Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a film based on the video game series of the same name.

The film features Dastan, an orphan adopted by the king. After playing a decisive role in capturing a holy city for the Persian Empire, Dastan is framed for the murder of his adoptive father. In the company of Tamina, princess of the city, and in possession of a dagger with the power to control time itself, he flees. Not only must he now clear his name and uncover the true nature of a treacherous plot, but also prevent the Dagger from falling into the wrong hands, which would have dire consequences indeed. The Prince must also avoid falling victim to the dreaded killers known as the Hassansins.

Now there's a character sheet for more details.

Tropes used in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time include:
  • All-Star Cast
  • Almost Kiss: When it finally happens it's at the worst possible time.
  • Always Save the Girl / Save the Princess: Well, once Dastan and Tamina stop trying to kill each other. Subverted when Tamina lets go of Dastan and willingly sacrifices her life than allow Dastan to save her (which would prevent him from stopping Nizam).
  • Anachronism Stew: The MST3K Mantra is in full effect, of course. The map at the beginning shows the extent of the Achaemenid Empire as it was before its conquest by Alexander (about 900 years before the film is set). References are made to the Turks, who at this point were a loose confederation of nomadic peoples in central Asia, yet are described in terms more evocative of the Ottoman Empire. Despite being pre-Islamic, the (presumably Sassanid) Persians use Arabic script.
  • Animal Gender Bender: Sheik Amar who arranges the ostrich races repeatedly refers to them and the only ostrich left later in the movie as "she", however, all the shown ostriches are dark bodied: they look like males.
  • Arabian Nights Days: It's Ancient Persia, but its portrayal is very heavily influenced by the trope.
  • Arc Words: Literal ones, that open and close the movie:

"It is said some lives are linked across time. Connected by an ancient calling that echoes through the ages."

Amar: (to a Hassansin warrior with a huge sword) You know what they say about men with big swords... (bends pinkie finger).

  • Cool Swords
  • Costume Porn
  • Dawn Attack: How the Persian army takes over Alamut.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: A throwaway line mentions the Crown Prince having several wives.
  • Dramatic Wind
  • Dual-Wielding
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Seso bravely battles the evil Hassansin knife thrower in order to get the Dagger back, resulting in an epic knife fight. Seso kills his opponent, only to look down and see that he had been struck in the chest by four knives. In his final moment, he grabs the Dagger and tosses it out the tower window, falling several stories and impaling itself in the wood right next to where Dastan, Tamina and Amar were waiting for it.
  • Elite Mooks: Hassansins.
  • Epic Movie: The price tag is up there with Titanic. It shows.
  • Escort Mission: Dastan, Tamina, Amar and Seso must travel to the mountains of India to the Sanctuary and return the Dagger to the stone it came from.
  • Everybody Lives: Due to a Reset Button ending, except Nizam.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Tamina, the reigning princess of Alamut, which is obviously an independent principality at the start of the movie. One comment by her suggests that for some reason, each woman who guards the time-reversing dagger is called a princess.
  • Fan Service
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Dastan - sanguine, Tamina - choleric, Amar - melancholic, Seso - phlegmatic.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Two of the Hassansins have severely scarred faces. One of them has a METAL scar. The scars on Nizam's hands provide a clue to Dastan about the real cause of why he's on the run in the first place. Dastan himself is covered in scars, seen in his Shirtless Scene early on, as well as one on his face.
  • The Hashshashin: Part of the antagonist force in the movie.
  • Heroic Fantasy Action Adventure
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Seso and Tamina. Thank goodness for the time reset.
  • Homage Shot: The scene where the camera rotates around The Prince on a high tower to give a good view of the landscape. The exact same shot which was used for viewpoints in Assassin's Creed, which was created by the same game studio as Prince of Persia.
  • Hope Spot: The Prince gives his life to prove to his brother that the Dagger is real and would work, assuming said brother would rewind to save him. It works. Then the uncle comes in and promptly kills said brother.
    • Done earlier in the exact same way with his other brother, who is just starting to believe Dastan... and then gets shot several times in the chest.
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Hassansins sure look like these.
  • How to Stop the Deus Ex Machina: The time-rewinding dagger only works with the Sands of Time, and getting it is very difficult, requiring going underground in the city of Alamut.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Implied to be the case with Princess Tamina and her ancestresses. According to the backstory she tells to Dastan, she is descended from a girl who managed to prevent the gods from destroying all of mankind through the wish of her pure heart that humanity would be spared.
  • Kill'Em All: Almost all main and secondary characters are dead by the end of the movie. But then, much as in the game, time travel makes everything okay.
  • Le Parkour: Of course. Wouldn't have been Prince of Persia without it!
  • A Light in the Distance: Bis signals the Persian army that the eastern gate is open by waving a torch in the distance.
  • MacGuffin: The Dagger of Time.
  • MacGuffin Delivery Service: Happens at least twice.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: The usage of the Dagger of Time is very clearly defined in that you can't exist in two places at the same time, merely move through time.
  • A Match Made in Stockholm: The movie starts out with the Prince's army taking Tamina prisoner, but ends with the Prince and Tamina in love.
  • Meaningful Echo: "Have I told you about the Ngbaka?" - "Yes, you have."
  • Mental Time Travel
  • Mutual Kill: Seso can throw any blade with surgical precision. He faces off against a Hassansin firing bolts out of a wrist-mounted automatic crossbow. Seso has one blade left, so he jumps out of the column, runs, aims and throws it, while the Hassansin is firing bolts at him. The blade flies true and kills the bad guy. Then Seso looks down and sees bolts embedded in his chest. He manages to throw the Dagger of Time off the tower before dying. Luckily, he gets better, along with everyone else thanks to a Reset Button.
  • Obviously Evil:
  • Opening Narration
  • Our Time Travel Is Different
  • Poison Is Corrosive: The poisoned robe corrodes flesh, but not linen.
  • Possession Implies Mastery
  • The Queen's Farsi: The movie version features Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role sporting a British accent, a nod to The Sands of Time game, in which both The Prince and Farah had British accents.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Hassansins. There's a snake guy, a fire guy, a whip guy, a knife guy, an axe guy...
  • Rated "M" for Manly
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent
  • Reset Button: The Dagger of Time, as long as you have a steady supply of Sands of Time.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Aside from the obviousness of Dastan and his brothers all being great warriors and Dastan saving the world, Tamina is very much this trope--not only does she prove herself quite capable of manipulating, deceiving and outsmarting her 'ally', as well as handy in a fight, as the Guardian of the Dagger she is literally the only thing standing between humanity and The End of the World as We Know It, and quite willing to perform a Heroic Sacrifice in order to fulfill her role.
  • Say My Name: Quite a bit of "DASTAAAN!" and "TAMINAAAAA!" between the two leads.
  • Scenery Porn: All the freaking time.
  • Screw Destiny: "I believe we make our own destiny, Princess."
  • Second-Hour Superpower: The Dagger of Time.
  • Sequel Hook: Not an evident one, but with all the events undone, Nizam is the only character dead by the end of the movie. Plenty of space to feature Amar, Seso and the Hassansins again in sequels.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Nizam wants to set right what, in his opinion, once went wrong, and Dastan does this in the end.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Dastan performs a Leap of Faith.
    • There are scenes in the movie resembling scenes from Disney's Aladdin.
    • Prince Dastan locking a prison like gate and taunting his pursuers with the key ring is a shoutout to the Pirates of the Caribbean with which this film shares a production company and producer.
  • Shovel Strike: Well, to be fair, the man did spit in Amar's face first.
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Dastan and Tamina, naturally.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Tamina is the only female character in the movie.
  • So Proud of You
  • Spikes of Villainy: The Hassansin that fought Seso in the Dagger of Time's chamber.
  • Standard Hero Reward
  • Stepping Stone Sword: Destan uses crossbow bolts to scale the city walls.
  • Stillborn Franchise
  • Storming the Castle: The film opens with the Persian army storming a fortified city. It's a subversion, however, because Dastan notes that his brother, who's leading the charge only knows how to attack from the front and would have sacrificed a lot of soldiers just to get inside. Dastan instead sneaks over a wall with his small group and opens the gates on that side, allowing the army in with a minimum of casualties.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy: The Sands of Time storm inside the Sandglass.
  • Sword Fights
  • Take That: Sheik Amar takes a stab on taxes.
  • Those Two Guys: Sheik Amar and Seso Ngbaka. Also Chekhov's Gunmen.
  • Time Skip: 15 years later.
  • Title Drop: Several times. The opening narration has a literal example, where the title of the movie comes up right as the narrator says it.
  • Twist Ending
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid:
    • Nizam, saving his brother's life and all. Well, until he became resentful.
    • Dastan, the boy that risked his life to save someone wrongly persecuted ends up leading the attack on an innocent nation, though doing so from misinformation and out of a concern to avoid, as much as possible, the horrendous death tolls that the original attack plan's full frontal assault would most likely incur going by Real Life historical record[1].
  • Visual Pun: Amar, after running from a fight, hides behind a chicken coop.
  • Warrior Princes
  • Wet Sari Scene: There's a scene where both our male and female lead jump into a fountain and end up soaked head to toe while making an escape, a rare instance of a unisex application of this trope. Here [dead link].
  • Whip It Good: One of the Hassansins wields two whips at the same time. One was a Daggertail from The Two Thrones and the other is an iron claw.
  • Whip Sword: The Daggertail.
  1. ↑ there's a reason attacking walled cities tended towards long sieges to starve out the defenders, after all
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