How it happened in the movie:
Omitted from the TE.

In the EE, Frodo and Sam are shown climbing down a steep slope with the help of the rope, which is well tied on a rock. Sam drops a small wooden box, and when Frodo below him tries to catch it, he loses his hold and falls, but fortunately he’s not very high anymore. The box turns out to contain salt, which Sam has taken with him because “you’ll never know”. Frodo suggests that they take the rope with them; Sam is sad because he can’t see any way to get it back, but when he gives it a light pull, it comes loose by itself. Sam swears that he had tied it properly, and Frodo states with a smile that, it is real elvish rope.

How it happened in the book:
Frodo and Sam find a lower slope, and try to climb down, despite an approaching thunderstorm. They hear a Nazgûl shriek; Frodo, who is the first to descend, loses his hold and slides down on a ledge. Probably both because of psychological reasons and the darkness caused by the storm, he can’t see anything. Sam remembers the elvish rope he took with him from one of their boats, and lowers it down to Frodo, who can see it shimmer in the darkness. After Sam has pulled him back up, they start descending again, using the rope this time. Sam is sad because he can’t see any way to get his rope with him, but when he gives it a light pull, it comes down, to the wonder of the hobbits, although Sam swears that he tied it properly. “I think the rope came off itself – when I called,” he says.

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Related Information
For links for this sequence, check out The Taming of Sméagol by the same author.