The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

About the film

Contains story spoilers.

The film begins with the Dwarves and Bilbo watching Smaug attack Lake-town. Bard escapes imprisonment and kills the dragon with the black arrow; Smaug’s falling body crushes the corrupt Master and his companions as they try to flee with the town’s gold. Bard leads the survivors to the ruins of Dale. At the Lonely Mountain, Thorin has become consumed by the treasure and searches for the Arkenstone, which Bilbo has secretly found. He seals the mountain’s entrance rather than share the gold promised to Lake-town, turning a dragon’s defeat into a dispute among the people who survived it.

Thranduil arrives with an Elven army seeking treasure, and Bard tries to negotiate with Thorin. Gandalf comes to warn them that Azog’s Orc army is approaching, but Thranduil dismisses the warning. Bilbo decides that the Arkenstone can prevent a battle and sneaks it out to Bard and Thranduil as a bargaining chip. The next morning, they show it to Thorin; Bilbo admits he gave it to them and rebukes Thorin for his greed. Thorin nearly attacks him, but Gandalf stops him. Dáin, Thorin’s cousin, arrives with a Dwarf army, and the factions are on the edge of conflict when Azog’s forces reach them.

The Orcs split their attack, sending forces toward Dale and forcing Bard and the Lake-town people back to defend it. Dáin leads the Dwarves against the Orc army, and Gandalf persuades Thranduil to join the fight. Inside Erebor, Thorin comes out of his treasure-fueled obsession and leads his company to battle. He rides to Ravenhill with Dwalin, Fíli, and Kíli to face Azog. Tauriel and Legolas arrive to warn them that Bolg’s force is coming, and Bilbo uses the Ring to move unseen through the battlefield to carry the warning. The large conflict has personal stakes for each group: refuge, promised wealth, family, and the old war between Dwarves and Orcs.

The battle separates the characters across the field. Azog kills Fíli while Bilbo and the Dwarves are forced to watch; Bolg overpowers Tauriel, and Kíli dies while trying to protect her. Legolas eventually kills Bolg. The Great Eagles arrive with Radagast and Beorn, helping turn the tide against the Orcs. Thorin and Azog fight directly; Thorin kills his enemy but is fatally wounded. Bilbo reconciles with him before he dies, while Tauriel mourns Kíli. Thranduil tells Legolas to seek a ranger in the north known as Strider, setting up a future beyond the immediate battle without displacing Bilbo as the story’s central witness.

After victory, the surviving company returns to Erebor. Bilbo bids them farewell and travels home with Gandalf. On the way, Gandalf reveals that he knows Bilbo has the Ring, though Bilbo says he lost it. Back at Bag End, Bilbo finds that his belongings are being auctioned because people believed him dead. He stops the sale, puts his home in order, and keeps the Ring. The film then leaps decades forward to the birthday visit that frames the trilogy, showing how this dangerous journey becomes the memory of an older Bilbo.

Away from the mountain, Gandalf's captivity at Dol Guldur brings the wider threat into view. Galadriel, Elrond, and Saruman confront the powers holding him there, while Radagast helps get him to safety. The confrontation reveals Sauron behind the darkness, making the approaching Orc armies part of a danger larger than a quarrel over treasure. This gives Gandalf a reason to look beyond the immediate dispute that absorbs Thorin and the others. The dragon's death has opened an opportunity rather than finished every conflict. Places left weakened or divided are vulnerable to forces that have no interest in honoring anyone's claim to gold.

Thorin's attachment to the hoard is expressed through suspicion as much as possession. The restored home that should fulfill his journey becomes a place he closes against people he owes, including those who helped make his return possible. Richard Armitage's performance turns that narrowing attention into distance from his own companions. When Thorin finally leaves the treasure to join the battle, the important change is his willingness to stand with others again. Bilbo has already risked their friendship by opposing him. Their later reconciliation carries that disagreement with it: the hobbit's loyalty never required agreeing that a recovered kingdom justified every choice made in its name.

Bard's position is less ceremonial than the claims made by the kings. He has displaced townspeople to feed and shelter, then an attack on Dale that brings fighting into the refuge itself. Alfrid's self-interested behavior keeps the old Lake-town order visible even after its Master is gone; disaster has not automatically made every survivor generous. The film cuts between these different demands on courage, from named warriors facing their enemies to people trying to protect a temporary home. Its return to Bag End changes the scale again. Bilbo's auctioned belongings provide a domestic consequence of being absent so long, after a journey in which possessions have caused far more dangerous disputes.