TITLE: Achilles
AUTHOR: Benjamin Jeffries
GENRE: Adventure/Drama
BUDGET: High (15 mill +)
LOG LINE: Greek warrior Achilles must come to terms with his impending death as he fights at the famous war on Troy.
SYNOPSIS: Achilles goes to fight in the war on Troy, defying prophecies of his death in the war. But once there, he realizes he must face his doom in a way other than fearlessly as the truth of his mortality takes it’s toll on his sanity.
LONG SYNOPSIS:
Part Conan The Barbarian, part Braveheart, all adventure. Achilles is the dramatic and action packed story of the greatest hero the world has ever known in a script that explores his life and state of mind, as well as the facts leading up to and including The Trojan War, better than anyone has ever done before. I swear to you, this is a MUST READ screenplay. A simple synopsis cannot possibly convey to you the intricate, beautifully flowing dialogue, exciting battles, and heartbreaking drama the way the full screenplay does. This is my greatest work and needs to be read to be appreciated, I beg of you!
It all begins with his mother, Thetis, Goddess of the Sea and her marriage to Peleus, the human King of Phythia. Defying Zeus, Thetis marries Peleus and bears him a son, the demi-god Achilles. After the birth of her son, Thetis learns that The Fates have decreed him to die before his thirtieth birthday. Afraid for her child, Thetis performs a series of rituals designed to protect him. One of these rituals is his cleansing within the enchanted waters of the River Styx. As Thetis holds her child by the ankles, she dips into the waters and binds him with strength, cunning, and the inability to be hurt or killed. But her one mistake would be Achilles’ undoing: her hands on his ankles prevented the magical waters from touching them.
Thetis spirits her son away to Cheiron, the Centaur, to be schooled in languages, arithmetic, and fighting. He also meets Patroclus, an orphaned, exiled youth who will become Achilles’ best friend and confidant. By the time he is eleven, his fighting prowess becomes legendary across all the Greek states and his name becomes synonymous with tournament victory. But, alas, he also learns at a young age, that he will die young and in battle when he overhears his mother speaking to Cheiron. However, all is not lost, as Achilles, along with Patroclus, goes to Mycenae and begins a tenure in King Agamemnon’s army. But it is a rough start, as Achilles begins what will be an intense quarrel with Agamemnon when he shows a rabid interest in the unamused King’s daughter, Iphiginia. As a consolation, Thetis bestows to Achilles The Myrmidons, a supernatural army of soldiers who once served Achilles’ grandfather.
Meanwhile, in Sparta, Paris, the prince of Troy, is in Greece on a peacekeeping mission. But once he spots Helen, King Menalaus’s wife, Paris abandons the idea of peace, and steals Helen back to Troy with him. Thetis knows this will mean war and she remands Achilles to Scyros, where he will sit in hiding so that he will not fight, and die in, the war on Troy.
Menalaus pulls together the Kings of Greece and their armies, including Odyseuss and Agamemnon, to retrieve Helen from the clutches of the Trojans. But without Achilles and his army of Myrmidon soldiers, the war effort will be all for naught. Odyseuss sets out to retrieve his old friend, finally finding him in Scyros, where he has married Princess Deidamia, and has had a son, Neoptolemus. He finds Achilles all to willing to abandon his sedentary lifestyle and return to battle. With Patroclus and his Myrmidons in tow, he sets out for Troy.
The War begins, with each battle being fought to draws each time. Nine years pass and still no victory. Helen has become a shadow of her former self as she waits for her husband to rescue her. Menalaus is at his breaking point, driven almost insane by the idea of Helen being forced to live with Paris as a wife. Only Achilles seems to be having fun, his thirst for battle being sated daily.
During a raid on a nearby village, Spartan soldiers abduct two women, Chryseis and Briseis, daughters of the local Priest Of Ares. Chryseis is given to Agamemnon, while Briseis is given to Achilles. But when their father arrives to negotiate their return, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis, but takes Briseis from Achilles in compensation. Achilles, slighted, pulls out of the war, taking Patroclus and his Myrmidons with him to a camp away from the Spartan camps. As expected, the Spartans suffer great losses on the battlefield without Achilles. Hoping to convince him to return to the war, Odyseuss goes to Achilles and pleads with him. Achilles refuses, but sends Patroclus in his stead.
Patroclus’s knowledge of battle isn’t nearly as developed as Achilles’, and he falls under the lance of Hector, Troy’s champion. To add insult to injury, Hector desecrates and mangles Patroclus’s body.
When Achilles finds out what has happened, watch out. He returns to the war with a solitary mission: to find, destroy, and desecrate Hector. But he also remembers the prophecy of his death: that he would die in battle before his thirtieth birthday. Torn between seeking vengeance for Patroclus and preserving his own life, Achilles painfully decides to avenge the only true friend he ever had, that avenging Patroclus is worth dying for.
In a fantastic, brutal fight, Achilles meets and overwhelms Hector, his furious anger taking charge of his soul. "Who amongst your men feared no vengeance for Patroclus?" Achilles asks of Hector as he runs his lance through the Trojan’s prone body. Not content with Hector’s mere death, Achilles lashes the fallen soldier to the back of his chariot and rounds the walls of Troy three times to the horror of Hector’s family, wife, and children.
Feeling vindicated for Patroclus, Achilles resumes his post in the war, only to be struck in the heel by a poisoned arrow fired by none other than Paris himself. As Achilles’ body is carried back to the camp by Ajax, Princess Deidamia and their son Neoptolemus arrive in Troy, intent on seeing Achilles, but only finding his corpse. Enraged, the ten year old Neoptolemus takes his father’s place alongside Odyseuss.
With the muscle and fury of the war now gone, Odyseuss convinces the remaining Kings that it is intellect that must be used, and he concocts The Trojan Horse, a huge, wooden, hollow statue of a horse that will be given to the Trojans as gift, while the Spartans and Greeks make like they’ve left the war. Yet, inside the horse, lie the ready, able bodied soldiers of Greece. With the horse within the walls of Troy, and the soldiers, citizens and royalty finally sleeping the sleep of the victorious, Odyseuss and the Spartans climb out of the horse, quickly overtaking the drunken Trojans and destroying the city.
As Menalaus and his beloved Helen are tearfully reunited and happy, Odyseuss points out the numerous orphans and widows of Troy. "Make all of THIS worth our effort," he says. "Make Achilles’ death worth it."
And with that, the film shall end, as Odyseuss, Menalaus and Helen, Agamemnon, and Diomedes all begin their own stories of valor, courage and heartbreak.
