Before we explain the larger reasons behind Gollum’s leap into Mount Doom (and how it could connect to the new movie) let’s go over a quick refresher of the events immediately surrounding Gollum’s death. Toward the end of “The Fellowship of the Ring,” It’s revealed that Gollum is tracking Frodo. In “The Two Towers,” Frodo turns the tables, capturing the Slinker, taming him, and making Gollum show him the way to Mordor. After Gollum betrays Frodo to Shelob, he disappears. Then, at the end of “The Return of the King,” he suddenly pops up again, attacking Sam on the slopes of Mount Doom and biting Frodo’s finger off, Ring and all, at the Cracks of Doom.
In the movie version, Frodo fights with Gollum, inadvertently shoving him off the cliff. In the books, Gollum trips while gloating over the Ring he’s recovered. He slips and tumbles to his doom. Either way, he falls into the fiery depths below, perishing along with his Precious.
