The action opens with peasant thief Hagen (Schwarzenegger) being sentenced to death for the illicit raiding of a corrupt clergyman’s goods. Having been thrown in jail just as the Pope himself arrives to drum up support for a Crusade to the Holy Land, Hagen escapes the noose by staging an apparent miracle. Realising, from the reaction of the awestruck peasant masses, Hagen’s value as a promotional tool, the bloodthirsty pontiff enlists the convict on Christendom’s quest for Middle Eastern domination.
Add to the mix the evil Count Emmich (Gary Sinise), who just so happens to be Hagen’s half-brother and is also intent on erasing his less Royal sibling from the family heraldry. Their first clash occurs in the Middle East before the unfortunate ex-prisoner is dragged into slavery and sold to Saracen Warriors. Whilst in the Holy Land he experiences his Road-to-Damascus moment (couldn’t resist), realising the Muslims in Jerusalem are a moderate people, keen to avert the onslaught of bellicose Christian invaders. It is here that Hagen also meets Leila (Jennifer Conelly), an alluring Saracen princess whom he tries to save from an uncertain fate as the city teeters on the brink of bloody devastation.
