The 11 Wildest Moments From Robert Eggers' "The Northman"
The Northman, the latest film from director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse), has wowed audiences everywhere with its unrelenting and ultra-violent tale of Viking vengeance.
Based on the tale that inspired Hamlet, the film tells the story of Prince Amleth, who seeks to murder his uncle for killing his father and kidnapping his mother. It's a brutal and mind-blowing epic, and to commemorate its release, here are 11 Wildest Moments From The Northman.
WARNING: SPOILERS AND SENSITIVE CONTENT AHEAD!!!
11.Dogs Down Below
The film wasted no time getting weird. As part of a coming-of-age ritual, a young Amleth and his father go down into an underground chamber with Heimir and start crawling and howling like dogs. They even lick water out of bowls and start burping and farting. The film isn't flatulent, but Amleth sure is.
10.The Tree of Kings
When Amleth and his father are done acting like wolves, Heimir guides them both on a magical and psychedelic journey. Aurvandil has his son touch the bloody wound on his stomach, and Amleth sees a dazzling tree rise out of his father's beating heart. Then, in a trippy vision, we all see the "Tree of Kings" carrying Amleth's ancestors on its branches, marking the beginning of Amleth's epic journey into manhood.
9.The Séance
When Amleth encounters the "He-Witch" in the middle of the night, the latter summons the spirit of the late Heimir using the Jest's skull. Heimer's ghost tells Amleth about the Night Blade, a magical sword that he can use to slay Fj?lnir in an obvious parallel to the legend of King Arthur, heightening the film's status as a medieval epic.
8.The Seeress
The night after the Vikings attack a village, Amleth encounters a mysterious seeress played by Bj?rk inside a burned temple. Though she has no eyes, she does see his future, saying that he'll exact his revenge against his uncle by a "burning lake." This Shakespearean moment is bizarre but brilliant, and Bj?rk makes the most out of her brief moment on camera.
7.Playing Hardball
If you thought men's hockey was brutal, you haven't seen anything yet. When Amleth is selected to play a violent game of knattleikr, he and the other players go all out and beat each other up to get the ball. But after Fj?lnir's youngest son gets hurt by one of the opposing players, Amleth headbutts him into a bloody pulp.
6.Berserker Fire
Preparing for an impending attack, Amleth and his fellow Vikings participate in a ceremonial dance around a fire and scream their heads off. Alexander Skarsg?rd lets out his inner wildman in this scene, yelling uncontrollably with a wolfskin on his head. You can tell the filmmakers and the actors held nothing back in creating this film, and we can't help but love it.
5.The Skeleton Knight
In his search for the Night Blade, Amleth encounters the corpse of a soldier that suddenly comes to life. In a scene straight out of The Lord of the Rings, Amleth faces the undead knight in combat, gaining the upper hand once his enemy is paralyzed by the moonlight. He reigns victorious once he decapitates the ghoulish soldier, and to add insult to injury, he lays its head to rest right next to its butt. Talk about a foul end.
4.Gudrún Reveals the Truth
When Amleth reunites with his mother, Gudrún, in a shocking twist, the latter reveals that she was his father's slave and became pregnant after he raped her. However, she also reveals that she conspired with Fj?lnir to have him and his father killed. If that didn't make her the worst mother ever, she tried to seduce her son and offered to be his queen, making the Lannisters look like the Brady Bunch.
3.The Valkyrie
Following Gunnar's funeral, we catch a sudden glimpse of a valkyrie riding a white horse into the sky. Though it clearly symbolizes Gunnar's passing into the afterlife, this moment still came out of nowhere. With her dazzling armor, piercing blue eyes, and tattooed teeth, the valkyrie makes a striking appearance that blew us all away in only a minute.
2.Berserker Attack
In a spectacular single take, we see Amleth and his fellow berserkers raid a village with sheer savagery, slicing off heads and even biting into their enemy's flesh. This scene is reminiscent of Apocalypse Now in terms of cinematography and carnage, and it's effective in showcasing the relentless man that Amleth has grown up to be.
1.The Gates of Hel
After Amleth razes Fj?lnir's village, the film reaches its fiery climax at the base of an active volcano. There, the Viking prince finally faces his uncle in battle, carrying nothing but their weapons in a ring of lava. Though Amleth meets his end in battle, he still succeeds and takes his uncle's head with him. It's a wild, testosterone-fueled battle that serves as the perfect ending to such an epic film.