Não está especialmente claro no livro, já que não vemos a morte dele. Ele está obviamente encantado por ter o anel de volta, mas ele não parece feliz com queda , nem com o fato de que ele caiu em lava dolorosa.
But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle. It shone now as if verily it was wrought of living fire. 'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried. 'My Precious! O my Precious!' And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail —Precious—, and he was gone. There was a roar and a great confusion of noise. Fires leaped up and licked the roof.
LOTR: The Return of the King: Chapter 3 - Mount Doom
No filme, é muito mais inequívoco. Produtor Barry Osborne, na faixa de comentário nos dá uma visão geral dos estados mentais que eles pediram para Andy Serkis retratar;
There's a lot of drama that has to play out. He finally achieves this thing that he's been chasing all this time. And right at the moment that he acquires it, and is about to master it again, he realises it's betrayed him. To his death. And all that has to play out in his face while he's falling down this chasm towards this lava.
And even when he hits this lava, it's another one of these dramatic licenses that you have to take because if you were anywhere near real lava you would burn and it would obviously be very painful but we needed to allow Gollum the moment of realisation and the moment of the lava sort of engulfing him. And to have the pain be more of of his realisation of the betrayal more than the physical pain of the lava.