The Kingdom of Heaven Page #15

The king starts to rise.

THE KING:

Assemble the Army.

HYSICIAN:

Your majesty...If you travel you

will die.

GUY, overhearing this, looks pleased.

THE KING:

Assemble the Army.

EXT. THE CARAVAN MASSACRE SITE. TWILIGHT

Dust is blowing through the tangled corpses of men and

horses. BALIAN’S MEN pick through the wreckage. BALIAN is

“solving” the fight. What horses came from which direction.

BALIAN dismounts and examines a dead horse.

(CONTINUED)

73.

CONTINUED:

BALIAN:

(examining it)

That’s not a wound. The brand is

cut off.

ALMARIC:

Reynald did this. His castle of

Kerak is ten leagues. Fifteen...

A cry OS:
A SOLDIER is driving off vultures.

SOLDIER:

The Christian bodies hid. Here.

In a natural ditch, hastily covered, stripped European

bodies, half-buried. The sand blows across them. As BALIAN

stares down:

SIBYLLA rides up behind him and stares equably at the bodies.

What sort of woman is this? A woman of her time. JACKALS are

loping towards the dead.

ALMARIC:

We must send a rider to the King.

Unless my lady will take the news

to Jerusalem.

SIBYLLA:

No. I am staying with you.

BALIAN:

(holding her bridle)

I am going to Kerak. Reynald did

this.

SIBYLLA:

Not alone, I think. Not alone.

ON SOUND:
A BELL CLANGING ALARM.

EXT. THE VALLEY OF KERAK. DAY

A LINE OF REFUGEES are streaming towards the castle, through

a rubbly village being evacuated in haste. People loading

mules, camels. Some simply running.

EXT. A HILL ABOVE THE VALLEY OF KERAK. CONTINUOUS

BALIAN crests the hill, mounted, followed by the entire

garrison of Ibelin (50 mounted men). In the distance down the

valley:
dust.

(CONTINUED)

74.

CONTINUED:

ALMARIC:

The calvary will come up the valley

to close Reynald in, and the siege

army will come behind it.

BALIAN looks at the refugees straggling across the desert. As

he does he sees:
MUSLIM HORSE are coming up the valley. Other

parties of calvary appear in all directions. He turns to

SIBYLLA.

SIBYLLA:

Princesses are not killed.

Somewhere it is written down.

BALIAN:

Go into the fortress. Now.

SIBYLLA is a woman of her time: she too has seen the cavalry

in every direction: nods. She kisses BALIAN, looks him in the

eye, and then gallops off, her lancers with her.

BALIAN rides a little forward, staring. MOTHERS with children

running through the dust.

EXT. KERAK. DAY

KERAK’S BELL is continuing to peal alarm as SIBYLLA and her

TURCOPOLES flash up through the gates.

REYNALD:

Visitors!

REYNALD, wearing a festive gown, and eating an orange, stares

indifferently at the desert. His personal Priest and

confessor (a ragged, long suffering cleric) is with him. MEN

AT-ARMS are manning the walls.

REYNALD (CONT’D)

(grabs the priest, to use

him as “binoculars”)

How many?

REYNALD’S PRIEST

I can’t see yet. Only a dust

cloud...

REYNALD:

(hands his goblet to the

priest and pisses against

a buttress)

I serve God. That is what I do. If

God tells me to raid Mecca then by

God I raid Mecca.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

75.

CONTINUED:

REYNALD (CONT'D)

That is the way things are done.

And now it’s all this. Again.

EXT. THE VALLEY OF KERAK. CONTINUOUS

MUSLIM HORSE move from a canter to a gallop. Sweeping up the

valley.

EXT. THE BATTLEMENTS OF KERKA. CONTINUOUS

We see the first of the REFUGEES making it through the gates.

SIBYLLA stands on the ramparts, looking out.

REYNALD:

I wish I were fifty again or that

you drank liquor. What do you look

at?

SIBYLLA:

Knights.

REYNALD:

(squints)

What knights?

EXT. THE VALLEY NEARER THE CASTLE. MOMENTS LATER

We see the streaming refugees, driving cattle, and heavy on

the women and children. Into the shot, BALIAN and knights.

They turn to face the oncoming Muslim cavalry, that rolling

wall of dust. They walk forward through the refugees moving

in the other direction. A RIDER comes up.

RIDER:

My lord prays you bring your

knights into Kerak.

BALIAN completely ignores him. The RIDER is mystified. But he

twigs it:

Balian is going to delay the Muslim cavalry.

BALIAN:

(staring towards Muslims)

If we go into the castle, those

people will die.

ALMARIC:

We cannot attack that force and

live.

(CONTINUED)

76.

CONTINUED:

BALIAN:

There must be a lie about how many

Saracens one of us is worth in

battle.

ALMARIC:

The commonest is ten.

BALIAN:

Are you with me?

ALMARIC nods and makes the sign of the cross. The KNIGHTS and

SERGEANTS cross themselves as well. BALIAN rides slowly

forward at the head of his men.

EXT. THE BATTLEMENTS OF KERKA. LATER

REYNALD, now being helped into his armor, stares towards the

south, still squinting and using the PRIEST as his

“binoculars”.

REYNALD:

They mean to charge that? They are

better men than me. Not quite so

bright, but better men than me.

(to Sibylla)

You know this fellow. Why is he

doing this?

SIBYLLA:

Because he is a knight, Reynald.

REYNALD:

Hmmn.

(turning away

indifferently)

Selah.

(A Hebrew word from the

Psalms, meaning, as he

says it, “So be it”.)

SIBYLLA, unexpectedly, crosses herself, and watches for the

outcome.

EXT. THE VALLEY OF KERAK. DAY

BALIAN advances with his thin line of heavy cavalry, now

fully interposed between the Muslims and the refugees. The

Muslims are racing, but in contrast to them (going back to

BALIAN) we should not mistake how very dangerous the heavy

knights are.

(CONTINUED)

77.

CONTINUED:

BALIAN spurs his horse up to a canter, and then as his men

catch up, and, taking the “high guard” (none of the knights

now using reins:
the destriers know exactly what to do)

gallops towards the Muslim force. The forces collide. The

knights drive deep all across the front, killing, unhorsing,

scores of MUSLIMS, completely destroying the impetus of the

Muslim cavalry. DESTRIERS smash down Arab horses. A KNIGHT is

lanced off his horse. ARABS, in the hundreds, are hacked out

of the saddle.

Arrows miss their targets. Men roll on the ground in the

melee. The IBELIN MEN are grotesquely outnumbered but they

have stopped the Muslim advance--for the moment.

EXT. KERAK. DAY

REFUGEES stream in.

EXT. THE VALLEY OF KERAK. CONTINUOUS

The inevitable end is near: There are too many Muslims.

IBELIN MEN go down and are run down by horses or killed or

seized by dismounted men.

BALIAN wheels in the melee, killing. His HORSE is hamstringed

(we see the hatchet that does it), and he goes down.

Immediately he is overwhelmed by Arabs, disarmed, beaten,

dragged. Horses, whirling dust, screaming men. BALIAN is

dragged, forced to his knees. He sees:

ALMARIC, with a head wound, and some other of his men,

kneeling, all threatened by yelling Muslims. BALIAN closes

his eyes, preparing to accept death, and lowers his head.

EXT. THE WALLS OF KERAK. CONTINUOUS

SIBYLLA turns away from what seems to be the imminent

execution of Balian.

EXT. THE VALLEY OF KERAK. CONTINUOUS

FINE BOOTS come forward through the dust. A SCIMITAR is

drawn. BALIAN looks up and sees: the SCIMITAR raised as if to

behead him. He lowers his eyes and head. The sword impacts-ON

HIS SHOULDER. The flat of it quivers there and is

withdrawn. BALIAN looks up and sees:

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