Trojan War

**Trojan War**is a historical film based on this mythical war written in the epic poem *The Iliad*, combining myths and history and is the first film in the Ancient World Cinematic Universe (AWCU) based in Ancient Greece.

The film stars Chris Evans, Thylane Blondeau and Athina Oikonomakou.

## Plot

The brothers Menelaus, king of Sparta and Agamemnon, king of Mycenae are the most powerful monarchs of Greece. The two kingdoms have a rivalry with the rich city of Troy, located in Asia Minor and Agamemnon has waited for any excuse to invade the city. Menelaus is a pacifist and wants peace between the Greek kingdoms and Troy, and to do it, invites the young prince Paris, son of the Trojan king, Priam. Paris falls in love with the wife of Menelaus, Helen (Thylane Blondeau). He receives a vision from the goddess of love, Aphrodite. She tells him that Helen will be his, as a reward for having given her the victory in a contest between the goddesses to choose the most beautiful among them.

That night, Paris entered the room of Helen and they began a relationship. Thanks to a spell from Aphrodite, Helen falls in love with Paris and they flee to Troy. Menelaus, angry, demands help from his brother Agamemnon, who is thrilled to finally have a reason to invade Troy. The two brothers ask for help from the rest of Greek kingdoms. The king of Íthaca, Odysseus, accepts the call and travels to convince the warrior Achilles, who was reluctant, because of a divine prediction that he will die in the war. Finally, he agrees to go after being badgered by his friend Patroclus and talking with his mother. Another king that accepts is the king Ajax of Salamis.

The kings reunite to create a fleet of a thousand ships and set sail for Troy. The Trojan King Priam is worried about the consequences for the actions of his son, but then, he develops paternal feelings for Helen, and promises to defend her from the Greeks. He also knows that this is only an excuse for Agenmemnon to quell his ambition in invading. He is confident the Trojans can win due to the invincible walls around the city of Troy. When the Greeks arrive, first they send an embassy to demand the return of Helen, but the Trojans, led by the brother of Paris and Hector (Chris Evans) refuse their demands. The war has begun.

As the walls are seen as impenetrable, the Greeks decide to attack and lay siege to the towns and temples outside the walls. Achilles leads an assault on one of Apollo’s temples where he single handedly kills dozens of Trojans. After he retires back to his tent, some of his men bring a captive girl named Briseis to him. The next day a plague decimates the Greek army and the oracle says this is because the Greeks kidnapped the daughter of the head priest who prayed to Apollo, asking to return Chryseis and it would be the only way to stop the plague. Agamemnon agrees and has her returned and then sees Achilles laugh and decides to force Achilles to give Briseis to him. Achilles reluctantly does it, and angry with Agamemnon, refuses to fight. Without his skills and charisma, the Greeks suffer a major defeat to the Trojans. Patroclus can’t believe that Achilles would put his pride above his countrymen and takes his armor and leads the Greeks into battle. During the course of the battle he comes into a one-on-one confrontation with Hector, who kills him by slicing his throat.

Eudoros lays Patroclus’ body at the feet of Achilles who is heartbroken by the death of his friend. He is wrought with anger and vows revenge against Hector. He rides to the wall and screams mercilessly for Hector to come out and face him. Hector obliges and says his potential goodbyes to his family and exits the city to face him. The two engage in a grueling duel with both men taking incredible amounts of damage with Hector getting the worst of it. Finally Achilles wears him down to the point where he disarms him and stabs Hector through the chest with his own sword. He ties Hector to his chariot and drags him back to the Greek camp, mutilating profaning the body. A couple days pass by when Hector’s wife, Andromache (Athina Oikonomakou) enters Achilles’ tent and begs for the return of his body so he can have a proper funeral. Achilles’ is wrought with emotion and the actions that led to the pointless deaths of two men who didn’t deserve to die. He helps Andromache load the body and tells Briseis to return to Troy and tell Priam they will have two weeks of no conflict in order to give the Trojans time to honor Prince Hector.

Two weeks after the funeral, Achilles leads a new attack where he is ambushed by Paris and Deiphobus, who want revenge for the death of Hector. Deiphobus engages Achilles in combat and while the two fight, Paris positions himself and when the moment arises he shoots Achilles in his heel, the great warrior’s only weak point. Briseis, who had overheard of Paris and Deiphobus plans to ambush Achilles arrived too late to stop it but was able to be with him during his final moments. He told her how she gave him the only peace he’d ever known in a lifetime of war and the two kiss as he succumbs to his wounds. Briseis takes his body to give him a proper funeral while saying her final goodbyes but leaves his armor and weapons so they could be returned to his homeland. Ajax and Odysseus discover the equipment and return with it where they engage in a competition to determine who deserves the armor. Odysseus is awarded the armor which causes Ajax to suffer a fit of insanity where he attacks Odysseus and Menalaus. After returning to his senses, he is overcome with remorse and shame and kills himself by falling on his own sword.

Soon afterwards, Paris is mortally wounded in battle with Philoctetes. While in great pain, Paris climbs Mount Ida in order to seek out his first wife, the nymph Oenone, whom he begs to heal him. She refuses as she is still bitter with how he scorned her and pushed her aside for Helen. She watches as he dies in agony on the mountainside. Helen is married to Deiphobus who torments her both physically, mentally and sexually.

Odysseus sees that the situation is untenable for the Greeks and devises a plan to finish the war. He makes a giant horse made of wood that will hold some of the best Greek warriors, while the others would move the ships and camps further down the coastline and remain out of sight until signaled. The Trojans discover the horse and determine the Greeks have given up and left, they decide to open the doors and bring the horse inside. Helen inspects the horse, circling it three times while imitating the voices of the Greek women left behind at home — thus torturing the men inside with memories of their loved ones. Odyysseus is able to keep the soldiers from giving themselves away. Later that night the Greeks exit the horse and open the gates and begin their siege upon Troy.

During the sacking the Greeks rape and burn their way through the city destroying everything they find. Priam is brutally murdered by the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus, who uses the dead body of his grandson Astyanax to club him to death. Neoptolemus then takes Andromache as his concubine. Menelaus killed Deiphobus who was without his sword due to Helen hiding it and had his body mutilated. Menelaus turns his attention to Helen and as he raises his sword to give the killing blow, Helen drops her robe and says she wants to return with him. A group of Trojans led by Aeneas (Panayiotis Simopoulos) escape the sacking and flee from the city determined to survive.

After the battle, Agamemnon became the most powerful king of Greece. The Greeks begin the long journey home but during the course of the return, Odysseus’ ship is thrown off course and assumed lost. Upon his return home. while celebrating with his wife Clytemnestra, he is killed by her and her lover Aegisthus as she didn’t want their affair to be discovered.

The film finishes with the group of trojans led by Aeneas arriving in Italy, wanting to create a new Troy.