Medieval 2022

In the 14th century, Wenceslaus IV from the House of Luxembourg sits on the thrones of Bohemia, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire, but his rule is weak and debt-ridden, threatening to tear the kingdom apart. The true power lies with Michael Caine as Lord Boresh, the most formidable noble in the land, who pulls the strings behind the scenes. Against this backdrop, the film follows Jan Žižka, Ben Foster in the title role, a skilled knight, mercenary, and future Hussite commander who leads a rough-and-tumble band of fighters drawn from ex-nobles, cutthroats, and hardened veterans who now fight for coin.

Žižka’s mercenary company includes Ulrich, a German veteran knight played by Roland Møller; the greedy soldier Conrad, the archer Freddy, the Norse berserker Lars, the spearman Cyril, and their most senior member, the Italian knight Giovanni, with Mick recently added after a skirmish where Žižka saves Lord Boresh from brigands at the cost of a fallen comrade. After this clash, Žižka escorts Boresh to Prague for a political debate about bringing Wenceslaus to Rome for his coronation, and he soon finds himself entangled in a web of ambition, ransom, and rebellion.

Žižka’s plan hinges on Rosenberg’s (the powers of the realm) support, but when that support proves elusive, he is given a dangerous assignment: kidnap Rosenberg’s fiancée, Katherine, to force the nobleman to keep his word and back the coronation. The mission brings Žižka back to his beginnings, as he visits his childhood home, where he reunites with his brother Jaroslav and his nephew, learning that they’re aiding rebels and funding the cause with money from Žižka’s own mercenary work. This revelation drags Žižka into high politics as his crew executes the kidnapping and smuggling operation—staging Katherine’s capture at the Cathedral and conveying her away in a cart filled with cadavers.

Katherine’s abduction triggers a chain of retaliations, drawing in Sigismund, Wenceslas’s half-brother, and Milan Rosenberg’s guards, as well as Torak and his Cumans—led by Žižka’s cunning mentor, Torak, who are dispatched to recapture the prisoners. In the resulting mêlée, Torak’s men ravage Žižka’s homeland at Trocnov, burn his village, and torture his family members, capturing Jaroslav to swap him for Katherine. The assault spares Barbara, who becomes a cautious ally, and Katherine makes several escape attempts only to be recaptured, their fates intertwined with the looming political decision over Bohemia and the emperor’s crown.

A tense hostage exchange spirals into catastrophe as Torak and Martin intensify the pursuit, and Jaroslav blames Jan for the loss of his son. Torak seizes a trap-laden mountain pass, but Žižka, employing his tactical genius and the rebels’ backing, defeats Torak’s men and reclaims Katherine, though Giovanni is mortally wounded in the fighting. The pursuit continues, resulting in ambushes, shattered loyalties, and brutal casualties: Cyril is mortally wounded; Torak’s forces assault the rebels; Jan sustains injuries while Katherine nurses him back to health, and their memories of lost friends, including Anna, weigh heavily on them all.

Katherine refuses to return to Rosenberg after witnessing his cruelty, even as Torak’s lieutenant Ajdar is decapitated in a brutal display and Ajdar’s head is left as a warning. The struggle intensifies as Rosenberg and his guards close in, and the couple learns that Captain Martin’s men stand ready to execute David, a young rebel. Katherine’s intervention proves pivotal when she kills Martin and the peasants rise up, trampling Martin’s troops in a violent, spontaneous insurrection. Traitors among Žižka’s ranks—specifically Conrad, who has betrayed the cause—are eliminated as Freddy shoots him in reprisal.

Reunited with his men, Žižka broadens the rebellion’s scope, and the rebels agree to escort Katherine to Wenceslaus’s hunting castle. Yet Jan refuses to let the journey end there, insisting on returning Katherine to her father in France, even as his companions refuse to abandon their leader. In a fateful turn, Žižka and his followers are overpowered and Katharine is seized again; she and Jan are separated from the others as Katherine grows fond of Žižka. Boresh, gravely wounded, reveals a pivotal truth: Sigismund has kidnapped King Wenceslas and seized the castle, and with his dying breath Boresh laments that the world cannot be changed for the better if kings can do such things.

With time running out, Žižka rallies the peasants to assault the castle and rescue Katherine. The battle erupts in a chaotic clash of swords and siege warfare, while Jan uses a clever ploy—employing Wenceslas’s pet lion—to cover their escape. Žižka faces Torak in a climactic duel as the peasants and rebels collide with Torak’s forces. Jaroslav survives a dramatic stumble from the castle wall into the river, and Katherine, desperate to save Žižka, throws herself from the battlements into the water. Jan leaps after her, and in a brutal underwater fight, bludgeons Torak to death with a rock, dragging Katherine to the riverbank. The lovers share a final kiss and Katherine dies, leaving Žižka to carry her ring back to the rebels as a solemn memento.

The film’s closing epilogue places the events in the broader arc of history: Sigismund ascends to the Bohemian throne after his brother’s death, but popular revolt thwarts his power, and he launches crusades against Bohemia while Žižka continues to lead outnumbered peasants during the Hussite Wars. The movie ends with Žižka at the head of a Hussite wagon fort, a testament to his tactical genius and to the enduring spark of resistance he personified. The narrative closes by noting that Žižka was one of the greatest military tacticians of all time and that he never lost a fight, while commemorating those who fight for freedom.