Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 follows Harry, Ron and Hermione as they finish the hunt for the Horcruxes, the objects that hold pieces of Voldemort's soul. The story begins where Part 1 ended, just after the burial of Dobby. If you are new to the saga, the Harry Potter movies in order page shows where this film sits before you press play.

The first task is a heist. Harry asks the goblin Griphook for help getting into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts, where the trio suspect a Horcrux is hidden. Griphook agrees, but only in return for the Sword of Gryffindor, which makes him an ally of convenience. Ollivander adds a second complication when he tells Harry that the wand he took from Draco Malfoy now answers to him.

Those two threads, the vault and the wand, carry a film that runs 130 minutes and moves from the vaults of Gringotts to the grounds of Hogwarts.

The full plot of Deathly Hallows Part 2 runs from the Gringotts break in to the Battle of Hogwarts and a quiet epilogue nineteen years later. Spoilers for the ending follow, so skip ahead if you have not seen the film.

Harry, Ron and Hermione break into Bellatrix's vault and find Helga Hufflepuff's cup, which is a Horcrux. Griphook takes the sword and leaves them, so they free the vault's dragon and escape on its back. Harry then sees that another Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts, and the trio reach Hogsmeade and then the school through Aberforth Dumbledore's secret passage.

Snape is driven out of the school by Professor McGonagall, and Hogwarts prepares for a battle with Voldemort's army. Ron and Hermione destroy the cup with a Basilisk fang, and Harry destroys Ravenclaw's diadem, which was hidden in the Room of Requirement. Harry realizes that Nagini the snake is the last Horcrux apart from the piece of Voldemort's soul inside Harry himself.

Voldemort's snake kills Snape, who gives Harry his memories before he dies. In the Pensieve, Harry learns that Snape loved Lily Potter all his life and secretly served Dumbledore. He also learns that he must die for Voldemort to be beaten.

Harry uses the Resurrection Stone to see his lost loved ones, then walks into the Forbidden Forest and lets Voldemort strike him down. In a limbo like place, Dumbledore tells him he may go back, and he does. Neville draws the Sword of Gryffindor and kills Nagini, and Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix. Harry's disarming spell sends Voldemort's own curse back at him, and Voldemort dies. Harry then destroys the Elder Wand, and nineteen years later he and his friends see their children off to Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released on July 15, 2011 in the UK and US and on July 13, 2011 in Australia, after a world premiere on July 7, 2011 in Trafalgar Square, London, according to CBS News. The UK date is confirmed by a Warner Bros. press release, while the US and Australian dates come from The Numbers.

The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia. Its runtime is 130 minutes according to TMDB, though some databases list 131 minutes. The wider release history of the saga is on the Harry Potter movies index, and the Harry Potter timeline places the story in the wizarding world's own calendar.

The film is the eighth in release order and the eleventh in chronological order, because the three Fantastic Beasts films are set earlier.

In the ending of Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Voldemort dies when Harry's disarming spell sends the killing curse back at him, and Harry then destroys the Elder Wand. The film closes on a peaceful scene at King's Cross.

Why does the Elder Wand matter? Harry explains that the wand became his when he disarmed Draco, and Ollivander's earlier hint that the wand taken from Draco now answers to Harry sets this up. In my opinion, the choice to destroy it rather than keep it is the clearest statement of character in the saga, because Harry refuses the power that has defined the villain.

The Snape sequence is the emotional center. The Pensieve memories show that Snape loved Lily Potter all his life and served Dumbledore in secret, and they reveal to Harry that he must die for Voldemort to be beaten. When fans ask what Snape means by his words about Lily's son, the useful context is those memories: they show a man whose loyalties were never what they seemed. It could be argued that Rickman's quiet delivery here is the best performance in the film.

The forest scene follows. Harry uses the Resurrection Stone, walks to Voldemort and is struck down, then meets Dumbledore in a limbo like place and chooses to return. Nagini is the last Horcrux apart from the piece inside Harry, so Neville's sword stroke finishes the job the others began.

Why does the film skip nineteen years? The epilogue jumps ahead so that Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Draco can watch their children board the Hogwarts Express, closing the series on a peaceful note instead of a further battle. Perhaps the jump will not suit every viewer, but the intent is plain: the war is finished, and the next generation is simply going to school. For more on how the films differ from the novels, see Harry Potter books vs movies.

Most of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was filmed at Leavesden Studios in England. The production built a large outdoor Hogwarts courtyard on the backlot and constructed the Gringotts set there.

The nineteen years later epilogue opens with a shot of St Pancras railway station in London. The battle of Hogwarts itself was staged with a digital rebuild of the school made by Double Negative rather than at a single physical location.

Parts 1 and 2 were shot back to back from February 19, 2009 to June 12, 2010, over more than 260 shooting days. The epilogue was reshot at Leavesden in December 2010.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was shot back to back with Part 1, converted to 3D and finished in 26 weeks, and the facts below show how a franchise finale is built to a tight schedule.

• Parts 1 and 2 were filmed back to back over more than 260 shooting days between February 2009 and June 2010.
• It was shot in 2D and converted to 3D in post-production, making it the first Potter film released entirely in 3D.
• Post-production ran only 26 weeks, which was tight because of the 3D conversion.
• Six effects studios worked on the film, and Lola aged the actors for the epilogue.
• The epilogue was reshot at Leavesden in December 2010.
• Desplat scored the film after John Williams was unavailable.
• The Hogwarts battle used a digital rebuild of the school made by Double Negative.

For the money side, the Harry Potter box office page compares every film, and the Harry Potter movies ranked page gives our opinion on where this one sits.