It is the time of the Crusades during the Middle Ages - the world shaping
200-year collision between Europe and the East. A blacksmith named Balian
has lost his family and nearly his faith. The religious wars raging in the
far-off Holy Land seem remote to him, yet he is pulled into that immense
drama. Amid the pageantry and intrigues of medieval Jerusalem he falls in
love, grows into a leader, and ultimately uses all his courage and skill to
defend the city against staggering odds. Destiny comes seeking Balian in
the form of a great knight, Godfrey of Ibelin, a Crusader briefly home to
France from fighting in the East. Revealing himself as Balian's father,
Godfrey shows him the true meaning of knighthood and takes him on a journey
across continents to the fabled Holy City. In Jerusalem at that
moment--between the Second and Third Crusades--a fragile peace prevails,
through the efforts of its enlightened Christian king, Baldwin IV, aided by
his advisor Tiberias, and the military restraint of the legendary Muslim
leader Saladin. But Baldwin's days are numbered, and strains of fanaticism,
greed, and jealousy among the Crusaders threaten to shatter the truce. King
Baldwin's vision of peace--a kingdom of heaven--is shared by a handful of
knights, including Godfrey of Ibelin, who swear to uphold it with their
lives and honor. As Godfrey passes his sword to his son, he also passes on
that sacred oath: to protect the helpless, safeguard the peace, and work
toward harmony between religions and cultures, so that a kingdom of heaven
can flourish on earth. Balian takes the sword and steps into history.
In 1184, French village blacksmith Balian just lost his wife trough suicide
grief-stricken by their child's death; the crusader lord Godfrey, baron of
Ibelin, reveals himself as Balian's father and offers him a crusader life,
which the youngster spontaneously rejects but after the local priest taunts
him till his sword strikes fatally accepts, fleeing the French bishop's
bloody justice and seeking divine forgiveness as promised to crusaders in
Jerusalem. On the way, Balian is instructed the skills of war and chivalric
honor code and dubbed a knight in Messina by his father, who was fatally
wounded fighting off the bishop's men. After shipwreck on the Levantine
coast, Balian soon proves himself a superior knight as fighter and noble
idealist in the loyal service of leper king Baldwin, whose pragmatic right
hand, the count of Tiberias, fails to convince Balian the ruthless knight
Reynald de Chatillon and his traitorous master, candidate-heir to the
throne Guy de Lusignan, must be stopped by all means before they plunge the
crusader kingdom in a fatal war against the noble, militarily far superior
Saracen king Saladin. When Tiberias is proven right, he leaves for Cyprus,
brave Balian stays to defend besieged Jerusalem against impossible odds.
