A character sheet for the Sands of Time film adaptation.
Those who are looking for characters in the Sands of Time video games can find it here. For the main Prince of Persia character page, see here.
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Dastan
Played by: Jake Gyllenhaal
Dastan was born a street urchin in 6th-century Persia he was adopted by the king, after he shows valor and integrity, in an effort to prevent his two others sons from fighting over the throne.
- Anti-Hero: He drinks, bloodily dispatches enemies, and causes property damage on a ridiculous scale, though that last one isn't technically all his fault.
- Battle Couple: With Tamina.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even if his brothers don't like it, he'll always try to do the right thing.
- Clear My Name: He was accused of murdering his father when the robe he gave to him was found to be poisoned.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's not above running away, when the situation calls for it.
- Composite Character: Of all the Prince characters from the games. He's primarily based on the Sands of Time Prince with a similar character arc, but like the Prince of the original games he wasn't born into royalty and his personality is more similar to the Prince of the 2008 game.
- Determinator: Even being beaten to a bloody-pulp will not keep him down for long.
- Happily Adopted: Dastan was adopted by the King and is loved as an equal by his brothers.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: His reaction when his father presents Tamina to him for an Arranged Marriage.
- In the Hood: As seen in the picture. Can count as a Shout-Out to Prince of Persia's brother franchise too, considering the similar Hack and Slash dynamics they use.
- Knight in Sour Armor: He's sometimes a pessimistic swashbuckler, but can always be counted on to do the right thing.
- Manly Tears: When he fails to save his father, (both) brothers, and his Love Interest. It's pretty understandable.
- Meaningful Name: A dastan is the name of an ornate form of oral history from Central Asia, generally centered on one individual who protects his tribe or his people from an outside invader or enemy. Given the movies themes about family, duty and time it is fitting that Dastan has this name.
- Named by the Adaptation: The second Prince character to be given a name after Guiv in Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel.
- Necessary Fail: He thinks that the Dagger of Time is just an ordinary dagger, until he uses the Sands of Time stored in it when Tamina tried to fight and betray him when seduction didn't work. His first attempt at rewinding time is merely accidental and left him confused and vulnerable to a fatal slash to the chest, but he willingly used the Sands to rewind and save his life. His second attempt at rewinding time allowed him to outsmart Tamina and earn her trust, since he already knows how the Dagger works.
- Parental Abandonment: Dastan being an orphan is why the king adopted him upon being impressed with his courage and decency.
- Shirtless Scene: How adult Dastan is first introduced.
- Stepping-Stone Sword: He uses crossbow bolts to scale the city walls.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Dastan, the boy that risked his life to save someone wrongly persecuted ends up leading the attack on an innocent nation, though doing so from misinformation and out of a concern to avoid, as much as possible, the horrendous death tolls that the original attack plan's full frontal assault would most likely incur going by Real Life historical record.note
- Warrior Prince: Dastan and his brothers are all accomplished warriors who lead their father's army in battle.
Tamina
Played by: Gemma Arterton
Princess Tamina is second protagonist of the Prince of Persia film. Tamina is a Princess whom Prince Dastan teams up with to protect the Sands of Time. While her relationship with Dastan appears to begin badly, the two eventually get over their differences.
- Action Duo: With Dastan.
- Bedlah Babe: A Persian princess wearing a midriff-baring outfit.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Prince Dastan, of course.
- Composite Character: Princess Tamina, judging by her actions and behavior, is a combination of all the female characters from the games (Farah, Kaileena and Elika).
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Starts off cold and uninterested in anyone's goals but her own. She gets better later on.
- Hot-Blooded: One of the rare female examples.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Implied to be the case with Princess Tamina and her ancestresses. According to the back story she tells to Dastan, she is descended from a girl who managed to prevent the gods from destroying all of mankind through the wish of her pure heart that humanity would be spared.
- Indy Hat Roll: Tamina does this while she and Dastan are running from Sheik Amar and Seso.
- Lady of War: Not as skilled as Dastan perhaps, but she can hold her own if she needs.
- Playing Possum: In one of many attempts to get the Dagger back from Dastan.
- Princesses Rule: Tamina, the princess of Alamut.
- Rescue Romance: There was romance, but Tamina had to sacrifice herself so that Dastan could focus on stopping Nizan.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Tamina starts to fall for Dastan after realizing what a good person he is and how selfless he is to help her cause. That is, once Tamina tells the truth and they stop backstabbing each other.
- Tsundere: Has the attitude of a Type A at first, being generally unfriendly with people around her and backstabbing Dastan. By the end of her Character Development however, it's harder to tell (probably still slightly more Type A than B).
- Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: She and Dastan snark at each other a lot when the first met.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Tamina believes this, what with her belief in destiny.
Sheik Amar
Played by: Alfred Molina
Sheik Amar is an entrepreneur and an ostrich racing organizer.
- Action Duo: With Seso, though it takes a while (and the mention of gold) to get him interested in coming along.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Dude, the man hosts Ostrich Races... Ostrich Races! And he thinks he's the sane one.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Has shades of this.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Most of the time he's nothing but a useless goof. After Seso's Heroic Sacrifice, he goes into full on hero mode.
- Only Sane Man: Well, he'd like to think so anyway.
- Take That!: He takes a stab on taxes.
- Those Two Guys: With Seso.
- Troll: "You know what they say about men with big swords."
- Visual Pun: After running from a fight, he hides behind a chicken coop.
- You Talk Too Much!: Seso uses up his speech token to tell his boss this when he's worrying about the dangerous mission.
Seso
Played by: Steve Toussaint
Seso is a Ngbaka, an expert knife thrower and man-servant to Sheik Amar.
- Chekhov's Skill: His knife throwing talent.
- I Owe You My Life: The reason for his loyalty towards Amar.
- The Lancer: To Sheik Amar.
- The Quiet One: He usually only speaks when he has something important to say.
- Scary Black Man: But he turns friendly later.
- Those Two Guys: With Amar.
- You Talk Too Much!: Seso uses up his speech token to tell his boss this when he's worrying about the dangerous mission.
Tus
Played by: Richard Coyle
Tus is the first son of King Sharaman (and therefore crown prince), and adopted older brother to Dastan.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the crown prince for good reason.
- Inspector Javert: Tus and Garsiv think Dastan killed their father.
- Karmic Death: He delivers one to his treacherous uncle who killed him in the first timeline by slitting his throat. In the new timeline, he stabs him first.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Tries to be a good king, like his father before him. Unfortunately, his uncle had other plans.
- Sibling Team: With Dastan and Garsiv.
Garsiv
Played by: Toby Kebbell
Garsiv is the second son of King Sharaman and adopted older brother to Dastan. Garsiv is also the hot-headed leader of the Persian Army.
- Boisterous Bruiser: He always likes to fight his opponent head on, not a very subtle guy.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: He dies but manages to kill one of the Hassansins before he can kill Dastan.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's apparently famous for it.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: He gets better.
- Inspector Javert: Garsiv and Tus think Dastan killed their father.
- Hot-Blooded: He's famous for this too.
- No Indoor Voice: The one thing he's most famous for!
- Obviously Evil: He is a glory seeker who attacks the city head-on regardless of casualties, wears black armor and is the very first person to accuse Dastan of assassinating the king. Subverted, since it turns out he was completely unaware of Nizam's scheming and saves Dastan's life once the truth is revealed to him.
Nizam
Played by: Ben Kingsley
- Cain and Abel: Nizam kills his brother because he wants to be king. Then he tries to go back in time to kill him sooner, so he can be king instead of his nephew.
- Disney Villain Death: He and Dastan appear to suffer one of these at first. Turns out time had been reversed instead. Though he dies for real a few moments later...
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While beating him up, Nizam remarks to Dastan his dislike of the king adopting the homeless boy and making him Prince.Nizam: I never understood why my brother brought trash into our house! Enjoy the gutter, Dastan! It's where you will stay under my reign!
- Kick the Dog: Killing Tus without any mercy or hesitation.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: His master plan of going back in time so that he wouldn't save his brother's life and be crowned king himself.
- Obviously Evil: He features both Bald of Evil and Beard of Evil.
- Revealing Injury: Dastan realizes his uncle is the true Big Bad when he notices that his hands are burned from handling the poisoned mantle that killed the king - despite having never touched the robe onscreen.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Saving his brother's life and all. Well, until he became resentful.
- Villainous Breakdown: At the end of the movie, with his plans ruined by Dastan (because he had already lived through all the events and knew what would happen), Nizam furiously attacks him, thus making evident he was the conspirator.
The Order of Hassansins
- All There in the Manual: Five of them have their names revealed in the Lego sets for the movie: Zolm (snake guy/leader) Setam (knife guy), Ghazab (ax guy), Tamah (blade gauntlet guy), and Gool ("big sword" guy).
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Two of the Hassansins have severely scarred faces. One of them has a METAL scar.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Hassansins sure look like these.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: There's a snake guy, a fire guy, a whip guy, a knife guy, an axe guy...
The Hassansins' Leader (Zolm)
Played by: Gísli Örn Garðarsson
- Evil Sounds Deep: Surprisingly so.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: bitten in the eye by his own snake, impaled by Dastan's scimitar, and finally thrown into a Bottomless Pit, just to be sure. For a Disney film (and not of a subsidiary, but Disney itself), there's quite a bit of this trope in play.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His favorite tactic was to call one of his pet snakes to attack, so Tamina grabs it and forces it to bite HIM in the climax.
