Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 American action fantasy film directed by Mike Newell. The film was written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 28, 2010. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina, Ben Kingsley as Nizam, and Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar. The film has the same title as the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time developed and published by Ubisoft, and is primarily based on it. Elements from Warrior Within and The Two Thrones, the two other titles from the Sands of Time trilogy of the Prince of Persia video game franchise, are also incorporated. The film was premiered in London on May 5, 2010 and was officially released on May 28, 2010 in the United States.

The film received generally mixed reviews from critics, who shared the consensus that the film was an improvement over other video game adaptations and giving praise to the score, action scenes, humor and the acting performances (particularly those of Gyllenhaal, Kingsley, Molina and Toby Kebbell), while showing negative attention towards the screenplay and departure from the source material. It grossed over $336 million against a production budget of $150–200 million, and it was the highest-grossing video game film ever at the time of its release.

Plot
The film seems to be set in ancient Persia, as the film starts with a map portending to show the expanse of the Persian Empire 2500 years ago. The film set design appears to be based on Islamic Persia. Islamic architecture, with intricate use of geometric shapes and domes, is shown. The cities in the film all appear to have minarets. The Allied Kingdom of Alamut, shown in the movie, was not established until the 9th century (after the Islamic Conquest of Persia). (see the Alamut State).

Dastan, a street urchin in Persia, is adopted by King Sharaman after showing courage. Fifteen years later, the king's brother Nizam relays evidence to the princes—Dastan, along with the king's biological sons Tus and Garsiv—that the holy city of Alamut is forging weapons for Persia's enemies. Tus directs the Persian army to capture Alamut. Dastan and his friends breach the city and open a gate for the siege. During the attack, Dastan defeats a royal guard and takes from him a sacred dagger.

Alamut falls to the Persians, but Princess Tamina denies that the city has any weapon forges. Tus asks her to marry him to unite the two nations, and she only accepts after seeing the dagger in Dastan's possession. At their celebratory banquet, Tus has Dastan give their father an embroidered robe. The robe is poisoned, fatally burning King Sharaman. Garsiv accuses Dastan of the king's murder, but Dastan escapes with Tamina. Tus is appointed king and sets a bounty on Dastan's head.

While in hiding, Tamina attempts to kill Dastan and steal the dagger, and in the struggle Dastan discovers the dagger enables the wielder to travel back in time. Dastan concludes that Tus invaded Alamut for the dagger, and decides to confront his brother at the funeral of the king in Avrat. On the way, the two are captured by merchant-bandits led by Sheik Amar who seeks the reward money, but they manage to escape. After arriving in Avrat, Dastan tries to convince his uncle Nizam of his innocence. Seeing burns on Nizam's hands, Dastan realizes that Nizam orchestrated the king's murder. Furthermore, Nizam has set up an ambush for Dastan along the Persian streets, but after a conflict with Garsiv, Dastan escapes. Nizam sends a group of covert warriors, the Hassansins, to kill Dastan and find the dagger.

During a sandstorm, Tamina tells Dastan that long ago, the gods unleashed a great sandstorm to destroy humanity but were moved by a young girl's offer to sacrifice herself in humanity's place and trapped the Sands of Time in a large sandglass. Tamina is the latest guardian of the dagger, given to the young girl by the gods, which can pierce the sandglass and potentially destroy the world but also enable the dagger's wielder to travel further back in time than the one minute's worth of sand the dagger holds. Dastan realizes that Nizam intends to travel back to his childhood, prevent himself from saving Sharaman from a lion attack, and grow up to be king of Persia in Sharaman's place. Amar captures the two again, but Dastan saves Amar's men from a Hassansin attack using the dagger. Amar is convinced to escort them to a sanctuary near Hindu Kush, where Tamina will seal the dagger within the stone it first came from. At the sanctuary, they are found by Garsiv, whom Dastan convinces of his innocence, but the Hassansins ambush them, killing Garsiv and stealing the dagger.

Dastan's group travels back to Alamut to retrieve the dagger from Nizam and warn Tus of Nizam. Amar's right-hand man Seso dies retrieving the dagger for Dastan, who demonstrates the dagger's powers to Tus to convince him of the truth. Afterwards, Nizam interrupts them, kills Tus, and takes the dagger back. Tamina saves Dastan from being killed and the two head for the secret tunnels beneath the city that lead to the sandglass. When they reach Nizam, he stabs the sandglass and throws them both off a cliff. Tamina sacrifices herself, releasing Dastan's hand and falling to her death to allow him to fight Nizam.

When Dastan removes the dagger from the sandglass, time rewinds to the moment he found the dagger. Dastan finds Tus and Garsiv and exposes Nizam's treachery. Nizam attempts to kill Dastan, but is subdued and killed by Tus. Tus apologizes to Tamina for the siege and proposes to strengthen the two nations' bond by marrying her to Dastan. Dastan returns the dagger to Tamina as an engagement gift and tells her he looks forward to their future together.

Cast

 * Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan
 * William Foster as Young Dastan
 * Gemma Arterton as Tamina, Princess of Alamut
 * Ben Kingsley as Prince Nizam of Persia, King Sharaman's brother
 * Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar
 * Richard Coyle as Prince Tus of Persia
 * Toby Kebbell as Prince Garsiv of Persia
 * Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman, The King of Persia and father to Dastan, Tus, and Garsiv.
 * Reece Ritchie as Bis, Dastan's servant
 * Steve Toussaint as Seso
 * Darwin Shaw as Asoka
 * Gísli Örn Garðarsson as Hassansin Leader