The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Why watch

Starlit Cine editors

• Best for viewers of the first two films; the finale of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
• Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are in the cast.
• About 3 hours 20 minutes; watch the first two films first.

Synopsis

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It is based on 1955's The Return of the King, the third volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The sequel to 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the film is the final instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It has an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Karl Urban, John Noble, Andy Serkis, Ian Holm, and Sean Bean. Continuing the plot of the previous film, Frodo and Sam follow Gollum towards Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, unaware of Gollum's intentions to betray the duo to take the Ring for himself, while Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and their allies join forces against Sauron and his legions from Mordor.

Adapted from Wikipedia · License CC BY-SA 4.0

Director & cast

• P

  Peter Jackson

  Director

• E

  Elijah Wood

  Frodo Baggins

• I

  Ian McKellen

  Gandalf the White

• A

  Andy Serkis

  Sméagol Trahald / Gollum

• V

  Viggo Mortensen

  Aragorn Elessar

• L

  Liv Tyler

  Arwen Undómiel

• S

  Sean Astin

  Samwise Gamgee

• C

  Cate Blanchett

  Galadriel

• C

  Christopher Lee

  Saruman the White