The Shadows lengthen......
Cut to Denethor, Faramir and Gandalf sitting around a small table set with food and a silver ewer and cup in the great hall near the steps to the throne. Torches flicker nearby in the gloom. Pippin in uniform stands behind Denethor. Denethor is in a bad mood and his dark beady eyes flick from Faramir to Gandalf.
Faramir: ‘….. then we fell upon a band of the Haradrim and drove off a single Mumak but we saw the tracks of countless others. I sent my company to strengthen the crossing places at Osgiliath and hastened back when the Darkness began. I trust I did rightly?’ He looks at his father and Gandalf.
Denethor, scornfully: ‘Do you ask my judgement in all your deeds? I see you looking to Mithrandir for his approval.’
Faramir looks down trying to ignore his father’s tone: ‘Now I come to stranger matters.’ (He gestures to Pippin) ‘This is not the first Halfling I have seen.’ Gandalf sits up straight and Pippin takes an involuntary step forward. Gandalf flashes him a stern stare and raises his palm slightly. Denethor looks over his shoulder at Pippin and nods knowingly.
Denethor: ‘Now it comes out.’
Cut to Faramir: ‘We came upon a Halfling and his servant before the battle and when it was finished we took them blindfold to Henneth Annun. He said he was on a venture against Sauron and I judged it right for him to continue. He had as his guide a strange gangrel creature that he trusted despite my warnings. The Halfling believed you were dead, Mithrandir but he knew not of the death of my brother until I told him. He believes now that all his companions have perished but was still resolved to go on. The creature intended to take them to the high pass of Cirith Ungol above the Morgul Tower and Vale.’
Cut to the group and Gandalf stands abruptly, his body taut with tension: ‘Cirith Ungol? Cirith Ungol? No! When Faramir, when?’
Faramir: ‘They left Henneth Annun two days ago. They could not have reached the Morgul Vale until today at least. I see what you fear but the Darkness started even as they left us. It could not be due to their capture.’
Cut to Denethor, bitterly sarcastic: ‘I am old but not a dotard. Little of what you have left unsaid is hidden from me. Now I know the answer to many riddles. Alas for Boromir!’
Now cut to each speaker in turn.
Faramir, quietly: ‘I would have gone but Boromir claimed the task.’
Denethor: ‘Stir not that cup of bitterness. Boromir was no wizard’s pupil. He would have brought me a mighty gift. Would that this thing had come to me.’
Gandalf: ‘Do not deceive yourself. Boromir would have kept it for his own and you would not have known your son on his return.’
Denethor: ‘You found him less apt didn’t you? But to send this thing into the Enemy’s own land in the hands of a witless Halfling as you and my son here have done is madness. Were it mine I would keep it hidden in the deep vaults of the Citadel and not use it unless at the uttermost end of need. If you do not trust me to endure that test, you do not know me.’
Gandalf: ‘I did not trust myself with this thing when it was freely offered. Were it buried under the roots of Mount Mindolluin behind your city, still would it have burned at your mind as the darkness grew.’
Cut to the group. Denethor and Gandalf stare at each other then finally Denethor shrugs: ‘If I had, if you had. Such ifs are vain.’ He looks towards Faramir: ‘Tomorrow after you have rested you must go to Osgiliath to lead the defence against the Enemy’s crossings.’
Faramir: ‘Even if they pay ten times our losses, we will still rue the exchange. If they win across in force the retreat will be perilous.’
Denethor, sharply: ‘Do you still have the courage to do my will?’
Faramir: ‘I have been robbed of a brother as you have been robbed of a son. I will do what I can in his place. If I return, think better of me.’
Denethor rises and beckons Pippin.
Denethor: ‘That depends on the manner of your return.’ He walks off. Faramir looks blankly at the floor and Gandalf rises and speaks softly close to Faramir. The camera closes on them.
Gandalf: ‘Do not throw your life away rashly. Your father loves you and will remember it before the end.’ Fade out.
Fade in to Gandalf peering out into the blackness of his window in the lodgings. Pippin sits on his bed.
Pippin: ‘Is there any hope for Frodo and Sam?’
Gandalf: ‘A fool’s hope in the mind of Denethor. Yet somehow I feel that Sauron has begun sooner than he planned. If it was not Frodo, then why? Was Aragorn tempted to look into the stone of Orthanc? Has he been trapped by the deceits of Sauron as Saruman was? But worst of all, why is Gollum taking Frodo and Sam to Cirith Ungol; that place of utter horror? Do they know what is there? I fear treachery from that miserable creature.’ He looks away from the window with a troubled face. ‘Pippin, I am afraid.’ The camera fades on his face.
Fade to a medium distance view of Frodo and Sam tramping up a steep mountain road. Everything is a drear dun colour. Frodo is visibly more bent over than Sam. Cut to Gollum bounding down the road to camera. There is a faint glow to the road.
Gollum, nervously: ‘Make haste Master, no time to lose. We must hurry, yes.’
Cut to them appearing from behind a shoulder of the mountain: Gollum, then Frodo then Sam. Frodo looks up wearily. Cut to a very long shot of fortifications and a tall tower many miles away, still looking tiny against towering cliffs either side. They glow with a pale green-white light that we saw inside the Barrow. Cut to a close view of a fortified gateway shaped like a gaping mouth. On its doors is a sickly moon bearing a death’s head upon it. The camera rises and behind it is a tower capped by a giant death’s head that slowly turns, as if its blank windows were eyes.
Cut to the three, fear on all their faces. Gollum puts his finger to his lips for silence and beckons them on.
Cut to a close-up of a luminous white lily in the darkness. A bloated maggot wriggles and rolls from it and drops. Cut to a brief view of the ground crawling with maggots. Cut to a field full of the lilies and beyond them a steeply humped bridge and beyond that part of the fortifications of Minas Morgul.
Cut to the three approaching the bridge very carefully. Gollum points them to a gap in the side of the road and Sam follows him but Frodo keeps on walking towards the bridge. Sam sees and hurries over and pulls Frodo’s arm and Gollum follows in terror, now looking at Frodo, now looking up at Minas Morgul, the green light catching his eyes and face.
Gollum, whispering: ‘Not that way, no please, not that way!’
Sam: ‘Come back. Gollum says not and for once I agree with him.’
Gollum scuttles on hands and knees across the pale white road and disappears and Sam drags Frodo after him. Cut to them disappearing off the side of the road.
Cut to Frodo tottering and collapsing on to a flat rock that overlooks the Morgul walls across the valley. Sam stops with him.
Frodo: ‘I must rest a while. I cannot carry on. It has grown heavy, so heavy on me Sam-lad. Very heavy And it talks to me you know, all the time.’ Sam nods in sympathy but Gollum comes back terrified and tries to pull Frodo up as he points across to Minas Morgul.
Gollum: ‘Not here! Not here! Eyes can see us!’ A slow, very deep rumbling sound starts and small stones start to shower down on to the ledge. Then they turn their heads as the greenish light in the valley changes to a red glare from above. They drop flat on the ground and after a moment a violent crack of thunder echoes around the valley. Cut to a view of Minas Morgul and the jagged mountains behind, now silhouetted by a red sky then jagged lines of blue lightning streak up into the sky from the tower. Above the last rumbles of thunder and the crackles of lightning we hear the call of beasts and horses and men then a terrible long drawn out shriek that gets louder and louder. Cut to the three cowering on the rock, covering their ears. The shriek fades to a sad wail of despair and dies away. Cut to Frodo’s face as he raises it to look up. Cut to a view that looks down on the bridge and the gaping hell-mouth of Morgul, now open and black. Cut to a close-up of the black entrance from a low angle and two fiery red spots grow larger and become red flames within the eye-sockets of a skeletal horse’s head. Then the towering black figure riding the horse appears bearing a high sharply pointed crown. Cut to a view from further back and following the solitary figure a wide column of other smaller horsemen appear bearing lances with heads dangling from them. The sound of the hoofs gets louder and louder.
Cut to Frodo staring: ‘The King of the Nine Riders has come!’
Cut to a vignetted view of the Witch-King, knife in hand, walking in slow motion towards camera on Weathertop as seen with the Ring-vision.
Cut to the Nazgul King riding over the hump-back bridge, already a great troop of horse behind him. He stops his horse and halts the army with a raised arm. Cut to his black shrouded head and shoulders. His head turns one way then the other and we hear a sniffing.
Cut to Frodo. He slowly slides his hand into his shirt at his neck. Cut to the Witch-King on the bridge, his head turning this way and that. He raises his arm again and rides on. Cut to Frodo’s hand grasping something on a chain. He moves his hand a little and we see through chinks of his fingers a clear white light.
Several fades follow of different parts of the Morgul-force crossing the bridge; orcs clamouring, men with torches, wagons and finally the last remnants leaving the gates. Cut to the gates closing with a dull thump and the death’s head moon on them is visible again. Lights start to go out along the walls. Cut to an aerial shot of the army strung along the road down the valley that helps to convey its size.
Cut to Frodo sitting with his back up against a rock between Sam and Gollum.
Frodo:’ The storm has burst. They are going to Osgiliath. How can Faramir hope to hold the crossing against that army? And more armies will come out of the Black Gates. We saw them. I am too late.’ (He looks at Sam.)’ I tarried on the way and now all is lost. Sam. All our fellowship is dead save us and now all that is beautiful in Gondor will fall too. I must still do my task if I can but no one will be left to know.’ With a look of great sadness he rises and allows Gollum to pull him into the darkness. Finally Sam is swallowed too.
The screen blackens.
Closing credits.