Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (film)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 sword-and-sorcery action film written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard; directed by Mike Newell; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer; and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is a retelling of the 2003 video game of the same name, developed and released by Ubisoft Montreal.

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, and is primarily based on it. Elements from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, two other titles from the Prince of Persia video game franchise, are also incorporated. However, apart from the basic elements such as treachery and the Sands of Time, the film's plot is quite distinct from that of the video game franchise. For example, the film is focused on stopping the antagonist from releasing the Sands, whereas in the game the Prince fights to seal the sands back in the hourglass.
Plot
An attack at the sacred city of Alamut is planned by Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), an orphan in the Persian Empire adopted by king Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), his royal-blooded foster brothers, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell), and his uncle, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), after Alamut is believed to be selling weapons to Persia's enemies. Dastan leads a surprise takeover and ends acquiring a unique dagger. Alamut's princess, Tamina (Gemma Arterton), is arrested and agrees to marry Tus in order to achieve peace after noticing Dastan's dagger.

Dastan unknowingly presents a poisoned robe, given to him by Tus, to his father, who dies upon donning it. After being blamed for the murder, Dastan flees Alamut with Tamina. When Tamina attempts to kill the prince, Dastan discovers the dagger can reverse time and only the one who activated and holds it is aware of what happened. After an encounter with shady ostrich racing-organizer Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina) and his knife-throwing African friend Seso (Steve Toussaint), Dastan and Tamina go to Avrat for Sharaman's funeral. Dastan attempts to convince Nizam that he did not kill his father, and notices Nizam's hands are burned by the same poison put on the robe that killed his father. Garsiv and the city guards appear and attack Dastan and he is forced to escape.

Dastan catches up with Tamina and explains that Nizam was behind the murder. Once Tamina finally explains everything about the Dagger, Dastan realizes why Nizam wants the Dagger of Time: to use it with the massive Sandglass to go back in time and undo saving Sharaman from a lion so he could become king. He fabricated the false allegations that Alamut had been dealing weapons to Persia's enemies so that he would have the opportunity to search the city for the Sandglass. However, opening the Sandglass would release the sands and destroy the entire world. Meanwhile, Nizam hires the Hassansins to slay Dastan.

Dastan and Tamina are again captured by Sheik Amar, seeking to rebuild his ruined business by turning them in for bounty. But that night, the Hassansin leader, Zolm (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) attacks the group with vipers, which are killed by Dastan through usage of the dagger. Amar decides to go along with Dastan and Tamina to a secret sanctuary near India. However, they run into Garsiv's men. Dastan manages to persuade his brother that he is innocent, only for Garsiv to be fatally wounded by a Hassansin. The Hassansins attack, while Dastan and Tamina sneak away to the secret cave where they can hide the Dagger. After Dastan prevents Tamina from giving up her life to protect the Dagger, they are found and Zolm manages to snatch the Dagger of Time from Tamina. However, Dastan is saved from the last Hassansin by Garsiv, who then dies of his wounds.

The group returns to Alamut to reveal the truth about Nizam and the Dagger to Tus. Seso manages to take back the Dagger after a battle with Setam, the Hassansin who killed Garsiv, that ends up killing both men. Dastan confronts Tus and explains the dagger's mechanics to him and then stabs the dagger into his heart, killing himself; Tus brings Dastan back to life by rewinding time and realizes his brother has been innocent all along. Soon after, however, Nizam arrives and kills Tus, leaving an Hassansin, Ghazab, to kill Dastan. Tamina arrives to help Dastan defeat Ghazab as Nizam goes to the Sandglass caves beneath Alamut. Dastan and Tamina go behind, and in the way Dastan kills Zolm with the Hassansin's own snake. They then reach Nizam before he can pierce the Sandglass with the Dagger, but he knocks Tamina and Dastan over the edge. Dastan grabs hold of Tamina, but after admitting she loves him and asking Dastan to stop him, Tamina lets go, plummeting to her death. Dastan then pulls himself up just as Nizam stabs the Sandglass with the Dagger. Dastan grabs hold and opens the Dagger, rather than activating it. This causes Dastan to go back to when he first obtained the Dagger.

Dastan stops the siege of Alamut, revealing Nizam's treachery; Nizam attacks Dastan, but is killed by Tus. After apologizing for the ransacking of her city, Tus suggests that perhaps Tamina should become Dastan's wife as a sign of good will since he was the "conqueror and savior of her city" as Tus described him. Prince Dastan returns the Dagger of Time to Tamina, which changes her view of him. Later on, the two take a walk together, and Dastan and Tamina have a small conversation, in which Dastan hints at his knowledge of the Dagger's powers and tells Tamina that he looks forward to a future with her.