How Many Endings Does ‘Lord of the Rings: Return of the King’ Really Have?

In the 15 years since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King dominated the box office, the Oscar-sweeping fantasy epic has earned a reputation for one thing: those endings! Yeah, it has epic battles and heart-wrenching performances and special effects that hold up really well all these years later. But ever since Return of the King’s stop-and-start finale kept audiences pinned to their movie seats to the detriment of their bladders, this movie’s been shorthand for those critiquing any movie’s drawn-out final act.

But now, 15 years later, we gotta ask: does Return of the King really deserve its rep as the movie that would not end? Did it really feature a dozen fake-out fade-to-blacks and 45 minutes of resolution? Since we are still living in the extra-long blockbuster era ushered in by Peter Jackson’s grand trilogy, now’s the perfect time to actually go back and look at Return of the King’s final stretch and see how it really all shook out. Below you’ll find a breakdown of every single ending in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (the extended edition, obviously–it’s the only cut that matters!). And maybe, just maybe, we’ll all have to re-evaluate how we talk about this movie over the next 15 years.

The endings start at 3:34:29 into the extended edition when the Ring is finally destroyed…

#1: The Bleak AF Ending

Starts: 3:34:29
The Ring–you know, the thing they’ve been trying to destroy for three movies and a dozen hours–finally melts in the lava of Mount Doom. Everything starts crumbling around the joined forces for good as evil is vanquished. Sam and Frodo try to hightail it out of the collapsing mountain but get stranded on some rock in a lava flow. Frodo tells Sam that he’s glad they could be together “here, at the end of all things.” FADE TO BLACK.
Ends: 3:39:20

#2: The Pajama Party Ending

Starts: 3:39:21
Psyche! Frodo and Sam don’t get toasted to a crisp! In a hazy montage, we see Gandalf arrive with a flock of giant eagles, plucking Frodo and Sam from doom. Dissolve to a cozy bedroom in Minis Tirith as Frodo comes to and finds Gandalf watching over him. So many smiles! Then Merry and Pippin burst in and jump in bed with Frodo, hugging and possibly tickling him? Then we see the rest of the fellowship (Gimli! Legolas! Aragorn!) and, finally, Sam. Smiles are shared, and everyone is stoked. FADE TO BLACK.
Ends: 3:42:39

#3: The Mad Respect Ending

Starts: 3:42:40
Psyche Part Deux! Now we get closure on Aragorn’s plotline as he’s crowned king of Gondor and reunites with Liv Tyler, thus happily cementing the alliance of man and elfkind. Pan over to our hobbit heroes who bow down to Aragorn, and then he’s like, “Hell no! You bow to no one.” Everyone else then bows to the hobbits, giving the little guys the best sightline they’ve ever had in a crowd. Epic zoom out and… FADE TO MAP?!
Ends: 3:47:34

#4: The Getting Hitched Ending

Starts: 3:47:35
Okay, the movie’s not done yet because the hobbits have to get back to the Shire. Upon their return home, the quartet shares a silent toast and then Sam decides to put the moves on his crush, Rosie. Then BAM, they’re married and all of the hobbits are happy. Right? No?! DISSOLVE… TO SAD FRODO!
Ends: 3:50:23

#5: The Bon Voyage Ending

Starts: 3:50:24
Four years have now passed since Ending #3 and Frodo’s finally finished his addition to Uncle Bilbo’s tale. The book is closed on Frodo’s The Lord of the Rings, and he is done. The hobbits all gather to send off old Bilbo and Gandalf on a ship full of elves. Surprise–Frodo’s going with them! More hugs, more smiles, more tears, more goodbyes and FADE TO WHITE.
Ends: 3:59:56

#6: The Real Ending

Starts: 3:59:57
Now here we are, at the end of all things related to this trilogy. Sam walks home through the Shire as Frodo’s final letter to Sam provides narration. Sam reaches his front door where he’s greeted by his two kids and Rosie. Dude’s no longer torn in two. Sam’s finally whole and he’s finally home. FADE TO BLACK, THE END.
Ends: 4:01:28

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So yeah, six endings is definitely five more endings than most movies get. For comparison, let’s look at two other hella epic movies from long before and long after Return of the King: 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI–Return of the Jedi and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Both movies have moments that loom as large narratively as destroying the Ring. In Return of the Jedi, the Death Star is blown up at the 2:03:00 mark. The end credits start just under 5 minutes later (2:07:48). In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos finally snaps his fingers at 2:11:12. The end credits start barely six and a half minutes later (2:17:32).

In Return of the King, the end credits don’t start until 27 minutes after the Ring is destroyed. If Return of the Jedi and Infinity War are indicative of what we’re used to from blockbuster finales, then Return of the King’s ending is indeed 5 times longer than normal. But while we all seem to remember the movie punking audiences by fading to black over and over again, it really only does two fade-to-black fake outs. Okay, and then there’s one fade to white fake-out and then the final, actual, for-real fade to black. It is a lot and it definitely feels like a lot after three and a half hours of movie! But in Return of the King’s defense, it does cram in 6 endings in a (comparatively?) brief 27 minutes. And there’s only 22-ish minutes between the first fade-to-black fakeout on Mount Doom to the real “The End” appearing onscreen. Is that a whole lot more than other similarly epic movies? You bet it is! Is it the 45 solid minutes of endings that we all claim to remember? It’s not! It’s half that!

Of course the 20 minutes of a half dozen endings is followed by a solid 21:30 of scrolling end credits, which is just absolutely insane. You could watch an entire episode of The Good Place in that time!

In conclusion, does Return of the King deserve its reputation as the movie that would not end? I say yes, but with an asterisk. The next time you make a joke about this movie’s extended finale, there’s no need to stretch it out to a dozen endings over 45 minutes. Six endings across 25ish minutes is the truth, and the truth is already excessive.

Where to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King