The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Celebrate the storytelling wonder with us and see this epic vision of Middle Earth as never before. Jackson's extraordinary undertaking, bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's world-building classic to the screen, is a testament to the strength of the author's world and a tribute to fans all over in these three legendary films. Before The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim comes to our screen in December, revisit the original trilogy back-to-back on the UK's largest screen.

Please note there will be 30 minute intervals between films.

Find out about screenings of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

“Jackson has translated the best-loved fantasy novel of our age into a commanding screen adventure, one with a sense of human terror and danger and grit under its nails...”
Andrew O’Hehir, Sight & Sound, 2002

Part one in a three-film adaptation of novelist J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring is set in the fantasy world of Middle-earth. Sticking closely to Tolkien’s plot, it revolves around the attempt by an assorted group of elves, men, dwarves and hobbits to destroy a magic ring whose power the wizard Sauron seeks for evil ends.

Shot in New Zealand back to back with its subsequent sequels, The Fellowship of the Ring was a hugely ambitious gamble that paid off. A landmark production, it marked a big advance in the integration of live action and computer-generated imagery, but at its heart was the robust, muscular and compelling storytelling style of director Peter Jackson, which ensured a big audience returned for the second instalment the following year. Before advances in CGI made possible the idea of a (largely) live-action Lord of the Rings only animation had been able to capture Tolkien’s vision, in Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 cartoon version.

“With The Two Towers it seems very clear that we are in the midst of one of the great achievements in fantasy filmmaking.”
Charles Taylor, salon.com, 2002

Picking up where The Fellowship of the Ring ended, The Two Towers sees the group of heroes at the centre of the first film scattered across Middle Earth as a final confrontation with the evil wizard Sauron looms.The focus remains on the hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and his attempt to destroy a powerful magic ring to end the power of Sauron. But director Peter Jackson deftly maintains interest in the film’s many subplots, following the members of the fellowship as they are involved in various battles and political intrigues to support Frodo’s quest.

Culminating in the extended siege sequence at Helm’s Deep, the movie’s use of CGI is spectacular and on a grand scale. The visual effects won a deserved Oscar. Motion-capture technology allowed animators to model the lizard-like hobbit Gollum on a performance by Andy Serkis. Jackson repeated the process with Serkis to create the giant ape in King Kong (2005).

“With enormous energy and a passionately exacting eye for detail, Jackson has made the regressive-romantic legend live again. He has given the Tolkien myth a turbo-charged rush into the 21st century.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 2003

The Return of the King sees hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) reach the end of his attempt to destroy the magic ring that will otherwise plunge his world into darkness. Meanwhile Middle-earth has erupted in battles between the forces of evil and good, the latter led by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen).Taking up where The Two Towers left off, part three of the epic assumes its audience will know the first two instalments.

The most spectacular of the series, The Return of the King builds towards a massive battle scene that is among the finest expressions of director Peter Jackson’s flair for action. The movie’s 11 Oscars, including awards for Best Picture and Best Director, was generally considered recognition for the trilogy as a whole. Aragorn’s famous rallying-the-troops speech in front of the Black Gate recalls Henry V’s “Once more unto the breach”, as delivered on film by Laurence Olivier (1944) and Kenneth Branagh (1989).