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Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.

Director:

Tarsem Singh (as Tarsem Singh Dhandwar)

Writers:

Charley Parlapanides (as Charles Parlapanides), Vlas Parlapanides
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Popularity
1,046 ( 57)
1 win & 6 nominations. See more awards »

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Henry Cavill ... Theseus
Mickey Rourke ... King Hyperion
Stephen Dorff ... Stavros
Freida Pinto ... Phaedra
Luke Evans ... Zeus
John Hurt ... Old Man
Joseph Morgan ... Lysander
Anne Day-Jones ... Aethra (as Anne Day Jones)
Greg Bryk ... The Monk
Alan Van Sprang ... Dareios
Peter Stebbings ... Helios
Daniel Sharman ... Ares
Isabel Lucas ... Athena
Kellan Lutz ... Poseidon
Steve Byers ... Heracles
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Storyline

Eons after the Gods won their mythic struggle against the Titans, a new evil threatens the land. Mad with power, King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has declared war against humanity. Amassing a bloodthirsty army of soldiers disfigured by his own hand, Hyperion has scorched Greece in search of the legendary Epirus Bow, a weapon of unimaginable power forged in the heavens by Ares (Daniel Sharman). Only he who possesses this bow can unleash the Titans, who have been imprisoned deep within the walls of Mount Tartaros since the dawn of time and thirst for revenge. In the King's hands, the bow would rain destruction upon mankind and annihilate the Gods. But ancient law dictates the Gods must not intervene in man's conflict. They remain powerless to stop Hyperion, until a peasant named Theseus (Henry Cavill) comes forth as their only hope. Secretly chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans), Theseus must save his people from Hyperion and his hordes. Rallying a band of fellow outsiders, including visionary ...

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

The Gods Need a Hero


Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sequences of strong bloody violence, and a scene of sexuality | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Henry Cavill did not do any weight training for his preparation for this movie. His physique was achieved through a tabata-style training regiment, consisting of only body weight exercises. This training methodology was chosen because the goal was to not put on much mass, but to develop a very lean, highly defined physique. See more »

Goofs

A Greek character in 1228 BC is named Stavros (Cross), an AD name referring to the death of Jesus. See more »

Quotes

Stavros: Hyperion's legions are gathering at Tartarus. That's where Hellenists will fall.
Phaedra: That future's not set.
Stavros: But likely. It'll be a slaughter.
Phaedra: You have no faith.
Dareios: Heathens.
Stavros: That is true, Dareios. But not always. When I was just a boy, I prayed to the Gods, for a horse. The Gods never answered me. So I stole one, instead.
Dareios: We're surrounded by heathens.
[Falls dead with a knife in his back]
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Alternate Versions

The UK version was cut by 18 seconds to achieve a '15' certificate. Three cuts were made for violence: a mother's throat being cut; a soldier's eyes being gouged; and a king being beheaded. A disturbing scene of the oracle's 'sisters' being found roasted alive in a large metal bull was also cut. In addition to this the BBFC's website cites "reducing some focus on large splashes of blood". However, two major scenes and some smaller sequences had very significant amounts of gore digitally altered. The very extensive red bloodletting in some scenes has been changed into black 'blood' substantially altering the impact of these scenes. These changes affect several minutes of screen time. So although the overall running time has been cut by only 18 seconds the amount of censored material is much longer and very significant in changing the overall tone of the film. The USA version is uncut with an 'R' rating. See more »

Connections

Referenced in Pastor Mike Online: JFK 50th Anniversary (2013) See more »

User Reviews

 
Groundbreaking and colorful rendition about Greek mythology with breathtaking images and impressive battles
26 March 2015 | by ma-cortesSee all my reviews

The picture is a fun sword and sandals epic with stirring adventures , struggles , bizarre scenarios and turns out to be an acceptable story and quite entertaining . The story is very loosely based on Greek mythology , creating a potpurrí of Gods and legends , mingling elements of various myths . As screen writers state that they chose to change many aspects of the ancient Greek stories to reflect the fact that the Greeks themselves often revised their mythology to conform to new ideas and knowledge . In Classical Greek mythology , Immortals were members of the second order of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities . Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Heaven). They were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age , and also composed the first pantheon of Greek deities . As they had overthrown the primordial deities, the Immortal Titans were overthrown by younger gods, including many of their own children - the Olympians - in the Titanomachy (or "War of the Titans"). There were twelve Olympian gods and goddesses and they were immortal and unkillable as well . The Greeks may have borrowed this mythology from the Ancient Near East . There were only 12 titans in the myths and they were immortal and invincible . There was a war in the heavens and the Titans lost . Zeus then threw them into Tartarus , which is represented as a mountain in the movie, but in the old myths was a cave at the center of the Earth with minor similarities to Hell, to be imprisoned for all eternity . The picture takes Greek Gods here and there , as in the myths , Theseus (Henry Cavill , he trained for 8 hours 5 days a week to get in shape for the film) was actually King of Athens and (in some versions) a son of Poseidon (Greek god of sea and Zeus' brother, being played by Kellan Lutz), although his legal father was King Aegeus of Athens . Theseus killed the Minotaur , a creature with the body of a man and a head of a bull imprisoned in a labyrinth, depicted here as a man with a helmet made of wires and horns with the help of princess Ariadne whom he later married . In the Theseus story, Crete had its capital at Knossos, and its ruler was cruel King Minos , here Hyperion (Mickey Rourke , he chose to do this movie instead Conan , 2011) defies the Greek God , Zeus (Luke Evans ,he appeared a year earlier as Zeus' son Apollo in Clash of Titans) . Hyperion origin is from a different myth, and was the name of one of the 12 Titans . Epirus Bow doesn't exist in any mythology, but it might be inspired by the bow of Heracles aka Hercules which was used by the Greeks to defeat Troy in the great war . Other Gods appearing are the followings : Apollo (Corey Sevier) , Athena or Minerva (Isabel Lucas) who is the daughter of Zeus (or Jupiter) and Metis, a daughter of the Titans, and goddess of wisdom , Heracles (Steve Byers) ,a son of Zeus who was the only hero to ascend to Olympus to rule with the Gods and Poseidon , he is the Greek god of the sea, equivalent to the Roman Neptune . Furthermore , Sibyl (Freida Pinto, though Lily Collins auditioned for a part, but was turned down by director) was the ancient Roman title for prophetesses .

Big production that blends Greek Gods , fights , feats and spectacular images by means of Computer Generator . Violent movie combines historic events , drama and breathtaking fights . The flick packs nice settings , characters with elaborate costumes and a seamless combination of practical and CGI effects . Every little scene has been given maximum detail, as gowns , environment and set design , adding too much C.G.I. backgrounds and lush frames showing overwhelming combats between Gods and humans . To achieve the effect of gods moving much quicker than humans, those scenes were shot at 1000 frames per second . Brilliant and glimmer cinematography by Brandan Galvin , being "done in Renaissance painting style" . Vibrating and shaking musical score by Trevor Morris . This passable picture was originally directed by Tarsem Singh , though has some flaws and gaps . Tarsem Singh described his approach to the film as being "like Caravaggio (1986) meets The fight Club (1999)" . He frequently collaborated with the late costume designer Eiko Ishioka , until her passing, she was the only designer he had worked with . Tarsem also made similar experiments filled with light , color and weird frames such as ¨The fall¨, ¨The cell¨and ¨Mirror , Mirror¨ .


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Details

Official Sites:

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Country:

USA | Canada | UK

Language:

English | Greek

Release Date:

11 November 2011 (USA) See more »

Also Known As:

War of Gods See more »

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada See more »

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Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,206,425, 13 November 2011

Gross USA:

$83,504,017

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$226,904,017
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Company Credits

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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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