By Becca Lewis
| Published
Fans of Lord of the Rings may have noticed there’s a big plot hole in the movie version of the story. Why couldn’t the adventurers have saved themselves the trek and had the Eagles fly them to Mordor? The answer is in the literary version of the story, but it didn’t get a good explanation in the film, hence the confusion.
Fly You Fools
While the series of movies based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien depicts the Eagles as being aloof, and apart from the problems of men, the movie version of Lord of the Rings doesn’t really cover this aspect of their attitude. Their lack of motivation to save the Realm of Men is not clear because the movies don’t address Gandalf’s special status with the Eagles. Despite their capability to fly, they also aren’t necessarily able to fly just anywhere they want.
There’s another reason that the Eagles in the Lord of the Rings might not be equipped to ferry the Fellowship to the doorstep of their adversary, which is that Eagles might not be immune to the effects of the Ring. If they were to succumb to the desire to wield the One Ring’s power, the Eagles could kill Frodo and take the ring for themselves. Imagine an Eagle Dark Lord wielding the power of the Ring over the Realm of Eagles.
A Dangerous Journey Even By Air
The big reason that the Eagles couldn’t just fly the Fellowship to Mordor in Lord of the Rings is that the journey would be just as dangerous for them as it is for the members of the Fellowship, if not more. If an Eagle is targeted by the agents of Sauron, it would presumably fall from the sky, taking its rider with it, and the Eagles wouldn’t be equipped to defend themselves against such an attack. There’s no guarantee that an Eagle Express flight would be any less dangerous than going by land, even if it would have been a shorter trip.
Of course, there’s a practical reason the Eagles didn’t just fly the Fellowship all the way to Mordor, and that’s because The Lord of the Rings wouldn’t be an epic adventure to read or make movies about if the journey was just a couple of minutes long. There would be no chance for the Fellowship to meet their friends along the way, no cloak-and-dagger incognito travels, and no conflict to draw on. It would just be a story about a ride on an Eagle and a quick trip to Mordor to drop off a Ring.
The Story Is Better Without Eagle Express
Rather than being a plot hole, the plot of The Lord of the Rings is actually strengthened by the character’s journey, the struggle for the fate of the Realm of Man, and all the interesting things that happen along the way. Using a magic wand to solve all of the Fellowship’s problems doesn’t make a good story, but it also doesn’t lead to the final fight, during which two Hobbits and Gollum destroy the ring. None of that would have been possible if the journey had been cut short, allowing Gollum to follow the party and culminating in the ring being flung accidentally into the pit.