10 Best Moments From The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Extended Edition

4. The White Stag

When In The Film Is It: During the descent into madness in Mirkwood. What Happens: After getting across the Enchanted Stream, but before coming up against the spiders, Thorin and Bilbo spot a white stag walking through the forest. The dwarf leader instinctively loads his bow and fires, but misses, startling the deer which runs off. Bilbo dreamily comments it's bad luck, to which Thorin responds that he doesn't believe in luck. Why It's Great: It's bizarre that in turning a thin book in a cinematic trilogy some moments from the source itself are still omitted. The white stag appears in Tolkien's Hobbit and its importance has proven to be the source of much discussion. Is it a fantastical manifestation of the wood's magic, a false-symbol that the group are getting close to safer land or a mark of their entrance in elf-territory? That's something that couldn't be chewed over after seeing the film in cinemas, but can now that it's been reintroduced.