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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) More at IMDbPro »

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 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can be found here.

Yes. 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 (Cate Blanchett) who gives the prologue. It was orginally going to be Frodo (Elijah Wood), but it was felt that this would give too much of the story away (i.e. that Frodo makes it through his perilous journey with the ring). There was also one version with Gandalf (Ian McKellen), but Galadriel was chosen in the end due to her ageless quality and her all-knowing actions in the film. Having Gandalf deliver the prologue would've resulted in similar problems involving giving away later events.

Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting. Jackson felt he was too young for the role.

In short, no. 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 Old Man 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 Frodo can still see him even when he wears the ring. 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. However, the scene with Old Man Willow was transplanted to The Two Towers, with Treebeard taking over the role (including dialogue) of Tom Bombadil.

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 advance the story, but rather held it up. It is possible to remove Bombadil from the story completely without affecting any later events. Another factor is that after trying very hard to convince the audience that the Ring corrupts everyone and is dangerous, Tom is seen to be apparently immune, reducing the threat of the Ring. However, in a small nod to Tom Bombadil, Treebeard uses Bombadil's incantation to save Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) when they become trapped by the roots of an old tree in Fangorn Forest.

Yes and no: it was in the theatrical version of the movie (when Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin) are walking through the corn fields) but it was deleted in the DVD and VHS editions. While Sam and Frodo are walking in the cornfields right before they meet Merry and Pippin there 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 points out several flaws, but still claims he cannot see this one. The dust plume can be seen in the National Geographic special about the movies. Although it has been suggested the dust rising is merely smoke coming from the chimney of a hobbit-hole in the background, the source end of the dust plume moves across the landscape, suggesting that the source of the dust plume is also moving across the landscape.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is an "expansion" of works which later would be published by his son, Christopher Tolkien, under the title The Silmarillion. There is information within The Silmarillion which is not given in LOTR, thus creating some viewer confusion. Examples: where Elves come from, the age of Arwen, the difference between Elves and humans and dwarves, what type of being Sauron, the wizards and the Balrog are, etc.

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.

"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."

The nine kings of men who got rings became the Black Riders, or Nazgul. They do not appear to wear the rings any more; reference is made to them being in Sauron's possession, and no attempt is made to retrieve the Witch-King's ring after his death. Galadriel, Elrond (Hugo Weaving) 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 in turn 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 adamant, 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 prone to bad decisions (such as 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 can mean: "To flee; to run away; to attempt to escape; to escape." and/or "to depart; with the idea of haste, swiftness or escape"

He is a Maia, which were created as powerful servants for the Valar, the "gods" who live in Valinor, the famous West all the characters talk about. He used to be the sidekick of Melkor (Morgoth ), the banished Vala, sort of a Middle Earth equivalent of Lucifer/Satan, the most powerful angel turned to evil. After Morgoth was defeated, Sauron assumed power as a lesser Dark Lord. Interesting to note that Gandalf, and all the other wizards, are also Maiar and so was Melian, the Queen of Doriath, as well as the Balrogs. For further information, kindly read The Silmarillion.

He doesn't get his staff back. The staff he has after leaving Isengard is a different staff from the one he had at the beginning of the movie. The two staves are shown in the Fellowship of the Ring Appendices 1 Design Galleries section.

For its DVD release, extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings movies have been released, and for The Fellowship of the Ring, the extended version takes more time for exposition and characterization, especially considering the character of Aragorn. The Fellowship's stopover at Lothlorien is virtually doubled in length, and includes the entire gift-giving scene. Also, there are some scenes in the extended version which resonate with events from film two, The Two Towers: for example, the scene where Gandalf mentions Gollum's real name. Last but not least, Peter Jackson reinstated some violent scenes. A detailed comparison, divided into two partsand with pictures, can be found here (Part One) and here (Part Two).