No!
No...
l have the boy!
- Kill him! - No, don't! let him go!
Kill him now!
Down! Hah!
(lancelot) Your hands seem to be better.
Artorius!
Do we have a problem?
Huh?
You have a choice.
You help or you die.
Put down your weapons.
- Do it now! - Yeah!
(neighing)
- How many did you kill? - Four.
Not a bad start to the day! (laughs)
Armour-piercing. They're close. We have no time.
You ride ahead.
l'm sorry for your loss.
My father lost his way.
He used to say the Church is there to help us stay on our path.
lt didn't help those he made suffer.
The path he chose was beyond the reach of the Church, Alecto.
But not of Rome. What my father believed, so Rome believes.
What, that some men are born to be slaves? No, that isn't true.
lt is so! He told me so.
Pelagius, a man as close to me as any, is there now,
teaching that all men are free, equal.
And that each of us has the right to choose his own destiny.
Teach? How?
They killed Pelagius a year past.
Germanius and the others were damned by his teachings.
They had him excommunicated and killed.
The Rome you talk of doesn't exist,
except in your dreams.
- ls there any other way? - No. We have to cross the ice.
Get them all out of the carriages. Tell them to spread out.
(creaking)
(cracking)
(distant drums beating)
(creaking)
- Knights... - Well, l'm tired of running.
And these Saxons are so close behind my arse is hurtin'.
Never liked looking over my shoulder anyway.
- Be a pleasure to put an end to this racket. - And finally get a look at the bastards.
Here. Now.
Jols!
You two, take the horses.
(Arthur) Ganis, l need you to lead the people.
The main Saxon army is inland,
so if you track the coastline till you're well south of the wall, you'll be safe.
- But you're seven against 200? - Eight.
You could use another bow.
- l'd rather stay and fight. - You'll get your chance soon enough.
This man is now your captain. You do as he says. Am l understood?
- Yes, sir. - Go. Go!
Right. Come on, then! Move on!
l am able. l can fight.
No. You must bear witness to all you have seen.
There's one thing you must do, and that's get back to Rome.
(ice cracking/horses neighing)
(beating drum)
Hold until l give the command.
You look frightened.
There's a large number of lonely men out there.
Don't worry, l won't let them rape you.
(man shouts command in Saxon)
Archer!
- We're out of range. - l can see that!
l believe they're waiting for an invitation. Bors, Tristan.
They're far out of range.
(shouts in Saxon)
Aim for the wings of the ranks. Make them cluster.
- Hold the ranks! - Hold the ranks! Hold the ranks!
- Hold the ranks! - Hold the ranks!
Hold the ranks! Hold the ranks, or l kill you myself!
lt's not gonna break. Back.
Fall back!
Prepare for combat.
Aagh!
- Dag! - Cover him.
- Archers move! Move! - (man) Forward!
Yaagh!
Move! Move! Kill him!
Yaagh!
The ice is breaking!
Yaagh!
Kill him!
Dag!
Yaagh!
(men screaming)
( Cynric) Back! Back!
Dag!
Pull back! Arthur!
Argh!
Kill him!
Help us!
Aagh!
Argh!
Stay with me.
Dagonet! Stay with me!
Ah, God!
Christ be praised. Against all the odds Satan could muster.
Alecto, let me see you.
- (Horton) Kindly get out of my way! - You have triumphed!
Young Alecto, let me see you.
You are here.
- lucan! - You, boy! Stop!
( Germanius chuckles nervously)
Our great knights.
You are free now!
Give me the papers. Come, come.
Your papers of safe conduct throughout the Roman Empire.
Take it, Arthur.
Bishop Germanius.
Friend of my father.
You are free now.
You can go.
Bors.
Bors!
For Dagonet.
This doesn't make him a free man.
He's already a free man.
He's dead!
A grave with no sword.
lt was my father's wish that if he died on this island,
he would be buried with his knights.
He died in battle?
lt's a family tradition.
l can see why you believe that you have nothing left here.
Except what you and your knights have done.
You have your deeds.
Deeds in themselves are meaningless unless they're for some higher purpose.
We have waged a war to protect a Rome that does not exist.
ls that the deed l am to be judged by?
You stayed and fought when you didn't have to.
You bloodied evil men when you could have run.
You did all that for no reason?
These are your people.
- (knocking) - (Jols) Arthur, come to the wall now.
- (man) The Saxons are here. - (soldier) Make way! Make way!
Knights, my journey with you must end here.
May God go with you.
Arthur, this is not Rome's fight.
lt is not your fight.
(man shouting orders)
(soldier) Stand fast!
All these long years we've been together,
the trials we've faced, the blood we've shed.
What was it all for, if not for the reward of freedom?
And now when we are so close, when it is finally within our grasp...
look at me!
- Does it all count for nothing? - You ask me that?
You who know me best of all?
Then do not do this. Only certain death awaits you here.
Arthur, l beg you! For our friendship's sake, l beg you!
You be my friend now and do not dissuade me.
Seize the freedom you have earned and live it for the both of us.
l cannot follow you, lancelot.
l now know that all the blood l have shed, all the lives l have taken
have led me to this moment.
(door bangs)
What tomorrow brings...
we cannot know.
(shouting)
Artorius!
Rus!
The Roman Auxiliary has left the wall.
- And the horsemen? - leading a caravan away from the fort.
They're running south... with their tails between their legs.
- So there will be no resistance. - A few dozen villagers.
We're going to slaughter your people.
l think you should watch.
Your tree might be a good place.
Up on the hill!
A single knight.
Didn't you just say they were gone? What is this, a ghost?
(choking) One man. A tiny fly on the back of your... great army.
Who is he?
Arthur.
(horse whinnying)
(sighs) Arthur.
Hm.
Wherever l go on this wretched island l hear your name.
Always half-whispered, as if you were a...
god.
All l see is flesh, blood.
No more god than the creature you're sitting on.
Speak your terms, Saxon.
The Romans have left you.
Who are you fighting for?
l fight for a cause beyond Rome's or your understanding.
Ah.
You come to beg a truce. You should be on your knees.
l came to see your face, so that l alone may find you on the battlefield.
And it would be good for you to mark my face, Saxon,
for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you see on this earth.
Ah.
Ah, finally.
A man worth killing.
Ah!
Prepare the men for battle.
(gives command in Saxon)
(beating drum)
- (neighs) - Whoa. Easy.
- Whoa. - Whoa.
Shh.
Hey.
You're free.
He's got a plan, this Roman.
Send what's left of your infantry.
- (whispers) Do you want to kill my men? - They're my men!
(gives command in Saxon)
No. You stay here with me.
(shouts in Saxon)
Knights, the gift of freedom is yours by right.
But the home we seek resides not in some distant land.
lt's in us and in our actions on this day.
(shouting)
lf this be our destiny, then so be it.
But let history remember that as free men we chose to make it so.
(knights) Rus!
Hah!
Argh!
(war cries)
(man) There! On the hill!
- (man shouts command in Saxon) - (soldiers repeat command)
(soldiers chanting to the marching rhythm)
(distant screaming)
(distant war cry)
Rus! Aargh!
(yells)
(panting)
- (shouts command in Saxon) - (soldiers repeat command)
(soldiers chanting)
Raewald.
The left flank.
- You go with him. - (Raewald) Move out!
(shouts command in Saxon)
(soldiers chanting)
Shields up!
Argh!
(screaming)
(war cry)
(shouting)
(war cry)
(agonised screams)
Pull!
Aagh!
Argh!
(rasps) Arthur...
lt was my life to be taken!
Not this!
Never this!
My brave knights, l have failed you.
l neither took you off this island,
nor shared your fate.
(lancelot) For 200 years, knights had fought and died for a land not our own.
But on that day at Badon Hill,
all who fought put our lives in service of a greater cause.
Freedom.
Arthur. Guinevere.
Our people are one.
As you are.
Now l'm really gonna have to marry your mother.
Who said l'd have you?
King Arthur!
(crowd) Hail, Arthur!
let every man, woman, child bear witness
that from this day all Britons will be united in one common cause.
(crowd chant) Arthur! Arthur!
Artorius!
(lancelot) And as for the knights who gave their lives,
their deaths were cause for neither mourning nor sadness.
For they will live forever,
their names and deeds handed down from father to son, mother to daughter,
in the legends of King Arthur and his knights.