Clash of the Titans (2010)
Directed by: Louis Leterrier
Produced by: Basil Iwanyk, Kevin De La Noy, Lynn Harris
Studio: Legendary Pictures
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s): April 2, 2010
Running time: 118 minutes
Country: United Kingdom, United States
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy film and remake of the 1981 film of the same name. As with the 1981 film, the story is very loosely based upon the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010. However, it was later announced that the film would be converted to 3D and was finally released on April 2, 2010.
Plot
The film begins with a narration that explains the three Olympians who battled the Titans long ago: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Hades provided their means of defeating the Titans with his creation, the Kraken. After the Titans' defeat, Zeus created humans and ruled them while Poseidon ruled the sea, but Hades, having been deceived by his brother Zeus, was forced to rule the Underworld, learns an alternative way of gaining power from humans different from his brothers receiving theirs from human prayer: through fear.
Millennia later, a fisherman named Spyros finds a coffin adrift in the sea, discovering a baby, Perseus, and his dead mother, Danaë, inside. Spyros decides to raise Perseus as his own. Years later, Perseus and his family are fishing when they witness a group of soldiers from Argos destroying a statue of Zeus as a declaration of war against the Gods. Hades appears and commands harpies to massacre the soldiers before he himself destroys Perseus' family's fishing boat. Perseus tries to save his family, but to no avail, the surviving soldiers take Perseus back to Argos. During a feast for the returning soldiers, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Argos compare themselves and their daughter, Andromeda, to the Gods much to their daughter's dismay. After convincing his brother to let him loose on humanity to punish Argos for its defiance, Hades appears in the courtroom before killing the remaining soldiers while Perseus is unaffected. Revealing Perseus to be the Demigod son of Zeus, and aging Cassiopeia to death, Hades threatens that if Princess Andromeda is not sacrificed to the Kraken, Argos will be destroyed in 10 days. Hermes, the messenger God, approaches Zeus on Olympus, revealing the location of his son Perseus. While Hermes suggests offering Perseus sanctuary, Zeus declares that he shall be left to his fate, along with the other infidel mortals.
The king seeks the help of Perseus after he is beaten and threatened to be thrown in a fire pit. Perseus initially refuses and gets locked in the dungeon, until he meets Io, a woman who does not age as punishment for refusing to be seduced by the God Ares. Io then reveals her conception was a punishment conducted by Zeus on Acrisius, the former king of Argos who was married to Danaë, for his actions against the Gods.Zeus sneaks in disguised as an eagle. Zeus copulated with Danaë and, as Acrisius came in, escaped. When Acrisius sets Danaë and the baby Perseus adrift in their coffin, an enraged Zeus struck Acrisius with lightning, leaving him hideously disfigured. After learning that killing the Kraken would allow him to have his revenge against Hades, Perseus accepts as he and Argos' finest soldiers embark on a quest to find the Stygian Witches with a pair of Persian monster-hunters named Ixas and Kucuk, and Io following. To counter this turn of events, Hades enlists Acrisius, now called Calibos, to kill off Perseus by imbuing him with superhuman powers.
While in the woods, Perseus and his men discover a sword forged in Olympus that will only display power if it is wielded by Perseus. While separated from the group, Perseus encounters Zeus' sacred herd of flying horses, the Pegasus. However, Perseus refuses both the sword and the pure-black Pegasus that the Gods were offering as assistance, as he does not wish to be a God. Calibos attacks the group and tries to murder Perseus, killing several soldiers in the process, but Calibos is unsuccessful, losing his hand before escaping. However, Calibos's blood forms giant scorpions from the sand that attack Perseus and his group. Though they slay several scorpions, most of the group are slain, and the survivors are surrounded by more of the monsters. They are saved by the Djinn, a band of shamans once human, who have turned themselves into the Demons of Arabian mythology by replacing their earthly flesh with ash and stone; thus making them immortal. The mysterious beings are able to hypnotize the scorpions into submission. Though not trusted prior to healing Perseus's wound, the Djinn leader, Sheikh Suleiman, joins Perseus's group as his kind wish to see the Gods wish for destruction to fail.
The heroes arrive at Garden of Stygia, learning from the Stygian Witches that the head of the Gorgon Medusa could kill the Kraken, but that Perseus and his group will die in the process. After leaving the witches, with the hunters taking their leave, Perseus is visited by Zeus who offers him asylum on Mount Olympus, but he refuses. Zeus gives him instead a golden drachma, which Perseus later learns is a means to bribe Charon for passage into the Underworld. While Io remains outside Medusa's lair, due to a spell that forbids any woman from entering the area, Perseus's remaining soldiers fight hard to stay alive, turning to stone one by one by her gaze. But with Suleiman self-destructing himself and Draco's sacrifice, Perseus manages to behead Medusa. Perseus emerges in time to see Calibos stab Io from behind. Perseus engages Calibos in combat and kills him using the sword from Olympus, turning him back into Acrisius in human form. With his final breath as Hades's power leaving him, Acrisius tells Perseus to never become a God. Perseus stays with the dying Io until she passes on and flies away in gold dust to Olympus. He then rides Pegasus back to Argos with Medusa's head to find some of Argos's citizens have formed a Cult of Hades and are planning to sacrifice Andromeda to the Kraken against the king's wishes. By then, Hades reveals to Zeus the destruction of Argos will give him enough power to overthrow the other Olympians; when Zeus reveals Perseus is still alive in Argos, Hades leaves his powerless brother to ensure his victory.
Perseus returns to Argos, but Hades sends his harpies to stop him. Perseus defeats the creatures sent by Hades and uses the head of Medusa to turn the Kraken into stone as Cepheus is killed by the cult leader, who is then crushed under the shattering Kraken. Hades appears and sneers that Perseus cannot kill him, since he is a God. Perseus retorts that while Hades can live forever, it will not be in the world of men and uses the sword with Zeus' lightning bolt to banish Hades back to the Underworld. After saving Argos from destruction and Andromeda from drowning, Andromeda herself suggests that Perseus will become king and rule Argos at her side, but he declines. On the broken statue of Zeus, the God of Olympus appears before Perseus again and offers to make him a God, but for a second time he refuses. Zeus warns Perseus that Hades will return to rule the world in darkness when he amasses enough fear from mankind. Since Perseus is intent to stay on Earth, Zeus resurrects Io, and the two embrace while Pegasus flies above them.
Cast
Sam Worthington as Perseus main protagonist, and son of Zeus
Liam Neeson as Zeus, the leader of the Gods of Mount Olympus
Ralph Fiennes as Hades, God of the Underworld and the primary villain
Gemma Arterton as Io, a woman cursed with agelessness who guides Perseus in his quest and narrates the Titanomachy at the start of the film
Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, the princess that will be sacrificed to the kraken
Izabella Miko as Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge
Mads Mikkelsen as Draco, leader of the Praetorian Guard
Jason Flemyng as Acrisius/Calibos
Danny Huston as Poseidon, God of the rivers, oceans and seas
David Kennedy as Cepheus's General
Tamer Hassan as Ares, God of war and battle
Pete Postlethwaite as Spyros, foster father of Perseus
Polly Walker as Cassiopeia, Queen of Argos
Vincent Regan as Cepheus, King of Argos
Luke Treadaway as Prokopion
Luke Evans as Apollo, God of the Sun, Poetry, Truth, Art and Healing.
Nathalie Cox as Artemis, Goddess of hunting and animals
Nina Young as Hera, Goddess of women and marriage and a wife of Zeus
Kaya Scodelario as Peshet
Nicholas Hoult as Eusebios
Ian Whyte as Sheikh Sulieman, The Djinn who assisted Perseus and the praetorian guards of Argos
Agyness Deyn as Aphrodite, Goddess of love, sex and beauty
Paul Kynman as Hephaestus, God of fire
Alexander Siddig as Hermes, Messenger of the Gods
Charlotte Comer as Demeter, Goddess of the Earth and agriculture
Jane March as Hestia, Goddess of the hearth
Natalia Vodianova as Medusa, The mortal Gorgon
Hans Matheson as Ixas
Mouloud Achour as Kucuk
Liam Cunningham as Solon
Ross Mullan as Pemphredo
Ashraf Barhom as Ozal
Creatures
Stygian Witches - Three women with gray skin and only one eye they share amongst them. They have a taste for human flesh, as their "knowledge demands payment".
Giant scorpions - Scorpions born from the blood of Acrisius; hypnotized by the Djinn.
Gorgon - Medusa the gorgon appears in the film as a giant, half snake, half human creature. She is beheaded by Perseus, leaving the rest of her body to fall into a lava pit.
Djinn - spirit beings living in the desert with magical powers.
Kraken - an enormous sea monster who defeated the titans and was turned to stone by Medusa's head.
Harpies - Winged demons who come from the body of Hades.
Pegasus - The winged horse that Perseus uses to ride to the confrontation with the Kraken.
Bubo - The mechanical owl from the 1981 film makes a cameo appearance early in the film.
Sequel
It has been stated that a sequel will be developed. Director Louis Leterrier will not come back to direct but will be an executive producer on the project. Clash of the Titans II has a tentative 2012 release date.
Greek mythology in popular culture | English-language films | American epic films | Films based on Greco-Roman mythology | Film remakes | Warner Bros. films | Legendary Pictures films | American fantasy adventure films | 3-D films | D-BOX motion-enhanced films | 2010 films
