Watch: Air New Zealand Hires LOTR Effects Wizards For Flight Safety Video


If you’re ever lucky enough to fly Air New Zealand, you might want to actually pay attention to the safety video that plays before takeoff. The airline hired WETA, the effects shop responsible for The Lord Of the Rings films, to punch up the video.

Not surprisingly, they delivered (and then some) with a short film called An Unexpected Briefing that looks like it takes place in Middle Earth.

Keep a close eye out for cameos by actors in the film, the great grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, and even Peter Jackson himself. But only so you can ask yourself “Why?!” [YouTube via Neatorama]