A young hobbit named Frodo Baggins inherits a seemingly innocent magic ring from his uncle Bilbo, only to discover it is the legendary One Ring forged by the Dark Lord Sauron. To prevent Sauron from returning to physical form and plunging Middle-earth into eternal darkness, Frodo must embark on a perilous journey to Mount Doom—the only place where the Ring can be destroyed. Accompanied by a brave fellowship of humans, elves, dwarves, and a wizard, Frodo faces treacherous landscapes, relentless orcs, and the corrupting power of the Ring itself in an epic struggle between good and evil.
Information |
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|---|---|
Language |
English |
Country |
United States New Zealand |
Premiere date |
December 19, 2001 |
Running time |
178 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Drama Fantasy |
Budget |
$93,000,000 |
Box Office |
$898,204,420 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Peter Jackson |
Produced by |
Barrie M. Osborne Peter Jackson Fran Walsh Tim Sanders |
Written by |
Fran Walsh Philippa Boyens Peter Jackson |
Music by |
Howard Shore |
Cinematography |
Andrew Lesnie |
Edited by |
John Gilbert |
Production Co. |
New Line Cinema WingNut Films |
Distributed by |
New Line Cinema |
Official Trailer
The Plot
The Forging and the Fall
In the ancient days of the Second Age of Middle-earth, the great lords of Elves, Dwarves, and Men were granted Rings of Power, mystical artifacts meant to govern their respective races. Yet, unbeknownst to them all, a great deception was taking root. The Dark Lord Sauron traveled to the fiery depths of Mount Doom, where he secretly forged the One Ring. Into this sinister band of gold, Sauron infused a great part of his own dark power, designing it to dominate the other Rings from a distance so that he might conquer the entirety of Middle-earth. The shadow of his malice spread, prompting a final, desperate alliance of men and elves to march upon Mordor and battle Sauron's forces.
During this cataclysmic clash on the slopes of Mount Doom, Prince Isildur of Gondor made a desperate strike, severing Sauron's finger. The One Ring fell from the Dark Lord's hand, and with it, Sauron's physical form was instantly destroyed. With this monumental first defeat of the Dark Lord, the Third Age of Middle-earth began. However, the malignant influence of the Ring immediately began its subtle work. It corrupted Isildur on the battlefield. Rather than casting the cursed artifact into the fires of Mount Doom to destroy it forever, Isildur claimed the Ring for himself. This tragic choice would seal his fate; Isildur was later ambushed and killed by a band of Orcs. The Ring slipped from his grasp and remained lost in the murky depths of a riverbed for 2,500 agonizing years. Eventually, the Ring was discovered by a wretched creature named Gollum, who held onto it in the dark roots of the world for five long centuries, his mind and body twisted by its dark magic. The Ring eventually abandoned him, only to be found by an unlikely creature: a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo soon discovered that slipping the gold band onto his finger turned him completely invisible, though he remained blissfully unaware of its blood-soaked history.
A Birthday and a Burden
Sixty years after finding the curious trinket, Bilbo Baggins prepared to celebrate his eleventy-first—his 111th—birthday in the peaceful, green hills of the Shire. The joyous occasion also served as a heartwarming reunion with his old and dearest friend, the wise wizard Gandalf the Grey. However, amid the festivities, Bilbo harbored a secret desire. He confided in Gandalf that he intended to leave the Shire for one last, grand adventure. He planned to leave all of his earthly possessions, his entire inheritance, to his beloved nephew, Frodo. This inheritance included the mysterious magic ring.
Yet, when the moment came to part with the ring, Bilbo hesitated. The sixty years of ownership had begun to corrupt the aging hobbit's mind, and a sudden, fierce possessiveness overcame him. He tried to keep it for himself, his demeanor shifting darkly until Gandalf firmly intervened. The wizard's commanding presence broke the ring's temporary hold over Bilbo, allowing the old hobbit to leave it behind as he departed. Gandalf, possessing a deep and growing suspicion about the true nature of this seemingly simple trinket, turned to Frodo. He instructed the young hobbit to keep the ring strictly secret and entirely safe until he could learn more.
The Shadow in the Archives
Driven by a dreadful premonition that Bilbo's magic ring might actually be The One Ring—a relic believed lost for over three-thousand years—Gandalf rode with great haste to the towering stone city of Minas Tirith to seek discernment and confirmation. Upon arriving, the wizard was taken to a small, dusty room filled floor to ceiling with ancient books, fragile scrolls, and forgotten historical documents. For months, Gandalf secluded himself, poring over the crumbling records of the past.
His tireless research finally bore fruit when he uncovered a faded account detailing the finding of the One Ring. The text revealed a crucial secret: the Ring bore several lines of the foul Black Speech, an inscription that would only become visible if the gold was subjected to the heat of a fire. Armed with this terrifying knowledge, and having learned that the creature Gollum had recently been captured and brutally tortured by Orcs—during which he had desperately uttered two damning words: "Shire" and "Baggins"—Gandalf knew time was running out.
Flight from the Shire
Gandalf returned swiftly to Bag End. Without a word of explanation, he took the ring Frodo had been dutifully holding onto and threw it directly into the hearth's fire. As he drew it out, the dark suspicion became an undeniable, terrifying reality. Glowing fiery letters in the Black Speech revealed themselves along the band. It was, in fact, Sauron's One Ring. The wizard immediately commanded Frodo to leave the Shire, warning him that his life was in imminent danger. Just as the gravity of the situation settled upon them, Gandalf caught a rustling outside. He reached out and snatched Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's loyal friend and gardener, who had been secretly eavesdropping beneath the open window. Recognizing the need for companionship on the dark road ahead, Gandalf ordered Sam to accompany Frodo on his perilous flight.
The Betrayal of Saruman
Instructing the hobbits to make for the village of Bree, Gandalf rode forth to the fortress of Isengard to seek the counsel of the head of his order, Saruman the White. However, the meeting quickly turned into a nightmare. Saruman coldly revealed that he had joined forces with Sauron. He informed Gandalf that the Dark Lord had already dispatched his most fearsome servants—the nine undead Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths—from the cursed city of Minas Morgul. Their sole purpose was to hunt down the Ring and murder whoever carried it.
Realizing the sheer magnitude of the threat, Gandalf attempted to flee Isengard to warn Frodo, but Saruman was prepared. The corrupted wizard used his magic to slam the heavy doors shut, trapping Gandalf inside. Saruman attempted to sway his old friend, trying to convince Gandalf to abandon a lost cause and join him and Sauron in their impending conquest. Angered by this vile betrayal, Gandalf fiercely refused. This rejection sparked a violent wizard's duel between the two. The brutal fight ended with Saruman defeating Gandalf, cruelly imprisoning the grey wizard atop the towering pinnacle of Orthanc.
From his high prison, Gandalf was forced to watch in helpless despair as Saruman carried out Sauron's dark will. The white wizard commanded the Orcs of Isengard to tear down the surrounding trees, using the fuel to forge weapons of war deep underground, and to produce a terrifying new breed of powerful Orc fighters known as the Uruk-hai.
Shadows on the Road
Meanwhile, as Frodo and Sam made their stealthy way toward the town of Bree, they unexpectedly crossed paths with two fellow hobbits, Merry and Pippin, who quickly joined their party. The journey was fraught with terror; they narrowly evaded a terrifying Ringwraith prowling the forest roads. Exhausted and on edge, the four hobbits finally managed to reach the soaked, muddy streets of Bree, seeking refuge at the local inn where they were meant to meet Gandalf.
To their dismay, they discovered that Gandalf had never arrived. Isolated and unsure of who to trust, Frodo was approached by a mysterious, weather-beaten ranger known only as "Strider." Strider, who was a trusted friend of Gandalf's, warned them of the danger they were in and agreed to take over as their guide, promising to safely escort the hobbits through the wilderness to the hidden Elven haven of Rivendell.
The Attack on Weathertop
The newly formed party continued their arduous travel through the wild, eventually seeking shelter for the night amidst the ancient ruins atop the hill of Weathertop. But the darkness offered no safety. The hobbits were ambushed in the dead of night by the pursuing Nazgûl. Strider valiantly fought off the shadowy figures with fire and sword, but he was unable to prevent a devastating strike. The leader of the Ringwraiths, the Witch-King, drove a cursed Morgul-blade into Frodo's shoulder. It was a grievous wound, carrying a dark magic that would inevitably turn the young hobbit into a wraith himself if he was not attended to with the proper, ancient care.
The Flight to the Ford
Desperation set in as Strider and the hobbits fled through the wilderness, relentlessly chased by the seemingly unstoppable Nazgûl. Their salvation arrived in the form of the beautiful Elf Arwen, Strider's betrothed. Recognizing the severity of Frodo's curse, she took the fading hobbit onto her horse and rode fiercely toward the Elven haven of Rivendell. The Ringwraiths pursued them all the way to the Ford of Bruinen. There, Arwen turned to face the dark riders, utilizing her potent Elven magic. She summoned a massive, crashing surge of water that roared down the riverbed, sweeping the pursuing Ringwraiths away in a violent torrent.
Frodo was carried safely into Rivendell, where he was immediately treated by Arwen's father, Lord Elrond. Elrond, a powerful Elven lord and the very same leader of the Elves who had fought at the battle of Mount Doom three-thousand years prior, used his ancient healing arts to draw the dark poison from Frodo's body, saving him from a shadowed fate.
The Council of Elrond
When Frodo finally awoke in the peaceful sanctuaries of Rivendell, he was overjoyed to find Gandalf waiting for him. The wizard explained the dark reasons behind his absence at Bree, recounting Saruman's treacherous betrayal. Gandalf revealed that he had only managed to escape the clutches of Isengard and the peak of Orthanc with the timely assistance of Gwaihir, a giant eagle who had borne him away upon the wind.
Recognizing the grave threat the One Ring posed, Elrond called a great council of Elves, Men, and Dwarves to decide what must be done with the treacherous artifact. As the members of the council fell into a heated argument over the fate of the Ring, Elrond issued a stern warning. He argued passionately against keeping the Ring in Rivendell for long, knowing full well that his Elven realm would inevitably come under devastating attack from the combined forces of both Mordor and Isengard. There was only one true solution: the Ring could only be unmade by throwing it into the roaring fires of Mount Doom, the very place where it was originally forged.
As the arguing voices rose in volume, Frodo stepped forward and bravely volunteered to take the Ring to Mount Doom himself. Moved by his courage, his three hobbit friends—Sam, Merry, and Pippin—insisted on accompanying him. Gandalf, too, pledged his aid, alongside the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli, and Boromir, the proud son of the Steward of Gondor. Strider also stepped forward to join the quest, and his true identity was finally revealed to the council. He was Aragorn, the direct heir to Isildur and the rightful King of Gondor. Before they departed, the aged Bilbo Baggins bestowed a final, precious gift upon Frodo: his glowing Elven sword, Sting. Together, these nine companions comprised and became the Fellowship of the Ring.
The Pass of Caradhras and the Watcher
The Fellowship set out from Rivendell, aiming to pass over the treacherous peaks of the Misty Mountains via the high mountain pass of Caradhras. However, their progress was soon halted by a brutal, unnatural blizzard. Saruman, wielding his dark magic from afar, created an enormous storm that triggered violent avalanches and heavy snowfall, nearly wiping out the Fellowship on the frozen slopes. Faced with certain death by freezing, and at Gimli's impassioned insistence, the group realized they had to seek safety elsewhere. They decided to travel under the mountain, through the legendary dwarven realm known as the Mines of Moria.
Frodo agreed to the new path, but as they approached the ancient doors of Moria, disaster struck. They were suddenly attacked by a horrifying, multi-tentacled beast known as the Watcher in the Water. The creature's ferocious assault forced the Fellowship to flee blindly into the dark depths of the mines, trapping them inside as the doors collapsed behind them.
The Dark in Moria
Venturing deeper into the blackness, much to Gandalf's displeasure and growing dread, the Fellowship soon made a grim discovery: the dwarves within Moria had all been slaughtered. The silence of the tomb was shattered when they reached the Chamber of Mazarbul. Here, they were aggressively attacked by a swarming horde of Goblins, accompanied by a massive, brutish cave troll. The Fellowship fought valiantly, their blades flashing in the dim light, and eventually managed to defeat the grotesque attackers.
But their victory was short-lived. A deep, ancient terror awoke within the mines. They were confronted by Durin's Bane—a Balrog, an ancient demon composed of pure fire and impenetrable shadow. The Fellowship ran for their lives, reaching the narrow, perilous span of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, where Gandalf turned to face the pursuing horror.
The Flame of Udun
Standing resolute on the stone bridge, Gandalf raised his staff and sword against the towering beast of shadow and flame. "I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor," the wizard declared, his voice echoing over the bottomless chasm. "The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun!"
The Balrog slammed its fiery shield with a sword, seeking to vanquish the wizard's defense, but Gandalf held his ground. "Grr! Go back to the shadow!" Gandalf roared with all his might. "YOU, SHALL NOT PASS!"
With a devastating strike of his staff upon the bridge, the stone beneath the Balrog crumbled. Gandalf managed to send the ancient demon plunging into the endless abyss below. However, in its final, spiteful act, the monster lashed out with a whip of fire, wrapping it around Gandalf's ankle and dragging the wise wizard down into the dark chasm with it.
The Woods of Lothlórien
Grief-stricken and now led by Aragorn, the surviving members of the Fellowship escaped the ruined underground realm and fled into the daylight. They sought sanctuary in the ethereal Elven realm of Lothlórien, where they were welcomed and sheltered by its ageless rulers, the Lady Galadriel and her husband Celeborn.
During the quiet of the night, Frodo was granted a private audience with Galadriel. The Elven Lady spoke softly but firmly, telling him that it was his absolute destiny to handle the One Ring and, ultimately, to destroy it. Furthermore, she delivered a chilling prophecy, warning Frodo that one of his own friends within the Fellowship would soon try to take the Ring from him. Before the Fellowship prepared to leave, Galadriel presented Frodo with a glowing crystal vial, the Phial of Galadriel, while the other members of the company also received precious gifts to aid them on their journey. Taking the straight path toward Mordor, the Fellowship departed Lothlórien in small boats, traveling down the winding River Anduin toward the shores of Parth Galen.
The Breaking of the Fellowship
After landing their boats at the wooded shores of Parth Galen, the crushing weight of the Ring's presence finally took its toll. Frodo wandered off into the woods to find a moment of peace, but he was soon tracked down by Boromir. Driven to desperation and firmly believing that claiming the weapon of the enemy was the only way to save his besieged realm of Gondor, Boromir tried to forcefully take the Ring from Frodo. Terrified, Frodo used the Ring to escape him. As the dark spell of the artifact lifted from Boromir's mind, the man was overcome with immense, weeping shame at the horrific betrayal he had just attempted.
Fleeing further into the woods, Frodo was then encountered by Aragorn. But unlike Boromir, Aragorn possessed a deeper strength. He managed to completely resist the Ring's alluring temptation, choosing honor over power, and let Frodo step away. Knowing intimately now that the Ring's corrupting temptation would eventually be too strong for Aragorn, Boromir, or anyone else in the Fellowship, Frodo made a heartbreaking decision: he had to leave his friends behind and continue the journey to Mordor entirely alone.
The Fall of Boromir
Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship was violently ambushed. Saruman had built and dispatched his army of Uruk-hai with strict orders to track down the Fellowship, kill them, and take the Ring. Aragorn and the rest of the Fellowship threw themselves into the fray, desperately fighting to distract the Uruk-hai so that Frodo could make his escape. Merry and Pippin, also realizing that Frodo was attempting to leave them behind to protect them, bravely showed themselves and distracted the pursuing orcs, allowing Frodo the time he needed to slip away.
As the vicious Uruk-hai closed in on the two young hobbits, Boromir rushed forward to their aid, blowing the great Horn of Gondor. He fought like a man possessed, seeking redemption, but he was eventually struck down, mortally wounded by multiple black arrows fired by the towering Uruk commander, Lurtz. Before the brutal chieftain could deliver the finishing blow to the fallen warrior, Aragorn arrived. A short but intensely brutal fight ensued, ending only when Aragorn swung his blade and violently decapitated Lurtz.
Aragorn knelt by Boromir's side as he lay dying. With his final breaths, Boromir expressed his profound regret for having attempted to steal the Ring from Frodo. He passed away peacefully, having found forgiveness and peace in Aragorn's comforting words. With Boromir gone, the Uruk-hai successfully managed to capture Merry and Pippin, bearing them away into the woods. Realizing their path had diverged, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas made a new pact: they would begin a relentless pursuit of the orcs with the sole intent of rescuing the captive hobbits, officially leaving Frodo to continue his dark quest to Mount Doom.
A Promise Kept
Down at the banks of the River Anduin, Frodo silently pushed a small boat into the water and began rowing across the current toward the eastern shore. Suddenly, Sam appeared on the riverbank. Refusing to let his friend go alone, Sam waded into the deep water and swam out after the boat, despite not knowing how to swim. He nearly drowned in his desperate attempt, insisting passionately that he had made a sacred promise to Gandalf that he would look after Frodo, and he meant to keep it.
Moved by Sam's unwavering loyalty and love, Frodo pulled his breathless friend into the boat, fully accepting his presence. Together, the two weary hobbits reached the far shore. Standing side by side, they turned their gaze toward the dark horizon, continuing their treacherous journey to Mordor alone, disappearing into the rugged, rocky landscape of the hills of Emyn Muil.
Top Cast
- Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins
- Ian McKellen as Gandalf
- Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
- Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee
- Sean Bean as Boromir
- Orlando Bloom as Legolas
- John Rhys-Davies as Gimli
- Billy Boyd as Pippin
- Dominic Monaghan as Merry
- Liv Tyler as Arwen
Movie Collection
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (2027)
