The film won five Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, and was nominated for an additional five.
Plot
In the 13th century, after several years of political unrest, Scotland is invaded and conquered by King Edward I of England (known as "Longshanks") (Patrick McGoohan). Longshanks summons the defeated Scottish nobles to a meeting but, instead of discussing terms as they were led to expect, he simply hangs them en masse. Young William Wallace witnesses the treachery of Longshanks, survives the death of his father and brother, and is taken abroad by his uncle where he is educated.
Twenty or so years later, Longshanks attracts English noblemen to Scotland by granting them land and special privileges, including Primae Noctis, the right of the lord to take a Scottish bride into his bed on her wedding night. When Wallace (Mel Gibson) returns home, he falls in love with his childhood sweetheart, Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack). Intending to live peacefully, the two marry in secret so that she does not have to spend a night in the bed of the English lord.
The next day an English soldier tries to rape Murron and she fights him off, drawing blood. She and Wallace then attempt to flee. After sending Murron off on horseback and arranging to rendezvous with her later, Wallace manages to escape to safety. However, Murron is captured and publicly executed by the village magistrate, who proclaims that "an assault on the King's soldiers is the same as an assault on the King himself." In retribution, Wallace and his fellow villagers slaughter the English garrison and execute the magistrate. Scots from the surrounding clans join Wallace, and they join forces to kill the English lord.
Now compelled to rebel against the English, Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, as well as the sacking of the city of York. All the while, he seeks the assistance of Robert the Bruce (Angus Macfadyen), son of nobleman Robert the Elder and chief contender for the Scottish crown. Despite his growing admiration for Wallace and his cause, the Bruce is dominated by his father who wishes to secure the throne for his son by submitting to the English.
Worried by the threat of the rebellion, Longshanks sends the wife of his son Edward, the French princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau), to negotiate with Wallace. Wallace refuses the bribe sent with Isabelle by Longshanks and she becomes enamored with Wallace after meeting him in person. At the same time and unbeknownst to Isabelle and Wallace, Longshanks gathers an army to invade Scotland. Warned of the coming invasion by a messenger sent by Isabelle, Wallace implores the Scottish nobility who are more concerned with their own welfare, that immediate action is needed to counter the threat and take back the country.
Personally leading the English army, Longshanks confronts the Scots at the bloody Battle of Falkirk, where noblemen Lochlan and Mornay betray Wallace and, rather than attacking, withdraw when summoned. The Scots lose the battle and Wallace is nearly killed when, in a last desperate act, he charges toward the departing Longshanks on horseback to personally kill him. However, he is intercepted by one of the king's lancers, who turns out to be Robert the Bruce. Realizing Robert has betrayed him, Wallace simply gives up and is nearly captured by the English. Robert, immediately remorseful of his betrayal, sends Wallace off to safety before he is captured.
Wallace then goes into hiding and, in retribution for their betrayal of him at Falkirk, brutally murders Mornay and Lochlan. He then wages a protracted guerrilla war against the English.
Robert the Bruce, intending to join Wallace and commit troops to the war against the English, then sets up a meeting with him in Edinburgh. Unknown to either man, however, Robert's father has conspired with other nobles to capture Wallace and hand him over to the English. Learning of his treachery, the Bruce disowns his father.
In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason and, after refusing to acknowledge Longshanks as his king, sentenced to be purified by pain. Following an earlier tryst with Wallace, Isabelle exacts her own revenge on the now terminally ill Longshanks by telling him she is pregnant with another man's child and intends to end Longshank's line and rule in his son's place.
Meanwhile, Wallace is taken to the Tower of London, where a crowd has gathered to witness his execution. Despite being hanged, racked and disemboweled alive, Wallace refuses to beg for mercy. Awed by his courage, the watching Londoners begin to yell for mercy and the magistrate offers him one final chance. Instead, the defiant Wallace uses the last of his strength to shout, "Freedom!" Just before the axe falls, Wallace sees his friends Hamish and Stephen watching from the crowd and a vision of Murron also in the crowd smiling at him.
In 1314, nine years after Wallace's death, Robert the Bruce, now Scotland's king and still guilt-ridden over his involvement in Wallace's betrayal, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops on the fields of Bannockburn where he is to formally accept English rule. As he begins to ride toward the English, the Bruce stops and turns back to his troops. Invoking Wallace's memory, he implores them to fight with him as they did with Wallace. He then leads his army into battle against the English, with him and his men chanting Wallace's name as they charge. This surprises the English soldiers, who were not expecting to fight.
The film ends with a voice-over from Gibson, which intones that Scotland won their freedom in this battle.
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