- Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
- Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. 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? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. 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 onto, Sam?
- Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
- [Aragorn and Gimli are looking at the Uruk-hai, but are separated from them by a gap]
- Gimli: Oh come on, we can take 'em.
- Aragorn: It's a long way.
- Gimli: Toss me.
- Aragorn: What?
- Gimli: I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
- Gimli: [pauses, looks up at Aragorn]
- Gimli: Don't tell the Elf.
- Aragorn: Not a word.
- Samwise "Sam" Gamgee: [cooks rabbit stew] What we need is a few good taters.
- Gollum: What's taters, precious? What's taters, eh?
- Samwise "Sam" Gamgee: *Po-tay-toes*! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a *stew*! Lovely big, golden... chips with a nice piece of fried fish.
- [Gollum spits in disgust]
- Samwise "Sam" Gamgee: Even *you* couldn't say no to that.
- Gollum: Oh, yes, we could! Spoil a nice fish.
- [gets right up in Sam's face]
- Gollum: Give it to us raw and wr-r-r-r-riggling, you keep nasty chips!
- Samwise "Sam" Gamgee: [shakes his head] You're hopeless.
- [following Gollum down the path]
- Sam: I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales.
- Frodo: [turns around] What?
- Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, 'Let's hear about Frodo and the Ring.' And they'll say 'Yes, that's one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn't he, Dad?' 'Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that's saying a lot.'
- Frodo: [continue walking] You've left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam.
- [stops and turns to Sam]
- Frodo: Frodo wouldn't have got far without Sam.
- Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn't make fun; I was being serious.
- Frodo: So was I.
- [they continue to walk]
- Sam: Samwise the Brave...
- Gandalf: [to Aragorn] Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.
- Theoden: [pick up a white flower] Simbelmyne. Ever has it grown on the tombs of my forebears. Now it shall cover the grave of my son. Alas, that these evil days should be mine. The young perish and the old linger. That I should live to see that last days of my house.
- Gandalf: Theodred's death was not of your making.
- Theoden: No parent should have to bury their child.
- [Theoden drops to his knees and starts sobbing]
- Gandalf: He was strong in life. His spirit will find the way to the halls of your fathers.
- [from extended version]
- Legolas: Final count, forty-two.
- Gimli: Forty-two? Oh, that's not bad for a pointy-eared elvish princeling. Hmph! I myself am sitting pretty on forty-THREE.
- Legolas: [takes out an arrow, and shoots the Uruk Gimli is sitting on in the stomach] Forty-three.
- Gimli: He was already dead!
- Legolas: He was twitching.
- Gimli: He was *twitching* because he's got my axe EMBEDDED IN HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM!
- [rattles the handle of his ax; the Uruk's arms and legs twitch]
- Theoden: Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. Forth, Eorlingas!
- Ugluk: [after beheading an insubordinate Orc attempting to eat Merry and Pippin] Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!
- Gandalf: [to Grima] Be silent. Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I did not pass through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm.
- Gollum: We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!
- Smeagol: [shaking his head] No. Not master!
- Gollum: [snarling malevolently] Yes, precious, false! They will cheat you, hurt you, LIE.
- Smeagol: Master is my friend.
- Gollum: You don't have any friends; nobody likes you!
- Smeagol: [closes his ears with his hands] I'm not listening... I'm not listening...
- Gollum: You're a liar and a thief.
- Smeagol: No.
- Gollum: [sinister whisper] *Murderer*.
- Smeagol: [voice breaking; hurt by Gollum's remark] Go away!
- Gollum: "Go away?"
- [Gollum laughs mockingly as Smeagol begins to cry]
- Smeagol: [weeping] I hate you. I *hate* you.
- Gollum: Where would you be without me, uh? gollum, gollum... *I* saved us! It was me! *We* survived because of *me*!
- Smeagol: [stops crying] Not anymore.
- Gollum: What did you say?
- Smeagol: Master looks after us now. We don't need you anymore.
- Gollum: [appalled] What?
- Smeagol: Leave now, and never come back!
- Gollum: No!
- Smeagol: [louder and firmer] Leave now, and never come back!
- [Gollum snarls in frustration]
- Smeagol: LEAVE! NOW! AND NEVER COME BACK!
- [Gollum is silent; Smeagol waits]
- Smeagol: [looks around; then begins galumphing around with joy] We told him to go away... and away he goes, Precious! Gone, gone, gone! SMEAGOL IS FREE!
- Theoden: Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?
- Elrond: If Aragorn survives this war, you will still be parted. If Sauron is defeated and Aragorn made king and all that you hope for comes true you will still have to taste the bitterness of mortality. Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die. And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing. He will come to death an image of the splendor of the kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world. But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief under the fading trees until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent.
- [after meeting with Gandalf in Fangorn Forest]
- Aragorn: In one thing you haven't changed, my friend - you still speak in riddles.
- Gandalf: The veiling shadow that glowers in the East takes shape. Sauron will suffer no rival. From the summit of Barad-dur his eye watches ceaselessly. But he is not so mighty yet that he is above fear. Doubt ever gnaws at him. The rumor has reached him. The heir of Numenor still lives. Sauron fears you, Aragorn. He fears what you may become. And so he will strike hard and fast at the world of Men. He will use his puppet Saruman to destroy Rohan. War is coming. Rohan must defend itself, and therein lies our first challenge, for Rohan is weak and ready to fall. The King's mind is enslaved; it's an old device of Saruman's. His hold over King Theoden is now very strong. Sauron and Saruman are tightening the noose. But, for all their cunning, we have one advantage. The Ring remains hidden. And that we should seek to destroy it has not yet entered their darkest dreams. And so the weapon of the Enemy is moving towards Mordor in the hands of a Hobbit. Each day brings it closer to the fires of Mount Doom. We must trust now in Frodo. Everything depends now upon speed and upon the secrecy of his quest. Do not regret your decision to leave him. Frodo must finish this task alone.
- Aragorn: He's not alone. Sam went with him.
- Gandalf: Did he? Did he indeed? Good. Yes, very good.
- Aragorn: You have some skill with a blade.
- Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain.
- Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?
- Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.
- Aragorn: You are a daughter of kings, a shield maiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate.
- Eomer: What business does an Elf, Man, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly.
- Gimli: Give me your name, horse-master, and I shall give you mine.
- Eomer: [dismounts] I would cut off your head, Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground.
- Legolas: [draws his bow and aims at arrow at Eomer's throat] You would die before your stroke fell.
- Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
- Aragorn: [whispering to Eowyn] It's the beards.
- Gimli: And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there are no Dwarf-women, and that Dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground!
- [Eowyn laughs]
- Gimli: Which is, of course, ridiculous.
- [Frodo and Sam are lowering themselvs down a cliff]
- Sam: Can you see the bottom?
- Frodo: No. Don't look down, Sam, just keep going!
- Sam: [drops a small box] Ouagh! Catch It! Grab it, Mr. Frodo!
- [Frodo catches it, loses his grip and then lands on the ground]
- Frodo: I think I found the bottom.
- Sam: It's not natural. None of it.
- Frodo: What's in this?
- Sam: Nothin'. Just a bit of seasoning. I thought maybe if we was havin' a roast chicken one night or something...
- Frodo: Roast chicken?
- Sam: You never know.
- Legolas: Look at them. They're frightened. You can see it in their eyes.
- [All the men turn to look at him]
- Legolas: [in Elvish] And they should be. Three hundred... against ten thousand!
- Aragorn: [in Elvish] They have a better chance defending themselves here than at Edoras...
- Legolas: [in Elvish] Aragorn... they cannot win this fight. They are all going to die!
- Aragorn: [in English] Then I shall die as one of them!
- Frodo: We are bound to an errand of secrecy. Those who claim to oppose the enemy would do well not to hinder us.
- Faramir: The enemy?
- [He walks to the body of a dead Haradrim soldier that he killed with his bow, and turns him over with his foot]
- Faramir: His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is... where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there... in peace. War will make corpses of us all.
- Eowyn: Leave me alone, snake!
- Wormtongue: Oh, but you are alone. Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in? So fair, yet so cold like a morning of pale Spring still clinging to Winter's chill.
- Eowyn: Your words are poison!
- Theoden: Why should I welcome you, Gandalf Stormcrow?
- Wormtongue: A just question, my liege. Late is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear. "Lathspell" I name him. Ill news is an ill guest.
- [Pippin drinks some Ent-draught, and grows in height]
- Merry: You're taller.
- Pippin: Who?
- Merry: You!
- Pippin: Than what?
- Merry: Than *me*!
- Pippin: I've always been taller than you.
- Merry: Pippin, everyone knows *I'm* the tall one. *You're* the short one.
- Pippin: Please, Merry. You're what, three-foot-six? At the most? Whereas me, I'm pushing three-seven, three-eight.
- Merry: Three-foot-eight? You did something.
- Faramir: [to Frodo and Sam] My men tell me that you are Orc spies.
- Sam: Spies! Now wait just a minute!
- Faramir: Well, if you're not spies, then who are you?
- [they remain silent, Faramir sighs and sits]
- Faramir: Speak!
- Frodo: We are Hobbits of the Shire. Frodo Baggins is my name and this is Samwise Gamgee.
- Faramir: Your bodyguard?
- Sam: His gardener.
- Faramir: And where is your skulking friend? That gangrel creature. He had an ill-favoured look.
- Frodo: [reluctant] There was no other. We set out from Rivendell with seven companions. One we lost in Moria. Two were my kin. A dwarf there was also. And an elf. And two men. Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and Boromir of Gondor.
- Faramir: [solemn] You are a friend of Boromir?
- Frodo: Yes, for my part.
- Faramir: It would grieve you then to learn that he is dead.
- Frodo: [shocked] Dead? How? When?
- Faramir: As one of his companions, I had hope you would tell me. He was my brother.
- [a wall of soldiers line the ramparts - the top of Gimli's helm barely peeks over the top]
- Gimli: [to Legolas] You could have picked a better spot.
- [last lines]
- Frodo: Smeagol?
- Sam: We're not going to wait for you. Come on.
- Smeagol: Master. Master looks after us. Master wouldn't hurt us.
- Gollum: Master broke his promise.
- Smeagol: Don't ask Smeagol. Poor, poor Smeagol.
- Gollum: Master betrayed us. Wicked. Tricksy, False. We ought to wring his filthy little neck. Kill him! Kill him! Kill them both! And then we take the precious... and we be the master!
- Smeagol: But the fat Hobbit, he knows. Eyes always watching.
- Gollum: Then we stabs them out. Put out his eyeses, make him crawl.
- Smeagol: Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Gollum: Kill them both.
- Smeagol: Yes. No! No! It's too risky. It's too risky.
- Sam: Where is he? Where has he gone? Hey, Gollum! Where are you?
- Frodo: Smeagol?
- Gollum: We could let *her* do it.
- Smeagol: Yes. She could do it.
- Gollum: Yes, precious, she could. And then we takes it once they're dead.
- Smeagol: Once they're dead. Shh.
- [Comes out of hiding]
- Smeagol: Come on Hobbits. Long ways to go yet. Smeagol will show the way.
- Gollum: Follow me.
- Treebeard: [after seeing the torn-down forest around Isengard] Saruman! A wizard should know better!
- [loud yell]
- Treebeard: There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery.
- Pippin: Look, the trees! They're moving!
- Merry: Where are they going?
- Treebeard: They have business with the Orcs. My business is with Isengard tonight, with rock and stone.
- [Ents emerge from the woods, following Treebeard]
- Treebeard: Hroom, hm, come, my friends. The Ents are going to war. It is likely that we go to our doom. The last march of the Ents.
- Saruman: If the wall is breached, Helm's Deep will fall.
- Wormtongue: Even if it is breached, it will take a number beyond reckoning, thousands, to storm the keep.
- Saruman: Tens of thousands.
- Wormtongue: But, my lord, there is no such force.
- [they go out onto the balcony, and see an army of ten thousand Uruk-hai]
- Gimli: [out of breath] I'm wasted on cross-country! We Dwarves are natural sprinters, very dangerous over short distances.
- Sam: Hey, Stinker! Don't go getting too far ahead.
- Frodo: Why do you do that?
- Sam: What?
- Frodo: Call him names, run him down all the time.
- Sam: Because... because that's what he is, Mr. Frodo. There's naught left in him but lies and deceit. It's the ring he wants; it's all he cares about.
- Frodo: You have no idea what it did to him... what it's still doing to him. I want to help him, Sam.
- Sam: Why?
- Frodo: Because I have to believe he can come back.
- Sam: You can't save him, Mr. Frodo.
- Frodo: [snaps] What do you know about it? Nothing!... I'm sorry, Sam. I don't know why I said that.
- Sam: I do. It's the ring. You can't take your eyes off it; I've seen you. You're not eating. You barely sleep. It's taken ahold of you, Mr. Frodo. You have to fight it.
- Frodo: I know what I have to do, Sam. The ring was entrusted to *me*. It's my task, mine, my own!
- [storms off]
- Sam: Can't you hear yourself? Don't you know who you sound like?