Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. In today’s video,
we will be watching a movie titled “The Great Wall” which was released back in 2016.
So, let’s get started. Turn on the subtitles and spoilers ahead.
The movie starts with some opening texts stating “The Great Wall of
China” as one of mankind’s most enduring wonders.
The wall is 5500 miles long and it took over
1700 years to build it. The wall has protected its people from many dangers, of which many are
unknown. And this is the story of one of those dangers that The Great Wall has kept hidden.
A small group of mercenaries are being chased through the desert by a larger group of bandits.
After successfully sending the bandits in the wrong direction,
the mercenaries get on their way and hide out in a cave.
These mercenaries are in search of black powder;
a weapon which they haven’t seen but heard to be so powerful it turns air into fire.
While William and Tovar discuss their movements for the next day,
their companions get attacked and killed by a mysterious creature in the dark.
After noticing that their friends are gone, the two of them draw out their swords,
and watch each other’s backs in anticipation of the unknown creature.
When it finally attacks, William swings his sword and manages to cut its hand.
William decides to carry the creature’s hand in order to get it identified by someone
who knows about it. Few days later, they once again get chased down by the bandits,
and on their way to evade the deadly looters, William and Tovar reach a dead end at Great
Wall of China as they find themselves surrounded by arrows from soldiers of the Nameless Order.
William and Tovar are taken as prisoners
and the Chinese soldiers find the creature’s hand in their possession.
The high-ranking officers of the Nameless Order closely inspect the hand,
and Commander Lin asks William and Tovar how they found it. William answers that
they came across the creature a few days back, and he killed it himself.
The nameless order believe it to be impossible, but Strategist Wang
inspects William’s sword and confirms that he indeed slayed the creature.
Commander Lin asks them the reason behind them traveling in China.
William lies that they’re traders and were ambushed by the bandits. A fellow westerner
named Ballard watches on as the nameless order contemplates killing both William and Tovar.
However, Strategist Wang reasons that they don’t rush into any decision without any concrete proof.
Just then, a soldier alerts that a large number of Taoties are making their way to the Wall.
With no time to waste, the nameless order immediately springs to action and assembles their
armies at the top of the Wall. William and Tovar are also brought along while still being captive.
Uncertain of what is coming, William and Tovar are confused, but at the same time
they cannot help but get mesmerized by the firepower and arsenal of the nameless order.
The army assembled has a great range in combat with some being foot soldiers,
some specializing in archery and the females in blue have a cord attached
to their body through which they’ll descend and attack the intruders.
Soon after the defense and attack lines are set up, thousands of Taoties come charging forward
towards the wall. Following General Shao’s commands, the Chinese soldiers initiate the
attack by catapulting flaming rocks at the Taoties. Even shooting hundreds of arrows
fails to stop the unearthly beasts as they need to precisely hit its eyes in order to kill it.
Despite the strong attacking strategies of the Chinese army, the creatures are so many that they
keep storming forward. The general orders for the female soldiers to initiate their attack.
They leap from the high platforms with spears and keep the creatures from climbing up to the wall.
But this move also proves unsuccessful, as many of the female soldiers get eaten alive.
It’s evident that the nameless order is clearly losing this battle. And soon enough,
the Taotie queen makes her appearance who has guards protecting them at all times.
Strategist Wang informs the general that the queen is the one who commands them all,
and if she’s dead, the others will also die.
The general commands a direct attack on the queen,
but her strong guards form a shield around her and protect her from any damage.
Angered by this attack, the queen signals her followers to intensify their attack on the wall.
Soon, one Taotie gets to the top of the wall and starts attacking the Chinese soldiers.
William and Tovar finally see what they had killed a few days back.
They ask for Ballard’s help, who immediately cuts them loose.
Now that they’re free, William and Tovar team up and attack the creature. In the process,
William saves a nervous Chinese soldier. Despite how many times they attack the creature, it
doesn’t die or back down. It’s only when William shoots at its eyes, the Taotie dies. Through
their excellent teamwork, William and Tovar manage to kill quite a few of these creatures.
With the situation not looking good, the queen signals her followers to retreat
back. And on their way back, they don’t forget to carry the fallen ones. Soon,
all Taoties leave the wall, and the humans have one more day to live.
When General Shao and Commander Lin come forward, William and Tovar surrender their weapons.
General Shao orders his men to take them to the barracks and let them rest.
That night, Ballard meets them and asks why they are here. William tells him that they came in
search of black powder. Ballard then reveals that he came here for the same reason 25 years back,
but once he got captured by the nameless order, he hasn’t been able to escape.
Next day, William and Tovar get cleaned up and are invited to a feast. The nameless
order thanks them for showing bravery and helping them. During the feast, Commander Lin and William
get into a conversation. He learns that the nameless order were taught English by Ballard
who they haven’t allowed to leave in 25 years. Later, William is taken to the top of the wall,
and is asked by Commander Lin to attempt their special attack. Wiliam gets onto the
platform but later refuses to jump stating that he never trusts anyone with his life.
At night, Ballard shows William and Tovar the mysterious black powder which they have been
looking for. Mesmerized by the immense power of black powder, William and Tovar ask how they
can take it with them. Ballard then plans that when the wall gets attacked by the Taoties and
the nameless order gets busy with it, they will take a secret route out and escape from the Great
Wall. In hopes of making a fortune with black powder, William and Tovar agree to this idea.
Later, Strategist Wang asks William of a large magnet that he had in his bag.
William replies that he had the magnet with him when he killed a Taotie a few days back.
The nameless order believe that the magnet might have some power
that made the Taotie weak enough for William to kill it easily.
But to know if their theory is right, they must find a Taotie to test it on.
William asks what exactly are Taoties, and Strategist Wang tells them the entire story.
Centuries ago, a meteor hit earth and out of the meteor, the Taoties came and since then,
every 60 years they attempt to get past the Great Wall. The queen is fed by her followers
and when she is healthy, she reproduces and increases the population of the Taoties.
So far, the nameless order has managed to keep them off, but if they get beyond the Great Wall,
it’ll mean the whole world will have to battle them, and the human race might come to an end.
Just then, the nameless order gets alerted of one Toatei’s sighting. General Shao, Commander Lin
and a few men arrive at the top to kill it. The soldiers form a shield and slowly move forward.
But they are ambushed as another Taotie attacks them from behind. General Shao saves Commander
Lin by pushing her away, but in that process, he gets fatally injured and is on the verge of death.
Before breathing his last breath, General Shao warns others that the Taoties are smarter than
they think, and he appoints Commander Lin as the new general of the Nameless Order.
Moments later, an informer from the kingdom’s capital arrives
with a centuries old scroll which details the use of magnets to battle the Taoties.
After knowing the true story,
William offers to help capture one of the Taoties to test out their magnet theory.
Tovar questions William why he’s bothering to help the nameless order when their prime focus
should be on escaping with black powder. He
warns William to stick with their plan and not cause any problem.
Next day, in the midst of the fog, the nameless order prepares spears dipped
in sleeping potion to contain the creature. After waiting in silence,
the Taoties finally show up, and the nameless order begins their attack.
To prevent the Taoties from climbing up to the top, the wall has blades that come
out of the wall and slice them in half. As they get busy in battle,
William moves back to help Tovar and Ballard in their plan.
Tovar and Ballard are also waiting for William to arrive. Ballard suggests they just leave him,
but Tovar is adamant that he’s not leaving without William.
The nameless order, on the other hand, fires the spears that manage to pierce into some Taoties.
But it proves difficult to pull any of them up, as the creatures easily breakaway from the spears.
After multiple failed attempts, there’s only one Taotie left that is stuck to their spear.
However, that one also looks like it’s going to break free, but then
William comes back to help them. He suggests that pulling the chain too hard will cause
tension and will break the chain itself. So they should first wait for the sleeping potion to work.
To isolate that one Taotie from the others, the nameless order fires flaming rocks which
creates a barrier and buys them some time. Realizing that there isn’t much time left,
William slides down the chain to make sure that at least one gets captured.
After reaching the ground, William sees that the sleeping potion has finally worked,
and he ties up the Taotie in chains. He signals to Commander Lin to pull the chain back up.
William is about to get attacked, but luckily Tovar arrives just in time and saves him. While
still angry at William for not following their plan, Tovar risks his life to save his friend.
They work together to kill some of the Taoties,
but they soon realize that they’re going to get outnumbered.
William shoots an arrow upward to signal for help. Lin understands the situation
and commands her soldiers to prepare black powder weapons.
On her commands, the soldiers fire black powder arrows and explosives
which manages to fend off the Taoties, but also knocks out William in the process.
He later wakes up with minor injuries and gets thanked by Lin for his help. Later,
Strategist Wang steps in front of the captured creature and successfully manages to calm it
down with the help of the magnet. He wants to keep it in the wall to do more tests,
but the royal informer says that the emperor wants to witness it himself. So,
the captured Taotie is taken to the kingdom despite the nameless order’s protest.
William and Tovar get into an argument regarding their difference in views.
William wants to stay and help the nameless order, but Tovar believes it’s none of their concern.
Together with Ballard, Tovar breaks into the armory room and starts to steal black powder.
William arrives and tries to stop them. Tovar tries to reason with William, but after realizing
that he isn’t going to change his mind, Tovar and Ballard knock him out and leave with their steals.
After Tovar and Ballard get out of the wall, William is captured and is convicted
for their crimes. Lin is about to give him a death sentence, but then a soldier from
Nameless Order defends him saying that he witnessed everything that went down.
Tovar gets double crossed by Ballard and is left behind alone in the desert. However,
Ballard isn’t that lucky himself, as he gets captured by the bandits who have no
idea about black powder. Not knowing what they hold in their possession,
the bandits start to play around with it, and eventually it catches fire and kills all of them.
In the meantime, the nameless order finds out that the Taoties dug a tunnel and have already
gone past the wall. With their speed, Strategist Wang believes it’ll take them just days to reach
the kingdom, where the king and his ministers are downplaying how dangerous the Taotie really is.
With the king’s life in danger, the nameless order has no time to reach the kingdom by riding horses.
So, they decide to use black powder powered hot air balloons to travel to the kingdom. However,
due to its unfinished design, many of them fall to their death and only a few manage to fly.
Strategist Wang tells William that he is free to leave and can take as much
black powder as he wants. Now that the Taoties have gone past the Great Wall,
it is eventual that they’ll reach other parts of the world as well.
So, he suggests William to tell the world about everything he witnessed.
However, William isn’t ready to let go of Lin who has just set out to defend
her kingdom against the Taoties. He decides to go after Lin and help her in this battle.
Meanwhile, when the ministers are trying to figure out the effectiveness of the magnet,
the captured Taotie briefly gets back into its senses, and signals its queen
about the location of the kingdom. After getting the signal, the queen commands
her followers to change their direction and begin charging forward to the Chinese kingdom.
When Lin reaches the kingdom, the Taoties are already there and are wreaking havoc.
While fighting them off, Lin falls out of the hot air balloon. She
gets surrounded by the Taoties, but luckily William arrives and saves her.
They notice that the queen is feeding with the help of her followers. Strategist Wang says that
they have a chance while the queen is distracted. They get to the palace and meet the scared king.
Strategist Wang devises a plan where they’ll tie explosives to the captured Taotie and
feed it. Once it gets free, it will go to its queen and give her food.
Once that Taotie gets close to the queen, they can shoot black powder arrows and kill the queen.
They take the magnet away from the creature and when it wakes up, it turns its attention
towards the food. With them being protected by the magnet, the creature eats enough and moves to find
its queen. It soon gets inside the protected circle where the queen is peacefully feeding.
While Strategist Wang keeps the entrance protected by the help of the magnet,
Lin and William go to a higher ground to take aim at the queen. William’s first shot gets easily
blocked which angers the queen. She signals her followers to storm the nearby towers.
With the Taoties climbing on top of the towers,
Strategist Wang sacrifices his life and throws the magnet to Lin for her and William’s safety.
William takes another shot that too gets blocked off.
Now that the queen knows where she’s being attacked from, she signals all
of her followers to attack the tower in which William and Lin are hiding.
With not much time left, Lin hooks her rope to the top of the tower. She tells William that she has a
plan and he needs to trust her. While attached to the rope, Lin and William jump out of the tower.
William throws the magnet at the circle which weakens them enough that Lin manages to guide
her spear in. With the amount of black powder that’s inside the circle, the queen
finally gets blown off to pieces and dies.
With the death of the queen, all the Taoties freeze and fall off of the tower.
Lin and Wiliam have finally managed to save the human race.
When they return back to the Great Wall, William finds out that Tovar has been captured. He tells
Tovar that he successfully managed to defeat the Taoties and as an appreciation for his help,
Lin has allowed him to leave the Great Wall with all the black powder he can carry.
But instead of taking what he initially came for, William asks her to spare the life of his friend.
William and Tovar ride back to where they came from. Lin and William watch each other
as they are about to part ways. Tovar tells William he can stay back if he wants to.
William replies that he plans to come back once he helps his friend reach home.
Thank you so much for watching till the end. If you enjoyed the video, please leave a like,
comment down your thoughts on the movie, and most importantly,
don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more movie recaps.