The Kingdom of Heaven Page #19

SIBYLLA:

Long live the King.

EXT. JERUSALEM STREETS. TWILIGHT

BELLS are tolling, funereally. PEOPLE are wailing in

mourning, throwing dust on themselves. A few brighter lights

might actually be packing.

INT. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER. CONTINUOUS

Torchlight. All the nobles of the kingdom. The BOY is given

scepter and orb, and crowned by the Patriarch. SIBYLLA is on

her knees, watching, GUY beside her. The Patriarch turns

toward them.

PATRIARCH:

Do you swear before God to be his

true regents in peace and war.

SIBYLLA and GUY nod, swearing, and are anointed with oil. GUY

is given a baton signifying command of the Army. He looks at

it. Then up.

EXT. WHITE DESERT. DAY

A CREOSOTE BUSH. A stone falls near it. Another. The third

stone throws a spark, and the bush explodes into flame: the

burning bush of Moses.

HOSPITALER (OS)

I do not hear a voice.

BALIAN:

Nor I.

(CONTINUED)

95.

CONTINUED:

As the HOSPITALER walks his horse follows him, almost

magically.

HOSPITALER:

Do you love her?

BALIAN nods.

HOSPITALER (CONT’D)

You’ve followed your conscience.

Your heart will mend.

Balian stares into the light.

HOSPITALER (CONT’D)

You are Marshal of Jerusalem now.

Your duty is with the people of the

city. No matter who is on the

throne.

BALIAN nods. The HOSPITALER mounts.

HOSPITALER (CONT’D)

I go to pray.

BALIAN:

For what?

HOSPITALER:

For the strength to endure what is

to come.

BALIAN:

The Muslims will come when he is

dead.

HOSPITALER:

The reckoning is to come for what

was done a hundred years before.

The Muslims will never forget. Nor

should they.

The HOSPITALER wanders away into a mirage.

EXT. A GARDEN. DAY

A TURBANED SERVANT is running, leading the BOY’S PONY. THE

BOY, his dress now velvet, regal, bounces happily in the

saddle. SIBYLLA walks with COUNCILORS.

96.

INT. THE THRONE ROOM. DAY

The BOY sits at a large draped table, swinging his legs,

bored.

SIBYLLA, tired, finishes writing-- in Arabic!

PATRIARCH:

My lady, are you sure this is wise,

to show your intentions to Saladin.

Better to let him wonder...

SIBYLLA:

We keep my brother’s peace.

GUY, overhearing this, bored among the courtiers, rolls his

eyes.

The KEEPER OF THE SEAL is waiting, with wax hot in a vessel

of some sort. SIBYLLA puts the paper in front of the boy and

guides his clumsy hand to sign.

DETAIL:
“BALDWIN V IERUUSALEM”

SIBYLLA nods. The KEEP OF THE SEAL brings the smoking wax to

the paper and as he does it dribbles across the BOY’S HAND.

SIBYLLA notices that the BOY is staring out at the garden,

entranced, oblivious. She covers his hand with her

handkerchief. But the PATRIARCH has seen.

SIBYLLA, her “mask of office” in place. The JERUSALEM SEAL is

pressed into the wax.

SIBYLLA (CONT’D)

The king is tired. I thank you all.

INT. THE KING’S ROOMS. NIGHT

Amidst candles, the boy, lying on his back on a draped bed,

is examined by MUSLIM PHYSICIANS in black as a servant

distracts him with a monkey or a Punchinello puppet. SIBYLLA

leans against a wall, breathing sharply as if

hyperventilating but holding herself together. She sees her

son in the king’s rooms, surrounded as the king was by

physicians...she is wobbly...ashen-faced. A PHYSICIAN

examines the boy’s hand (still with the remains of a burn on

it) and then moves to the feet. Gently he feels them. Then he

sticks a pin into one. The BOY does not react. The PHYSICIAN

looks up to SIBYLLA, who begins to tremble. The shadow of the

monkey or the puppet on the wall.

97.

INT. SIBYLLA’S ROOMS. NIGHT

SIBYLLA is writing, alone. State papers. TIBERIAS stands out

of the shadows. He and SIBYLLA stare at each other.

TIBERIAS:

There is a rumor.

SIBYLLA raises her eyes.

SIBYLLA:

Call it treason, and kill those who

whisper it.

(writes)

Starting with the Patriarch.

TIBERIAS:

Does the boy have your brother’s

disease?

SIBYLLA slowly nods. She stands, and TIBERIAS embraces her.

He has known her her entire life.

TIBERIAS (CONT’D)

(hollowly)

We must call it a lie. Condemn it

outright. Show the boy as active...

SIBYLLA:

As you did with my brother? With

his reins tied to his hands? How

long before he wears a mask? Will

you have one made for him?

TIBERIAS:

I am sorry.

SIBYLLA:

To the Muslims he will deserve it.

They will say he deserved it as

they said of my brother... How did

my boy deserve it?

(a beat)

Jerusalem is dead, Tiberias.

TIBERIAS fears it is true enough.

SIBYLLA (CONT’D)

No kingdom is worth my son alive in

hell.

(CONTINUED)

98.

CONTINUED:

TIBERIAS:

(finally)

No.

SIBYLLA:

I will go to hell instead.

EXT. THE GARDEN. DAY

A brilliant, luminous, day. The BOY is happily riding his

pony, holding his LEAD KNIGHT. This time SIBYLLA is leading

him. She is stone-faced. She leads him towards a “summer

house” at the end of the garden.

EXT. THE SUMMER HOUSE. TWILIGHT

SIBYLLA uncorks a bottle, and pours a cup. Her fingers do not

tremble. She holds it to the boy who smiles radiantly at his

mother on the best day of his life, and drinks.

LATER:

The boy’s hand opens and the LEAD KNIGHT falls to the floor.

EXT. THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM (GORGE). DAY

We see:
A KNIGHT. It resolves as BALIAN, riding along the

road. He dismounts to drink at rocky stream. He wears mail,

but no helmet. He looks up and sees (coming down the track by

a solitary tree): THREE TEMPLAR KNIGHTS, Guy’s assassins,

arrayed across the road. They are heavily armed, enigmatic.

BALIAN mounts, and rides towards them. One rides slightly

forward, with a lance. BALIAN grips his shield. He has no

lance, only an undrawn sword. The FIRST TEMPLAR lowers his

lance, and charges BALIAN, no time to draw a sword, takes the

lance on his shield, shatters it. The TEMPLAR takes out a

mace. BALIAN hacks him in the teeth with the edge of the

heavy shield, unhorsing him. The SECOND TEMPLAR spears in

Balian’s horse. BALIAN hits the ground running, his shield

lost. He draws the big sword. The SECOND TEMPLAR rides down

with sword raised. BALIAN swings the sword and hits the horse

in the teeth (which is how a man on foot deals with cavalry).

The horse spills its ride. BALIAN runs forward and kills THE

SECOND TEMPLAR, and then as he tries to catch the First

Templar’s horse is cut across the back of the head by a sword

blow. His hands slip from the leather. He staggers, ready to

fight. The remaining THIRD TEMPLAR rides at him. Horses race

wildly around, raising dust. The remaining Templar,

dismounted comes walking out of the dust, a MACE swinging.

BALIAN:

Is this why you came to the Holy

Land?

(CONTINUED)

99.

CONTINUED:

The TEMPLAR looks doubtful. BALIAN is aware of the blood he

is losing.

BALIAN (CONT’D)

Come on.

The MACE hums. BALIAN ducks, and bashes in at the man’s face,

getting inside the mace. The men fight hand to hand. He

crawls to the fallen man and after a close struggle (Balian

is losing consciousness) crams his dagger into the eye. He

lies across the body of the dead man, bleeding from the back

of the head.

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