp on a small hill. A grove of trees is nearby and they sit round a fire. The wind is howling.

Gandalf : ‘We cannot return to Rivendell. The Ring would be trapped there and in time Sauron would come in force and take it. We cannot cross by the pass, nor can we go south for that way is watched by Saruman who seeks the Ring himself. There is one other way. (Gimli jumps to his feet) If we enter the old dwarf-kingdom of Moria we will be underground and hidden from the spies of Sauron.’

Gimli: ‘My father’s friend Balin, one of Bilbo’s companions, led an expedition to reclaim Khazad-dûm thirty years ago. They will welcome us.’

Gandalf: ‘Once long ago I travelled through Moria but your guidance underground will be welcome Gimli’

Aragorn: ‘I entered once by the Eastern Gate but my memory of it is evil. I do not wish to see it a second time. Yet you followed my lead in the snow so now I will follow yours. I say only that we should beware and you above all, Gandalf.’

Legolas: ‘I do not wish to enter this place. What does Frodo, the Ring-bearer say?’

Frodo: ‘I say wait for the morning when our minds will be fresh. I am tired and this wind howls.’

Aragorn leaps up: ‘Not the wind! Those are the howls of wolves and wargs!’ The company jump up and look outwards. The sound of wolves becomes plain. ‘We have become the hunted!’

Boromir: ‘How far is it to this Moria?’

Gandalf: ‘The west door is fifteen miles away. We would not survive a night journey there. We must face them here’ Cut to Pippin and Sam looking around them nervously.

Pippin: ‘I wish now Elrond had made me stay behind. I am no good here and I feel wretched.’

Sam: ‘ Me too Mr Pippin but we’ve not been eaten yet. I don’t see Gandalf ending up inside a wolf’s belly.’
Cut to the fellowship standing close to the grove of trees with their backs to the fire. The howling is louder. Cut to flickering flames in the foreground and beyond a large dark wolf-shape that approaches, sits on its haunches and howls. Gandalf enters the shot from one side and walks towards the wolf. The flames reflect off his back.

Gandalf: ‘Listen, Hound of Sauron! I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you come within this ring!’
The wolf runs and leaps at Gandalf. Fast brief cut to Legolas loosing an arrow. A fast blurred pan to the wolf that drops lifeless to the ground. Gandalf walks up to it and stirs it with his foot then turns and walks back to the firelight.
Cut to Pippin and Sam hugging each other and grinning. There is a momentary silence and then their faces turn to dismay. Cut to a tracking shot of the fellowship drawing their weapons one by one.
Cut to a long slow panning shot. Hundreds of eyes light up in the darkness beyond the circle of firelight.
Fade to black and closing credits.
Last edited by ToshoftheWuffingas on Mon May 26, 2008 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Primula Baggins
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Post by Primula Baggins »

Tosh, I didn't post clearly. I don't think Tolkien was too heavy-handed at all. I thought he weas too subtle. The first time I read LotR I had the common reaction at the wedding: "Who's this chick and where did she come from?"

I was lamenting the fact that it's a lot harder in written fiction to give hints that clue people without signaling too much. Tolkien's hints didn't clue me.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

I like Tolkien's term, 'the attentive reader'. I think he consciously wrote for such a reader and that style still enables us to come up with small nuggets of discovery.
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Post by Primula Baggins »

True. I'm a bit more attentive than I was at age—9? I don't remember. But my complaint from then is one I've heard adult readers make as well.

That kind of subtlety is a positive pleasure on a second or subsequent reading, because you recognize at last what you're being told. But the first time through, it is hard to pick out which single stitch of the enormous tapestry is going to be important from all those that are simply additional background details.


Edit: Typo.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

And the next episode starts.........

The screen is dark. We hear Gimli’s voice in the darkness chanting proudly:
‘No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone.’

(As he speaks a glimmer of light shows that we are passing along a dark passageway. Suddenly the camera comes out into a great hall pierced by long sunbeams, columns that stretch into the distance and an intricately vaulted roof. The opening credits come up: JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: Episode Nine; The Bridge of Khazad-dûm etc. Gimli’s voice continues uninterrupted.)
‘The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright.’
(The camera continues from the sunlit dappled columns to staircases, arches, balconies and carved openwork screens. All are deserted.)
‘Unwearied then were Durin’s folk
beneath the mountains music woke.
There hammer on the anvil smote,
There chisel clove and graver wrote.
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword
And shining spears were laid in hoard.’
(We see the ruin of Moria. We see scattered broken weapons and fallen chandeliers on the dirt covered geometrically tiled floors. Gimli continues sadly now.)
‘The world is grey, the mountains old,
the forge’s fire is ashen-cold.
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls.
The darkness dwells in Durin’s halls;
The shadow lies upon his tomb,
in Moria: in Khazad-dûm.’

Cut to Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli in front of a camp fire, holding their weapons ready. Cut back to the panning shot from the previous episode of a ring of eyes glowing in the dark. Cut to three wolves side by side creeping forward. Cut to the hobbits, swords drawn, looking at each other and then outwards. We hear a buzzing that swells and fades rhythmically and their faces lighten and darken at the same rate. Cut to the whole fellowship around the fire and Gandalf swings his staff around his head. A flame licks from the end and gradually forms a circle that starts to expand outwards. Wolves start to rush in. Cut to a series of quick shots of Aragorn and Boromir sweeping their blades around, the ring of white fire above their heads, Gimli running around chopping down at moving shapes with his axe and Legolas loosing arrows that burst into flames in the darkness.
Cut to Gandalf, seen from a low angle to emphasise his height: ‘Naur an edraith ammen! Naur dan i ngaurhoth!’ He tosses a burning stick in the air and suddenly the scene is lit white like a lightning flash. Cut to a view of the grove of trees that burst into an intense white blaze. The ring of fire above their heads expands outwards like a bomb blast. The white light fades away. Cut to the hobbits standing looking shaken next to Bill.

Sam: ‘What did I say Mr Pippin? That was an eye-opener! It nearly singed the hair off my head!’
Cut to a dim dawn light. Legolas is retrieving arrows accompanied by Boromir.

Boromir: ‘These were no normal wolves hunting for food in the wild.’

Legolas: ‘No. They were wargs in the service of the Enemy.’ Cut to Gandalf and the others as Legolas and Boromir return.

Gandalf: ‘They have gone for now but we can expect other attacks. We must reach the door of Moria before night-fall.’
Fade to a long shot of the fellowship skirting the left side of a narrow lake that almost comes up against a steep cliff. Cut to a medium shot of them standing between the cliff and the black water.

Gandalf: ‘The west door of Moria is hidden in this cliff. (He turns to Sam and Bill) Now Sam, the paths of Moria are long and dark, too narrow for Bill to walk. He will have to be left behind and we must carry everything ourselves. It will be warm in Moria and on the other side so at least we can leave our cold weather gear here.’

Sam looks from Gandalf to Bill: ‘But it will be nothing short of murder to leave him to all those wolves!’

Gandalf puts his hands on Bill’s head: ‘Go with words of guard and in time find Elrond’s house again.’ Bill nuzzles Sam who starts wiping his nose while unloading the packs. Cut to the cliff-face. Gimli is tapping it with his axe and Legolas has his ear to it. In the background Sam is unpacking Bill and patting him.

Merry: ‘I can’t see any doors.’

Gimli: ‘Dwarf-doors are hidden when closed. You have to know the secret to open them.’

Gandalf: ‘Once Elves used these doors too when they and Dwarves were friends here.’

Gimli: ‘It was not our fault the friendship failed.’

Legolas, looking superior: ‘I did not hear it was the fault of the Elves.’

Gandalf turns irritably from examining the cliff: ‘Can you two at least be friends? I need you both!’ He stretches his hands out over the rock and chants under his breath. ‘Watch.’
Slowly the delicate silver outline of Durin’s Doors is revealed. The camera lingers for a moment. Cut back to the fellowship gazing at the lines. As they speak we see the light on their faces.

Frodo: ‘Bilbo taught me the Elf letters but I cannot read this.’
Gandalf: ‘It is an ancient script. It merely says, “The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak friend and enter.’

Gimli: ‘You see, only friends would know the password.’

Boromir: ‘Do you know this password?’

Gimli: ‘No.’

Gandalf: ‘Nor do I.’

The fellowship then set upon Gimli and beat him up to get the password out of him.
(Sorry about that, I must have been channelling some other film!)

Boromir looks anxiously at the black water: ‘Then are we to be left between this wall and that accursed lake until the wolves come?’ Cut to a longer shot of the fellowship by the cliff from across the lake. Bubbles erupt in the black water in the foreground. Cut to ripples on the scummy water striking the shore near their feet. Cut back to the company. Pippin is bored and kicking stones around.

Pippin: ‘What will you do then?'

Gandalf, plainly getting vexed: ‘ Knock on them with your head to shatter them! Or get some peace to think of commands. I should have a hundred or more in my head.’
Fade to a tracking shot of the fellowship sitting against the cliff, all looking warily at Gandalf out of the corner of their eyes as he tries spell after spell. Suddenly Boromir rises in frustration.

Boromir: ‘I hate this foul water!’ He picks up a stone and throws it across the water.

Cut to Frodo, looking dubiously at the water: ‘ Why did you do that? I hate this place too but I fear that lake for some reason. Do not disturb it again.’ Cut to more and more ripples hitting the narrow shore. Cut back to the fellowship.
Pippin: ‘Why doesn’t Gandalf do something?’ The others all fire warning glances at Pippin as Gandalf turns from the wall to respond. He pauses then laughs.

Gandalf:’Like all riddles it is simple; too simple for a learned wizard like myself. I only have to say ‘friend’ in the old elven-tongue. Hah!’ He raises his staff. ’Mellon!’
Cut to the wall and the fine hairline silver image of Durin’s Doors thicken and the star pulsates. A crack appears down the middle and the doors slowly open.

Gandalf: ‘Follow me in.’ Gimli hurries to follow Gandalf. Boromir looks behind him then goes in next and Legolas takes Merry and Pippin in. Sam goes to say goodbye to Bill; Frodo waits for him. Cut to Bill showing the whites of his eyes . He rears up and turns and gallops off. Cut to a close-up of a great thick suckered tentacle on the surface of the water. The camera tracks it to the shore. A thin tapered tip rests on the ground behind Frodo’s feet. With sudden speed it wraps itself around his ankle and drags him off his feet. Frodo calls out and hangs on to a rock. Sam runs up and drops to his knees hacking at the tentacle with his sword.

Sam: ‘Help him please!’
Cut to the black lake. A score of tentacles burst upwards from the water in a huge circle, the highest ones at the back and start to move towards the camera. The centre of the circle starts to boil.
Cut back to Frodo and Sam. A sword blade clangs down through the tentacle and sparks fly from the stones. Cut to Aragorn lifting Frodo in the air and bearing him within the doors as Sam scrambles behind him. The tentacles hit the wall, stretching high above them, twisting and writhing in all directions.
Cut to a view from inside Moria. The writhing tentacles are silhouetted against the evening sky. Between them rises from the water a horrific shadow and suddenly the gates are slammed shut. A muffled avalanche is heard in the dark. It is almost but not quite dark inside. Gradually the soundtrack slows down.

Still in the gloom we hear Sam: ‘Wolves and snakes! Wolves and snakes! Poor old Bill. I had to leave him; I had to choose.’
Last edited by ToshoftheWuffingas on Mon May 26, 2008 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Trazúviel
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Post by Trazúviel »

The fellowship then set upon Gimli and beat him up to get the password out of him.
(Sorry about that, I must have been channelling some other film!)
:rofl::rofl::rofl: I was NOT expecting that!! :blackeye:

As for the rest, I'm really enjoying it. Good tension build up with the wargs. And the reforging of Anduril was done very well.
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

Thanks Traz. Just appealing to the 'attentive' reader. :D

A light springs up and Gandalf walks through the others with a light coming from the tip of his staff and pauses by the wall.

Gandalf: 'It is truly blocked now and our only way out is the forty miles journey under the mountains to the eastern door.'
They turn from looking at the blocked gates and look upwards with shadowed faces. Cut to a rise of broad shallow steps leading up to a grand ornate archway. Cut back to the fellowship.

Boromir mutters: 'Now we go into the deep places of the world where that foul thing must have come from.'
Gandalf pulls his sword out a few inches: 'At least there are no orcs nearby.' Frodo suddenly realises and pulls out Sting to examine it. It too is dull. He sheathes it again. Cut to the fellowship climbing the steps. Fade to them walking away from camera into an immensely long passageway. Cut again and they are tiny figures in the distance surrounded by darkness. Cut to Gandalf walking beside a cheerful Gimli who looks in every direction. They pass doorways and stairs and arches.

Gandalf: 'Take care as you walk. There are pits and wells and deep cracks in these paths.' Fade to Boromir and Legolas walking together. Legolas has an expression of faint disdain for the dwarf kingdom. Fade to Frodo walking at the back. He looks worried and stops and looks behind him. Seeing nothing he resumes walking but remains uneasy.
Cut to a view of the fellowship from some way back. The camera is hand-held and jerky and moves along the passageway, sometimes slowly, sometimes speeding up to catch up. We see Frodo in the distance stop and turn and the camera moves into an alcove. A few seconds and then it moves out again.
Cut to Gandalf stopping before three large arches. He looks at each in turn then turns to the others.

Gandalf: 'I am too weary to decide. Let us rest in that room.' He nods to one side. Cut to Gandalf stopping Merry and Pippin from entering a door and going in first himself.
Cut to a room of decay and ruin as they enter. Legolas looks even more fastidious. They start to roll out their blankets along the walls.

Gimli: 'This is one of our guard rooms. Take care near that well. It has lost its cover and will be very deep.'
As the others move around Pippin is still. He looks at the well then looks over his shoulder. He moves slowly to it and kneels down. Cut to a circle of light surrounded by darkness. Pippin's face appears to one side. The circle and his face shrink to little more than a spot. Cut back to Pippin kneeling over the edge. He picks up a stone and drops it in. Cut to a close-up of Pippin's face; his eyes down and his lips moving soundlessly. We hear a distant splash.

Cut to Gandalf's face as he turns abruptly: 'What was that?'

Cut to Pippin: 'I dropped a stone in to see how deep it was.'

Cut to Gandalf, furious but talking quietly: 'Fool of a Took! This is not a hobbit-walk taken for amusement. Throw yourself in next time!' He turns away then we hear a tap-tap sound. Everyone freezes and looks at Gandalf. The tapping continues.

Gimli: 'That is a hammer.'

Gandalf: 'Something has been disturbed. Perhaps it wasn't Peregrin's foolish stone but do nothing like that again. Take the first watch as your reward. ' He sits down, pulls his blanket around him and lies down.
Cut to Pippin sitting and clutching his knees in the dim light., everyone asleep. He looks behind him at the well head. Cut to the well head. Cut to his face and we see his wet eyes. Gandalf comes up behind him and Pippin turns his face away to hide his tears. Gandalf puts his hand on Pippin's shoulder and speaks softly in a kind voice.

Gandalf: 'You want to sleep and I cannot get a wink so I shall take the watch.' As Pippin crawls away Gandalf gets out a pipe and pouch and starts to fill the bowl. Cut to the fellowship, packs on their backs again, in front of the three arches.

Gandalf. It is time we climbed upwards. I shall take the right-hand passage.' Cut to the fellowship walking along more passageways.

Gandalf: 'We must be near to the great halls in the east now.'

Gimli: 'And perhaps we will find Balin and his companions.'

Sam: 'Will we find treasure there like Bilbo?'

Gandalf: 'I think not. The orcs plundered Moria long ago. Besides it wasn't gold and jewels that brought wealth to the dwarves here but the mithril. It is found nowhere else in Middle-earth. They dug too deep in search of it and disturbed something that destroyed their kingdom.'

Merry: 'What is mithril?'

Gandalf: 'It is a metal so rare it is many times the value of gold. It is light and more beautiful than silver but the dwarves could make it tougher than tempered steel. King Thorin gave Bilbo a corslet of it that is still in a museum in the Shire.'

Gimli: 'What? That was a kingly gift indeed!'

Gandalf, chuckling: 'Yes. I never told him but it was worth more than the value of the whole Shire.'

Cut to Frodo looking down at his chest and pulling his jacket together.
Cut again to the hand-held camera that follows them at a distance. Fade to Gimli and Gandalf together.

Gimli: ' Can you smell the air? Can you hear the space around us? We have entered a great hall.'
Gandalf: 'Then I will risk some real light.' He raises his staff and suddenly the vast hall with its tall black polished columns that stretch into the distance is revealed. At last Legolas looks impressed.

Sam: 'There must have been a mighty crowd of dwarves here, all of them busy as badgers for hundreds of years. This is hard rock. They surely didn't live here in the dark?'

Gimli, glumly: ' Once it was full of light.'

Gandalf: 'It is night time now. In the morning light should come in through high shafts.'
Last edited by ToshoftheWuffingas on Mon May 26, 2008 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ToshoftheWuffingas »

And it finishes............


Fade to the the fellowship rolling up their blankets in the great hall with beams of light streaming down into bright pools.

Gandalf: ‘Today we should reach the Eastern Gate and leave Moria at last.’

Gimli: ‘Moria was very great but now it is dark and dreadful. I now doubt if Balin ever came here.’
Fade to the fellowship walking along a dimly lit corridor. Near the end light comes from an open doorway. Cut to them in a room with a long slab of stone on top of a slab. A beam of light falls on the slab. Cut to a high view; Gandalf and Gimli approach the slab and read the runes on it. Gimli sinks down and sits and covers his face with his hood.

Gandalf: ‘It says Balin, son of Fundin. Lord of Moria. He is dead then.’

Frodo, approaching too: ‘I feared it was so. He was Bilbo’s friend.’
The camera pans a little and they look around and see bones and weapons scattered in the dust. Then a sudden boom startles them all and dust and stones fall from above and the camera shakes a little. Cut to a level shot of the company looking around then a horn blast is heard, muffled by distance.

Gandalf: ‘We are caught in a trap! Aragorn, what lies beyond that other door?’

Cut to Aragorn by a small doorway with a half-open stone door: ‘A steep flight of steps leading downwards.’
Cut to Gandalf looking out of the larger door down the corridor. He comes back in with a small black arrow in his hat. As he talks he pulls the arrow from the hat and tries to make the hat presentable again.

Gandalf: ‘There are a score or so of orcs. Some are the large man-sized Uruks from Mordor. There is a cave troll too. We must block this door before we escape or we will be overtaken.’ Gimli and Boromir push the door shut and wedge it with broken swords and axes.

Cut to Aragorn drawing Anduril: ‘I will make them fear to enter this chamber.’ Cut back to the whole room. The door is battered and then it is slowly pushed ajar with scraping from the blades. A large scaly green toeless foot is pushed into the gap. Boromir hacks at the foot but his sword bounds out of his hand and he shakes his hand. Aragorn steps forward but Frodo runs in front of him calling out ‘The Shire!’ and stabs the foot with his brightly glowing sword. We hear a great bellow and the foot disappears. Aragorn and Boromir wedge the door again.

Aragorn looks over his shoulder: ‘You have a good blade Frodo.’
The door is battered again and starts to disintegrate. First arrows come through the holes and then the holes get bigger. Then suddenly orcs start to flood in. They are short and make quick rushing attacks and dance away like jackals. One armed with a short bow jumps up on the tomb and Gimli hacks at his legs with a roar. Boromir and Aragorn move to left and right and attack the orcs within reach. Legolas stands at the back loosing arrows into the doorway to stop more entering and is protected by Gimli’s axe. Finally the last orcs run around the room in fear trying vainly to escape Aragorn’s sword. The chamber is at last still. Sam’s head is covered in blood as he pulls his sword from the body of an orc. Legolas quickly recovers arrows.

Gandalf: ‘Go now before the troll comes back.’ Legolas leads Merry and Pippin out. Gandalf guards the exit and Boromir guards the main door.
Cut to a close-up of a fanged orc-face with a black helmet. Cut to a large black-armoured orc running in and pushing away Boromir’s sword on its shield. Cut to a different view in slow-motion. The orc swerves under Aragorn’s sword and levels a spear. The camera follows him in slow-motion across the chamber to the other side. The spear catches Frodo in his side and lifts him up in the air and against the wall. Back in normal speed Sam runs and hacks the spear shaft in two. The orc draws a curved sword but collapses to a blow from Aragorn
Aragorn sweeps up Frodo and carries him from the chamber followed by Sam looking up. Legolas comes back in and pulls at Gimli to leave the tomb.
Cut to the crowded top of the steps. Boromir pushes the stone door closed. Sam still looks up at Frodo on Aragorn’s shoulder.

Frodo: ‘Put me down. I can walk I think.’

Aragorn, putting him down gently: ‘I thought you were dead!’ Sam helps Frodo stand up. Gimli takes his pack.

Gandalf: ‘Don’t stand there gaping. Get down those stairs. If I do not follow soon go on by yourselves.’

Aragorn: ‘We can’t leave you here alone.’

Gandalf: ’Do as I say! Swords are no use here.’

Cut to a view upwards of the fellowship scrambling down the steps. Aragorn stops at the bottom and looks back up. There is another boom and then Aragorn’s face is lit by white light. A rumble of falling rock is heard then Gandalf comes tumbling down the stairs. He picks himself up and staggers a little and shakes off Aragorn’s helping hand. Gandalf picks his hat up and tries to brush the dust off. He looks drawn and shaken.

Gandalf: ‘Well, that’s over. That way is truly blocked for a while but I was nearly destroyed. Come Gimli and help to guide us.’

Gimli: ‘What did you meet?’

Gandalf: Something I have never met before. I put a holding spell on the door. Then something came into the room and I felt it discover my spell. The counter spell was terrible and nearly broke me. The door actually started to open. I had to speak a word of command and then the door and chamber collapsed. I have never felt so weary. But Frodo, I too thought you were dead.’

Frodo: ‘I am bruised and painful but it’s not too bad.’

Aragorn: ‘That would have skewered a wild boar. I would have spoken softer in Bree if I thought hobbit hides were so tough.’

Gandalf smiles weakly: ‘We must go.’
Cut to an archway. Gandalf stands just beyond it and red firelight is reflected off him. He beckons the others. Cut to the fellowship seen from a high angle running in a vast hall. Black columns stretch into the darkness. Behind them a fissure in the polished floor stretches across the hall and a dull red glow comes from it.

Cut to a close-up of Gandalf running and puffing: ‘Come …we must hurry. The gates are close. We just…. need to cross that narrow bridge.’
Cut to the fellowship from behind approaching a slender arched bridge over an utterly black chasm. Aragorn and Boromir are leading Merry and Pippin over it. Arrows start to fly past. They turn.
Cut to orcs clustered by the fiery chasm. Two trolls bridge the chasm with slabs. Behind them the black columns start to look red and a dull red fills the background.
Cut to Legolas fitting an arrow to his bow. He lifts it and his expression changes to horror and fear and he drops his arrow. He looks helpless.

Legolas: ‘A Balrog! A Balrog! A Balrog has come!’

Cut to Gimli, equally terrified: ‘Durin’s Bane has come!’
Cut to a naked white figure wreathed in shadows with a gaping open mouth and blank black eyes with no whites running to camera. Flames flicker and grow into a sort of mane behind his head and the columns behind grow dim. It holds a sword and scourge. It looks like a wicked angel.

Cut to Gandalf swaying on his staff: ‘Now I understand. What an evil fortune.’ He looks down to the ground.
Cut to the orcs cowering to either side as we see a dark cloud in the distance approach the fissure. The cloud is red flecked and there is a vague man-shape in the centre.
Cut to the clearer view again as it leaps over the fissure. Flames shoot up around it and the hall is obscured by dark clouds. It pauses and flames stream from its nostrils and the sword and scourge turn into fire. We hear a loud thrilling horn blast. Cut to Boromir beyond the bridge shouldering his horn and drawing his sword. Aragorn is beside him.

Cut to Gandalf with the bridge behind him: ‘This foe is beyond any of you. I must hold the bridge. Go now!’ He gestures. Cut back to Aragorn and Boromir shaking their heads grimly. Cut to the others clustered in the exit looking terrified.
Cut to Gandalf from behind and slightly above. He walks on to the bridge leaning on his staff almost as far as the top of the arch as the Balrog approaches. It is perhaps twice Gandalf’s height. Gandalf’s sword burns bright white. The Balrog pauses at the edge of the chasm, the scourge swings around and gobbets of fire drop off the sword. There is a silence.

Gandalf speaks at first almost matter of factly as if stating the obvious: ‘You cannot pass. I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor.’
The Balrog stretches in height and the shadows around it deepen and wrap around the sides. It snaps the scourge.

Gandalf, louder and sharper: ‘You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn. Go back to the shadow. You cannot pass.’
The Balrog leaps on to the bridge and brings its sword down on Gandalf. It towers over him. Gandalf meets the sword with his own and the fiery sword disintegrates into sparks and molten gobbets. He staggers back. Cut to Aragorn and Boromir.

Aragorn: ‘He cannot stand alone! Elendil!’

Boromir: ‘Gondor!’
Cut back to the bridge seen from below. The Balrog starts to swing the scourge around its head.

Gandalf, in a commanding voice: ‘ You cannot pass!’ He swings his staff on to the bridge like a hammer and a burst of white light explodes at the feet of the Balrog. The camera switches to slow motion as the bridge starts to shatter beneath the Balrog. The Balrog starts to fall into the abyss and the scourge whips out towards Gandalf.
Cut to Gandalf being jerked off his feet and on to his back. He starts to slide along the bridge, his sword in one hand. His hat falls off into the deep and he grabs ineffectually at it then tries to wrap his free arm around the narrow bridge but he keeps sliding along it.

‘Fly you fools!’
Then he is gone.
In slow motion again the rest of the bridge breaks up and tumbles in. Fade to black
Cut to a close-up of Aragorn and Boromir running to camera. The camera tracks back as they catch up with the others.

Aragorn: ‘I will lead you now, follow me!’
Cut to the fellowship running across a daylit hall to a great arched doorway with light streaming in. Cut to Frodo and Sam weeping as they run. Frodo is holding his side and running with difficulty and Sam’s head and face are still all bloody. Cut to Aragorn approaching a group of orcs at the door. Aragorn sweeps one away with his sword and the others scatter.
Cut to the fellowship running out into bright sunshine and down a broad flight of steps. They pause at the bottom and look back then resume running.
Cut to the hobbits holding each other for comfort while Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli stand silently looking at each other grimly.
A very slow fade to black.
Closing credits.
Last edited by ToshoftheWuffingas on Mon May 26, 2008 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Primula Baggins
Living in hope
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Post by Primula Baggins »

But . . . but I thought they all wept! :( I'd miss that.

Otherwise, brilliant! I like your Balrog.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Trazúviel
Elvish Hobbit
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Post by Trazúviel »

Yes! Most excellent!

And I like your Balrog too. :D
Texas, Land of the Free, Home of the Tumbleweeds....:tumbleweed:
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