300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Queen Gorgo of Sparta tells her men about the Battle of Marathon, in which King Darius of Persia was killed by General Themistocles of Athens ten years earlier. Darius’s son, Xerxes, witnesses his father’s death and is advised to not continue the war since “only the gods can defeat the Greeks”. Darius’s naval commander, Artemisia, claims that Darius’ last words were, in fact, a challenge and sends Xerxes on a journey through the desert. Xerxes finally reaches a cave and bathes in an otherworldly liquid, emerging as the 8-foot tall “God-King”. He returns to Persia and declares war on Greece to avenge his father. As Xerxes’s forces advance towards Thermopylae, Themistocles meets with the council and convinces them to provide him with a fleet to engage the Persians at the sea. Themistocles then travels to Sparta to ask King Leonidas for help, but is informed by Dilios that Leonidas is consulting the Oracle, and Gorgo is reluctant to side with Athens.

Themistocles later reunites with his old friend Scyllias, who infiltrated the Persian troops and learned Artemisia was born Greek, but defected to Persia as her family was raped and murdered by Greek hoplites. She was taken as a sex slave and subsequently left for dead in the streets. She was rescued and nursed back to health by a Persian emissary who then adopted her as his own. Throughout the following years, she was trained by the best Persian warriors and her adopted father. Eventually she became such a skilled and unstoppable warrior that she gained the attention of King Darius. He accepted her into his own family as well and made her a naval commander after she killed many of his enemies. It is also shown that her adopted father was the same emissary that Leonidas killed which has only further fueled her quest for revenge, not only for her biological family, but now also for her adopted one as well. Themistocles also learns that Leonidas has marched to fight the Persians with only 300 men.