Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: James Gray
Writer: Mo Buck, Jack Ryder & Dominic Wilkins
Cast: Tom Hardy, Matthew Goode, Yvonne Strahovski, Christoph Waltz, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Robert Sheehan, David Boreanaz, Ian McShane, Rhys Ifans, Arnold Vosloo, Ed Harris, Eddie Redmayne
Plot: Every worthy member of the country are present at a feast thrown by King Rodrick Rangold (Tom Hardy) to celebrate the pregnancy of his wife, the Queen Selena (Yvonne Strahovski). The celebration are well underway and a number of people are visibly drunk. The King has been keeping himself sober to avoid sounding like a complete idiot while giving his speech. Sitting next to the king is his most trusted advisor, Gustav McMahoney (Christoph Waltz), a foreigner, sure, but McMahoney knows these people better than the king himself. Next to the Queen is Ronald Fredrick (David Boreanaz), accompanied by his second-in-command, the power hungry Benedict Wesley (Tim Roth). Wesley, always the heavy drinker, is completely wasted and Ronald leaves the room temporarily to remove him from the big table. They don’t want him to make a mockery of the royal family at the celebration of the Queen’s pregnancy.
While Ronald, the guard’s captain is gone, a mysterious looking man (Arnold Vosloo), sporting an obviously fake crown gets up from his seat and walks towards the king and the queen. McMahoney spots him and signals his presence to King Rodrick who welcomes the man. He asks him to present himself, as he can’t quite remember who he is. He has such a big realm that he always found it hard to remember each and everyone of his vassals. The man speaks really quietly and Rangold asks him to come a little closer. He’s now within reach of both of them. He grabs a knife from his coat and tries to stab the queen. The King acts quick and he’s able to seize the man’s arm before he’s able to deliver the fatal blow to Selena’s belly. The crowd is now dead silent, eager to know what will happen as the two men are testing each other’s power. McMahoney gets up and calls for someone to help his King! The guard captain comes in after he heard the commotion and he grabs the man from behind and he disarms him. The get a hold of him and they drag him in a dark, poorly-lit room. The King returns to the feast and orders everyone to leave. Selena is still in shock that someone tried to kill her, but she’ll be alright.
King Rodrick, Gustav and Ronald are interrogating the assassin to try to get information out of him. It proves to be rather easy, the man isn’t loyal to his employer, all he cares about his money and he got paid anyway, so to hell the principles. After a heavy blow by Ronald, he gives up the name of the man who hired him, Edward. Before Rodrick executes him as a punishment, he makes sure that it was the same Edward he was thinking about and yes, it was indeed King Edward, his eternal rival, the leader of the neighbouring country. Rodrick swings his sword and the assassin’s head rolls on the ground.
With McMahoney’s advice, Rodrick sends a party to King Edwards’s castle to deliver a declaration stating that Queen Selena is doing well and his still pregnant. They also pack the assassin’s head for good measures. The party is composed of Ronald Fredrick, the guard’s captain and a dozen of other men, including the youngest king’s guard in history, Lester Clark Young (Robert Sheehan). After the meeting the party leaves, Gustav exits his office and he makes sure nobody’s around. He gets back in his office and closes the door. He opens a letter. He reads it and smiles with satisfaction. He burns it and he writes one. He’s interrupted by the King who comes in for advice. He quickly throws the letter in the fire. The King asks for advice for what will happen if Selena has a girl.
King Rodrick’s party is welcomed with open arms by King Edward’s court. They get to sit at a table at a thrown-together feast organized in their honor. Edward (Matthew Goode) pretends they are happy to learn that Selena is pregnant, he didn’t even know, hence why he didn’t come over to their party. When the feast is over, Edward’s men jump at them and they kill every single one of them, except young Lester. Edward says he will be scared for life and he sends him home with a declaration of war, signed with Ronald’s blood. Lester leaves the castle running, scared that he will be taken down once he leaves the castle.
King Rodrick is listening to a citizen’s complain along with McMahoney and Benedict Wesley, who gave up drinking after what happened at the feast. It’s the monthly reunion in which the citizen can voice their concerns and their problems to the king. Rodrick looks bored, but he has to carry on. The meeting is interrupted by Lester, out of breath. He delivers the declaration to the king. Rodrick asks him where the rest of the party is and he says everyone is dead. Rodrick promotes Benedict to guard captain, effective immediately. He asks McMahoney to end the meetings for today. We have a war, we’re leaving tomorrow. You better be willing to die on that battlefield, because we’re going in headfirst, and there’s no going back.
King Rodrick is seen leading his army in the plains. They stopped for a short time to eat. During this time, Gustav McMahoney is in the castle, acting as the interim king, since Rodrick still hasn’t produced a son. He’s abusing of his personnel, the power clearly got to his head. Rodrick delivers a speech to his troops as they’re approaching the realm of King Edward. He motivates his soldier with an inspiring speech where he claims that everyone should be honored to fight alongside him and that they will win this war for sure. He lights their fire by remembering them the reasons of their act of war. He reminds them of the fallen soldiers whom he unknowingly sent to die a couple of days back and he reminds them of the assassination attempt on their beloved Queen Selena. When his speech is over, kick their horses and we can see King Edward’s castle not very far away.
Gustav McMahoney receives a unrecommendable man in the castle. He’s a man people call “Warhawk” Jones (Ian McShane). They talk about something, but we can’t hear what they’re saying. The Queen is wandering in the corridors and she decides that she wants to talk to McMahoney. When he sees the Queen, the conversation abruptly stops and he asks to a guard to escort Jones out, while reminding him that he will not tolerate the bandits’ actions during the times of war. Selena asks McMahoney what she could do to support the townspeople during this difficult time of war, where the morale is at an all-time low. He suggests that she could go out in the streets to support the people, after all, people like her and her immense beauty. She thinks it’s a good idea. He asks for a dozen of guards to accompany her. She plans her downtown visit, she leaves in thirty minutes.
The battle is ongoing, right in front of King Edward’s castle. They have the defensive advantage, but Rodrick’s men are clearly more motivated, raging after all the recent events. King Rodrick is one of the best fighters the world has seen. He slays his opponent with inhuman ease. On the other hand, King Edward is hiding in his castle. He doesn’t want to get involved. Fighting has never been a passion of his, he’s too precious to fight in the dirt amongst dirty men. There’s a problem with Edward’s strategy. The battle is pretty one-sided, and Rodrick is easily coming out on top. Edward is exasperated to lose again to King Rodrick. He tried countless times to defeat him over the years, but his men always seem to have the advantage. During this time, Queen Selena is walking in the streets, amongst the people. They all call her name and they’re desperate to touch her. She sometimes stop to talk to citizens, but she keeps a pretty fast pace. She knows people like her. Out of nowhere, her personal guard is attacked by bandits, with “Warhawk” Jones leading them. It’s all working in their favor. During the battle, Jones stabs the Queen repeatedly. During this time, King Rodrick is dominating Edward’s men. As Queen Selena falls on the ground, dead, Edward raises his white flag. Rodrick won. The bandits all leave the scene as quickly as they arrived.
McMahoney is looking at Selena’s body. He mourns her loss alongside the personnel and the guard. He interrogated “Warhawk” Jones, but he concluded that he didn’t do it. The official cause of death is that a deranged citizen killed her. Nobody can argue that fact, all the guards are dead and nobody would believe a poor townsperson over the King’s Advisor. King Rodrick comes back to his realm, celebrating. The mood is bad around town and he doesn’t know why people don’t celebrate his victory. He comes back to the castle, where Gustav McMahoney is waiting outside. He congratulates him on his victory, but he has something to announce to him: Selena is dead. Rodrick is a mix of anger and sadness. He asks him who killed her and he says a deranged citizen stabbed her while she was walking in the streets, no witnesses. He grabs McMahoney by the collar and says to him that he should have told him before he got there, but McMahoney didn’t want to distract him during the war. Rodrick grabs his wife’s hand and he kisses her. He starts crying. The guard captain Benedict tries to talk to him, but he pushes him away. Rodrick doesn’t say a word and he excuses himself to his quarters.
During the night, Rodrick asks himself important questions. He’s not getting any younger and his wife is dead. He doesn’t know if he’ll find someone else who’ll be willing to marry him and father his children. He doesn’t even know if he’ll be able to have a son who’ll reign one day. His passion to reign is gone, that’s certain. He writes a letter to Gustav, but he burns it. He leaves his quarters in the middle of the night and he goes to the guard’s quarters. He passes in front of Benedict’s room, but he passes. He wakes up a couple of guards and asks them to come with him to the unknown lands for a little while. They don’t ask any questions and they follow him. The sun is rising when Rodrick’s small party leave for the unknown lands, a vast, unclaimed, inhabitable and unexplored land.
In the morning, Gustav decides to check on Rodrick, who clearly, wasn’t feeling well the other night. He knocks on the door, but receives no answer. He opens the door and he realises that the king is gone. He goes downstairs, and he notifies Benedict Wesley that Rodrick is gone. Gustav takes advantage of the situation to declare that Rodrick, their beloved king, has disappeared and is unfindable.
After the announcement was made, several people in town tried to take advantage of the situation and wanted to start a revolt, including a man named Sam Nichols (Rhys Ifans). He gathered a group of friends and he started to abuse people around him, taking food another important stuff from people. Sam didn't want to stop there, he had bigger ambitions. Tired of being controlled by someone he doesn't know and someone who doesn't seem to care about about his people, you wanted the crown and nothing else. He faced an unwanted resistance in Solomon Graham (Walton Goggins), a crown loyalist who believes in King Rodrick, no matter what he does. He gathered his own group of friends who shared his ideology and they faced off Graham's gang in the streets. During this time, the bandits took advantage of the chaos the village once again. Sam's group is victorious. They march to the castle, where Sam Nichols proclaims himself the king. However, what Nichols didn't know, was that there was still someone in the castle. He's surprised to see Gustav McMahoney, who orders Benedict Wesley to kill him. Nichols starts to fight with Wesley, but he soon finds out it's clearly mismatched and he escapes by the window and runs away, scared for his life. Gustav watches him leave and he laughs. In the streets, Graham's gang took care of the bandits and cleared the streets.
About two days later, Gustav receives Warhawk Jones in his office, where Warhawk tells him that he heard about a man who is killing every bandits in the unknown lands. It is believed that he is sporting a crown and that he's one of the best fighters everyone ever saw. There is no doubt for Gustav, it is indeed King Rodrick. He tells Jones that he can leave and he's going to take care of the maniac who's killing everyone men he has. Gustav notifies Wesley that he knows where the king is. He wants him to go find the king in the unknown lands. Wesley accepts and he leaves with a group of men.
King Rodrick is in the unknown lands battling with some bandits. Along with the men he brought with him easily take care of the thugs. One of the men ask Rodrick what they're doing in the unknown lands, and Rodrick answers that he doesn't know. He says that he lost his passion to rule after Selena died. So he just abandoned his Kingdom. Someone else answers him and to his complete surprise it's the captain of the King's guards Benedict Wesley. He tells him that the realm is in shambles and that he needs him to come back. Rodrick tells him that he will but he will not reign anymore. He will give his power to someone else. They leave for the realm as the sun is rising at the horizon.
Rodrick comes back to his realm to the joy of the entire population, who acclaim him and are gathering in front of his castle. Wesley sets up a meeting with McMahoney regarding the King’s desire to not rule anymore. McMahoney requests a private meeting with the King, which leaves Wesley alone with his thoughts. Gustav tells Rodrick his plan, but the king is uninterested by all of this that he barely listens to his advisor. Gustav’s plan is the following: since the King doesn’t want to reign anymore and that he doesn’t have a descendant or a living direct relative, he suggests he splits the kingdom between three contenders he would pick and that the winner will reign. Without thinking about it much, Rodrick accepts. He leaves the office and he announces the plan to Wesley who was waiting outside. Wesley immediately announces that he wants to be one of the contenders. He says he loves these people so much and he’s so dedicated in protecting them that he finally gave up drinking to be a better king’s guard. Rodrick salutes his dedication and accepts his candidature.
Rodrick then goes outside and gives a speech to his citizens, detailing his plan. During this time, McMahoney writes a letter in which he says that the plan worked and that it’s underway. The first contender will be Benedict Wesley, a veteran King’s guard. The second one will be someone chosen by them, the population and the third one will be the one to bring him the opportunist who tried to take the power from him while he left. The response is lukewarm, but most of the citizens already have an idea of who they want to choose. Warhawk and his group of bandits immediately split up to try to find Sam Nichols, which would allow Warhawk to be in the race. Before Rodrick leaves, he says that only the contenders will be able to enter the castle and he’ll not leave his castle until the contenders are all selected.
A couple of days later, a group of citizens chant in the streets and they’re escorting their chosen one to the castle, Solomon Graham. He was the one who led the resistance movement against the bandits and they want him to win the crown pacifically. Rodrick says that if it’s what they want, so be it. Graham enters the castle and shakes hands with Wesley, his direct opponent for the Crown. During this time, the Merchant’s Guild leader, a foreigner named Kenneth Cameron (Ed Harris) comes in town with a trailer full of supplies and his discouraged to see the peasants celebrating just because they selected their contender. He gets up the castle’s steps and knocks. Gustav McMahoney answers and Cameron presents him Sam Nichols. As the rules stated, Cameron is now one of the contender, whether they like it or not.
Rodrick comes out to announce Cameron as the third and final contender. The crown isn’t enthusiast that a foreigner could possibly lead them, but they must deal with it, these were the rules set by the great King Rodrick. As Rodrick was about to announce the territories assigned to each of the contenders, he’s interrupted by a man wearing a crown and his own army. His name is Prince Harold Roger (Eddie Redmayne), brother of the deceased Queen. He says he has claims on this kingdom, but he accepted to play the game and fight just like the other contender. Rodrick remembers Roger from a long time ago and McMahoney reminds him that he must accept his candidature, because he really has a claim on the Kingdom. Roger gets on the stage as Rodrick starts to announce the rules of the Kingmaker Game, we’ll now have a four-way battle between four men vying for the crown of a single kingdom.
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