Spoilers Off applies to all "Moments" pages, so all spoilers are unmarked.
- Beorn the Skinchanger describing the history of his people in brief. Entire bloodlines wiped out in brutal fighting with the Orcs, the rest enslaved and hunted for sport. Beorn still wears one of his imprisonment cuffs, and he hates the Orcs so much, he's willing to aid the Dwarves, who he's not overly fond of either.
- Bilbo's dawning horror as he holds up the Ring after killing a Mirkwood creature just for grazing it. Before that, Bilbo had just thought it was a magic trinket. But when he snaps out of it, you can see him begin to realize that what he carries is something bad, but he still can't let go of it.
- Earlier, when Bilbo almost tells Gandalf about the Ring. His voice breaks when he insists that he was going to tell him earlier, but...
- When Thranduil offers to help Thorin get to the mountain, in exchange for some of the treasure, Thorin violently rejects him - but not because he's greedy and doesn't want to part with some of the hoard. He's never forgiven Thranduil for refusing to help the Dwarves of Erebor when Smaug attacked, and for turning his back on the surviving refugees all those years ago. You can tell that betrayal still hurts - and that it hurts both of them; Thranduil actually looks regretful. Right up until Thorin insults him...
- The budding romance between Kíli and Tauriel becomes tragic when you realize that he is going to die during the Battle of the Five Armies.
- Worse is the runestone he carries, which he tells her is a gift from his mother - Dís - as a promise that he'll come home. That's when it hits you that he's never going home. Dís is not just going to lose her last living brother but her two sons as well.
- Really, the circumstances in which Kíli tells Tauriel about the runestone are heartbreaking as well. Thranduil has just sentenced the Dwarves to a hundred years in his dungeons. Kíli's response? To hold his mother's gift in his hands and think about how he won't be able to keep his promise.
- Worse is the runestone he carries, which he tells her is a gift from his mother - Dís - as a promise that he'll come home. That's when it hits you that he's never going home. Dís is not just going to lose her last living brother but her two sons as well.
- When Balin tries to negotiate passage to Laketown with Bard, he comments that Bard's wife must be very beautiful. Bard corrects him, saying that she was beautiful. You can see Balin's immediate regret for his ignorance.
- Kíli's expression when Thorin tells him to remain behind in Laketown because of his injury. He just looks utterly crushed.
- This is made even worse when you realize that Kíli and Fíli idolized their uncle Thorin, who spoke at length of the splendor of Erebor during their formative years and built up in their minds the glory to come when they took back their home. The circumstances of Kíli's injury are heartbreaking, and Thorin must be devastated by having to leave him behind, but in his mind, he cannot either risk Kíli's safety on the approach or bear him as a burden with Durin's Day so near, so he has to leave behind one of the two people he wanted more than anything to share in the triumph of retaking The Lonely Mountain. This makes Fíli's decision much nobler and more devastating. This is the moment he's been awaiting probably his whole life, but his brother comes first. If Kíli could not share in that moment, neither would Fíli. Noble as all get out, and it probably broke Thorin's heart that much more.
- Kíli collapses right after the boat leaves Laketown. Sure, it's probably for dramatic pacing reasons, but it also makes you wonder how hard he'd been trying to hold himself together so he could go with The Company. And once he realizes that chance is lost, so is his resolve to stay upright and stable.
- And worst of all, thanks to the party being split, this could well have been the last time Thorin saw his nephews. What a terrible next-to-final parting - his rejection of Kíli and Fíli's rejection of him in turn.
- As Kíli's wound gets worse, he grows feverish and starts writhing and screaming in agony. Fíli, Óin, Bofur, Bard, and his kids do their best to help him, but nothing seems to work. It's dreadful to see their anguish at being unable to help Kíli or ease his suffering.
- Kíli's confession to Tauriel while he's half-asleep. While it is heartwarming, the last half of it reveals that he's aware they're Star-Crossed Lovers and thus doesn't think he has a chance with her to the point he rationalizes that the Tauriel in front of him must be a hallucination because there's no way the real one would come for him.Kíli: You cannot be her...she's far, far away from me...she walks in starlight in another world. It was just a dream...
- The broken-hearted looks on the Dwarves' faces when it seems like they were wrong, and the keyhole doesn't appear when it should. After coming so far and going through so much only for nothing to happen, all of them, even Thorin, give up despite Bilbo's pleas.
- Thorin's voice, reading the words on the map over and over. He sounds positively betrayed, especially with how his voice cracks when he says the following:
Thorin: What did we miss? What did we miss? - When the dwarves finally open the secret door into Erebor, it's an extremely emotional moment. For some of them, such as Thorin and Balin, this is the first time they've set foot in their home since Smaug's attack. For others, like Ori, it's the very first time they've seen, much less entered, their ancestral home.Thorin: I know these walls. These halls. This stone...
- Anyone who knows what it's like to finally go back to where you're from, instead of just where you've been living, knows how Thorin felt at that moment. There's a reason they call it homesick.
- Thorin starting to be corrupted by the dragon-sickness. When Balin calls him out on it, he goes in after Bilbo, but then he draws his sword to block the door, and you can just SEE it's started.
- When attempting to flee Smaug, Bilbo's and Thorin's party come across a room filled with the corpses of dwarven women and children who were trapped in Erebor when Smaug attacked and left to suffocate. Even though their faces are mummified, you can still see their expressions of fear and despair.
- Even the reactions of The Company are pretty sad. Thorin rallies them by saying "If this is to end in fire, then we'll all burn together" but you can tell that seeing dead children has rattled him.
- Bilbo's guilt and horror as Smaug leaves The Mountain to lay waste to Laketown just because the dragon could smell the scent of the townspeople on The Company and because the deaths of all those people would make them suffer.
- Bilbo is so horrified he actually tries to stand up to Smaug in order to stop the dragon from laying waste to the town. But Smaug merely taunts him and leaves.
- The look on Thorin's face as he realizes what Smaug's planning to do. He essentially just turned a dragon loose on the town that helped him as well as on his friends and nephews.
- The lyrics of the ending theme. Dragonfire and worse are coming, and the night is long . . .
- From the extended edition: Thráin's death scene, which just so happens to be during the already horribly disturbing "Gandalf vs. Necromancer" scene. "Tell Thorin I love him... Tell my son that I love him..." Then suddenly he's zoinked into the black mist of death.
- Even worse, Thorin thought his father died in the battle. Imagine what will happen when Gandalf tells him about what happened at Dol Guldur.
- Also, when after Thráin says "tell Thorin I love him." Gandalf replies "You can tell him yourself." Thorin dies in the next film, so in a way, he can.
- When the Dwarves walk through the ruins of Dale. Bifur has a moment when he picks up a half-burned doll from where the mark used to be. As a toymaker, he looks as if he's holding a toy he crafted himself.
- Remember Bain, that kid who helps his father Bard out at the end of this film and the beginning of the next? If you've read the Lord of the Rings appendices, you know he died between the first two chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring. Including him in the movie means he's no longer just another name in The Tale of Years.
