The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy is a series of enormously popular and critically acclaimed fantasy-adventure films based on English author J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel The Lord of the Rings (originally published as three separate books). The three films are subtitled The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003). Peter Jackson directed all three films and the screenplays were cowritten by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens. The Lord of the Rings is one of the highest-grossing film trilogies of all time, with a combined box office of nearly $3 billion (against a combined budget of about $280 million). Together the films won 17 Academy Awards—4 by The Fellowship of the Ring, 2 by The Two Towers, and a historic 11 (including best picture and best director) by The Return of the King. Three of the 17 Oscars went to composer Howard Shore, who also won four Grammy Awards for his work on the trilogy. Mounted on an epic scale, the films are noted for their thrilling battle scenes, rich musical scores, and revolutionary use of special effects, notably in the motion-capture-generated character of Gollum. The success of LOTR enabled the production of The Hobbit trilogy (2012–14), also directed by Jackson, and the TV series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022– ).

The Lord of the Rings films were shot simultaneously in Jackson’s home country of New Zealand, the sweeping scenery of which provided the diverse and dramatic landscapes of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth, where humans live alongside elves, dwarves, orcs, and hobbits (an imaginary race of short humanoids). LOTR follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins and his companions as he attempts to return the One Ring—with which the dark lord Sauron intends to subjugate Middle-earth—to the one place it can be destroyed: Mount Doom, a volcano in Sauron’s stronghold of Mordor.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The first film in the trilogy deals with the inception of a “fellowship,” or group, to help Frodo in his quest to take the One Ring to Mount Doom. It has nine members: four hobbits—Frodo (to whom the ring had passed from his uncle Bilbo), his gardener Sam, and his friends Merry and Pippin—the wizard Gandalf, Aragorn (who is the true king of Gondor and is loved by the elf Arwen), Boromir (the son of the steward of Gondor), the elf Legolas, and the dwarf Gimli. The fellowship is formed in the elf lord Elrond’s home, Rivendell. The hobbits had made a perilous journey there with the ring, pursued by Sauron’s Black Riders (also known as Nazgul or Ringwraiths). The fellowship’s route to Mordor is similarly hazardous. Gandalf is seemingly lost in the mines of Moria while fighting a Balrog (a fiery demon). The remaining fellowship receives help from the elf Lady Galadriel of Lothlorien. They are subsequently ambushed by an army of battle orcs called Uruk-hai, who abduct Merry and Pippin and kill Boromir. The fellowship then parts ways, with Frodo and Sam continuing to Mordor and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli tracking the Uruk-hai.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

In one of several story lines, Frodo and Sam are followed on their journey by Gollum, who was once the hobbit Smeagol before he was corrupted by his possession of the ring. Captured, he promises to lead them to Mordor. On the way the trio are apprehended and later released by Boromir’s brother, Faramir. Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin escape the Uruk-hai and flee into Fangorn Forest, where they meet Treebeard, an ent (a race of giant creatures resembling trees), who proves crucial in defeating Saruman. In the third story line, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are reunited with a resurrected Gandalf. Along with a contingent of elves from Lothlorien the four assist Rohan’s King Théoden in the Battle of Helm’s Deep, a clash between the Rohirrim (warriors of Rohan) and the Uruk-hai.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Frodo and Sam reach Mount Doom after misadventures caused by Gollum’s betrayal, including Frodo’s capture by the monstrous spider Shelob. At Mount Doom they are confronted again by Gollum. In the struggle that follows Frodo loses a finger, and Gollum and the ring fall into the volcano and are destroyed. In parallel, Aragorn summons an army of ghosts with help from Legolas and Gimli. They assist in a crucial victory of the Rohirrim over Sauron’s forces at the fortress of Minas Tirith, though Théoden dies in battle. In one of the pivotal moments of the trilogy, his niece Éowyn, who had joined the battle dressed in male battle armor, kills the leader of the Black Riders, the Witch-king of Angmar. Aragorn leads a final assault at the gates of Mordor to distract from Frodo and Sam’s advance toward Mount Doom. When the ring is destroyed, so are Sauron and most of his remaining forces. Frodo and Sam are retrieved from Mount Doom by the eagles, giant birds who in the first film had rescued Gandalf from imprisonment in the treacherous wizard Saruman’s tower. Aragorn reclaims the throne of Gondor and marries Arwen, and the hobbits return to the Shire. Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, and the elves eventually leave Middle-earth for the Undying Lands, the homeland of the elves.

Differences from the novel

The LOTR films departed from the source material in several ways. The first film notably omitted the character of Tom Bombadil, a mysterious woodlander who helps the hobbits during their journey to Rivendell and who seems to be immune to the One Ring’s power. The elf Glorfindel, who sends the injured Frodo to Rivendell on horseback in the book, was also cut and his function replaced by Arwen, who rescues Frodo from the Black Riders in a dramatic chase sequence. In a literal book-to-film translation Sauron is depicted as a giant flaming eye—the novel’s reference to the “eye of Sauron” is regarded as an allusion to his uncanny knowledge. Indeed Gollum’s description of Sauron’s hand as having four fingers indicates that the dark lord has a physical form. The films also portray the Shire as having been untouched by the war, while in the book the hobbits return to find that it has been despoiled by Saruman and have to set things to right.

In one of several tonal changes, the elves are presented as stately and serious rather than playful. The hobbits are considerably younger in the films, which also simplifies the complicated social structure and interpersonal dynamics between them in the book. There are significant alterations in dialogue as well, and some have become pop culture phenomena. When Gandalf bars the Balrog’s way in the first film, he exclaims, “You shall not pass”; in the book, he says, “You cannot pass.” Boromir’s speech beginning “One does not simply walk into Mordor” was written specifically for the film; the line does not appear in the book.

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Cast

The fellowship of nine:

• Elijah Wood (Frodo)
• Ian McKellen (Gandalf)
• Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)
• Sean Astin (Sam)
• Billy Boyd (Pippin)
• Dominic Monaghan (Merry)
• Orlando Bloom (Legolas)
• John Rhys-Davies (Gimli)
• Sean Bean (Boromir)

Other pivotal characters:

• Liv Tyler (Arwen)
• Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol—voice work and motion capture)
• Christopher Lee (Saruman)
• Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
• Ian Holm (Bilbo)
• Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)
• Bernard Hill (Théoden)
• Miranda Otto (Éowyn)
• Karl Urban (Éomer)
• Brad Dourif (Wormtongue)
• John Noble (Denethor)
• David Wenham (Faramir)