National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

New Line Cinema released Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring in December 2001, launching one of the most celebrated trilogies in cinema history. The film arrived at a pivotal moment for large-scale fantasy filmmaking, demonstrating that the genre could command both critical respect and enormous audiences. Its theatrical trailer generated significant anticipation and stands as a document of that cultural moment.

This cell, titled Gimli, Frodo, Merry and Pippin, captures three consecutive frames from the Fellowship's crossing of the mountain pass of Caradhras. Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Dominic Monaghan as Meriadoc Brandybuck, and John Rhys-Davies as Gimli are visible among the cloaked figures moving through snow against a stark rocky landscape, a quiet and atmospheric moment from the trailer's early passages.