Until now, many remember the actor solely for his role as the keeper of the ill-fated ring - Frodo from The Lord of the Rings. However, Wood had worthy roles both before and after the fantastic saga of the hobbits. 
Paradise (Paradise, 1991, dir. Mary Agnes Donogh) 
A remake of the 1987 French film Grand Chemant. The story centers on Lily (Melanie Griffith) and her husband Ben (Don Johnson) as they cope with the loss of their three-year-old son. One day, acquaintances send their nine-year-old son Willard Young, played by Elijah Wood, to the couple.
Wood's character in the film is a cheerful and restless child. He touchingly learns to understand his feelings and emotions when he meets a girl named Billie Pike (Thora Birch), and helps Lily and Ben overcome their grief.
For this role, Elijah was nominated as "Most Promising Actor" at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and as "Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture" at the Young Actor Awards.
The Good Son (1993, dir. Joseph Ruben) 
The thriller tells the story of sadistic young Henry (Macaulay Culkin) and his cousin Mark Evans (Elijah Wood). After Mark's mother dies of cancer, his father has to temporarily send his son to his brother's family.
A child who survives a tragedy finds himself in even more dire circumstances. Henry has obvious mental problems - he kills a dog with a homemade crossbow, tries to knock Mark out of a tree... Being the only person who sees sadistic tendencies in the boy, Mark enters into a confrontation with Henry in order to prevent new victims.
Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin worked in an excellent combination: Culkin appears as a cold-blooded child, not lacking in dark humor, and Wood perfectly plays confusion, fear, despair and at the same time courage.
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993, dir. Stephen Sommers) 
Despite the fact that the film is based on Mark Twain's story "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", one of its central characters, Tom Sawyer, is absent from the film, and the entire plot is devoted exclusively to the story of Huck, whose role was beautifully played by Elijah Wood.
The action takes place in the USA in the 1860s. Huck escapes his drunkard father, meets runaway slave Jim (Courtney B. Vance), and the two set off on a raft down the Mississippi. Along the way, the heroes meet many colorful characters, including the swindlers the Count (Robbie Coltrane) and the King (Jason Robards), as well as the brave girl Susan Wilkes (Laura Bell Bundy).
Wood created a colorful, at the same time touching and daring image of the freedom-loving Huck, whose racist views change after he begins to be friends with Jim.
The Faculty (1998, dir. Robert Rodriguez) 
At first glance, Harrington is an ordinary old college, the corridors of which are filled every year with a variety of personalities: snobs, athletes, outcasts, weed lovers, nerds and... alien teachers. The latter seems incredible, but one day a group of students made such a discovery, after which the guys entered into a confrontation with the uninvited guests. Elijah Wood plays one of the main roles in the film. His character is photographer Casey Conor, who found a strange larva on a football field and took it to a biologist.
At one time, Robert Rodriguez's sci-fi horror film was nominated for the Saturn Award in several categories, including Wood being nominated for Best Young Actor.
Deep Impact (1998, dir. Mimi Leder) 
The disaster film tells the story of the inevitable collision of the Earth with a comet, which should lead to the death of all living things. In the remaining time, the government and military are trying to eliminate the threat and evacuate people and the most significant cultural objects to the modern Noah's Ark. Leo Biderman (Elijah Wood) was among those invited to the Ark. However, the guy remains with his beloved Sarah (Lelee Sobieski) - and so, against the backdrop of chaos, a touching love story develops.
For the role of Leo, the actor received the YoungStar Awards as “Best Young Actor in a Drama Film” and was also nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
Flight of the Bumblebee (The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, 1999, dir. Martin Duffy) 
A picture about the difficulties and power of love. The plot centers on two clinic patients - Bernie Snow (Elijah Wood) and his friend Mazzo (Joe Perrineau). Snow has amnesia and is being treated at a cancer research center. While a psychiatrist experiments on him in an attempt to restore the guy's memory, Bernie falls in love with Mazzo's sister, Cassie (Rachel Leigh Cook).
A simple but touching story of overcoming, against the backdrop of which a love story unfolds, fraught with its own difficulties. Wood did an excellent job with the dramatic role of a rather withdrawn and almost desperate man.
Hooligans (Green Street Hooligans, 2005, dir. Lexi Alexander) 
The plot centers on the story of British football fans. Wood's hero is journalism student Matt Buckner. After being undeservedly expelled from Harvard, the guy goes to his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani) and meets her husband's younger brother, Pete (Charlie Hunnam). As the leader of the London West Ham faction, Pete draws Matt into the wild and cruel world of fan football.
Wood's character goes through an interesting and brutal transformation: he learns to fight, stand up for himself, and discovers the most unexpected qualities in himself, including the same recklessness as football fans who are ready to do anything for their passion. One of Wood's best roles.
The Light Around (Everything Is Illuminated, 2005, dir. Liev Schreiber) 
A tragicomedy based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer. A young Jewish American, Jonathan, tries to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Soviet village. His guides on this path are Alex (Evgeniy Gudz) and his strange anti-Semitic grandfather (Boris Leskin) with a dog named Sammy Davis Junior. Neither Jonathan nor his companions know where the end point is, so it all becomes a big adventure.
Elijah Wood subtly embodies the image of Jonathan, who comes to the territory of the former USSR, speaks local with difficulty, does not know local customs, and therefore inevitably ends up in either comical or dramatic situations. But in the end, the journey takes on a deep meaning and becomes the cause of serious changes in the worldview of all the heroes.
Murders in Oxford (The Oxford Murders, 2007, dir. Alex de la Iglesia) 
The crime thriller is based on Guillermo Martinez's novel "Unnoticed Murders." Set in Oxford in 1993, the academic year will be marred by a series of mysterious murders, and at the center of the events will be a young American, Martin, played by Elijah Wood.
Early in his studies, Martin meets the famous logic teacher Arthur Seldom (John Hurt) and becomes obsessed with the idea of writing a scientific paper under his guidance. When murders begin at the university, Martin and Arthur use logic to try to understand who needs to commit crimes and why.
Maniac (2012, dir. Frank Khalfoun) 
A remake of the 1980 film of the same name. This time, the role of the maniac Frank Zito was played by Elijah Wood, taking over the baton from Joe Spinell. One could say that Wood in the role of a maniac is an unexpected turn, but seven years earlier the actor played the role of the devilishly handsome cold-blooded cannibal killer Kevin in Sin City.
Frank is the inconspicuous owner of a mannequin restoration shop who kills and scalps women at night. One day Frank meets photographer Anna (Nora Arnezeder). He truly sympathizes with her - but still the nature of the killer makes itself felt...
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