10 Movie Deaths Only Explained Outside Of The Films

8. Saruman - Return Of The King

Christopher Lee's Saruman was a great, if not totally underused aspect of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He takes a pivotal role in both Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers, but Return of the King begins with his reign already at an end. Treebeard and the rest of the Ent lead their uprising against Saruman's forces, and the film wraps that arc up when they pick up the Palantir from the battlefield.

Treebeard makes a comment about Saruman's "filth" washing away, and that's that - at least in the original cut.

The extended editions of Lord of the Rings can't really be described as essential, but they do fortunately include Saruman's demise. As those who've sat through the extended films will know, the film opens with Saruman berating the Fellowship from one of his towers. Wormtongue, the sinister minister who'd been manipulating King Theodin, then emerges onto the tower, stabs Saruman in the back, and sends him falling to be impaled on a spiky wheel.

Wormtongue is then ended by an arrow launched by Legolas, but there's no mistaking that the more interesting demise belongs to Saruman.