Clash of the Titans

***Clash of the Titans*** is a 1981 movie. It is about the Greek hero Perseus. He is played by Harry Hamlin. The movie features the final work of stop motion artist, Ray Harryhausen. It made $41 million in the United States. It was the 11th highest money-making movie of the year.  Warner Bros. released a remake in 3D on April 2, 2010. Many big stars were in the movie including Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, and Ursula Andress.

## Plot

King Acrisius of Argos (Donald Houston) has his daughter Danaë (Vida Taylor) imprisoned in a tower, out of jealousy for her beauty. However, Zeus (Laurence Olivier), king of the Greek gods, impregnates her and the product of this affair is Perseus. Fearing that his grandson will one day grow up to kill him, Acrisius has both mother and child set out to sea in a wooden chest, in the hopes of killing them. However, out of revenge, Zeus has Acrisius killed and orders the sea god Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) to release the last of the Titans, a giant humanoid sea monster called the Kraken, to destroy Argos. Meanwhile, Danaë and Perseus miraculously survive and land on the island of Seriphos, where Perseus grows into a young man.

Calibos (Neil McCarthy) is a young man who is the son of the sea goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith) and due to be married to Andromeda (Judi Bowker), daughter of Queen Cassiopeia (Siân Phillips) and heiress to the throne of Joppa; however, he has killed off every living thing in the Wells of the Moon (which he was entrusted to guard), among them Zeus' sacred herd of winged horses (except for Pegasus). To punish him, Zeus transforms Calibos into a monstrous satyr and has him exiled by his people. In retribution, Thetis transports the adult Perseus (Harry Hamlin) to an abandoned amphitheatre in Joppa where he encounters the aged poet Ammon (Burgess Meredith) from whom he learns that Andromeda is under a curse and is unable to marry unless her suitors can correctly answer a riddle; those who fail are burned at the stake. To aid his son, Zeus sends Perseus an invisibility helmet from Athena (Susan Fleetwood), a magic sword from Aphrodite (Ursula Andress) and a shield from Hera (Claire Bloom). Wearing the helmet, Perseus manages to capture Pegasus and follows Andromeda to learn the next riddle. Calibos nearly kills Perseus, but he escapes, losing his helmet in the process and also managing to sever Calibos' hand.

With the help of Thallo (Tim Pigott-Smith), Perseus presents himself as a suitor and correctly answers the riddle, presenting Calibos' severed hand and winning the hand of Andromeda in marriage. When Calibos finds his mother cannot act against Perseus, he commands her to take vengeance on Joppa. When Cassiopeia compares her daughter's beauty to that of Thetis', the enraged goddess demands that Andromeda must be sacrificed to the Kraken or Joppa will be destroyed.

While Perseus tries to find a way to conquer the Kraken, Pegasus is captured by Calibos' henchmen. Zeus commands Athena to give her owl Bubo to Perseus, but she convinces the gods' blacksmith Hephaestus (Pat Roach) to create a golden replica instead, who leads Perseus to a trio of hags called the Stygian Witches (Flora Robson, Anna Manahan and Freda Jackson), who have one tooth and eye between them. By taking their magic eye, Perseus forces them to reveal that the only way for the Kraken to be killed is by killing the gorgon, Medusa, who lives on an island at the edge of the Underworld. The group continues on their journey, minus Andromeda and Ammon, who return to Joppa.

While on the Gorgon's island, Perseus and his companions are attacked by Dioskilos, Medusa's two-headed hellhound. During the fight, one of the party is killed by the beast, before he is eventually slain by Perseus. He leads his two remaining allies into the gorgon's lair, where Medusa herself kills the two men, shooting one of them with an arrow and petrifying the other. Perseus uses his shield's reflective side to deceive Medusa and decapitates her. He collects her head, but his shield is dissolved by the gorgon's caustic blood.

As Perseus and his party set to return they are attacked by Calibos, who punctures the bag containing Medusa's severed head, and three giant scorpions called Scorpiochs rise out of the blood. They attack Thallo, who managed to kill one of the scorpions, who Calibos later kills. Perseus slays the two remaining scorpions and Calibos, and later grieves for Thallo. Weakened from his fight, Perseus sends Bubo to rescue the captive Pegasus. Bubo succeeds in freeing the horse and he also manages to destroy Calibos' camp. Perseus manages to reach the Joppa amphitheater, but collapses from exhaustion. Andromeda is chained to the cliffs near Joppa and the Kraken is summoned. Bubo arrives and diverts the monster's attention until Perseus (whose strength was secretly restored by Zeus) arrives, mounted on Pegasus. In the battle, he uses Medusa's head to turn the Kraken to stone, causing to crumble into pieces. Perseus then throws Medusa's head into the ocean, frees Andromeda and subsequently marries her.

The gods predict that Perseus and Andromeda will live happily for the rest of the lives and have children. Zeus also forbids the gods from pursuing vengeance against them. The constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia  and Pegasus are created in their honor.