Nicolas Cage is About to Whack you with his Sword, but a Black Guard got in his way.
Outcast is a 2014 American-Chinese-Canadian historical epic film, starring Hayden Christensen, Nicolas Cage and Liu Yi Fei.
During The Crusades, two Paladins, Sir Jacob (Hayden) and Sir Gallian (Cage) witnessed the horrors of war and decided to bail from their army, leaving their homes permanently and travelling to the East.
In Han Dynasty China, the ruthless Prince Shing, having being denied the throne by the Emperor due to his violent tendencies and sheer ruthlessness, decide to forcefully take over by usurping his own father. Realizing his younger brother, Prince Zhao, who is next in line to the throne, has fled with his only sister, Princess Lian, the power-hungry Shing will stop at nothing to have his siblings killed and eliminate everyone in his way to power.
An unlikely twist of fate ultimately results in Jacob saving Princess Lian and Prince Zhao, making himself an enemy to Prince Shing in the process, the once-proud knight and Paladin, Jacob, is the only hope to restore order to the throne.
Outcast contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: The film's two main heroes are named Jacob and Gallian. Huh.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Prince Shing is the most dangerous and powerful warrior in his army.
- Barbarian Longhair: On Prince Shing, the main villain.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The movie opens with Paladins, whose ranks include Jacob and Gallian, battling an Arab army while capturing the city. And late in the film there's Jacob and Gallian leading the resistance in fighting the Black Guards.
- Big Brother Bully: Prince Shing, who wants his siblings dead so that he can hog the throne for himself.
- Blatant Lies: After killing his father and usurping the throne, Prince Shing then announces to his army that "his younger brother, Prince Zhao, had killed the Emperor and is on the run", ordering the Black Guards to hunt down the younger prince at all costs. It's implied that the generals and commanders are well aware of the truth that Shing is lying to them, but they obeyed out of fear.
- Booby Trap: The resistance managed to take down chunks from the Black Guards' numbers using exploding sacks of gunpowder, buried in the underpass leading into their hill stronghold which intruders must cross. Their hideout also include swinging spiked logs that crushes trespassers.
- Bullying a Dragon: The Black Guards in the tavern beats up Jacob for no reason at all, thinking they can have their way flogging a drunkard for shits and giggles. But then Jacob turns out to be a skilled warrior and a killing machine, and quickly kills all the guards in an instant.
- Cain and Abel: The dynamic between the cruel, ruthless older Prince Shing, and his fairer, benevolent younger brother, Prince Zhao.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: At the end of the movie with Prince Shing dead, the boy-prince, Zhao, is then crowned Emperor, with Princess Lian by his side.
- Dark Is Evil: Played straight with Prince Shing and the Black Guards clad in black armour all the time. Especially Shing, who is rotten to the core.
- Destination Defenestration: In the inn battle, Jacob tackles a Black Guard out of a window on the tavern's top floor before landing on the roof. While Jacob continues running along the roof's sides, the Black Guard ends up falling to his death.
- Driven to Suicide: In the opening scene, much of the women population of a whole city of Arabs kills themselves in order to avoid capture, much to Jacob's horror.
- Drowning My Sorrows: How Princess Lian and Prince Zhao first meets Jacob, the crusader drinking himself under the table in a tavern. And then a group of Black Guards enters...
- Dual Wield: Prince Shing wields twin jians during his fight against Jacob.
- Elite Mooks: The dreaded Black Guards who serves Prince Shing directly, described as his best and most ruthless soldiers.
- The Evil Prince: Prince Shing, the Big Bad, is willing to have his siblings killed in order to take over the throne, personally stabs his own father the Emperor dead, and have entire villages massacred to hunt down everyone who stands in his way to power.
- Excrement Statement: After beating up a drunk Jacob, one of the Black Guards decide to pee on his face for no reason at all. This unfortunately (for the guards) serves as a Water Wake Up for Jacob, who then snatches the guard's spear and begin kicking ass.
- Eyepatch of Power: The leader of the Black Guards during the tavern scene sports one of these, over his left eye.
- Hold the Line: Gallian, upon witnessing his wife's death, purposely holds back an entire wave of Black Guards so that Jacob can escort Prince Zhao and Princess Lian away to safety. He did a great job as well, killing several enemies, until... see Human Pincushion.
- Home Field Advantage: During the battle between the Black Guards and the resistance, the latter are only effective in the battle because of having better familiarity with the mountain regions... but the moment the Black Guards breaches the mountain pass, the battle immediately turns against their favour.
- Home Guard: The resistance units are ultimately these, being civilain militia and volunteers who secretly opposes Prince Shing's rule.
- Human Pincushion: Gallian, after fighting dozens of Black Guards, ultimately had several spears thrushed into every part of his torso, shoulder, and guts, the last which kills him.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Jacob skewers quite a few enemies with flung spears. Also, Gallian's fate.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Jacob, besides being a skilled warrior, is also deadly with a bow, seeing how he took down a fleeing Black Guard on horseback some few hundred meters away... without hitting the little girl said guard is holding as a captive.
- Kneel Before Frodo: The remaining Black Guards, after Jacob kills Shing.
- La Résistance: After fleeing into the mountains, Jacob, Princess Lian and Prince Zhao eventually gets rescued by a platoon of resistance fighters who are opposing the Black Guards. Jacob is surprised to see his former mentor, Gallian, leading the resistance.
- Master Swordsman: Jacob and Shing. Naturally they have an epic Duel to the Death in the climax, with Jacob ultimately winning.
- Mighty Whitey: Sir Jacob and Sir Gallian, effectively; they are both Paladins who fled to Han Dynasty China, and ends up respectively saving a prince from his power-hungry sibling and leading a La Résistance unit. Their interference with the villainous Prince Shing's plans for taking over the throne effectively saved the entirety of China from tyranny.
- Moe Greene Special: The eyepatched Black Guard leader in the tavern gets killed in this way... via Jacob flinging a spear into his eyepatch, nailing his entire head into a pillar.
- Once More, with Clarity: When Gallian last saw Jacob, he believes that Jacob is following through his superior's orders to massacre an entire refugee camp full of women, prompting Gallian to leave Jacob in disgust, Jacob later divulges that the women actually killed themselves to prevent their capture, before Jacob can stop them, which leads to Jacob renouncing his profession as a Paladin out of guilt.
- Praetorian Guard: The Black Guards are initially these to the lawful Han Emperor, until Prince Shing's takeover.
- Relative Button: When Captain Wu tried to show resistance against Prince Shing, the evil prince threatens the captain for him to know his place, or else he have the captain's children nailed to walls in several pieces, and having the captain's wife pleasure all his soldiers. That is enough to force Wu to reluctantly submit leadership of the guards to Prince Shing.
- Self-Destructive Charge: Gallian, after witnessing his wife's death. He managed to kill several Black Guards, but ends up being overwhelmed and killed merely a few feet away from Prince Shing. Naturally the evil prince uses this chance to gloat at his predicament.
- The Usurper: Prince Shing murders his own father after being denied the throne (for good reason), and intends to have his sister and younger brother executed to prevent anyone from getting into his way of taking over the kingdom.
