Awesome / The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

An Unexpected Journey

"The dawn will take you all!"

Spoilers Off applies to all "Moments" pages, so all spoilers are unmarked.

---

• The "Blunt the Knives" sequence. The Dwarves reveal that they can match Legolas in terms of dexterity, tossing around plates and fragile china from one Dwarf to another (Balin not even paying much attention as he does so), and it all ends up in a neat set of piles at the end.
• "Far over the Misty Mountains cold...". That whole scene has the power to make even the rowdiest cinema audience go completely silent and listen to the haunting beauty filling their ears.
• Gandalf coming to the rescue of Bilbo and the Dwarves by splitting a boulder in two, revealing sunlight, and causing the trolls to turn to stone.
  Gandalf: The dawn will take you all!
  • And even before that, when Bilbo shows some Guile Hero qualities and tries to put the Trolls off eating the Dwarves by insisting they have parasites. Of course, that nearly gets him eaten instead, but it was still pretty quick thinking.
  • Really, seeing the Dwarves furiously charge out of the undergrowth to rescue Bilbo (which culminates in an epic fight), when compared to the original book where they all got caught with relative ease.
  • When the Trolls discover and threaten Bilbo, Kíli leaps out of the bushes, attacks one of the Trolls, and demands the Trolls drop Bilbo. He's clearly willing to fight all three to rescue Bilbo even before the rest of the company arrives to back him up. He and Fíli promised they'd be right behind him, and they kept that promise.
    Kíli: I said drop him!
  • Dori gets a good shot at one of the Trolls' unmentionables with his bolas. And then Dwalin knocks its teeth out with his war-hammer.
  • The Dwarves' preferred method of freeing comrades who were grabbed by Trolls? Launching themselves bodily into the air, and then slicing the Troll's arms so they'll drop 'em.
  • It's not in the final film, but video blogs show Glóin throwing his biggest axe to Fíli, who jumps onto Kíli's shoulders and proceeds to calmly smack one of the trolls in the face with it. Also, that was Dean O'Gorman's first day.
  • Three trolls were all it took in Return of The King to scatter the Gondorian knights guarding the gates of Minas Tirith (though those were trained, armoured, immune-to-sunlight Olog-Hai). This Ragtag Band of Misfits would have made the fight a Curb-Stomp Battle if Bilbo hadn't gotten caught.
• The flashback to the Battle of Azanulbizar is full of this. Most notably Thorin using an oak branch as a shield and taking off Azog's arm.
  • On top of that after Thrór's death, the Dwarf army begins to rout, but once he cuts off Azog's arm, Thorin stands up and rallies his army, shouting a Dwarvish Battle Cry and leading them to victory.
  • Dwalin can be seen in the background of several shots headbutting any orc that gets in his way.
  • For the Orcs, Azog is seen knocking two Dwarves into the air with one swing.
• Radagast having the balls to single-handedly infiltrate Dol Guldur, knowing exactly what it is and who dwells there. He also takes on the Witch-King of Angmar in a duel.
• The cameo of the Necromancer is as awesome as it is creepy. He barely appears, all we see of him is shadow and yet he manages to steal the scene.
• And let's not forget the chase between the Wargs and Radagast's Rabbits. He manages to outrun the Wargs.

  Gandalf: These are Gundabad Wargs. They will outrun you!
  Radagast: These are Rhosgobel Rabbits! I'd like to see them try!

  • Even the music concedes this one - an ominous chord is building up in the background, but Radagast's boast abruptly silences it.
• One for the Elves when they ride out to eliminate the Orc scouting party chasing the dwarves. They completely slaughter the Orcs with almost no effort.
• Gandalf outsmarting Saruman by predicting he'd try to stop the Dwarves from reclaiming Erebor and sending the Dwarves away from Rivendell ahead of time. Not even Elrond and Galadriel caught onto his plan until it was too late.
• The three-way rock fight between mountain-sized stone giants in the middle of a storm.
  Balin: This is no thunderstorm! It's a thunder battle!
  • The whole scene can be summed up as "Stone Giant Smackdown" or a "Rock Giant Royale"
• Bilbo's brief sword fight with a Goblin before falling down the chasm. His first taste of one-on-one combat, and he holds his own!
  • And then his game of riddles with Gollum.
  • Gollum retracting the Butt-Monkey status many labelled him with in LOTR and returning to his Nightmare Fuel roots.
• Bilbo sparing Gollum's life. It doesn't seem like much on its own, but then you remember this is the action that would eventually save all of Middle Earth.
  • To clarify, Sam and Frodo would have certainly failed in their quest. These sites may give you a good idea of what might have happened.
• The entire escape from the Goblin caves is filled with Crowning Moments every five seconds: they were quite literally being swarmed at every conceivable angle and opportunity, yet none of them suffered anything more than a few scratches - they weren't even out of breath!
  • Gandalf. This is the first time he uses Glamdring, and how well does he wield it? He slices through a Goblin. The Goblin panics silently, trying to process both the fact that he knows a sword went through him and that he doesn't have a mark on him. Gandalf gently taps the confused Goblin on the head, and the head tumbles off, neatly severed at the neck.
    • Gandalf's dynamic entrance.
    • Gandalf blasting a large boulder out of the walls, and giving the orcs first-hand experience in the life of Indiana Jones.
  • Kíli BLOCKING ARROWS WITH HIS SWORD! And then with a LADDER! And then using the ladder to push Goblins off a chasm! And then using the ladder to cross the chasm!
  • Bombur running along, and when he's dog-piled by a swarm of smaller Goblins, he just keeps running!
  • Balin, the oldest Dwarf in company, who wears no armour but a simple red robe more suited for a wizard then a warrior, flourishes his scimitar and with one hand takes out the five or six Goblins that were surrounding him.
  • Dwalin, when encountering a particularly large group of Goblins, sheathes his axe and picks up a big plank of wood and starts swatting the goblins off the edge as he charges into them.
  • Óin, one of the eldest and most infirm of The Company, takes out a whole crowd of Goblins just by swinging his staff around his head and building up a bit of momentum.
  • Speaking of those scenes, seeing the special effects with the Great Goblin and the Trolls talking were amazing. In the earlier films, there seemed no possible way that they could sound like normal people, only like Trolls and Orcs. Seeing them talk like regular humans made them really scary and cool at the same time.
• Bilbo's short speech to the company manages to perfectly encapsulate the philosophy a Hobbit hero would have. It's not a big declaration or a promise to eradicate some evil or enemy, there are just people who don't even have the simple comforts of home and he would like to fix that.
  Bilbo: ...I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. My garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back, 'cause... You don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.
• Thorin charging at Azog across a burning tree after Azog taunts Thorin that he encountered Thráin (Thorin's father) and that Thráin "stank of fear".
  • From that same scene, Bilbo flinging himself at Azog's mook in an attempt to save Thorin's life - and it WORKS, as he managed to stab the Orc not once but three times. Then immediately afterward, he puts himself between Thorin and the rest of Azog's company; he's clearly shaking a little, scared and knowing that he can't win alone. And he still stands his ground to protect his friend, much like Éowyn would do many years later against the Witch-King.
    • His example inspires most of the other Dwarves to follow him into battle instead of simply hanging on for dear life. They are on foot, up against several dozen Orcs atop Wargs, yet the element of surprise and their own fierceness allow them to put up a good fight and certainly hold the line long enough for the Eagles to arrive.
  • Every scene with Azog, period. Not only is he quite the Adaptational Badass from a token mention in the book, but (related to the above point on special effects) he looks very real for a being that's purely computer-generated.
• The entire scene where the Eagles rescue The Company. Shows you exactly why the Great Eagles are such powerful allies, and why Tolkien referred to them as a "dangerous device" for his narrative.
  • The fact that they were shown to be intelligent, one using the power of its wings to roast several Wargs in an inferno, and another physically toppling a tree to squash several of them instead of just attacking a single Orc. It's awesome for those of us who haven't read the books and didn't know the Eagles were an actual race instead of a summon spell.
  • The cinematography for the Eagle scenes alone is a gorgeous sort of awesome.
• The final scene: Smaug awakens.
• The song in the credits, which is an extended and revised edition of "Misty Mountains Cold". Honestly, Peter Jackson really knows how to play the unexpected.

---