In ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ Frodo was set out from Rivendell with the Fellowship to cast the Ring of Power to the fires of Mount Doom. In ‘The Return of the King’ Frodo now tries to finish that hopeless task and survive the greatest dangers alone with Sam. After leaving Faramir, their last link to the decent world, Frodo and Sam face the final desperate stage of their journey. They stumble their way to Mordor through Shelob’s lair, the Tower of Cirith Ungol and a bunch of Orcs. Together they cross the dead plains of Gorgoroth and climb up to the Mount Doom. Frodo has lost his faith and he is totally exhausted but he keeps going on and with Sam’s help he gets to his destination. The Ring has totally taken Frodo over and only because both Frodo and Sam have pitied Gollum, Frodo’s task is finished. Gollum falls into the fires of Mount Doom with the Ring and it’s destroyed. It is also the end of Sauron and peace is brought back to Middle-Earth. Gandalf and the Eagles save Frodo and Sam from Mount Doom and they are taken back to Minas Tirith and finally reunited with their friends. Finally Frodo and Sam along with Merry and Pippin return home, to Shire. During the years Frodo begins to understand his wounds won’t heal and there’s no going back. He says good bye to his friends and sails to the Undying Lands with the elves.

Changes in Return of the King
The stairs of Cirith Ungol
When Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach the stairs of Cirith Ungol in the book, the Ring is feeling very heavy on Frodo and slowly starting to get a hold of him. Sam suspects Gollum but Frodo and Sam remain in unison. While climbing up the stairs they talk about the old stories and Gollum’s plans. Frodo admits Gollum might be up to something but doesn’t think it’s anything very dangerous. At the top of the stairs Frodo is now ready to let Gollum go if he thinks the hobbits could find their way alone but Gollum won’t go yet.

In the movie Frodo is already very tired, quite much under the control of the Ring and the first shot of Frodo is him fingering the Ring. Sam hears Gollum/Smeagol talking about killing the hobbits and taking the Ring. Sam gets very mad at Gollum and tries to say he’s a villain but Frodo won’t send Gollum away. While climbing the stairs of Cirith Ungol Gollum talks to Frodo how Sam doesn’t understand Frodo and that Sam wants the Ring. Frodo and Sam don’t talk with each other. In secret Gollum throws the Lembas bread away and convinces Frodo that Sam has eaten their only food. Frodo is exhausted, Sam offers to share the load by carrying the Ring and Frodo is lost. Gollum’s plan is a success when Frodo tells Sam to go home. Frodo and Gollum continue climbing leaving the crying Sam behind.

Shelob’s lair
In the book Frodo and Sam enter Shelob’s lair together and Gollum disappears. Sam remembers Galadriel’s phial and they manage to get out. Frodo runs forward being so excited of getting out or the lair and finding to Mordor that he doesn’t notice Shelob who followed them. Shelob stings Frodo to his neck and Sam has to fight first against Gollum and then Shelob driving them away. Sam takes the Ring from lifeless Frodo thinking he has to finish the task. Frodo is then taken away by a few orcs and Sam changes his mind and follows the orcs hearing that Frodo isn’t dead after all.

In the movie Frodo arrives to the tunnel with Gollum and they go in. Gollum disappears and Frodo gets lost. He first shouts Gollum and then quietly Sam noticing what he has done. He stumbles in the darkness but remembers Galadriel’s phial. He manages to run away from Shelob and gets out of her lair. Gollum has followed and Frodo has to fight against him. Frodo collapses because he’s so exhausted but a vivid vision of Galadriel pulling him up gives him strength and he determinedly continues towards the tower of Cirith Ungol. He doesn’t notice Shelob who comes and stings Frodo to his stomach. Meanwhile Sam has found the lembas bread and climbed back. He fights against Shelob and drives her away from Frodo. Sam hides when he hears orcs coming and when they find Frodo Sam hears Frodo isn’t dead after all.

Mordor
Frodo wakes up in the tower of Cirith Ungol and notices everything has been taken away from him. Sam comes and shows he took the Ring because he thought Frodo is dead. In the book the power of the Ring takes Frodo over and he commands Sam to give it back and he calls Sam a thief. In the movie Frodo just asks Sam to give the Ring back and explains it’s his burden. When Frodo puts the Ring around his neck he’s seemingly relieved.

The hobbits dress up in orc gear and arrive to the plains of Gorgoroth that’s full of orcs. An orc army marches by and they mistake the hobbits being orcs forcing them to march along the group. Frodo can’t take the pace but after some terrible miles they manage to escape. They walk towards Mount Doom and Frodo is totally out of this world seeing the wheel of fire all the time and being unable to feel or remember the real world. In the book Frodo talks a bit with Sam but in the movie he’s almost all silent. They throw all their gear off because they are so tired and they don’t have anything to eat or drink. At the slopes of Mount Doom both hobbits are totally exhausted but somehow Sam gets strength and he carries Frodo up the mountain.

In the book the passage through the plains takes over a week but in the movie they of course get there much faster, during a few days or so. The Ring has taken Frodo over totally and now it can be said he actually threatens Sam once also in the book. Frodo has lost all hope but he keeps going on while his legs still carry him. In the movie Frodo’s exhaustion and their altogether hopeless situation is shown well and Sam’s courage and help is evident. In the book the longer time, darkness, thirst and the power of the Ring make Frodo’s struggle seem even more hopeless and Frodo seems to be even tougher but also Sam’s part on Frodo’s side is even bigger and becomes essential.

The Ring gets destroyed
Before the hobbits reach the door that leads inside Mount Doom Gollum reaches them. Frodo gets strength because Gollum tries to steal the Ring and he runs away while Sam stays behind to finish things with Gollum. Now also Sam pities Gollum, orders him to go away and he runs after Frodo finding him inside standing at the edge of the crack. Frodo declares the Ring as his and putting the Ring on he disappears. Gollum comes in, strikes Sam down and attacks Frodo. They fight for a while and Gollum bites off Frodo’s finger finally getting the Ring.

In the book, in the joy of getting the Ring, Gollum dances around and accidentally steps over the edge when the Ring is destroyed. Sam carries Frodo outside where they sit together waiting for the end and Frodo is now free from the Ring. In the movie Frodo attacks Gollum trying to get the Ring and they both fall over the edge. The Ring remains floating on the lava and Sam finds Frodo hanging on the edge with one hand. While the Ring melts Frodo fights in his mind whether to let go or not. Finally he reaches Sam’s hand and they run out of the cave. With disbelieving, wistful and glad voice he says “It’s done!” With Sam they sit on an overhang of the destroying Mount Doom and Frodo is back to his own self, the darkness has passed.

The reunion of friends and back home
In the movie Gandalf and the eagles save Frodo and Sam from the destroying Mount Doom. Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith and is utterly surprised and happy to see Gandalf standing in front of him. One at the time Merry, Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn and finally Sam enter his room and without words we see the tremendous joy of the reunion between friends and also the love, understanding and gratitude between Frodo and Sam. On Aragorn’s coronation day the hobbits stand in the middle of the crowd and when they try to bow to the King Aragorn says “My friends, you bow to no-one”. The whole crowd bows to the four baffled hobbits. Finally the four hobbits ride home where everything is as it used to be and they can enjoy the wedding of Sam and Rosie.

In the book Frodo and Sam wake up in Ithillien where they meet their friends. They hear about the adventures the others have experienced and the astonished hobbits are celebrated for a day in a party arranged for them and they are treated as heroes by their friends and also other people. Then they go to Minas Tirith and in Aragorn’s coronation Frodo has the honour of handing the crown to Gandalf who crowns the King. They stay in Minas Tirith until Aragorn and Arwen are wed and after that they leave with a big group and one by one say good bye to their friends until finally only the four hobbits are travelling towards the Shire.

When they get closer to the Shire the hobbits notice that everything’s not alright. They find out Saruman has taken over the Shire and there are a lot of things wrong so the hobbits have to claim it back. During the scouring of the Shire Frodo lets Merry and Pippin do all the work wanting to avoid violence and he shows understanding to the ruffians and also to Saruman knowing their time is over. After Shire is claimed back Frodo is the mayor there for a while.

The last chapters in the book, especially the Scouring of the Shire, show how much Frodo has changed and grown during his adventure. He’s grown to hate evil and violence; he doesn’t even want to carry a sword. He shows understanding and he simply feels wiser and just different because of what he’s been through. Even Saruman says how the hobbit has grown when Frodo shows mercy towards him. In the movie it isn’t clearly shown as the whole ending is so much shorter than in the book but at least in the scene where the hobbits sit at the Green Dragon it can be sensed that although the Shire wasn’t changed the hobbits are.

The grey havens
After everything is over, life goes on in the Shire and Frodo begins to understand his wounds won’t heal and there’s no going back. In the movie Frodo’s is thinking how to pick up the threads of an old life and there’s one scene where he says to Sam how it’s been four years and the wound on his shoulder hasn’t healed. It can be sensed during the last scenes that the wounds are also emotional but in the book it’s even clearer. Frodo intentionally lives a quiet life writing his book and he doesn’t participate much. He’s ill twice a year and it can be sensed it’s particularly because the wounds are emotional. One day when Frodo is ill due to the wound from Shelob he says in half dream: “It is gone forever and now all is dark and empty.”

Later Frodo leaves the Shire and goes to the Grey Havens to sail to the Undying Lands with Gandalf, Bilbo and the elves. In the movie on their way Bilbo asks Frodo if he could see his old Ring once more and Frodo says almost sadly “I’m afraid I lost it”. In the harbour Frodo farewells his beloved friends and gives his book to Sam. In the movie Frodo gets onboard with a smile on his face showing great relief and happiness and the ship then sails away. In the book the ship sails into the West and on one rainy night Frodo finally hears singing coming over the water. It can be felt that everything will be alright with Frodo when it’s described how it then seems to him that as in his dream in the house of Tom Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turns to silver glass and he sees white shores and the far green land under a swift sunrise.

Go home Sam – Why?
One of the most shocking and non-canon moments for the bookies in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy is Frodo sending Sam home in the Stairs of Cirith Ungol. This whole Gollum intentionally turning Frodo against Sam is incredible because in the book there isn’t really even a hint that Gollum would be doing that or that Frodo actually would believe Gollum and abandon Sam. But the movie has been going to a different direction and the writers felt that they had a character, Gollum, who was trying to separate and disrupt the goal of the other two characters. And he was never going to get a payoff, he never really succeeds so the writers knew they wanted a scene where Gollum successfully separated the two of them. They also wanted Frodo to enter Shelob’s tunnel alone because it’s more tense; the fact that Frodo goes in there alone. The writers also didn’t want Frodo to be “an angelic character who always has complete faith in Sam” (Philippa Boyens).

Not knowing the book the events could seem quite plausible. During the Two Towers the Ring got a hold of Frodo, he already trusted Gollum almost blindly being determined that Gollum could change back and because Sam didn’t believe that, a crack formed to their friendship. Now Gollum intentionally starts to plot against Sam and Frodo is exhausted because of the Ring so it’s not really a miracle that Frodo believes Gollum and sends Sam away. And it does bring tension wondering how Frodo will do without Sam when Gollum also leaves him. The dark, claustrophobic feeling of Shelob’s lair from the book would also have been hard to put on screen so bringing tension some other way was probably necessary.

But in the movie the situation has been almost totally changed from Frodo trusting Sam to Frodo believing Gollum almost blindly and Gollum is also much more calculating and not quite as wretched creature as in the book. It also seems in the movie that Sam and Gollum have been the ones doing the thinking but that isn’t the case in the book where Frodo isn’t so much affected by the Ring at this point and he remains much more conscious of the whole situation much longer. Frodo has noticed change for better in Gollum but he still doesn’t have a need to save him, he doesn’t trust him completely and there still aren’t any problems between Frodo and Sam.

Gollum doesn’t like Sam because Sam is suspicious towards him and Gollum obviously doesn’t want Frodo to take the Ring to Mordor but he really only wants the Ring, and he plans to do that with the help of Shelob and he’s pretty much counting on that. There really isn’t much sign of something else in the book and especially there isn’t anything referring that Frodo would be loosing his control of the situation so completely that he could be turned against Sam.