M Master
[We see Laketown, with the Lonely Mountain in the distance. Bells are ringing, and people are frantically loading their possessions into boats. In his house, the Master of Laketown is overseeing his soldiers and servants carrying boxes containing his gold and valuables.]
I warned you. Did I not warn you what would come of dealing with dwarves?! Now they`ve done it! They've woken the dragon. They brought the apocalypse upon our heads!
B Braga
Come on! Quickly! Quickly!
M Master
[The Master pulls a candlestick in the wall sideways; it turns out to be a secret lever, and a nearby bookshelf falls backwards to reveal a hidden staircase and boat landing with the Master's boat waiting.]
Faster now! I'm trying to evacuate myself here! Careful, men. Never mind the books! Get on, get the rest of it!
A Alfrid
But sire, should we not try to save the town?
M Master
The town is lost! Save the gold!
B Braga
You heard him! Get a move on!
Tauriel
[The men load all the gold and other valuables onto the Master's boat. The townspeople frantically paddle their loaded boats through the canals. Tauriel watches the sky ominously; with her elf-hearing, she can hear Smaug approaching and roaring. Suddenly, a huge shadow swoops overhead. Smaug has arrived. Tauriel enters Bard's house and prepares the dwarves and Bard's family to leave.]
We have no time. We must leave!
Bofur
Get him up!
Fili
Come on, brother.
Bofur
Come on, come on. Let's go.
Kili
I'm fine. I can walk.
Tauriel
As fast as you can.
B Bain
We're not leaving. Not without our father.
Tauriel
If you stay here, your sisters will die. Is that what your father would want?
Bard
[Bard is in the prison, and all the men guarding him are gone. He clutches the cell bars and shouts.] [Bard grunting]
Open this door! Do you hear me?
Fili
Give me your hand.
Bofur
We gotta go.
Tauriel
Quickly now. Hurry.
Fili
Kili, come on!
[They set off down the canal, poling the boat through the floating chunks of ice. Smaug swoops low overhead, and the townspeople scream. Smaug soars high above and away from the town, then turns and dives steeply toward the town, building up fire in his chest. As he gets over the town, he unleashes his flames, and he breathes his fire in a line all the way across the town. People scream and fall and die in the inferno. Bard smashes at his cell's bars with a pail, but to no avail. Smaug breathes fire over another section of the town; a man, on fire, falls out of his house and into the water. The Master, his men, and Alfrid poll their boat loaded with treasure through the water.]
M Master
[Smaug roaring] [Bard grunting]
Come on, come on! Faster! Faster!
M Master
[Smaug sets things to fire around them.]
If only we could take more of these people with us, but they're hardly--
A Alfrid
Worth it. I quite agree.
Bofur
[A man tries to climb onto the boat, but Alfrid kicks him in the face and back into the water. Bard tears his blanket into strips. People are trampling each other in their efforts to escape the dragon and the fire.]
Look out!
M Master
[The Master's boat collides with Tauriel's, upsetting everyone. They manage to push their boats apart, but some of the Master's treasure falls into the water.]
Move it! Move it! Come on! Faster!
A Alfrid
My gold! My gold!
B Braga
We're carrying too much. We need to dump something.
M Master
[While Alfrid looks at the pile of treasure, trying to decide what to throw overboard, the Master looks at him, greedily.]
You're quite right, Alfrid.
B Braga
[The Master pushes Alfrid overheard, just as a cloth loops falls from above and catches around the Master's throat. It is the rope Bard made from his blanket; he has tied one end to his cell bars and let the other end loop, out of the window and over the canal, where it has conveniently caught the Master. Braga, at the front of the boat, hasn't seen this.]
Faster! Faster!
[As the boat pulls ahead, the rope loops pulls the Master back, but then he gets stuck in front of the boat's rear post. As the rope tightens around him, he gags and chokes. Eventually, the pressure is so much that the entire side of Bard's prison break, and Bard escapes. The Master frantically pulls the rope away from his throat. As Smaug flies overhead, still blowing flames, Bard breaks through the guardroom window and grabs his bow and quiver, testing his bowstring. He pushes out some of the shingles in the upper story and clambers out onto the roof, where he has a good vantage point. He ducks low as Smaug flies by almost overhead. Bard runs across the rooftops, heading toward the bell tower, the tallest building in the town. Back at the Lonely Mountain, Thorin and Company watch the town burning in the lake.]
Balin
Poor souls.
[They all stare in sadness of each other in sadness and fear. Bilbo looks back and sees that Thorin is staring back at the halls of Erebor, not at Laketown. Bilbo is worried. Bard continues leaping roof to roof. Tauriel hides her boat under an overhang until she sees that it's safe to go on. Bard climbs rapidly up the winding steps of the bell tower. Once at the top, he pulls all the arrows out of his quiver and looks out at the sky. As Smaug soars by, Bard shoots an arrow at him; however, the arrow merely bounces off Smaug's scales and falls to the ground. Bard, standing directly below the ringing bell, gets nauseated by the booming sound, so he pulls out the dagger and cuts the bell's rope, silencing it. He shoots another arrow at Smaug, but this, like the first bounces harmlessly off. In the canals below, Bain, on the boat with his family, the dwarves, and Tauriel, notices his father at the top of the tower. The dwarves, Tauriel, and Bard's children are rowing out of Lake-town to escape Smaug's wrath, when they see Bard on top the tower firing arrows at the dragon]
Kili
[Bard keeps shooting his arrows at Smaug, but they have no effect on him]
He hit it! He hit the dragon!
Tauriel
No.
Kili
He did! He hit its mark! I saw it!
Tauriel
His arrows can not pierce its hide. I fear nothing will.
Bofur
[Bain suddenly remembers the black arrow; he grabs a hook and swings off the boat]
What are you doing?!
Fili
Come back! Bain!
Bofur
Bain!
Fili
Come back here!
Tauriel
Leave him! We cannot go back.
Kili
[After the destruction of Lake-town and Smaug's death, Fili, Bofur, and Oin grab a boat so they can head out to the Lonely Mountain to rejoin the Company. Kili goes over to Tauriel]
Tauriel...
Fili
Kili. Come on, we're leaving.
Tauriel
They are your people. You must go. [starts to walk off]
Kili
[stops her]
Come with me. I know how I feel, I'm not afraid. You make me feel alive.
Tauriel
I can't.
Kili
Tauriel. Amralime.
Tauriel
[surprised]
I don't know what that means.
Kili
[grins]
I think you do.
Tauriel
[Fili looks at his brother; before Tauriel could respond, she senses Legolas, who returned from his chase after Bolg, behind her] [in Elvish]
My Lord Legolas.
Legolas
[in Elvish]
Take your leave of the Dwarf. You are needed elsewhere.
Kili
[Kili and Tauriel give each other a longing look, before Kili reluctantly leaves. Then he stops and turns back to Tauriel. He takes her hand and gives her the stone he showed her when they first met]
Keep it, as a promise.
[Kili goes to the boat with Fili, Bofur, and Oin and row off. Tauriel looks at the stone. Her eyes filled with tears as she watches Kili and the others row off in their boat to the Lonely Mountain]
Tauriel
[As Thranduil and his remaining forces leave Dale in the midst of the battle, Tauriel stands in their way] [in Elvish]
You will go no further. [in English] You will not turn away. Not this time.
Thranduil
[glaring]
Get out of my way.
Tauriel
The dwarves will be slaughtered.
Thranduil
Yes, they will die. Today, tomorrow, one year hence, a hundred years from now. What does it matter? They're mortal.
Tauriel
[aims her bow and arrow at Thranduil, who looks on in shock]
You think your life is worth more than theirs, when there is no love in it? There is no love in you!
Thranduil
[Thranduil hesitates, then swiftly and mercilessly cuts Tauriel's bow in half. Tauriel is taken aback in shock] [raises his sword to Tauriel's face]
What do you know of love? Nothing! What you feel for that dwarf is not real. You think it is love? Are you ready to die for it?
Legolas
[Legolas deflects Thranduil's blade and defends Tauriel] [in Elvish]
If you harm her...you will have to kill me. [Thranduil lowers his head in sadness at his son's defiance; Legolas turns to Tauriel, in English] I will go with you.
Legolas
[about his defiance, in defense of Tauriel]
I...cannot go back.
Thranduil
Where will you go?
Legolas
I do not know.
Thranduil
Go to the North. Find the Dunedain. There is a young Ranger among them you should meet. His father, Arathorn, was a good man. His son might grow to be a great one.
Legolas
What is his name?
Thranduil
He is known in the wild as Strider. His true name, you must discover for yourself. [Legolas makes to head to the north as suggested, but stops short] Legolas, your mother loved you...more than anyone; more than life.
Tauriel
[Touched by the apology and the fact that his mother loved him, Legolas exchanges a gesture of affection with Thranduil and makes off to the north to find the ranger, with Thranduil looking on and having accepted the fact the elven prince is now independent and a grown man. Then Thranduil walks up to Tauriel, who's weeping over Kili's body]
They want to bury him.
Thranduil
Yes.
Tauriel
If this is love, then I do not want it. Take it from me. Please. [Thranduil does nothing. She sobs harder] Why does it hurt so much?
Thranduil
[uncharacteristically empathetic]
Because it was real.
[Tauriel, with tears in her eyes, was surprised what Thranduil had said, and kisses Kili]
