Check out 'the most epic flight safety video ever made'

Passengers on New Zealand Air are transported to Middle Earth in this new in-flight safety video that pulls out all the stops on Hobbit-isms.

October 23, 2014

One does not simply fly to Middle Earth. One pays heed as an elfin flight attendant guides one through Air New Zealand’s "Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made."

As “the official airline of Middle Earth,” Air New Zealand is celebrating the upcoming release of the third Hobbit movie with their own in-flight safety video featuring Lord of the Rings heavyweights Elijah Wood, Richard Taylor, Sylvester McCoy, and Peter Jackson.

“Cease your rabble rousing and listen very carefully and obey all crew member instructions and all illuminated signs,” the pointy-eared cabin crew member says with a smile at the beginning of the video. And passengers – like the LOTR fans in the video who can’t help themselves when they are seated by Frodo – probably can’t help but pay attention as an orc displays the proper oxygen-mask technique.

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The video is four and a half minutes of Tolkeinesque fantasy covering all the essentials of routine airline safety. A wizard aboard a giant eagle demonstrates the crash position. While leading the charge in a battle scene, Jackson reminds passengers to stow all electronic devices. There are even tiny life jackets for Hobbits (or children). And of course Frodo is in the Shire to offer to passenger-fans: “May your path always be guided by the light of the stars and may the future bestow upon you all the happiness and adventure our Middle Earth has to offer.”

Air New Zealand, which has been taking the series’s fans to where the movies have been filmed for about a decade, previously pulled together a Middle Earth-themed safety video in 2012.

The final film of Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, titled, "The Battle of the Five Armies,” is set to be released in the US on December 17. New Zealanders will get to see it six days earlier, on December 11.