You've only just arrived! I don't understand... Gandalf is already at the door, he turns to Frodo.
GANDALF:
Neither do I. Keep it secret, keep it safe.
Gandalf hurries out the door...leaving FRODO standing alone in the Bag End.
ANGLE ON:
THE ENVELOPE The camera pushes in...the hum of the ring comes up on the soundtrack. The camera pushes through the white paper to the ring...beneath the hum the whispered murmur of BLACK SPEECH can be heard.
CUT TO:
EXT. BARAD-DUR -- NIGHT The jagged ruins of" BARAD-DUR. THE DARK TOWER! TEASING
IMAGES:
THE HUGE DARK TOWER OF BARAD-DUR is being rebuilt!
Thousands of ORCS crawl over the surface, hauling stone and iron up the towering heights.
WIDE ON:
MOUNT DOOM...A HUGE, BILLOWING CLOUD OF BLACK FILTH grows and spreads across the red streaked sky...casting a shadowy pall over the nightmarish landscape.
(CONTINUED) 24.
CONTINUED:
GOLLUM (O.S.) Baggins! Shire!!
CUT TO:
EXT. MINAS MORGUL -- NIGHT NINE BLACK RIDERS burst out of Minas Morgul and charge toward Camera.
EXT. THE WEST ROAD, GONDOR -- DAY
WIDE ON:
A LONE HORSEMAN gallops to the crest of a hill on the west road. The main highway south to Minas Tirith...he looks toward the saw toothed mountains of Mordor seeping out across the blood red sky, his face grave. He spurs his horse on.
CUT TO:
INT. CITADEL, MINAS TIRITH -- NIGHT
ANGLE ON:
GANDALF making is way down into the lower depths of the Citidel.
CUT TO:
INT. CITADEL CHAMBER, MINAS TIRITH -- NIGHT
CLOSE ON:
Pages flipping as Gandalf searches ancient scrolls and books placed high on a wooden table. His eyes settle on one old parchment. He murmurs hurriedly to himself, reading.
GANDALF:
(reading) The year 3434 of the Second Age...here follows the account of Isildur, High King of Gondor, and the finding of the ring of power.
CLOSE ON:
ISILDUR, TRIUMPHANT, REACHES FOR THE ONE RING, HIS EYES FIXATED ON IT.