Valhalla Rising is a 2009 English-language Danish adventure drama film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen. The film takes place around the year 1096 AD and follows a Norse warrior named One-Eye and a boy as they travel with a band of Christian Crusaders by ship in the hopes of finding the Holy Land. Instead, they find themselves in an unknown land (actually North America) where they are assailed by unseen forces and dark visions.
Shot entirely in Scotland, the title is derived from the combination of Kenneth Anger's films Scorpio Rising and Lucifer Rising with a Viking theme. While the film garnered generally positive reviews, it only made back a fraction–about $31,000–of its $5.7 million production cost.
