<Frodo walks slowly away from the safe corner. Gondorian Rangers are still running about, defending their stations.>
Sam: What are you doing? Where are you going?!
<Slow motion: Frodo walks up some stairs and stands on a bridge. A Nazgûl on a Fell beast emerges in front of him. Frodo stares at the Nazgûl, fixated. Feeling the call of the Ring, he holds it up. Faramir watches the unfolding tableau from below. As Frodo moves to put the Ring on his finger and the Nazgûl flies closer and closer, Sam runs up and knocks Frodo over. Faramir releases an arrow and shoots the Fell Beast. Frodo and Sam roll down the stairs. As they come to a stop at the bottom, Frodo holds Sam in a death grip, yells and points Sting at his throat, his eyes livid with madness and anger that someone would try to take the Ring away.>
Frodo: Aaarrgghh!!!
Sam: <With tears running down his face> It’s me. It’s your Sam. Don’t you know your Sam?
<The madness fades and recognition returns to Frodo’s eyes. He realises what he nearly did and is overcome. Stumbling backwards, he collapses against a wall and Sting falls to the ground with a clang. Sam gets up slowly.>
Frodo: <Slowly and with despair> I can’t do this, Sam.
Sam: <Getting up slowly> I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. <He stands and leans against a wall, looking out into the distance.> It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? <Images of the riders winning the battle against the Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep> How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
Théoden: Victory! We have victory! <He raises his sword with a victorious cry>
Sam: But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. <The women and children welcome the men as they return. Éowyn runs up to Aragorn and embraces him, crying tears of relief.> Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. <Isengard is flooded. Merry and Pippin looks on from their perch on Treebeard. On the balcony, Saruman stumbles back into his chamber> And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?
Sam: There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
<Standing in a corner, even Gollum seems moved. Faramir walks over and comes to kneel in front of Frodo>
Faramir: I think at last we understand one another, Frodo Baggins.
Madril: You know the laws of our country, the laws of your father. If you let them go, your life will be forfeit.
Faramir: Then it is forfeit. Release them.
<Sam shakes the ranger’s hand from his shoulder. Frodo looks up at Faramir with gladness. Over in the realm of Rohan, Gandalf, Théoden and company ride to the top of a slope, looking towards the Mountain of Fire in the distance.>
Gandalf: Sauron’s wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift. The battle for Helm’s Deep is over. The battle for Middle-earth is about to begin. All our hopes now lie with two little hobbits. Somewhere in the wilderness.
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