The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a 2014 epic high fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro. It is the third and final instalment 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.
It was produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros. Pictures and WingNut Films. Warner Bros. served also as the distributor. The Battle of the Five Armies premiered in London on 1 December 2014, and was then released on 11 December 2014 in New Zealand, 12 December 2014 in the United Kingdom, and on 17 December 2014 in the United States. It stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Billy Connolly, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Stephen Fry and Ryan Gage. The ensemble cast also features Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, and Orlando Bloom. It was Holm’s final film before his death in 2020, as well as Lee’s final live-action role, although he would be featured as a voice actor in several films released after his death in 2015.
The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $962 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2014 (behind Transformers: Age of Extinction). At the 87th Academy Awards, the film received a nomination for Best Sound Editing.
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.
