Vikingdom is a 2013 fantasy movie directed by Yusry A. Halim and starring Dominic Purcell and Natassia Malthe. Set in the Middle Ages when the Nordic people were slowly abandoning their old religion in place for Christianity, Thor the God of Thunder is outraged that mankind has forsaken them and sets out to merge Midgard, Vallhala and Hellheim as punishment by gathering mythic relics and use them before the Blood Eclipse takes place. Eirick, an recently-murdered Norse king who was brought back to life by the goddess Freyja, is tasked with stopping Thor from succeeding and he must form a group of companions to help him venture into the underworld (where none of the gods may enter - only the undead like Eirick himself) to find the Horn of Hel that can banish Thor once its blown.
This movie provides examples of:
- 0% Approval Rating: Beothric after becoming the new king turns into such warmongering tyrant and Bad Boss that when his brother shows up to ask his help, he orders his men to execute him and they chose to defect to his side instead of carrying out his orders.
- Action Girl: Brynna. She is a seasoned sailor who had her own fair of adventures and fights in the frontline along with her male companions.
- Abdicate the Throne: Sort of. Eirick makes his younger brother king with his last breath, but is restored to life shortly after. Instead of reclaiming his throne, he lives for the next decade as an hermit in the woods.
- Adaptational Villainy: Thor carried the title of "Mankind's protector" and defended Midgard from giants and monsters. Here, he is the Big Bad hellbent on destroying the humans in retaliation for embracing Christianity and rejecting him and the rest of the Norse Gods. Being played by Jon Foo certainly helps.
- Freyr is revealed to be in on Thor's scheme in the climax of the film, having manipulated Eirick into retrieving the horn from Hel, a far-cry from original depictions of a god known for his generosity. It's implied Humanity's rejection of the Norse Gods embittered him deeply and that he was generous as his original depiction in the past
- Things get ambiguous if this applies to all the Norse Gods and Odin does not show up to stop Thor's crusade on one hand.
- All Asians Know Kung Fu: Yang plays the trope straight, being a random slave from the Far East but a skilled enough martial artist where no one except for Thor himself could put him down.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Thor and Eirick are both in charge of their respective groups because they are the best fighters each has.
- Bad Boss:
- Thor makes it clear to his mortal followers that he could care less for what happens to them if the Eclipse destroys their realm.
- Beothric later turns into one, with his men deserting him in the first opportunity they can.
- Badass Longcoat: Yang, the resident Asian martial artists, sports one.
- Back from the Dead: The plot starts out with Eirick dying in battle and being brought back to life.
- Badass Normal:Eirick's whole group consists of these, and they even put up a good fight against Thor himself before he dispatches each member one by one.
- Big Bad: Thor wants to destroy humanity as punishment for abandoning the old gods, setting the heroes in the path to save the world. In reality, he is The Dragon while Frey is the true Big Bad.
- Bittersweet Ending: Thor and Frey are banished and Midgard is saved, but at the cost of the lives of several companions, including Brynna who sacrificed herself to save Eirick. In addition, their tale how they saved the world will likely be forgotten.
- Cain and Abel: Eirick's half-brother Beothric is revealed to have turned into a warmonger in service to Thor and orders his men to execute him. They secretly defect to Eirick's side and Beothric ends up being murdered by someone else unrelated.
- Crossover Cosmology: The movie pits Norse mythology against Christianity. While in one hand, the Norse gods are shown to be very real in contrast to the Christian god, one of the relics necessary to complete Thor's plan is Christian (the Necklace of Mary Magdalene).
- Culture Chop Suey: Basically an inverted Far East, as Western cultures are mixed together without rhyme or reason. Just as a random example, Thor's army in the beginning uses Norman kite shields to form a Roman testudo while Thor sports a Greek breastplate and a kilt.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Thor crucifies the monk guarding Mary Madgalene's relic inside the abbey at the start of the movie.
- Death of the Old Gods: What Thor is mad about: Worship of the Norse gods is being replaced with Christianity.
- Defector from Decadence: After being ordered to execute Eirick and his companions, a large company of Beothric's soldiers decide they are through serving a tyrant and join forces with Eirick instead, safely smuggling him out to safety. The remaining loyalists attempt to warn their leader, but in the end join forces with them after Beothric is poisoned.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Eirick could not reach Freyja again after coming back to life, he ended up falling into depression and becoming an hermit. After being convinced by his old love to move on and hook up with Brynna, she is killed while shielding him from an attack at the end of the movie.
- Divine Date: Eirick and Freyja were a couple prior to the movie's events. Sadly, the condition to restore Eirick back to life after falling in battle was that they could never be together again.
- Divine Parentage: Eirick is revealed to have one, due to being Thor's demigod son. It's what allowed him to return to life after being killed, travel to Hel, and make love to the Love Goddess Freyja without losing his soul and mind.
- Dull Surprise: Dominic Purcell throughout the film. He is supposed to be a charismatic king brought back to life that got the goddess of love to fall in love with him. Whether the lack of emotion is the actor's interpretation of an undead king or just not giving a care is up in the air. However, a number of other actors have the same lack of emotion.
- Establishing Character Moment: To show the viewers that this Thor isn't the typical heroic one from legends or the Marvel Comics that everyone is accustomed to, he crucifies a Christian monk to spite him. This Thor isn't messing around...
- Even Evil Has Standards: Initially, Thor's generals followed him on the belief that they would conquer Midgard with his leadership and restore the good old days back. After hearing that completing the Blood Eclipse ritual would devastate the world and destroy everything including humanity, they attempt turning on him, but he manages to intimidate them into their place. They do desert him at the first opportunity they have.
- Evil Redhead: Thor has bright-red hair, which is closer to the original myths more than most recent depictions.
- Eye Scream: Thor pulls out the eye of one his rebellious lieutenants.
- Funny Background Event: A lot, all of them (most probably) unintentional. There's a horse calmly peeing into an artificial shrubbery or an extra slipping and falling on his backside in one of the many fights, then deciding to call it a day and lying down "dead".
- The Juggernaut: Thor is this, in a Brought Down to Badass example. Despite being a Physical God now made of flesh and bone on Earth, he's still very much Made of Iron with Super-Strength even without his hammer and can take any beating given to him and get right back up to continue fighting.
- Kick the Dog: As evidenced by other tropes, Thor likes to do this a lot out of spite.He even went so far as to call Eirick's mother a willing whore who easily gave into his advances after revealing his parentage.
- Large and in Charge: Thor towers absolutely everyone, courtesy of being played by Conan Stevens.
- Large Ham: Conan Stevens as Thor. Apparently, he is the only one who figured out this was going to be a bad film and so decided to have some fun with the role.
- Light Is Not Good: Frey, the God of Light who sends Eirick in his quest, is the true villain of the movie.
- Manipulative Bastard: Frey is actually the true Big Bad, having manipulated Eirick into searching for the Horn of Hel (since no God or mortal could enter Helheim where it was kept) so they could gather the final relic needed to merge the realms.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Wanting to destroy Midgard with the Blood Eclipse ritual makes Thor one.
- Physical God: While on Midgard, Thor is a being of flesh and blood, something which other characters point out. He can still be injured, but it doesn't seem to affect him in any lasting manner, even taking a massive ass-kicking from his demigod son, he gets up as if nothing happened. The only way to get rid of him is blowing the Horn of Hel to banish him back to Valhalla.
- Poor Communication Kills: The entire final act. The druid is a Fake Defector, and the horn he gave to the villains is a fake and a trap. When Eirick is defeated the fake horn makes the ritual blow up in Thor and Frey's faces. If he had told any of his allies this the villains would just assume they never escaped their prison, done the ritual, and the end effect would have been exactly the same without all the deaths from the final battle.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: While he isn't a monarch anymore after returning from the dead and lives as an exile, Eirick is the leader of the band and his previous subjects chose to follow him when he returns specially after his brother turns into a real douchebag.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Where to start?
- In Norse Mythology, Thor was the closest thing to a conventional hero the Vikings had and fought tooth and nail to defend against Ragnarok. Here, he's an Omnicidal Maniac who wants to destroy the universe to spite Christians, his short-sighted infidelity with mortals spawning demigod heroes being closer to the kind of thing gods from Classical Mythology would be up to.
- Freyja resurrected Eirick because she could not be with him in Valhalla. In Norse Mythology, there was no say in any of the gods not being allowed in Valhalla (since Valhalla is in Asgard, the Realm of the Aesir, whom Freyja is an honorary member of). In-fact, she owns her own plot in the Viking afterlife called Fólkvangr, a meadow where half of the honored dead reside, so it was very likely that if Freyja really wanted to be with him (and wasn't
secretly in on Freyr and Thor's plot like the fan-theories claim) than letting him die in battle would have been the best thing for them. - The "Blood Eclipse" was never a thing in mythology or basic astronomy.
- Stonehenge existed long before the Vikings and the Viking religion was formed and there are no recorded accounts of Vikings interacting with Stonehenge at any point.
- Self-Disposing Villain: At the end of the movie, Thor and Frey's plot is undone by themselves when they are tricked by the druid into blowing a horn that drags them back to Asgard.
- Starcrossed Lovers: Eirick and Freyja.
- Smurfette Principle: Brynna is the only girl among Eirick's companions and most predominant female character in the story besides Freyja, who only appears twice, during a flashback and a vision respectively.
- Taking the Bullet: Brynna takes a fatal blow intended for Eirick during the final battle.
- Token Evil Teammate: Bernard is blatantly one, as he is referred to as a slayer of women and children.
- Token Minority: Yang is an Asian fighter who finds himself in Scandinavia as a slave and joins Eirick's group after being released. He is mistakenly thought to be an elf.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Thor's view of humanity. Despite protecting humans for thousands of years they are now abandoning the Norse gods for a new god.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Beothric is poisoned by Frey after delivering him the Horn of Hel.
- The Undead: Eirick is referred as one and its even a plot-point, since only those who are undead may enter Hel. In practice, he is not too different from an mortal being.
