14. Minas Morgul Opens
The eerie city of the Nazgul is only ever glimpsed from above, a deserted metropolis lit by corpse-lights. Frodo, Sam and Gollum skirt its main approach, cringing away from the tyrannical gigantism of the enemy fortress (except when Frodo starts terrifyingly stumbling towards it under the influence of the Ring). The real kicker is the sight of countless Orcs tramping through the citys gates with torches raised, while magical power lashes the clouds and the Witch King swoops overhead. The sight of the heroes clambering up the cliff-face, high above the ant-like mass of Orcs, is enough to enduce giddy vertigo.
13. Sarumans Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxvf6-_m2oo NOTORIOUSLY cut from the theatrical release, to the chagrin of Christopher Lee, Sarumans death scene is a fitting coda to his prideful campaign of conquest in The Two Towers, wrapping up the story of Saruman and Grima in suitably dramatic fashion. It even manages to wring a shred of sympathy for the sneaky Wormtongue out of you, when you realise he is basically Sarumans despised slave, who stabs his bullying master in a fury before dying himself. However, the real meat of the scene comes from Theoden (hurling righteous anger at the enemy of his people, but tainted by self-doubt regarding his own worthiness to be king) and Saruman (weakened, haggard and hopeless, but boiling with unconcealed malice and spite). Then comes the fatal plunge from Isengard, with the treacherous White Wizard impaled on his own industrial machinery; both a cheeky reference to Dracula and a fittingly karmic demise for the menacing industrialist. It was a deft way of adapting Sarumans fate to the films, avoiding what would have been an ending too far in the Scouring of the Shire.