FAQ for
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/parentalguide.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was based on the first book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, written by the English academic and author J.R.R. Tolkien [1892-1973]. The other two books in the series (both movie and novel) are: (2) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and (3) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

It is Galadriel who gives the prologue. It was orginally going to be Frodo and then they thought it would give to much of the story away (i.e. Frodo makes it through his perilous journey with the ring) and also they had one version with Gandalf but Galadriel was chosen in the end due to her ageless quality and her all knowing actions in the film.

Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting.

In the novel, Tom Bombadil is a mystical character who lives in the Old Forest and rescues Merry and Pippin from an evil tree called the Old Willow. He takes the hobbits to his house for rest and food where he shows that the ring has no power over him, and that he can see Frodo even when he wears the ring and disappears. He then send the hobbits on their way and, shortly thereafter, rescues them from evil characters called the Barrow-wights. These events occur after the hobbits have taken the Buckleberry Ferry, and before they reach the Prancing Pony. But, no, Bombadil is not in the movie.

Peter Jackson has said that he purposefully left Tom Bombadil out of the film because he felt that Tom's meeting with the travelling hobbits did not progress the story, but rather held it up. It is possible to remove Bombadil from the story completely without affecting any later events in the book. Another thing is, that after trying real hard to convince the audience that The Ring corrupts everyone and is dangerous, here's Tom and he's not affected in the slightest way. However, in a small nod to Tom Bombadil, Treebeard uses Bombadil's incantation to save Merry and Pippin when they become trapped by the roots of an old tree in Fangorn Forrest.

Yes and no, it was in the theatrical version of the movie (when Frodo and Sam are walking through the corn fields) but it was deleted in the DVD and VHS editions. Note: While Sam and Frodo are walking in the cornfields right before they meet Merry and Pippin their is a long shot with dust coming from a back road behind them. This is the scene of controversy and in his commentary Peter Jackson still claims he cannot see it. The dust plume can be seen in the National Geographic special about the movies.

Tolkien's LOTR is an "expansion" of works which later would be published by his son, Christopher, under the title, The Silmarillion. There is information within Silmarillion which is not given in LOTR, thus creating some viewer confusion. Examples: Where Elves come from... The Age of Arwen... etc.

The nine men who got rings became the Black Riders, or Nazgul.

Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf each have rings, which correspond to the three rings of the elves. Gandalf got the ring of fire, Narya, from Cirdan, an elven lord who lives in the Grey Havens (the haven that they leave from at the end of The Return of the King). Cirdan got it from Gil-galad. The ring of air, Vilya, was originally given to Gil-galad, who later gave it to Elrond. Galadriel possessed the ring of adament, Nenya. They weren't enslaved by Sauron because they stopped using their rings when they realized Sauron was evil, and then they hid them so he couldn't find them.

Seven rings were given to the Dwarves. They would have become corrupted by Sauron, but they ended up being too stubborn and Sauron therefore couldn't take control of them. He managed to get 4 out of 7 dwarven rings, and the others were consumed by dragons. It is said that although Sauron couldn't bend the dwarves to his will, he was able to make them greedier and make bad decisions (like going to Moria).

He says, "Fly, you fools." Turning on the closed captions or subtitles reveals the line which is also in the book. The word 'fly' here means, "to run or flee".

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

Sauron directly made only one of the 20 rings, the one ring to rule them all. He assisted in the creation of the nine rings for mortal men and the seven rings for the dwarves. The three rings for the elven-kinds were forged alone by Celebrimbor, with knowledge obtained from Sauron.