Legend

In order to cast the world into eternal night, the Lord of Darkness sends the goblin Blix to kill the unicorns in the forest near his castle and bring him their horns. Told by Darkness that the best bait is Innocence, Blix and her colleagues Pox and Blunder follow Princess Lili as she visits her forest-dwelling paramour, Jack O' the Green. Jack teaches Lili to speak to animals, then takes her blindfolded to a forest stream where the unicorns frolic. Despite Jack's fervent warnings not to do so, Lili holds out her hand to touch the stallion. This act allows Blix to shoot him with a poison dart from her blowpipe and the unicorns flee. Jack is angry, but Lili laughs off his concern and issues a challenge by throwing her ring into a pond, declaring she will marry whoever finds it. While Jack dives in after the ring, the goblins track down the poisoned stallion and sever his horn, causing winter to descend. Lili runs off in terror, and Jack is barely able to break through the surface of the now-frozen pond. Lili takes refuge in a peasant cottage, where she sees the goblins test the horn's magic powers and overhears how she was the bait in their slaying of the stallion. She follows the goblins to a rendezvous with Darkness, who tells them the world cannot be cast into eternal night as long as the surviving mare still lives. Blunder unsuccessfully tries using the horn to overthrow Darkness and is sent into the castle's dungeon. Meanwhile, Jack, accompanied by forest elf Honeythorn Gump, will-o'-the-wisp Fairy Oona, and dwarves Brown Tom and Screwball, finds the mare mourning the lifeless stallion. Jack begs forgiveness from the mare, who communicates to him that the horn must be recovered and returned to the stallion by a great hero. Deciding Jack is that hero, the group leaves Brown Tom to guard the unicorns while they retrieve a hidden cache of ancient weapons and armor. In their absence, Lili warns Brown Tom of the goblins coming back to kill the mare. He is then incapacitated by the goblins, who capture both Lili and the mare. As Jack and his group make their way to Darkness' castle, they are attacked by the swamp hag Meg Mucklebones. Jack distracts her with flattery before decapitating her. At the castle, Jack's group falls into an underground prison cell where they encounter Blunder, who is revealed to be a dwarf gone astray, before he is dragged off by an ogre to be baked into a pie, and Oona, forced to reveal she is a fairy, retrieves the keys to free the others. Darkness realizes that even he is touched by Lili's innocence and releases her to wander the castle. He leaves lavish gifts for her, including an enchanted, dancing dress that hypnotizes her. Revealing himself, Darkness asks Lili to marry him. She resists, but then agrees on the condition that she will be the one to kill the mare during the upcoming ritual. Overhearing their conversation, Jack and Gump learn Darkness can be destroyed by daylight. After saving Blunder, the group uses the ogres' giant metal platters as makeshift mirrors to reflect sunlight into the sacrificial chamber. As the ritual begins, Lili frees the mare and Darkness strikes her unconscious. Jack fights Darkness, wounding him with the stallion's horn right before the redirected light of the sunset shines into the room, blasting Darkness to the edge of the void. Darkness warns them that because evil lurks in all beings, he will never truly be vanquished. Wavering in doubt, Jack finally severs the hand of Darkness, expelling him into the void. Gump then returns the stallion to life by magically reattaching its horn. With the stallion and mare reunited, winter immediately ends. Jack retrieves Lili's ring from the pond and places it on her finger, waking her from Darkness's spell. There are three different versions of the film's conclusion: In the American theatrical version, Jack and Lili assure each other of their love and watch the unicorns reunite, and they run off into the sunset together, hailed by the forest fairies and the unicorns. Darkness watches them from the void, laughing. The European theatrical version also ends with both Jack and Lili running off into the sunset, but without Darkness's final appearance. In the Director's Cut, Lili wakes with Jack trying to convince her she was merely dreaming, but she is ultimately unconvinced. They confess their true love for each other, but Lili realizes they live in two different worlds. She puts the ring on his finger and tells him to treasure it, then asks if she can come back tomorrow. Jack says he will always be there for her and Lili returns to her home and to her responsibilities. Jack happily runs off into the sunset, hailed by the forest fairies and the revived unicorns.

Plot from Legend (1985 film)CC BY-SA 4.0