Release Year: 2001

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Director: Peter Jackson

Writer: Fran Walsh, J.R.R. Tolkien (book)

Stars: Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom

In the two thousand and first year of our second age by Gregorian reckoning, there came a movie so powerful that it bound all who watched it to its will. 

That movie? The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Fellowship is a fantasy—actually, scratch that. Fellowship is the fantasy. The big man on the fantasy campus. The head honcho of fantasy. The one that makes people say "I don't like fantasy…oh, except for Lord of the Rings."

As you well know, the movie is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's first book of his best-selling Lord of the Rings trilogy. And good thing for moviegoers, a picture's worth a thousand words—because Tolkien really takes his time. Those books are fat.

Not that director Peter Jackson is super concise, either...

This 178-minute (yup) epic is the story of a boy—or a particularly short man with forests of hair growing on his very calloused feet—and his journey to far-off lands. He joins a group (one might even say a… fellowship ) as they journey to destroy a ring which could cause the ruin of their entire world.

The Fellowship of the Ring features a star-studded cast: Elijah Wood as Frodo, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Liv Tyler as Arwen, and "Mr. He-who-always-dies" Sean Bean as Boromir.

Oh, and the biggest star of all? A couple of wee little Pacific islands known as New Zealand.

In case the fansanity wasn't enough, Fellowship took home Oscars for makeup, original score, visual effects, and cinematography. And it was nominated for another nine—count 'em, nine—including best picture and best director. It basically had movie critics stuffing DVDs of Fellowship into their pockets, cradling them, stroking the covers, and crooning "My preciousssss."

And we'd bet you a cozy little hobbit-hole—on premium Shire real estate—that by the time the credits roll you'll consider The Fellowship of the Ring your preciousssss, too.

Forget the One Ring, this is the One Movie to rule them all. Okay, don't actually forget the Ring (especially not for three thousand years—that might not end well). We're just saying that this movie and its two successors are kings when it comes to the realm of fantasy cinema… and just plain cinema in general.

Maybe the success of The Fellowship of the Ring occurred because Jackson found the One Ring and used its power to become a movie mogul. Maybe there was some magic Elven influence in that soaring soundtrack and those sumptuous visuals. Or maybe there was some pipe-weed smoke in the theaters, lulling viewers into a rapturous stupor.

But probably not. It was probably all Peter Jackson's genius, hard at work.

Basically, this movie changed three huge things: how moviegoers thought about fantasy, how tourists thought about New Zealand, and how filmmakers thought about CGI.

Let's tackle that first one. The Fellowship of the Ring paved the way for fantasy to leave the Dungeon Master's Keep and stroll the red carpet. You can thank Fellowship for your Game of Thrones addiction: without Jackson's flick being a mega-success, HBO might never have swapped out gritty family drama for dragons and White Walkers. The same goes for other successful fantasy books-turned-live-action like the show American Gods, and for art-house fantasy like Pan's Labyrinth.

Next stop: New Zealand. Seriously. When a film not only sparks a mass interest in fantasy movies but also ignites the tourist industry of an entire nation, you know it's doing something influential.

And no conversation about Fellowship is complete without mentioning those special effects. Sure, the passage of time dulls the sheen of even the most kick-butt CGI fire-mountains and Weta-produced orc infestations, but Fellowship is as crucial a moment in special effects history as Bruce the shark in Jaws, or those laser fights in Star Wars.

Jackson pioneered such techniques as bigatures (which make those sweeping shots look so dang sweeping), innovative forced perspective (which makes Elijah Wood look like a teensy hobbit), and crazy-detailed AI crowd software (which makes those battle scenes look actually populated).

So there you have it. Throw some extra-butter popcorn in the microwave, turn your speakers up, take off any rings you might be wearing for good measure, and dive right in to The Fellowship of the Ring.