GODS OF EGYPT (2016)

Gods of Egypt is a 2016 Australian-American fantasy action film, featuringancient Egyptian deities, directed by Alex Proyas and stars Brenton Thwaites,Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung,Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, and Geoffrey Rush. Butler plays the god of darkness Set who takes over the Egyptian empire, and Thwaites plays the mortal hero Bek who partners with the god Horus, played by Coster-Waldau, to save the world and rescue his love.

Story:
The film takes place in an alternative Egypt, where the world is flat and gods live among mortal humans. The Egyptian godsare distinguished from humans by their greater height, golden blood, and ability to transform into animal-headed deity forms.

Bek, a mortal thief with little faith in gods and their good will towards mortals, with his love Zaya are attending the coronation of Horus, lord of the air, by his father, the abdicating King of Egypt Osiris. However, during the ceremony Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set, god of the desert, who seizes the throne and declares a new regime where the dead will have to pay with riches to pass into the afterlife. Horus duels Set in deity form, but is overpowered, and during the chaos, Bek is separated from Zaya. Set tears out Horus' eyes, which are the source of his power, and is prepared to kill him, but Horus' lover Hathor, the goddess of love, begs for his life.

A year passes, during which Set marries Hathor and commissions a grand obelisk tower to be built in honor of his father Rathe god of the sun. Bek has been working among the slaves building the monument, and has discovered Zaya now under the ownership of the chief architect Urshu. Believing that Horus is the only one who can defeat Set, she gives Bek the floorplans to Set's treasure vault from Urshu's library. Using it, he is able to steal back the one of Horus' eyes which he finds there. However, Urshu finds out about their theft and mortally wounds Zaya as the couple flee. Bek takes her body to the tomb of Osirus and Isis, Horus' mother who killed herself in grief, where the blind Horus has been living in exile. Bek makes a bargain with the blinded god: one of his eyes and Bek's knowledge of how to get into Set's desert pyramid, the base of his power, in exchange for Horus bringing Zaya back from the dead, before her spirit reaches the gate to the afterlife where she'll have no riches to pay. Horus agrees, though not telling Bek that he cannot resurrect the dead.

With only a single eye, Horus cannot assume deity form. He and Bek travel to a mountain shrine to Ra to plead for his help. Ra gives him the power to transform, and Horus is able to fly to Ra's divine vessel above the Earth. The source of creation, it carries a chain with which it drags the sun across the sky. Horus is unable to convince Ra to regrant him his power in full or to intervene and defeat Set himself, as Ra is both neutral about their conflict and daily at war with an enormous shadow beast, Apophis, that threatens to devour the world. Nevertheless, Horus obtains divine waters from Ra's vessel, which would weaken Set by killing the desert, if it is poured into the shrine of eternal fire in Set's pyramid. Ra tells Horus that his weakness is the result of him not fulfilling his destiny, which Horus believes means avenging his parent's deaths.

Horus and Bek return to the mortal world, where they must fight off Set's warriors. One survives to return to Set and tell him of the overheard bargain of Horus to bring Zaya back from the dead.

Set goes with his army to battle the last of the gods who have refused to bow to him, at the stronghold of his former wifeNephthys the goddess of protection. After Set defeats the rebel gods, he confronts Nephthys, attacks her, and cuts off her wings. He seeks to obtain the other god's powers in order to increase his own might. Having gained Horus' eye and Osirus' heart already.

Set asks Hathor to take him to the underworld which he next desires to conquer. Instead, she attempts to divine Horus' location in secret, but Set discovers her and threatens to kill her. She escapes by removing the bracelet of 42 stars, given to her by Horus when he had recued her when she served as a counselor in the underworld, it protects her from the underworld's demons, which seek to steal her back. Without the bracelet the demons pull her into the underworld and away from Set, until she puts the bracelet back on, which returns Hathor to the mortal world alone in the desert.

Eventually, Hathor finds Bek and Horus at Osiris' temple, where they battle Set's assassins Astarte and Anat and their giant serpents. Horus at first doesn't trust her, as she married Set who blinded him, while she tries convince him that Set is her enemy as well. When they tell her of their plan regarding Set's shrine, she thinks it impossible as it is protected by a sphinxwho will kill them if they cannot solve a riddle. The group then heads to the library of Thoth the god of wisdom, to recruit him for help, certain that he will be wise enough to answer the sphinx's riddle.

Hathor has the power to make anyone do as she commands, when she cannot command Bek, she knows that it is because he has given his heart to another. He reveals his grief as he tells her about Zaya, but Bek assures her that Horus has promised to bring Zaya back to life in exchange for Bek's help fighting Set. Later, Hathor confronts Horus for taking advantage of Bek when it could could cost his life. Reaching Thoth at his library, Horus fails to convince him to join them, but Bek succeeds by playing on Thoth's vanity. As they travel, Thoth tells Horus that he is a fool for not forgiving Hathor, as she only married Set to save Horus' life.

Arriving at Set's shrine, the gods and Bek overcome its traps, including the sphinx, to reach the source of Set's power. But before they can pour the divine water in, Set intercepts them and reveals Horus' deception to Bek: that he would be unable to bring Zaya back from the dead. Set destroys their flask of divine water, steals Thoth's brain, and collapses the shrine on them. Horus saves his allies' lives with his strength, but Bek is furious at him for lying about Zaya, whose spirit is just moments away from the afterlife's judging.

When Bek accuses Horus of not caring about mortals only his revenge, Horus confirms this. Hathor fells guilt for not exposing the deception and as the goddess of love feels that she needs to help the doomed lovers the only way she can. She then sacrifices her own safety for Zaya's payment, giving up her protective bracelet to Bek and calling Anubis to take him to Zaya. Hathor is then immediately kidnapped by the underworld's demons, while Horus realizing that he loves her feels pain at losing her again.

Having obtained the powers of the gods, Set travels to Ra, appealing to his father for approval and asking why Osirus was favored, while he was denied leadership and children. Ra claims that all of Set's prior mistreatment were tests preparing Set for his true role, taking Ra's place as the defender of the world aboard his solar barge. Set is dismayed to hear his destiny is to be alone above the planet until he dies and refuses. He wants to destroy the afterlife so that he can be immortal. Ra tries to fight him, but cannot as Set has taken the powers of several gods. He then stabs Ra, takes his staff of power, and casts him off the boat, freeing Apophis to consume both the mortal and underword realms.

Bek finds Zaya who refuses Hathor's gift as she doesn't want an afterlife without Bek, but then Apophis attacks and the gate to the afterlife is closed. Bek returns to the mortal world where Horus apologizes and the two resolve to take down Set, capturing Urshu so that he may guide them through Set's obelisk. While Set calls down Apophis on Egypt with Ra's staff, Horus battles him on the tower's peak but is heavily outmatched. However, Bek comes to his rescue and takes the other eye off of Set's armor. He throws it to Horus but falls off the obelisk, and Horus chooses to save Bek instead. This act restores Horus' power, and he battles Set until Horus brings down the obelisk and kills him. He then finds Ra and returns his staff to him, allowing Ra to once again repel Apophis.

Horus is restored as king and his other eye found and returned, but Bek has been killed. Having saved Ra, though, his grandfather repays Horus by bringing Bek and Zaya back to life. The other gods have their attributes restored, and Horus is crowned king and declares the afterlife will be open to the good doers of the world. Bek is made chief advisor, and he gives Horus back the bracelet, letting Horus rescue Hathor from the underworld.