The Hobbit

PLOT

Bilbo and the Dwarves watch from the Lonely Mountain as the dragon Smaug sets Laketown ablaze. Bard breaks out of prison, and eventually kills Smaug with the black arrow. Smaug's falling body crushes the Master of Laketown and his cronies, who were escaping on a boat with the town's gold. Bard becomes the new leader of Laketown and guides its people to seek refuge in the ruins of Dale. Thorin, having become possessive of the vast treasure in the mountain, searches obsessively for the Arkenstone, which Bilbo had previously found but kept hidden. Upon hearing that Laketown survivors have fled to Dale, he orders the entrance of the Lonely Mountain sealed off.

Meanwhile, Galadriel, Elrond, and Saruman arrive at Dol Guldur and free Gandalf, sending him to safety with Radagast. They battle and defeat the Nazgûl and then face a formless Sauron himself. Galadriel defeats him in a duel of wits and banishes him and his forces to the East. Azog, marching on Erebor with his vast Orc army, sends his son Bolg to Mount Gundabad to summon their second army. Legolas and Tauriel witness the march of Bolg's army, bolstered by Orc berserkers and giant bats.

Thranduil and an Elf army arrive in Dale to reclaim a treasure once withheld from them by the Dwarf king Thrór. Bard asks Thorin for the share of gold previously promised to the people of Laketown, but Thorin refuses. Gandalf arrives at Dale to warn Bard and Thranduil of Azog, but Thranduil dismisses him. Bilbo sneaks the Arkenstone out of Erebor and hands it over to Thranduil and Bard, so that they can trade it for the promised treasures and prevent a battle. Thorin angrily refuses the proposal, while Bilbo chides him for letting greed cloud his judgement. Thorin nearly kills Bilbo but is stopped by Gandalf. Thorin's cousin Dáin arrives with his Dwarf army, and a battle of Dwarves against Elves and Men ensues, until Azog's army arrives. The forces of Dáin, Thranduil and Bard, along with Gandalf and Bilbo, band together against the Orcs. A second front is opened when the Orcs attack Dale, forcing Bard to withdraw his forces to defend the city.

Inside Erebor, Thorin suffers traumatic hallucinations before regaining his sanity and leading his company to join the battle. He rides with Dwalin, Fíli, and Kíli to kill Azog; Bilbo follows them, using his magic ring to move through the combat unseen. Meanwhile, Tauriel and Legolas arrive to warn the Dwarves of Bolg's arrival. Azog kills Fíli as Bilbo and the other Dwarves are forced to watch. Thorin engages Azog in a duel and kills him, but is fatally wounded in the process. Bolg overpowers Tauriel and then kills Kíli, who had come to her aid. Legolas battles Bolg and eventually kills him. The Great Eagles arrive with Radagast and Beorn, and the Orcs are finally defeated. Bilbo makes peace with the dying Thorin, while Tauriel mourns Kili, with Thranduil acknowledging their love. Thranduil advises Legolas to seek out a Dunedain ranger in the north who goes by the name Strider. Thorin is buried with the Arkenstone along with Kili and Fili, and Dáin is crowned king.

As Thorin's company settles back into Erebor, and Dale begins to recover with Bard as the leader, Bilbo bids farewell to the company's remaining members and journeys home to the Shire with Gandalf. As the two part ways on the outskirts of the Shire, Gandalf admits his knowledge of Bilbo's ring and warns him of it, although Bilbo assures him that he had lost the ring. Bilbo returns to Bag End to find his belongings being auctioned off because he was presumed dead. He stops the sale and starts tidying up his home, revealing he still possesses the ring. Sixty years later, Bilbo receives a visit from Gandalf on his 111th birthday.

CAST

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins

Ian Holm as Old Bilbo Baggins

Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey

Richard Armitage as Thorin II Oakenshield[6]

Orlando Bloom as Legolas Greenleaf

Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel

Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman

Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug / Sauron[6]

Lee Pace as Thranduil[7]

Graham McTavish as Dwalin

Ken Stott as Balin

Aidan Turner as Kíli[7]

Dean O'Gorman as Fíli

Manu Bennett as Azog the Defiler

Mark Hadlow as Dori

Jed Brophy as Nori

Adam Brown as Ori

John Callen as Óin

Peter Hambleton as Glóin

William Kircher as Bifur

James Nesbitt as Bofur[7]

Stephen Hunter as Bombur

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel[6]

Hugo Weaving as Elrond

Christopher Lee as Saruman the White

Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown

John Tui as Bolg[8]

Billy Connolly as Dáin II Ironfoot

Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn

Stephen Fry as Master of Lake-town

Ryan Gage as Alfrid Lickspittle

Mark Mitchinson as Braga

John Bell as Bain

Peggy and Mary Nesbitt as Sigrid and Tilda

Simon London as Feren

Additionally, Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis's daughters made cameo appearances as girls rowing away during Smaug's attack; movement coach Terry Notary and stand-in Jamie Haugh appear as Laketown refugees after the destruction; Conan Stevens, who was to play Bolg, appears as the Keeper of the Dungeons, an Orc captain holding Gandalf hostage and the sons of key second assistant director Guy Campbell, casting director Miranda Rivers, and Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor appear as Hobbit children during the auction scene.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

the third and final installment in Peter Jackson's three-part film adaptation based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, following An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and together, they act as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.