Braveheart

PLOT

In 1280, King Edward "Longshanks" invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne. Young William Wallace witnesses Longshanks' betrayal and execution of several Scottish nobles, suffers the deaths of his father and brother fighting against the English, and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage throughout Europe by his paternal uncle Argyle, who has Wallace educated.

Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including Prima Nocte. Meanwhile, a grown Wallace returns to Scotland and falls in love with his childhood friend Murron MacClannough, and the two marry in secret. Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but as Wallace fights off the soldiers Murron is captured and publicly executed. In retribution, Wallace leads his clan to slaughter the English garrison in his hometown and sends the surviving garrison back to England with a message of rebellion for Longshanks.

Longshanks orders his son Prince Edward to stop Wallace by any means necessary while he visits the French King to secure England's alliance with France. Alongside his friend Hamish, Wallace rebels against the English, and as his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him. Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge and then destroys the city of York, killing Longshanks' nephew and sending his severed head to the king. Wallace seeks the assistance of Robert the Bruce, the son of nobleman Robert the Elder, a contender for the Scottish crown. Robert is dominated by his leper father, who wishes to secure the Scottish throne for his son by submitting to the English. Worried by the threat of the rebellion, Longshanks sends his son's wife Isabella of France to try to negotiate with Wallace as a distraction for the landing of another invasion force in Scotland.

After meeting him in person, Isabella becomes enamored of Wallace. She warns him of the coming invasion, and Wallace implores the Scottish nobility to take immediate action to counter the threat and take back their country, asking Robert the Bruce to lead. Leading the English army himself, Longshanks confronts the Scots at Falkirk. During the battle, Scottish noblemen Mornay and Lochlan, having been bribed by Longshanks, ride away with the cavalry, resulting in the death of Hamish's father, Campbell. Wallace is further betrayed when he discovers Robert the Bruce was fighting alongside Longshanks; after the battle, seeing the damage he helped do to his countrymen, Robert reprimands his father and vows never to be on the wrong side again.

Wallace kills Lochlan and Mornay for their betrayal, and wages a guerrilla war against the English assisted by Isabella, with whom he eventually has an affair. Robert sets up a meeting with Wallace in Edinburgh, but Robert's father conspires with other nobles to capture and hand over Wallace to the English. Learning of his treachery, Robert disowns and banishes his father. Isabella exacts revenge on the now terminally ill Longshanks, who can no longer speak, by telling him that his bloodline will be destroyed upon his death as she is pregnant with Wallace's child and will ensure Prince Edward spends as short a time as possible on the throne before Wallace's child replaces him.

In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason, and condemned to public torture and beheading. Even whilst being hanged, drawn and quartered, Wallace refuses to submit to the king. The watching crowd, deeply moved by the Scotsman's valor, begin crying for mercy on Wallace's behalf. The magistrate offers him one final chance, asking him only to utter the word, "Mercy", and be granted a quick death. Wallace instead shouts, "Freedom!", and his cry rings through the square, Longshanks hearing it just before dying. Before being decapitated, Wallace sees a vision of Murron in the crowd, smiling at him.

In 1314, Robert, now Scotland's king, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops on the fields of Bannockburn, where he is to formally accept English rule. As he begins to ride toward the English, he stops and invokes Wallace's memory, imploring his men to fight with him as they did with Wallace. Hamish throws Wallace's sword point-down in front of the English army, and he and the Scots chant Wallace's name. Robert then leads his army into battle against the stunned English, winning the Scots their freedom.

CAST

Mel Gibson as William Wallace

James Robinson as Young William Wallace

Sophie Marceau as Princess Isabella of France

Angus Macfadyen as Robert the Bruce

Patrick McGoohan as King Edward "Longshanks"

Catherine McCormack as Murron MacClannough

Mhairi Calvey as Young Murron

Brendan Gleeson as Hamish

Andrew Weir as Young Hamish

Peter Hanly as Prince Edward

James Cosmo as Campbell

David O'Hara as Stephen of Ireland

Ian Bannen as Bruce's father

Seán McGinley as MacClannough

Brian Cox as Argyle Wallace

Sean Lawlor as Malcolm Wallace

Sandy Nelson as John Wallace

Stephen Billington as Phillip

John Kavanagh as Craig

Alun Armstrong as Mornay

John Murtagh as Lochlan

Tommy Flanagan as Morrison

Donal Gibson as Stewart

Jeanne Marine as Nicolette

Michael Byrne as Smythe

Malcolm Tierney as Magistrate

Bernard Horsfall as Balliol

Peter Mullan as Veteran

Gerard McSorley as Cheltham (inspired by Hugh de Cressingham)

Richard Leaf as Governor of York

Mark Lees as Old Crippled Scotsman

Tam White as MacGregor

Jimmy Chisholm as Faudron

David Gant as the Royal Magistrate

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

depicts the life of William Wallace leading the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England