Valhalla Rising

From the lands of the Vikings and the powerful Norse gods, comes a movie that is incredibly hard to stereotype or even classify within a single genre.

Such is the vehemence of this movie, Valhalla Rising! This movie retells the mythical story of a mysterious warrior named One-Eye, who has been blessed with the ability to foresee the future but is rendered mute under inexplicable circumstances. When One-Eye is held up in a mountain prison by a maniacal local chieftain called Barde, he comes across a young boy named Are who tends to him and feeds him, as Barde forces One-Eye to fight with his fellow inmates. Although intrigued by the boy’s behavior, One-Eye never stops him and eventually strikes up a friendship with him. One night, One-Eye dreams of himself bathing in a pond, and these dreams lead him to an arrowhead at the bottom of the pond. With the help of that, he escapes from the prison after slaying all except Are, and places the chieftain’s head on a pole. When he escapes, Are follows him and declares his intentions of following him wherever he goes. From thereon, a close bond develops between the two. Their journey ends when they join a group of Crusaders.

Thence, they embark on a journey with the Crusaders to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, and on their way the group encounters all sorts of problems. In a fit of desperation and religion-fuelled superstition, the Crusaders believe that they are lost and their journey is doomed because of Are. Sensing a danger to his life, One-Eye kills one of the mutinous men. Will One-Eye and Are survive the journey and reach the Holy Land? Watch and find out.