Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is a 2011 epic fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. It is the second of two cinematic parts based on the 2007 novel by J. K. Rowling, and the eighth and final instalment of the Harry Potter film series. The film follows Harry as he continues his quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes in order to destroy him once and for all.
The film stars an ensemble cast comprising Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, and Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, and Julie Walters. Principal photography began on 19 February 2009, and was completed on 12 June 2010, with reshoots taking place in December 2010.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United Kingdom and United States on 15 July 2011, and is the only Harry Potter film to be released in 3D. The film was praised as a satisfying conclusion to the saga, and for the visual effects, performances, action sequences, direction, musical score, and cinematography. It grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film ever during its run, and the highest-grossing film in the Harry Potter series. The National Board of Review named Deathly Hallows – Part 2 one of the top-ten films of 2011. It was nominated for three awards at the 84th Academy Awards, and received numerous other accolades.
Plot
After burying Dobby, Harry Potter asks the goblin Griphook to help him, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts bank, suspecting a Horcrux is there. Griphook agrees, in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor. Wandmaker Ollivander tells Harry that two wands taken from Malfoy Manor belonged to Bellatrix and Draco Malfoy; he senses Draco's wand has changed its allegiance to Harry when he took it from Draco. A horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, is found in Bellatrix's vault, but Griphook snatches the sword and abandons them. Trapped by security, they release the dragon guardian and flee Gringotts on its back.
Harry has a vision of Lord Voldemort at Gringotts, furious at the theft. Harry also realises a Horcrux connected to Rowena Ravenclaw is hidden at Hogwarts. The trio apparate into Hogsmeade and Albus Dumbledore's brother Aberforth helps them, revealing that he was the one who sent Dobby to Malfoy Manor. He reveals a secret passageway into Hogwarts's Room of Requirement and summons Neville Longbottom to lead them back into the school.
As Severus Snape threatens the school staff and students, Harry reveals himself. Professor McGonagall duels Snape and forces him to flee before rousing Hogwarts for battle. Luna Lovegood advises Harry to consult Helena Ravenclaw's ghost, who reveals that Voldemort used dark magic on her mother's diadem before hiding it in the Room of Requirement. In the Chamber of Secrets, Ron and Hermione destroy the Horcrux cup with a Basilisk fang. Draco, Blaise Zabini, and Goyle attack Harry, but Ron and Hermione intervene. Goyle casts a Fiendfyre curse that kills him, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione rescue Draco and Zabini and escape. Harry stabs the diadem with the Basilisk fang, and Ron kicks it into the fire.
As Voldemort's army attacks, Harry realises Voldemort's snake Nagini is the final Horcrux. The trio overhears Voldemort telling Snape the Elder Wand cannot serve him until Snape dies, as he killed Dumbledore, the wand's previous master. Nagini mortally wounds Snape. As he dies, he gives Harry one of his memories. Many members of the Order, students, and staff, including Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Tonks, are killed in battle.
Harry views Snape's memory in the Pensieve: Snape and Harry's mother Lily were childhood friends; he was also in love with her, but she fell for Harry's father James, whom Snape despised for his arrogance and for bullying him. Harry also learns Snape attempted to protect Lily by pleading with Dumbledore to hide the Potters. Following her death, Snape worked with Dumbledore as a double agent among the Death Eaters, including agreeing to kill him. Harry sees Snape conjure the Patronus doe that led Harry to Gryffindor's sword. Harry also learns that he inadvertently became a Horcrux when Voldemort's curse originally failed to kill him; Voldemort must now kill Harry to destroy the soul shard within him. Using the Resurrection Stone that had been stored in the Golden Snitch bequeathed to him, Harry sees the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black, and Remus. They comfort him before he returns to Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Voldemort casts the Killing Curse upon Harry, who awakens in limbo. Dumbledore's spirit meets him and explains that Harry is now free of the link to Voldemort and can choose to return to his body or move on.
Voldemort returns with Harry's apparently dead body and demands Hogwarts surrender. As Neville takes the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, Harry reveals he is alive, and the Malfoys abandon Voldemort along with many other Death Eaters. Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix in the Great Hall, and Neville beheads Nagini, destroying the last Horcrux. Harry defeats Voldemort when his Expelliarmus deflects Voldemort's Killing Curse back at him. After the battle, Harry explains to Ron and Hermione that Voldemort never commanded the Elder Wand; it recognised him as its true master after disarming Draco, who had disarmed Dumbledore before he was killed by Snape. Instead of claiming the Elder Wand, Harry chooses to destroy it.
Nineteen years later, Harry, Ginny Weasley, Ron, Hermione, and Draco watch as their children depart on the train at King's Cross for Hogwarts.
Cast
Also reprising their roles are Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick, a teacher at Hogwarts, and also as Griphook, a goblin and former employee at the bank Gringotts; David Bradley as Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts; Gemma Jones as Poppy Pomfrey, the sole healer at Hogwarts; Miriam Margolyes as Pomona Sprout, a teacher at Hogwarts; Julie Walters, Mark Williams, James and Oliver Phelps, Clémence Poésy, and Natalia Tena as Order of the Phoenix members Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Fleur Delacour, and Nymphadora Tonks; Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, Lucius's son and a Death Eater; Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother and Bellatrix's sister; Dave Legeno as Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf and supporter of Voldemort; and Nick Moran as Scabior, a bounty hunter for Voldemort. Ciarán Hinds portrays Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore's brother and the owner of the pub Hog's Head, replacing Jim McManus from Part 1.
In the novel, several characters that have not appeared since the earlier novels return in the climatic battle at Hogwarts. Director David Yates said that he wanted to bring back a lot of the characters that had previously appeared in the film series. Additional actors reprising their roles from previous films are Emma Thompson as Sybill Trelawney, Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, George Harris as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Domhnall Gleeson as Bill Weasley, Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom, Devon Murray as Seamus Finnigan, Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown, Katie Leung as Cho Chang, Afshan Azad as Padma Patil, Anna Shaffer as Romilda Vane, Georgina Leonidas as Katie Bell, Freddie Stroma as Cormac McLaggen, Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle, Scarlett Byrne as Pansy Parkinson, Leslie Phillips as the voice of the Sorting Hat, Geraldine Somerville as Lily Potter, and Adrian Rawlins as James Potter.
Production
Filming
Part 2 was filmed back-to-back with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 from 19 February 2009 to 12 June 2010, with reshoots for the epilogue scene taking place at Leavesden Film Studios on 21 December 2010. Yates, who shot the film with director of photography Eduardo Serra, described Part 2 as "operatic, colourful and fantasy-oriented", a "big opera with huge battles".
Originally set for a single theatrical release, the idea to split the book into two parts was suggested by executive producer Lionel Wigram due to, what David Heyman called, "creative imperative". Heyman initially responded negatively to the idea, but Wigram asked, "No, David. How are we going to do it?". After rereading the book and discussing it with screenwriter Steve Kloves, he agreed with the division.
Set design In an interview with Architectural Digest, production designer Stuart Craig remarked on creating sets for Part 2. Of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, he said, "our banking hall, like any other, is made of marble and big marble columns. And it has great strength. The fact that the goblins are the bankers and tellers at the counter helps that feeling of grandeur and solidity and the big proportions. That was part of the fun of the set: we exaggerated the size of it, we exaggerated the weight of it, and we even exaggerated the shine of the marble." About the multiplication of treasure in one of the bank's vaults, he noted, "We made literally thousands of pieces for it and vacuum metallised them to be shiny gold and silver. John Richardson, the special effects supervisor, made a floor that was capable of rising on different levels, so there was kind of a physical swelling of the treasure on it."
Craig spoke about the Battle of Hogwarts to Art Insights Magazine, saying that "the great challenge is the destruction of Hogwarts. The sun rising behind the smoke ... the massive remains of destroyed walls, the entrance hall, the entrance of the Great Hall, part of the roof of the Great Hall completely gone, so yeah. A big challenge there and an enjoyable one really – maybe it helped me and the guys in the art department sort of prepare for the end ... we demolished it before we had to strike it completely." When asked about the King's Cross scene near the end of the film, Craig said, "We experimented a lot, quite honestly. I mean it was quite a protracted process really but we did experiment the sense of it being very burnt out very very kind of white – so we experimented with underlit floors, we experimented with different kind of white covering everything: white paint, white fabric, and the cameraman was involved in how much to expose it, and a series of camera tests were done, so we got there but with a great deal of preparation and research."
Visual effects Visual effects supervisor Tim Burke said that "It was such a major job to stage the Battle of Hogwarts, and we had to do it in different stages of production. We had shots with complex linking camera moves from wide overviews, to flying into windows and interior spaces. So, we took the plunge at the end of 2008, and started rebuilding the school digitally with Double Negative." He went on to say: "It's taken two years – getting renders out, texturing every facet of the building, constructing interiors to see through windows, building a destruction version of the school. We can design shots with the knowledge that we have this brilliant digital miniature that we can do anything with. With a practical Hogwarts, we would have shot it last summer and been so tied down. Instead, as David Yates finds the flow and structure, we are able to handle new concepts and ideas."