The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Speaking of, it’s hard to think of a single line in cinema history that has us hooting and hollering at the screen quite like Theoden’s thunderous battle cry at the Pelennor Fields (“Ride now, ride now, ride! Ride for ruin and the world’s ending! Death!”), though the entire lighting of the beacons sequence comes awfully close. A colossal achievement in large-scale spectacle, the third and final chapter in Peter Jackson’s nine-plus-hour epic saga is an euphoric grand finale that knows exactly which buttons to push and manages to get by on sheer pulse-pounding action and dramatic closure alone.

Pay no heed to the nitpickers who still moan about “The Return of the King” having one too many endings — every tear-inducing moment of delayed catharsis feels thoroughly earned here, especially because Jackson makes sure you feel every second of Frodo’s internal struggle, every grueling step towards Mount Doom, and every loss, sacrifice, and drop of blood spilled to defend Gondor from the forces of evil, with the fate of Middle-earth hanging in the balance. So by the time the One Ring and Sauron are finally destroyed, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off your chest, as well as Frodo’s. It may not take the top spot in our ranking, but over $1 billion at the box office and 11 Academy Awards make for a decent consolation prize.