Here's How They Made *The Hobbit'*s Amazing Barrel Escape Scene

That awesome seven-minute barrel-enabled escape from the elves in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? Here's how it was made.

Of all the scenes in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Peter Jackson cites the escape from the elves as one of his favorites. So in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the director went to great lengths to make Bilbo and the dwarves' wine-barrel-enabled getaway from Thranduil's realm into an epic seven-minute action sequence. How'd he do it? Watch the video above to see how Jackson and his team used 98 hours of footage from aerial shots, green-screen sets, live-action shoots, and complex CG environments to make the final white-knuckle scene.