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Official Site: Paramount Pictures

Beowulf is a 2007 American performance capture fantasy film that is based on the Anglo-Saxon English epic poem of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through a motion capture process similar to the technique used in The Polar Express and Monster House. The cast includes Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie. It was released in the United Kingdom and United States on November 16, 2007, and was available to view in IMAX 3D, RealD, Dolby 3D and standard 2D format.

Set in Denmark in the 6th century, the film opens with King Hroþgar celebrating the construction of his mead hall, Heorot. However, the music disturbs and enrages the monstrous creature Grendel, who attacks the mead hall and slaughters nearly all of the people there. He retreats to his mother's cave when Hrothgar challenges him to fight. His mother, a water-demon, takes interest in Hroþgar's presence. Hrothgar has the mead hall sealed and offers half of the gold in his kingdom for an hero to kill Grendel. Beowulf and his group of Geats arrive by ship, and Beowulf agrees to slay Grendel. That night, Beowulf strips naked because he believes it would be more honorable to fight Grendel with neither weapon nor armor so they may fight as equals. The Geats bed down in the mead hall when challenged by Unferð, Hroþgar's skeptical advisor. Their singing attracts Grendel, and Beowulf mortally wounds him in unarmed combat by breaking his left arm off. Grendel crawls back to his cave and later dies under his mother's caresses.

Grendel's vengeful mother kills all the rest of the Geats except Beowulf and his friend Wiglaf. Hrothgar reveals that Grendel's mother killed the men, and Beowulf decides to kill her too when Hroþgar says that she is the last of demonkind. Hroþgar does not reveal where Grendel's father is but offers the curious opinion that he poses no threat to them.

Beowulf and Wiglaf go to the cave where Grendel's mother lives, but only Beowulf ventures in, armed with the sword Hrunting and a golden horn shaped like a dragon. Grendel's mother appears as a golden naked woman and seduces Beowulf into giving her a son; in exchange, she promises Beowulf's name will be legendary for all time. Beowulf returns to Heorot with Grendel's severed head which is unceremoniously tossed into the ocean. He then dissembles about killing Grendel's mother and losing Hrunting and the horn to her. When Hroþgar privately confronts Beowulf he lets slip with the truth. Hroþgar then reveals that he was Grendel's father. Thus freed from the curse of Grendel's mother, Hroþgar implies that the burden is now Beowulf's to bear. He informs his people that Beowulf will become king upon his retirement and throws himself from the battlements to his death. Beowulf is crowned king soon after.

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