Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Rated PG.

Oh, Harry Potter fans, this is the moment you so badly do and don’t want: the final film of the final book of J. K. Rowling’s beloved saga of the boy wizard. (Although isn’t the wily Brit author forever hinting that she may not yet be done with Harry and company? Never mind.)

But to still your anxiously beating hearts and then get them racing again like high-strung greyhounds, let it be said that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is as thrilling, gripping, and emotional a conclusion as discerning Pottermaniacs could possibly wish for. Even reviewers who can’t quite get used to the word Horcrux find themselves a tad breathless.

Wasting no time orienting anybody who doesn’t know their stuff, Part 2 launches in—after giving shivers with a pre-credits glimpse of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) raising the dangerously powerful Elder Wand to the foreboding skies—with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron’s (Rupert Grint) continuing Horcrux hunt. You know the Horcruxes contain bits of the Dark Lord’s dark soul, right?

Things begin with a roller-coaster ride (almost literally) of a bank heist and end with the expected effects-rich battle of all battles between the forces of good and evil, much of it at Hogwarts, which feels fittingly circular and looks spectacular. But in between, without losing momentum, fourth-time series director David Yates and writer Steve Kloves (who scripted seven of the eight films) insert key pieces of the pasts of Prof. Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and the ever-fascinating, poetically tragic Prof. Severus Snape (the ever-fascinating Alan Rickman).

Most of the series’ fabulous Brit character actors (Maggie Smith has some particularly righteous moments) appear in brief, bittersweet turns. But, really, this show, in all its surprisingly moving gravity and beauty, belongs to the three young actors at its centre who’ve held their own since it all began.

Watch the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.