On October 9, 2003, I found myself in my car, driving to the Quad Cities. My good friend Rollerballer, who has been a dedicated enthusiast and cheerleader for these films since over a year before the first one came out, had convinced me that I needed to go to Trilogy Tuesday in December to celebrate the films and see the Return of the King premiere in style.

When I say "convinced me", I don't mean he said "You need to do this" or anything that overt. I mean I could tell that if he did this and I didn't, I would never, ever, hear the end of it. To his credit, it was a great experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Trilogy Tuesday was held in 100 select theaters across the country and featured consecutive showings of The Fellowship of the Ring (Special Extended Edition), The Two Towers (Special Extended Edition), and the premiere of The Return of the King. That's an intimidating amount of seat time, but it was well worth it. The price was $25.00 per person and tickets went on sale October 9, 2003. Which brings me back to my car ...

The Showcase Cinemas in the Quad Cities was the nearest location where I'd be able to attend this event. A quick survey of my friends in the area turned up four more willing participants, so I headed out the morning of the 9th to buy my five tickets in person. A good choice, as it turns out, since the demand for tickets was so huge that several online ticket sellers were immediately brought to their knees and all venues still managed to sell out with hours. Tickets continued to be sold on eBay, of course, but the prices there tended to run more towards the hundreds of dollars per seat. If I'd only known... but instead I remained blissfully ignorant.

I'd taken off early enough to get a good spot in the ticket line. I'd assumed there'd be a line and that demand would be high (though not as high as it proved to be), so I was somewhat surprised to find almost no one at the theater. I circled it once and saw a couple of college nerds walking around the outside. I stopped and checked with them to make sure I was in the right place. I was, but amazingly I was nearly the only one. I beat a hasty retreat as the nerds began to make "conversation" and decided to get some coffee.

When I returned a line had finally begun to form at the door. It turns out that I am apparently the seventh biggest nerd in the central midwest. Looking at those in front of me, I was comforted by being the most outwardly normal. I prefer being an undercover nerd. Except, apparently, on the Internet. There were a couple guys in full length black coats, probably going for the "Spike from Buffy" look, though it was really more of "Silent Bob from Clerks" look. Actually, the latter may have been the intent as there was at least one guy in short "Jay" pants with them. I decided to wait in the car until either the doors were about to open or the line started to grow.

Amazingly enough, the line didn't grow. With about five minutes left before the doors were scheduled to open, I got out of the car and got in line. The conversation in front of me was centered on the costumes everyone was going to wear for the premiere. It was summed up for me by a comment from one of the group's members: "My costume's extremely authentic. Not authentic to the movie, but authentic to the book."

I was glad I'd waited in the car.

I got my tickets and was on my way. Little did I realize that If I'd bought just one extra ticket, I could have funded the entire day for all via eBay. Meh. Live and learn.

The day of the event finally came and our intrepid band headed out from Cedar Rapids early. It was an educational trip wherein we learned about the "banana vent" on cargo trucks from Sandman and gained an entertaining euphemism for leaving your fly unzipped all at the same time. "Hey buddy, close your banana vent!".

We got there in time to end up in line with a view of those in front of us as pictured above. In attendance were Zardoz, Trogdor, Sandman, Blendergirl, and Ed. It was a little cold and crummy, but not too bad. Pretty much everyone in line seemed to be in a great mood. We shared our MP3 of "Where There's a Whip" with one of our neighbors that we overheard mentioning the song. People near us came from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and beyond. We actually had one of the shorter commutes.

Up nort' in da Twin Cities, our friends Rollerballer and Phoeberella were also in line ready to go, but they're gonna have to write something up themselves if they want any coverage here. We got into the theater in good shape and were instructed to keep our ticket stubs (see top of page) with us at all times or suffer the consequences. Apparently, Rollerballer and Phoeberella also had to hang onto their ticket stubs, but in addition they were given cool-lookin' badge thingys to wear:

Dang high falootin' city folk and their fancy passes. Check out the legalese on the back of it. The cops were actually checking for recording devices at our theater as well when the third film finally started rolling. Fortunately, my CLIÉ didn't count, though I wasn't stupid enough to try using it during the film.

In addition to our ticket stub, we also received a handout:

Not quite an "All-Day Pass", is it? No, I'm not bitter. Hmm, "Collectable LOTR Picture Frame"... Wonder what that is and why they're giving it away during the middle of TTT (6:00 PM?) ...

Once we were in, we nabbed great seats in the smaller of the two theaters which were being used for the event. We still had time before the first film, so we opted to engage in a bit of open geekery. A quick trip back to the car produced The Lonely Mountain Game which we proceeded to set up and play in our row of seats in the theater:

If you have Quicktime, click here to watch Trogdor explain all about the rules of the game.

It was the fastest Lonely Mountain Game ever played. Only three turns, I think. It took longer to set up. I don't remember who won. It was still fun.

Once the films started, however, the real fun began. You'd think sitting on your rear for that long would nearly finish you off, but we really had a great time. The breaks were long enough, but not too long. There was ample food, though the theater might have had a bit more prepared and ready to serve before the breaks started. That's a pretty minor gripe, however. They even let you bring in food from outside sources at our location. Very relaxed and low key. Except about that piracy, of course. Yar, matey!

Just to be a rebel, here's a screen shot for you:

What? Not good enough? Heck, I wasn't going to get booted and spend the evening in the car waiting for everybody else. It's not even ROTK credits, it's TTT.

Just to prove that there were more enthusiastic nerds than us there, here's a couple more photos. First, Frodo takes a cel phone call in the Lobby:

Second, a group shot of Faramir, Éowyn (or possibly Galadriel), Frodo, Boromir, and uh.. Obi-Wan:

The Return of the King was a fine finish to a fine day and, while it didn't give everyone everything they wanted, it was a very satisfying end to the movie version of the saga. At the end of the film (not at 6:00 PM like the flyer said) we also received our commemorative souvenier:

Pretty cool and also unexpected. We headed home, tired and happy. I got up and stood in line with my wife for tickets the next morning and made it through two more showings the next day. I haven't seen ROTK since, but I'm looking forward to the DVD. Especially, the Special Extended Edition.