Fond memories

[Bombadil]

I would definitely agree that the movies lacked the proper magic needed to satisfy fans of " The Lord of the Rings," but regardless every December for the past 3 years has been a magical time for me.

This thread is basically for looking back on the good times at the theaters during, and leading up to, each movie.

My favorite by far was at the midnight showing for The Return of the King. The best part was that everyone willing to go see the movie at that time were as nerdy as my friends and I. Myself and 3 other companions went to see it dressed as hobbits, and our one odd-friend-out as a Ringwraith. We even were used in a local news segment due to our attire!

While there we met some fellow hobbits, a Gandalf, a Legolas, and other various hardcore fans. I remember the growing feeling of anticipation as the hour grew nearer to midnight. At one point a random person stood up front and sang for us! It was truly a happy memory for me.

My favorite part though was singing the Annie Lennox song with my fellow hobbits afterwards. What a great end to the trilogy it was for me!

So Hey dol! Merry dol! Come and share your stories, and relate to the nostalgic tales!

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I remember being the only person left in the cinema at the very end (when the music was still playing) and feeling pleased with myself.

Another point of amusement was when a fellow Downer and myself went to see the first showing of The Return Of The King in our town. There were many cinema-goers already there waiting in a large queue. Once inside we waited for a third person to join us, and when he did we blatantly lied to him and said that we were the first people in the queue!

"Oh aye! Been 'ere since the crack o' dawn, we have!"

[Elianna]

I remember the first time I saw FotR with my brothers and mommy. We're all credit watchers, and I gave a start at seeing John Rhys-Davies' name. I'm a fan of Indy, that's all I had seen him to be in before. I was like "John Rhys-Davies?! He was in this? Who was he?" My bro Jesse answered, like it was obvious to all "Gimli." It took me until Parth Galen the next time seeing it to recognize him and his voice. Then we were talking about the movie outside the theatre by a cardboard cut-out thingy of the movie poster college, and Jesse brought up, I forget how, that Hugo Weaving, better known to me as Agent Smith was Elrond. And so I finally understood my sub-conscious repulsion to him being Elrond. (I'm okay with this now.)

I saw TTT the second time with my friends Adam and Josh. I realized then that my relationship with Adam wouldn't work out, because he was confused/surprised that I cried when Haldir died. (Actually it was later that we broke up, but it makes a cool/funny story...)

While watching RotK, I could only barely contain my shouts of glee when Gandalf whacks Denethor up side the head. I'm so surprised that no one else cheered. My mom and I did get everyone to cheer when Éowyn choppped off the Fell Beast's head. And it wasn't until my third time seeing it that I remembered to bring tissues. I cried so much in RotK. My friends and I were talking about it later and Kendal mentioned that she was ashamed that she almost cried once, when Faramir left Minas Tirith I think. I smiled at that, and Kendal thought I was laughing at her. "No," I explained, "I'm smiling because for me, from 'You wish now that our places had been exchanged, that I had died and Boromir had lived' to the end, my face was wet from tears."

Such happy memories...

[Sapphire_Flame]

The first time I saw Fellowship in theaters was about three days after the movie came out. I had only read as far as the West-gate of Moria, and so everything after that in the film had me absolutely on the edge of my seat. And when Merry and Pippin were taken by the Uruk-hai at the end... Panic. Complete and total panic. I catapulted out to our car and flipped ahead into Towers just to find out what happened to my hobbits!

My resounding memories from seeing Towers on opening day are my dad and I sitting in the theater waiting for the film to start and reading aloud from The Silmarillion, and afterwards, me standing up and yelling at the screen because Shelob wasn't in the movie.

For RotK, my dad took my brother, myself, and two of my friends to see it on opening day. My brother and I were hobbits, one of my friends was an elf, my other friend was a Nazgul, and my dad wore his kilt. It was really really cold that day, so of course Dad wasn't too happy, but there was also about six or seven inches of snow everywhere. My poor bare feet almost froze! During the film, when Shelob is sneaking up on Frodo, my Nazgul friend started humming the theme from Jaws. Most lofty.

Abedithon le,

~*~Aranel~*~

[Feared Half-Elf]

The whole experience was sooo cool. We couldn't get tickets for the midnight showing, and we could only get tickets for January. It almost killed me!

But it was so fun collecting strange looks when me and my friend were dressed as elves. We even had these plastic bows, and when I dropped an arrow this twelve year old came up and gave it back. He was trying so hard not to laugh! And the woman we were sat by gave us such a disgusting look! Great fun!

[The Only Real Estel]

Believe it or not, one of my fondest memories was looking forward to FotR for 2 years, actually, one of the fondest memories would be always having a LotR movie to look forward to for 5 years.

Another good memory was sitting in the theater until the end of the credits & seeing all the drawings of the cast done by John Howe & Allan Lee (I'm guessing it was them at least ) for the first time.

Maybe my fondest moment was watching RotK for the first time, when I realized it was quite possibly the last time in quite awhile I'd see an LotR movie without knowing what was going to happen. I enjoyed RotK some much that time, it was just awesome .

[Arwen Evenstar]

I have so many fond memories. I think one of the best was going to RotK opening day with one of my closest friends. She dressed as Rosie and I wearing my Strider shirt and One Ring. Holding RotK in my hands for the first time last Tuesday was one of the happiest days of my life. I`m sooo sad that it`s over now! Oh well, there`s still the RotK extended and The Hobbit (hopefully).

[Gorwingel]

Oh one of my most fondest memorys has to be when I first heard they were coming out with a LOTR film while reading an issue of Entertainment Weekly that I had gotten free at a hotel while on a cross-country vacation. Now at the time I had only read Fellowship and had been completely confused (very long story) by the storyline, so I had not read any of the others, and at the time I remember reading the article and saying to myself that maybe I should go and see that film because maybe it will help me to finally understand the story. Months and months passed until it got to be around Christmas and I remember my mother asking me if I would like to go and see LOTR, but everytime she asked I would say "later". Then my sister saw it and told me that I should see it, so I finally went to the theater. During that first viewing I was completely blown away by how good it was, and I was instantly turned into a fan. I went on to eventually see Fellowship 7 times in theaters.

But my most fondest memories are sometimes the smallest little thing that I found so cool. Like when I finished the reading the trilogy, and found myself so angry at the outcome, or that one night that I decided to type in "Lord of the Rings" into Google, or when I visited New York City in November of 2002, and saw the TTT poster of Frodo on one of the Bus Shelters (we don't have bus shelters in Olympia, Washington and they wouldn't have had that in Seattle so I just thought I was so lucky to be there at that time), or when I met Ian McKellen (and I was so nervious, I didn't say anything because he was the first major actor I had ever met in my life), and then when I saw Sean Astin, and then when I saw him and then got to meet him again! (because you realize you are lucky when you get to see them once, but then when you see them again you are just spoiled). I am just amazed at how that one viewing changed my life. It has taken me to so many places, and I have gotten to meet and see people that I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought I would actually get to see in real life. It has made me think, it had encouraged me to keep that thing called imagination around for a little longer, and of course this has come at such a time of change in my life (Sophmore to Senior years of High School) it is just so amazing.

I think though that what I will miss the most is all the excitement around the release, that just added on to the regular excitement of the holidays. I will miss the ads on TV, the magazine covers, the interviews, the free giveouts of the bookmarks at my school, and just all that antcipation. That midnight showing of ROTK was most definitely the most exciting experience at a theater I have ever had. I remember the Football players from my school starting to yell out "Rudy!" when Sam starts carrying Frodo up the hill, and the huge applause that came out when Aragorn gave Arwen that smooch and also just that general strangeness of realizing that even though it was a school night, and even though I would be going to school the next day. I would most defintely not be going to sleep at my regular time.

This is making me so sad
Next year at Christmas will just not be the same

[Mad Baggins]

I remember walking through the mall on December 17, unable to go to RotK, and seeing two young ladies dressed in hobbit gear. I nearly ran up to them and asked how the movie was.

Another was the last time I saw RotK in theaters. That was in February. When the title appeared on the screen, random people began clapping (of course, I joined in). Then, at the end, the same people started to clap and holler; I started applauding and yelling too. Ah, fond memories. I only wish it would happen again.

[Bombadil]

The response on the opening nights was phenomenal! I remember everyone clapping when the title came up, everyone cheering when denethor was beat down by gandalf, everyone going nuts when the movie ended. Everytime after the opening night was never the same...ahh fond memories

[Enorëiel]

Ah, memories.... how many I have. Unlike most I didn't see FOTR until it had been out for over a year. I finally watched it one Friday night and was on the edge of my seat. When it ended I nearly screamed 'that's it!!!' I was so estatic that the next day I bought it and forced my best friend to watch it. We then went a week later and saw TTT.

My fondest memory, however, is the opening of ROTK. Me and 2 of my friends went with a line party to a nearby theater. We arrived 2 hours before midnight and enjoyed every minute of the waiting. There were games, trivia and even an Middle-Earth - type music playing band! I was dressed as Eowyn and one of my friends was dressed as a random elf (my other friend wasn't dressed up but decided to hold my sword the whole time so she wouldn't feel 'outnumbered'.) Almost everyone else present was dressed up which made the night feel more... authentic (is that the right word?). When the movie came on there were cheers and screams. There's something special about a midnight showing as everyone in the crowd will shout and cheer at intense and good parts of the show. It was so great to be able to shout and cheer outwardly rather than inwardly!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

My fondest LotR movie memory was seeing FotR in the US for the first time. Besides the enjoyment of the movie itself, especially since it was in English and I could hear the original voices with their varied accents, I attended it as a member of a fellowship of nine! My two brothers and their wives, plus four of our children, went to see it together with me, and it was a great family experience.

[Vanya]

Well, each movie premier was an event that I expected eagerly. But, month or two after ROTK release, in my hometown there was the LOTR marathon.
From 2p.m till 1 a.m next day, it was like an journey to ME. I almost wanted that they made no breaks betwen movies.
It was funny overhearing few boys talking:

"We go and see the movie, we come out.
We go and see the movie, we come out.

We go and see the movie, we crowl out!"

But it wasn't that hard at all!

[Lathriel]

Whe I saw fellowship my mom and the rest of my family didn't like it at all. But I wanted to see it again for some reason. However that didn't happen. soem weeks later I borrowed the soundtrack from one of my friends and i liked it. Suddenly the DVD came out and i became hooked along with my brother.

The we saw TTT because my aunt and uncle wanted to see it. This movie was liked by my whole family. (Even my dad who doesn't like fantasy all that much, he has never read fantasy in his life)
Shortly after I joined the downs!!!!

Then we bought the FOTR EE for my mom's birthday and from then on I became a LOTR geek my brother read LOTR (His first fantays book) and we got the other EE.

When watching ROTK I cried at the end and when we walked out of the theatre I bumped into some people because I was still blinded by my tears. theer are only two movies that make me cry and ROTK is one of them!

So I have lots of other memories but these are the most important to me

[Morsul the Dark]

i had seen fotr 4 times
ttt 5 times
and i was going to see rotk for my fifth time and i forced my mom take me one more time just so the pattern would continue

[Lush]

I remember having just finished my exams for the first half of senior year, having gotten my college acceptance letter, and, on the first day of winter vacation, seeing Fellowship with all of my high-school friends.

I remember I was wearing knee-high boots, my stockings were ripped, and I was laughing, and everyone else was too.

The film was great, but it was the entire experience, of being there, with people that you knew you were going to part ways with in a few short months, that really made me understand something at the core of the story, something, which at that point was still inexplicable, but already overwhelmingly bittersweet.

There, I'm done now. I think I'm going to go hold my blankie, suck my thumb, and sob.

[Lindolirian]

Well my most interesting experience was the midnight showing of the Return of the King. Since I had school the day after my mother forbade me to go, but after missing the past two years and this being my last chance, I formulated a plan. First off, I had to get a ride because if I were to take one of our own cars my parents would hear the garage door, would notice the loss in gas, etc. So I arranged with on of my friends (who was allowed to go) to pick me up. I started planning weeks in advance. My escape point form my house was a series of windows in my basement right above the couch. It was simple, remove the screen, clamber up onto the couch and slither out onto the dewey grass above. But wait, this was December and I knew my plans would be ruined if there was snow to show my tracks. I got lucky in that aspect and was eventually able to crawl out onto relatively dry grass, no traces left behind. My planning for this endeavor took a long time to put together. I gradually smuggled jeans, a sweatshirt, and shoes down to the basement and hid them in various places such as the DVD movie rack or under the sofa's cushions. Now the worst part about this was the incredible time crunch I would have. My parents usually went to bed around 10:30 and with the wondows I planned to escape from directly beneath their heads, I had to wait a full hour for them to fall asleep. Then I had to trek to the entrance of my neighborhood to be picked up without any noise of car doors or engines near my house. My arrival at the movie theater was planned for 11:50, which is, needless to say, cutting it extremly close for the midnight premiere of the biggest movie of the year. Tuesday, December 16, I headed off to bed at 10:00 wishing my parents a good night's rest as they watched on the news the lines building outside of the theater. I had my underwear and socks on underneath my pajamas so that I could slip into my clothes once I was downstairs. After waiting a half hour I crept to the top of the stairs and waited as my parents bustled about locking doors and turning out the lights. It was already past 10:30 when my mother decided that it was high time the dishwasher was unloaded. Great Scott, I swear it took her forever. I forced myself to wait patiently until she had gone into the bathroom to brush her teeth. My plan had been to sneak by as they were both in there with water running, but my mother's dishes took her long enough that my father was already in bed not five feet from the foot of the staircase I had yet to descend. Pretending I was Bilbo creeping down to meet Smaug, I took more than a hobbit's care to wiggle by the dangerous door. After a few breathless moments, I was in the basement. I laid there silent for a full hour (and a bit more) waiting for the bed above to stop creaking and the whispers to quiet. By 11:37 I was more or less back on schedule as I decided it was safe to don my escape garb and climb out the window. I did so with little trouble and was soon on my way towards the main road where I was to be picked up. I pulled out my 'borrowed' cell phone and punched in my friend's number to let him know that I was ready. He didn't answer so I assumed he was in the car and couldn't hear it or something. At 11:50 I tried again, getting a little worried, having an eight minute drive from my house to the theater. Still no answer. When 11:56 rolled around, I began a series of one call every 45 seconds. Never answered. After the dreadful hour of midnight struck I knew I was doomed. After such careful planning, I had missed the premiere of the RotK! With less than a grain of hope left I waited ten more minutes. Perhaps my friend had car trouble and he would be along presently. No such luck. At 12:08 I started my despondent trek home. I reached my own backyard and wondered how much I really would enjoy my warm cozy bed that night. I pulled open the window and stuck one foot through when... Glory and Trumpets!!! The phone rang! I was so startled that I almost fell through the window. I couldn't get it out on time and it stopped ringing. No! That could have been my chance! Quick call him back! I did and he picked up and frantically rattled off to me, "Ben! I'm SO sorry! I fell asleep and I lost track of time. I'm doing 95 down 82nd right now, I'll be there in a few minutes!" I was so flabbergasted I didn't say anything until he was done except "Ok, I'll be waiting." When he rolled up (hardly a minute later) I jumped in the car, and we roared off to the theater. I couldn't decide whether to be mad because he was so late or to be happy because I was actually gonna make it. In fact I haven't decided even now what to think. We got to the theater in record time and sprinted into the lobby. The attendant seemes to know what we were about and chuckled at us, glanced at our tickets and sped us on our way. I made it just in time to see Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimili and Legolas be greeted by the Merry and Pippin at the ruined gates of Isengard. We had, of course, bought our tickets in advance so there were only two seats left in the house. Mine and his, but they were so buried it took us fifteen minutes to find them and they were separated by eight rows.

Great flick.

After it was over he drove me home. That ride seemed so much slower for some reason. He dropped me off at the neighborhood and I walked back home gleefully running the movie though my head, thining about the parts I liked, the parts I missed, the parts that were just plain 'out-there', and I found that I had arrived at my trusty window. Dead tired, I slid back in. I was so tired i hadn't noticed that my coat pocket had gotten caught I was stuck, and I was suddenly hanging upside down over the couch. After a bit of struggling and too much noise, I plopped to the cushions and hurriedly began to change back into my pajamas because the clamour had woken my parents and they were already on their way to investigate. Here I must tell you that I am prone to sleep walking and occasionally wake up in odd spots around the house, thus I was able to pull this off. I landed my self on the couch just as the light flipped on and my dad groggily shuffled over. I knew he was gonna either wake me or try to carry me up to bed, but I couldn't let him touch me because my skin was still cold from the frigid December air. So at the last second I opened one eye and rattled off some sleep induced gobbledy-gook that usually comes out of my mouth when sleep walking. It worked and he let me guide myself back to bed under my own power. I flopped into my bed and prepared to wake up in two hours for a beautiful day at school the next day.

[Durelin]

No more motivation for getting straight A's...that was the only reason my parents let me take off an entire day and a half (and miss my English midterm exam!) to join the throng of people either in heavy coats or hobbit, elf, or wizard garb waiting outside the theatre on DC's fortunately large sidewalks. Everyone had three tickets in their hands, and a button on their coats, black with gold writing, worn proudly. "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King" could be found on the tickets, and the words "Trilogy Tuesday" on the button, three words that make sense only to the Tolkien fan movie-goer, or at least the The Lord of the Rings fan.

My dear, dear friend, a woman who works at my (now old) school, had arrived there at approximately 5:30 in the morning with a few other people. She had tickets for my friend, another woman who worked at the school, and myself, and also planned to grab seats for us, as she stood, at the most, 10th in the line. We were...well, we started counting, but gave up somewhere in the 90s. Still, we had two boxes of 'Munchkins', a blanket to sit on, and a copy of The Return of the King to study.

Soon enough, we were traveling up and down the line displaying an almost full box of our once wanted 'Munchkins' to waiters who just had to be hungry! Some gave us rather funny looks, others seemed just a bit hostile, some grabbed one or two, others grabbed a handful, and still others offered us food in return (these people were undoubtedly in hobbit garb). We gave up with about 10 of the buggers left, and then a couple came from somewhere behind us in line with the 'Great Cookie of Gondor'. A cookie pie with a White Tree neatly done in icing upon it. We declined their offer, displaying our hated doughnut holes. Next thing we knew, problem solved: they went on the tray with the Great Cookie on down the line. We should've known: the man was a Peter Jackson look alike (and in Peter Jackson atire: shorts in December, of course).

At about 12:00, I saw daylight for the last time. As I entered the theatre, I had no idea that I would not be leaving it again until 2:00 AM the next day. Between The Two Towers and The Return of the King we ate dinner. The theatre provided us with subs from a deli somewhere nearby. Why leave the theatre, our haven from reality? Gandalf was walking up and down the aisles, and there was a camera... I hid, while my friend waved and shouted, "I'm missing my English exam for this!"

Three epic, 3 1/2+ movies later, and I slept well, finally giving up and returning to school in time for lunch! Never was that movie as good as it was at 10:30 till 2:00!

-Durelin

[Kath]

They never did the trilogy thing here which was seriously unfair! My friends and I had to make our own version of it by getting up at 8 am and watching almost non stop (except for meal breaks) until about 6 pm. That was a great experience though as in the privacy of our own homes we could cheer and cry and yell as much as we wanted. In fact one of my friends was crying so much that when her mum came to pick her up she thought something was really wrong with her!
But the best experience has got to be seeing RotK in the cinema for the first time. We'd had a non uniform day at school and I'd gone dressed as a hobbit (complete with hairy feet of course), so I wore my costume to the film assuming I'd be the only one but when I got there there were hordes of hobbits, elves, and even some orcs. And watching the actual film was brilliant because the whole audience got completely into it and were cheering and clapping at every point, and at the end we gave a standing ovation. The thing is that we have such a tiny cinema (only 200 odd seats) that it felt like you were sharing the film as a sort of secret with everyone else and it was great.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I'm not so sure that this qualifies as a "fond" memory, but it is one that will remain with me for a long time.

Just before the debut of FotR, I was contacted by a local company and asked if I would be willing to make a brief presentation at their Christmas party. I had just finished teaching a general interest course on LotR and the local paper had interviewed me about the book as a bit of a build up to the movie. The idea was, the company executive board was going to have a reception before the film, then go to see it, and they wanted me to talk for 20-30 minutes about the themes etc in the book, then all traipse off together to watch it.

I live in a pretty small city, so this company is a big deal, and they were able to get the movie theatre to reserve the best seats in the house for them. The upshot of this was, I got to see the movie for free AND get the best seat in the house without having to wait in line AND get paid a small honorarium for the privilege!

Yes, yes, I know -- I have heard it all before, you all hate me, that was totally unfair. . .but wait for the rest of the anecdote.

At any event, as we got closer to the date of the movie, the movie theatre management got wind of the plan and thought it would be a good idea to have me make my presentation to the entire audience in the theatre rather than just to the board at their reception. The executive thought this was a great idea, and since they were paying me, I went along with it.

You can all pretty much imagine what happened…

The night of the film, all those who had been waiting in line for the entire day got in to the theatre to see that the best seats in the house had been reserved. Just 10 minutes before the movie began, the executive – and I – came in and plunked ourselves down in the seat. And THEN at precisely 8:00, when everyone is expecting the movie to begin, the theatre manager gets on a microphone and tells them all that there is a special treat for them: a 20 minute talk by a Tolkien expert.

Oh yeah, that was a popular move.

Sensing the mood of the crowd (which wasn’t difficult) I rushed through what I had to say in about 10 minutes and then ran for my seat.

At least the movie was brilliant!

[Lyta_Underhill]

Poor Fordim (I think!) I can't decide whether to envy or pity you for that experience, but I imagine they all forgot pretty quick once the movie started! ( I can't imagine a typical moviegoing crowd actually being interested in a scholarly presentation! )

My own memories that stand out as being most distinctive are those from the premiere of Return of the King, when I dressed as Frodo and went off to a larger city to attend the movie! I got a lot of strange looks and only saw a couple Elves afterwards in the parking lot. I also overheard a woman in the bathroom of the theatre referring to "some freak" dressed up all "weird" outside the bathroom. She was talking to her kids and referring to my husband, who sported a 3-minute Aragorn costume. She never saw Frodo though--I left before she emerged, and related to "Aragorn" his new celebrity status. The next time I attended, again in Frodo costume, I actually got a compliment that I was a "good Frodo" and met another person who was a big fan of Samwise and all her kids, each of whom had a different favorite character in the tales.

Another amusing memory is the middle aged woman who screamed aloud only a row behind us as Shelob stung Frodo. I had never heard that kind of yelp in a theatre before, and probably won't again! Luckily, I escaped the experience of the Legolas cheering section in the movies. Interestingly enough, I rather enjoyed the experience of getting my hands on the Extended Editions, even if I viewed them more or less alone; they opened the movies up more and made me believe them as adaptations more than the original theatrical versions. I eagerly await the Extended ROTK for this reason...

Cheers!
Lyta

[Flittermouse]

Good stories, guys... anybody got more?

[Encaitare]

My memories of FotR and TTT are nothing special, since I didn't see FotR in the theater, and only saw TTT once. But RotK... oh man, I remember being so damn excited for the whole day in school. I couldn't go to the midnight showing but I went right after school on December 17. The first time seeing it was amazing (I dressed up, too), but not the best. The best time was when I went with a bunch of crazy friends, and we sat in the front row because there were no other seats. We had the most fun time, and we got the whole theater to clap at around 7 different points in the movie... such little instigators we are. ^ ^ Then we stayed for all the credits and screamed like madwomen for all the actors... loudest of all for Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, Howard Shore, and the brilliant Prof. Tolkien. I remember feeling incredibly sad to see "The End" on the screen... I couldn't imagine it drawing to a close. Very sad but wonderful... that's why I have mixed feelings about watching RotK. It's my favorite movie, but I always feel a little sad at the end because it's, well, the end.

Good times, though, good times.

[Meela]

Return of the King was the first of the trilogy I saw on the opening night, and so was the first time I experienced the first-night frenzy. It gave me such a buzz, seeing hundreds of Lord of the Rings fans gathered in the theater. A lot of them were in costume or wore some sort of Tolkien token. It was great to be part of something that was special to so many of us.
I remember I took a notebook and pen with me so I could take notes about the movie (details of what was included, moments I'd read about beforehand, etc), and I was furiously scribbling down random words such as "heads!" "eek!" and "Gandalf to the rescue!" through the interval.
It was a frantic rush at the start, getting decent seats, braving certain death by trampling to get candy and novelty Pepsi cartons. I don't think I breathed properly until I emerged in the foyer several hours later, my tunic crumpled and picking bits of popcorn out of my hair (yes, I wore a Gondorian tunic. Nothing else would do). The evening was an adrenaline rush; the Tolkien fanatic's alternative to four consecutive bungee jumps.

[Jjudvven]

I agree. Although the movies didn't turn out to be everything they could be, around Christmastime of every year was a time of unparalleled excitement for me, and something that I will always remember. I only saw the Return of the King on opening night as well, but I will never forget any of the other times I saw the movies. I still have all my ticket stubs(and there are quite a few!).

[Lathriel]

I think one thing that will be funny is that in the future when ( for those who are still teenagers and in the early twenties) you have kids you can tell them... When I was young the LOTR movies came out etc. etc. etc.