History Film / TheThirteenthWarrior

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: More like Politically Correct Adaptation, even if Creator/MichaelCrichton wrote both the book and the script. The movie excises the explicit references to slavery, including their sexual duties, in the book. The HumanSacrifice in the VikingFuneral may or may not be a slave, as she appears willing, and is killed in the fire offscreen. In the book, while she volunteered, her slave status and the Northmen's societal norms as a whole make it QuestionableConsent and DeliberateValuesDissonance for the reader. As part.of the ritual, she's also gangbanged by several men one by one, and later throttled by two of them while she's stabbed by an old crone overseeing it all, and her body is left on the ship to be set on fire. We are also told in the movie that this is an "old way" on the verge of being abandoned by the Vikings. Also unlike in the book, Ahmad has a romance with a free Norse woman instead of bedding slaves before the final battle [[spoiler:- and after, for Buliwyf's own funeral, to the point where Ahmad himself helps carry out the human sacrifice afterward]].

''The 13th Warrior'' is a 1999 Action/Adventure film directed by Creator/JohnMcTiernan, based on the book ''[[Literature/TheThirteenthWarrior The Eaters of the Dead]]'' by Creator/MichaelCrichton, who also directed parts of the film.

* RatedMForManly

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: More like Politically Correct Adaptation, even if Creator/MichaelCrichton wrote both the book and the script. The movie excises the explicit references to slavery in the book. The HumanSacrifice in the VikingFuneral may or may not be a slave, as she appears willing, and is killed in the fire offscreen. In the book, she was gangraped, throttled, and stabbed beforehand. We are also told that this is an "old way" on the verge of being abandoned by the Vikings. Also unlike in the book, Ahmad has a romance with a free Norse woman instead of raping slaves before the final battle.

* AdaptationalBadass: While the Ahmad in the book is just a diplomat on a mission and exiled in all but name due to committing adultery with a merchant's horny wife, has no useful practical skills (as opposed to just knowing different languages) relevant to the Northmen's quest, and barely manages to keep himself alive in fights, the Ahmad in the movie is far more romantic and impressive: he was banished for his (implied to be unconsummated) love of a woman forced to marry another against her will, and is [[RenaissanceMan a talented equestrian, swordsman and blacksmith]]. He is also good enough with languages to be able to learn one fluently just by careful observation and listening, if with the help of an immersive environment, while in the book he relies a lot on Northmen translating for him (into Latin) and only slowly picks up on their language. He does start the movie about as competent in a fight as his book equivalent, but it turns out it's just because he is not trained to use the local kind of sword.

* AdaptationalBadass: While the Ahmad in the book is just a diplomat on a mission, has no useful skills, and barely manages to keep himself alive in fights, the Ahmad in the movie was banished for his (implied to be unconsummated) love of a woman forced to marry another against her will, and is [[RenaissanceMan a talented equestrian, swordsman and blacksmith]]. He is also good enough with languages to be able to learn one just by careful observation and listening, if with the help of an immersive environment. He does start the movie about as competent in a fight as his book equivalent, but it turns out it's just because he is not trained to use the local kind of sword.

* TranslationConvention: In the beginning of the film, Ahmad ibn Fadlan speaks Arabic, which the movie-goers hear as English. He travels with Norsemen, who speak only Norse. Over a montage, he makes a dedicated effort to learn their language. The dialogue changes slowly but surely from Norse to English, showing that Ahmad has learned the language. In the book, his character spends most of the story slowly learning the language and having most things translated into Latin by bilingual Norsemen (usually Herger).

* AdaptationalBadass: While the Ahmad in the book is just a diplomat on a mission, has no particular skills, and barely manages to keep himself alive in fights, the Ahmad in the movie was banished for his (implied to be unconsummated) love of a woman forced to marry another against her will, and is [[RenaissanceMan a talented equestrian, swordsman and blacksmith]]. He is also capable of learning a language just by careful observation and listening (at least in an immersive environment). He does start the movie about as competent in a fight as his book equivalent, but it turns out it's because he doesn't know how to use that style of sword.

** The Wendol get this even more than in the original book. In addition to the Venuses, they also have body paint and cave paintings (which Neanderthals weren't thought to have [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting at the time the film was made]]), and fight with horses and thrown javelins. However, [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality it is not unbelievable]] that they would pick new technology from their neighbors if they lived for another 30-40,000 years.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Ahmad, unable to wield a Viking broadsword, uses a grindstone to turn it into a Arabian shamshir. In real life, this would result in a useless sword because of the different forging techniques used to make them. The sword would now be nearly unable to hold an edge and would be incredibly weak - likely either breaking or bending the first time it hit something. Not only this, but he manages to do it in what appears to be a fairly short period of time, while a grind of this magnitude on a hand-worked wheel would take ''days''.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Ahmad's horse and sabre are laughed off as small by the Vikings but prove to be fast and deadly in his hands. Both are old clichés. In reality, Viking horses were small, and European swords were not as heavy and cumbersome as popularly believed.

* HollywoodTactics: The Wendol have a powerful skirmishing cavalry, but by the end of the film they are just sending frontal charge after frontal charge, against an entrenched enemy no less. They also only attack the village in one place, even though they have seemingly enough numbers to besiege the whole place. When their leader is killed, they immediately retreat to presumably never be heard of again.

* MadnessMantra: Ahmad manages to kill one of the Wendols in the second battle, and gets a chance to inspect the body to discover that the Wendols are not supernatural creatures but rather ordinary humans. The revelation breaks him for a moment, and he can only repeat "It's a man" before flying into a rage and attacking the rest.

** Averted. Ibn Fadlan impresses the Vikings with his skills, not least his literacy and horsemanship, but he never surpasses the Vikings in the skills they teach him, and while he is a fairly competent fighter, he is nowhere near a match for any of the Vikings. If anything, the Vikings consider him the TagalongKid, even going so far as to call him "little brother".

* ARealManIsAKiller: In the novel Ahmad is timid and wimpy until he learns how to fight and be a real man from the Norse warriors. In the movie, it is heavily implied that he is already skilled with a scimitar, and the Norse gain a great deal of respect for him once it becomes apparent he can hold his own.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The prince and his remaining henchmen are neither seen nor mentioned after the sham duel. Most likely they were lost somewhere in the cutting room with other lacking pieces of the film.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The prince and his remaining henchmen are never seen nor mentioned after the sham duel. Most likely they were lost somewhere in the cutting room with other lacking pieces of the film.

* WorthyOpponent: Buliwyf gives the leader of the Wendol a respectful salute at the end of the first siege.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The only thing the 13 share in common is being embarked on the same quest. The Vikings get along pretty fast, most of them already knowing each other, but for Ahmad it takes most of the story to finally start getting along.

* MadnessMantra: Ahmad manages to kill one of the Wendol in the second battle, and gets a chance to inspect the body to discover that the Wendol are not supernatural creatures but rather ordinary humans. The revelation breaks him for a moment, and he can only repeat "It's a man" before flying into a rage and attacking the rest.

* MadOracle: As one of the Vikings sardonically notes, "The perfect adviser."

* JumpedAtTheCall: The other 12 warriors, who eagerly embark for the quest.

* InformedAbility: The end credits list the warriors with their nicknames like, for instance, Helfddane (Fat). Apparently, the seer called for men with these nicknames in the DebutQueue. But most of this is not displayed on screen: Edgtho the Silent gets more lines than Halga the Wise, Weath the Musician never plays music, Skeld doesn't seem any more superstitious than the others (or than any 10th century Norseman would be). The only ones who seem to match their nicknames are Herger the Joyous and Rethel the Archer.

* InformedAbility: The end credit lists the warriors with their attributes like, for instance, Helfddane (Fat). Apparently, the seer called for men with these attributes in the DebutQueue. But most of this is not displayed on screen: Edgtho the Silent gets more lines than Halga the Wise, Weath the Musician never plays music, Skeld doesn't seem any more superstitious than the others (or than any 10th century norseman would be). The only ones who seem to match their attributes are Heger the Joyous and Rethel the Archer.

* HumanPincushion: [[spoiler:The largest viking, Halga (played by Asbjorn "The Bear" Riis)]], gets stuck with a half-dozen spears, [[spoiler:the red-headed Skeld]] gets stuck with four. Both during the second battle.

* HowWeGotHere: The movie opens with Ahmad sailing to the north with the twelves Vikings, then immediately goes back to Ahmad's exile and him meeting the Vikings.

* HollywoodTactics: The Wendol have a powerful skirmishing cavalry, but by the end of the film they are just sending frontal charge after frontal charge, against an entrenched enemy no less. They also only attack the village on one place, even although they have seemingly enough numbers to besiege the whole place. When their leader is killed, they immediately retreat to presumably never be heard of again.

** The wendols are all clad in bearskins, with each and every one of them wearing a bear's head as a headdress, and the skins don't even look worn or old. And there are hundreds of wendols, meaning that hundreds of bears have been recently slaughtered to make their headdresses. This is kind of impossible, as there simply wouldn't have been enough fully grown bears in the region to outfit them all.

** Despite the Wendol's earlier mastery of cammouflage and scouting, once the Wendol leader breaks out the cavalry, he just keeps a frontal attack on one point of the Norse fortress and attempts to ZergRush it.

* EmbarrassingNickname: Ahmad is initially referred to by the northmen as "Eben, a mispronounced "Ibn", which means "son of" in Arabic, due to misunderstanding him when he gives his full name as Ahmad Ibn-Fadlan Ibn-Abbas Ibn-Rashid. Later on Herger starts affectionately referring to Ahmad as "little brother."

* DecapitatedArmy: First the tribe's queen, then their general. It's lampshaded by a local oracle when she gives cryptic advices to the remaining warriors.