Ultimately, Boorman's film, like The Candle in the Wind, ends in triumph. As White's Arthur reviews his life the night before his death, Boorman's Arthur regains his strength (through the help of the Grail) and realizes that for much of his life, he has "been living through other people." He reconciles with Guenever (who has taken holy orders) and tells her, "I was not born to live a man's life, but to be the stuff of future memory." Guenever then restores Excalibur (which she has kept for many years) to Arthur's hand. Like White's Arthur, who hopes for a day "when he would come back to Graymarre with a new Round Table," Boorman's Arthur explains, "The fellowship was a brief beginning — a fair time that cannot be forgotten. And because it will not be forgotten, that fair time may come again." Although he meets his death soon after this pronouncement (in a graphic duel with Mordred), this cinematic Arthur remains more like a superhero than White's simple "man who meant well." His final voyage to Avalon, in the hands of the three queens, is inspiring, as the mist rises and the viewer (like Perceval, the only living witness) wonders when the glory of the Round Table will return to the "modern," Mordred-stricken world.
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