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Air New Zealand creates a Hobbit-inspired ‘Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made’

New Zealand has created a booming tourism industry around director Peter Jackson’s adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit sagas, and the films — as well as their stars and Jackson himself — feature prominently in a new, impressive safety video produced by Air New Zealand.

Dubbed “The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made,” the four-and-a-half-minute production follows a pair of Lord of the Rings fans as they discover the wonders of New Zealand and learn about proper airline safety precautions from an elven airline representative and a long list of actors and filmmakers associated with the Tolkien-inspired films. Among the most prominent cameos are those of Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, as well as former Doctor Who star Sylvester McCoy (who plays Radagast the wizard in The Hobbit movies), and the country’s most famous filmmaker, Peter Jackson.

Related: Building a better dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Also appearing in the video are actor Dean O’Gorman, who plays the dwarf Fili in The Hobbit movies, and Weta Workshop co-founder Richard Taylor.

The video ends with a rousing scene in which an army of orcs and an army of elves charge toward each other, only to end up hugging when they meet up in the valley. Oh, and then Elijah Wood puts on the One Ring and vanishes while the elven flight crew looks on.

It’s all appropriately epic, like the title suggests.

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Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
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