Exclusive Clip on Moviefone.com

For those of you who don’t mind too many spoilers from the movie, Moviefone.com has an exclusive clip from the final battle in The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Go here to see it (scroll down – it’s called Clip 1)!

Thanks to starkat and jet_100mk for the heads up!

UPDATE: Here is a direct link to a high-res (QuickTime) version of the clip.

Click on the thumbnails below for screencaps (thanks to Starkat and Gymfan).

Run-down of the Exclusive Moviefone Clip:

First, we see the director. He is sitting in a chair, with a snowy forest background behind him.

“Hi, I’m Andrew Adamson, director of The Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Over the past year, we’ve taken you behind the magic of Narnia as we brought this classic story to life. As production wraps, we thought we’d share an exclusive scene I’ve chosen from the final epic battle for Narnia. Enjoy the clip, and I hope you enjoy your journey into Narnia on December 9th.”

(Begin footage)

Armored faun warriors, seeming to have waited impatiently for the battle to begin, now launch forward with the beginning battle cries. The music is a sad-sounding choir, like unto the music from some of our Lord of the Rings sequences, where victory does not seem possible, yet the will and resolve of the free peoples of Narnia is to fight, regardless of the outcome. Centaurs and leopards gallop past us, down a hill.

Now our point of view is facing them, ground-level, as the charging centaurs point their swords to the enemy. Cats snarl, and horses whinny. Warthogs also join in the rush to battle.

The music takes on a military tone. This charge is glorious, but down to business. Fauns with spears and battle banners rush past us.

Shot of Peter, nobly astride his unicorn, leading the charge beside his general.

Shot of General Otmin, with a very deep and rumbling voice, issuing a battle with more of a grunt than a scream: “Forward!” His macabre army needs no urging; they stomp forward.

Sweeping shot of Edmund, VERY high above the battle field, observing the two armies’ charge towards the other. Two creatures near Edmund have drawn bows. An armored beaver stands beside him. Peter is at the head of his, forming the point of a V-shaped formation. The Witch’s army is in straight ranks, appearing more rectangular.

Aerial view of Peter leading the charge as the choir resounds in the background.

Shot of Peter galloping at the head of the army, which then pulls back along the ranks as leopards, cheetahs and bobcats dart forward on the ground below, dispersed amongst ranks of centaurs.

Shot of opposing army; ogres and Cyclops plunging forward. Otmin is rushing forward, outpacing his other soldiers, grunting again as he runs.

Narnian army again; the centaurs, with their deadly spears held aloft, now level them against the enemy. The cheetahs and some other cat-like creatures now run ahead of the army. A white tiger from the Witch’s army accepts their unspoken challenge, and rushes past Otmin to meet them.

With the enemy almost upon them, Peter slowly reaches up and pulls down the face-guard of his helmet, obscuring his head.

Shot of the entire army running head-on towards us, the shot we’ve seen from the trailers. Oreius draws both his blades in slow-motion, with the resounding zzhhhing of cold steel.

The sound seems to fade; we can barely hear the hoofbeats of a hundred centaur warriors. Or is it the faded whispers of a heart beating?

Further shots of Peter leading his army forward. We can hear nothing now but a quiet thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. Distinctly a heartbeat.

We now see a very drawn-back view of the two armies, the one we’ve seen from the trailer. Cats are outpacing Peter, but he is still leading the rest of the army.

Milliseconds before the two armies clash, the curtain is drawn. A light-flash transitions us to the same lion that has roared us out of previews before;

“This much shall ye see, but no more until the due time.”

As we’re accustomed to, the lion throws back its head for a roar, as the camera pulls back past icy mountains, to an icy logo. The Narrator closes us out by reminding us of the movie’s title, in case we have forgotten.

Most exciting, the words “To Be Continued” flash across the darkness, words that have always signaled that we will see more clips before the film releases.

Thanks to KnightofGondor for his great run-down!

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