Almost lost for two and a half millennia, the One Ring, a corrupting relic forged by the dark lord Sauron, has resurfaced in the most unlikely of places: the verdant, unsuspecting hills of the Shire. To prevent absolute darkness from consuming Middle-earth, it falls upon Frodo Baggins, an ordinary young hobbit, to carry the fate of us all to the fiery chasms of Mount Doom, deep into hostile enemy territory. The brave halfling is not alone, though. A wizard's staff, a ranger's sword, an elf's bow, and a dwarf's ax have sworn to protect him. But as the shadowy ruler fixes his gaze on the little ring bearer, the ultimate threat emerges. Will the seductive, eroding power of the artifact itself tear the fellowship apart before their journey even begins?
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Long before Peter Jackson got involved, The Beatles reportedly wanted to make their own Lord of the Rings film, with John Lennon eyeing the role of Gollum. Tolkien wasn't keen on a pop group taking on his story, and the rights never came through.
The Fellowship of the Ring picked up thirteen Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and walked away with four wins: Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects.
Twenty years before he played Bilbo on screen, Ian Holm voiced Frodo Baggins in the BBC's 1981 radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings. When the film came knocking, he ended up on the other side of the story entirely.
The One Ring looks completely plain most of the time, but its fiery inscription only shows up when it's heated - exactly the trick Gandalf uses in Bag End to prove Bilbo's old ring is the real deal. Small detail, but it's the whole reason the plot kicks off.
During the fight at Amon Hen, the Uruk-hai Lurtz was meant to miss Aragorn with a thrown knife, but the actor's makeup blocked his vision and he threw it straight at Viggo Mortensen for real. Mortensen deflected it with his sword on pure instinct, and Jackson kept the moment in the film.
Longtime swordmaster Bob Anderson, who trained the cast for the film's combat, called Viggo Mortensen the best swordsman he'd worked with across his entire fifty-year career, which is a genuinely huge compliment coming from someone who's coached fencers and film stars alike.
Jackson didn't make these films back to back like a normal trilogy. All three were shot as one continuous production in New Zealand, running for about 14 months, so nothing had to be rebuilt or recast between films.
In Tolkien's original story, the Warg attack actually happens near the Mines of Moria in the first book and takes place at night. Jackson moved the whole sequence into The Two Towers and shot it in broad daylight instead.
Watch the trilogy back to back and you'll catch each film naming itself in dialogue. Elrond calls the group a 'Fellowship of the Ring' in the first, Saruman says 'the Two Towers' in the second, and Gandalf tells Denethor he can't deny the 'Return of the King' in the third.
Among the hundreds of blades welded together to form the Iron Throne, one of them has a much older claim to fame. Look carefully and you can spot Glamdring, the sword used by Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, hidden among the swords of vanquished kings and lords.
