The Kingdom of Heaven Page #5

GODFREY spurs directly at the knights. He kills the man to

the left of GODFREY’S NEPHEW (into whose horse his destrier

smashes). The HOSPITALER now is with him. HORSES go down: the

to men have broken the charge; they wheel, looking for

enemies.

The SERGEANT, as a KNIGHT thunders towards him, swings a PIKE

and plants it in the earth. The KNIGHT is piked off his

rearing horse and the SERGEANT expertly goes forward and

daggers him where he lies. He has done this before: a lot.

In the path there is a general malee. FIRUZ kills two men

(The French, in general, are hopelessly outclassed by the

Crusaders, and we can see this fact in the white face of

GODFREY’S NEPHEW, whose ambush is coming apart around him)

and then FIRUZ is shot in the head with a crossbolt.

(CONTINUED)

22.

CONTINUED:
(3)

ODO even with a crossbow bolt through his neck and gargling

with blood is a serious customer. He runs at and smashes down

a dismounted knight, and turns and cuts another across the

body, armor ripping like linen.

The now wounded second KNIGHT, grappling close with ODO,

grabs the bolt and twists it. BLOOD spurts everywhere and ODO

dropping his sword grabs the man’s own dagger and kills him

with it. He staggers a little way, and then falls. A PIKEMAN

runs out of the wood with an axe and crushes ODO’S head with

two blows and then (as the HOSPITALER, still mounted, wheels)

and runs away.

BALIAN, drawing his sword, is being backed among the trees by

two scrambling CROSSBOWMEN now using short swords. He kills

one, and then gets lucky as the other falls. He hacks down.

GODFREY’S NEPHEW emerges through the trees...and he (and his

equally terrifying, eye-rolling destrier) charges down on

Balian. BALIAN stands his ground and-- is shoved aside by the

ENGLISH SERGEANT. GODFREY rides in between Balian and

GODFREY’S NEPHEW, and confronts his nephew.

GODFREY:

(visibly weakening)

Thank my brother for his love.

GODFREY’S NEPHEW stares: then turns and rides away. GODFREY

thunders after him, and raising in the saddle (with blood

streaming down his side from the wound under his arm), hacks

down on his nephew with a two-handed stroke that cuts through

his helmet as if it were paper (As he does this though, we

see the downward motion of his arm SNAP OFF the shaft of the

blot, leaving the head of the bolt in his body). GODFREY

twists in agony and almost falls out of the saddle.

GODFREY’S NEPHEW’S eyes roll white as he rides on a little

way and then topples from the saddle. GODFREY in agony (more

blood streaming through the links of his mail) turns his

horse and sees:
The ATTACKERS running away, routed. The

ENGLISH SERGEANT is kneeling by the KNIGHT knocked down first

in the melee by ODO. He has a dagger to the knight’s throat.

KNIGHT:

(almost affably)

I am the son of Roger de Cormier. I

am accorded the privilege of

ransom.

GODFREY nods at the ENGLISH SERGEANT who...CUTS THE KNIGHT’S

THROAT.

(CONTINUED)

23.

CONTINUED:
(4)

ENGLISH SERGEANT

(standing up)

Nothing better in the world than

killing a lord.

The HOSPITALER stares with horror at ODO, tries to move him,

realizes that he is dead. GODFREY, looking at the sun through

the black French trees, has blood bubbling on his lips. He is

helped from the saddle by the ENGLISH SERGEANT and a

CROSSBOWMAN. The HOSPITALER examines him. Both the Hospitaler

and Godfrey, locking eyes, know that the wound is fatal.

HOSPITALER:

The bolt is broken off and cannot

be cut out. If your ribs are broken

the marrow may enter the blood. You

will take a fever and die, or a

cyst will form and you will live.

You are in the hands of God.

GODFREY:

Let me walk. Give me a cup of wine.

GODFREY (as he is given the wine) looks sternly at BALIAN.

GODFREY (CONT’D)

It was not that they had not right

to take you. It was the way they

asked.

Blood comes from Godfrey’s moth. He wipes it away.

BALIAN:

They had right to take me.

GODFREY:

(clutching Balian for

support)

So do I.

EXT. A GREAT CROSSROADS/PILGRIM CAMP. DAY

Where two roads converge in a field, not far from the sea, we

have a great campsite. As our party comes to a juncture of

the road we begin to hear a war-song, sung in French).

GODFREY is pale, feverish, in agony, barely in the saddle. At

a distance an ANGELIC PRIEST preaches from the back of a

wagon:
truly and innocently believing what he says.

ANGELIC PRIEST (OS)

To kill an infidel, the Pope has

said, is not murder. It is the path

to heaven.

(CONTINUED)

24.

CONTINUED:

GODFREY’S PARTY rides through. MUSIC. Each PILGRIM wears, in

some fashion, the cross. BALIAN has never seen such a

carnival. The HOSPITALER speaks to an OLD MAN at the head of

a party of Pilgrims.

HOSPITALER:

Where do you go?

OLD PILGRIM:

To Jerusalem, brother.

HOSPITALER:

By which road?

OLD PILGRIM:

Someone knows. God knows.

HOSPITALER:

(to GODFREY)

We shall never stop this madness.

GODFREY:

It will soon be beyond my concern.

EXT. THE PILGRIM CAMP. LATER

Snow and fire. GODFREY lies on a bed made on the ground. The

HOSPITALER tends him, washing the wound. BALIAN sits at a

distance, watching. GUY DE LUSIGNAN, a splendid knight in the

tred cross we will associate with extremists in Jerusalem,

walks up to Godfrey’s fire with a party of knight-recruits.

GUY:

(faux solicitous)

No news of reinforcements? If I am

in Jerusalem first, as seems-

(smiles)

Very likely...I will give the news.

GUY looks at Balian.

GUY (CONT’D)

Who is this?

GODFREY:

(for the first time)

My son.

GUY, thinking that Godfrey’s pending death has removed one of

his enemies, finds the place unoccupied.

(CONTINUED)

25.

CONTINUED:

GUY:

Would I had fought you when you

were still capable of making

bastards.

Godfrey chuckles for a long time.

GODFREY:

I knew your mother when she was

making hers. Fortunately, you could

not be one of mine.

GUY looks as if he might move on Godfrey: but looks up as

sees the Hospitaler, the English sergeant.

GUY:

(to Godfrey)

All will be settled.

He goes off with knights.

EXT. MESSINA. DAY

BELLS ringing in a crumbled belfry. Beyond them: A Medieval

port city, a Crusader launching point. Caravels at anchor.

The Mediterranean winter: whipping wind, a cold blue sea.

GODFREY, now near death, rides in a jolting cart, BALIAN

rides with him.

EXT. THE COURTYARD OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN. DAY

The HOSPITALER meets other HOSPITALERS in clerical habit, and

gestures to GODFREY. These men come forward. BALIAN watches

as his father is carried into the building.

INT. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN. DAY

The HOSPITALER is praying above the sleeping GODFREY. BALIAN

joins him.

HOSPITALER:

Do not be deceived by his chances.

He is in the hands of God.

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