Ladyhawke is a 1985 medieval fantasy film directed and produced by Richard Donner and starring Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. The story is about a young thief who becomes unwillingly involved with a warrior and his lady who are hunted by the Bishop of Aquila. As he learns about the couple's past and secret, he chooses to help them overcome the bishop's forces, and to lift an infernal curse.
Plot
In medieval Italy, Phillipe Gaston, a thief known as "The Mouse", is imprisoned in the dungeons of the evil Bishop of Aquila. Phillipe escapes, just in time to avoid execution. He is recaptured at an inn by the Bishop's guards, led by Captain Marquet. The former captain, Etienne Navarre, arrives, rescues him, and defeats Marquet and the guards. As Navarre and Phillipe flee on horseback, Navarre's hawk scatters the other guards, aiding the escape.
Navarre and Phillipe stay the night at a farmer's barn. Later, Phillipe tries to leave, but the farmer attempts to kill him. An enormous black wolf protects him by killing the farmer. Phillipe looks for Navarre in the barn, but discovers a beautiful young woman, dressed in Navarre's cloak, who walks away with the wolf.
In the morning, Navarre returns, reveals his intention to kill the Bishop, and asks Phillipe to help him get inside Aquila. Phillipe refuses, and Navarre ties him to a tree. That night, Phillippe meets the woman again and tricks her into cutting his bonds. The next day, he is captured by the Bishop's guards, who use him to set up an ambush for Navarre. During the ambush, Navarre and his hawk are each hit by a crossbow bolt, but Navarre manages to defeat the Bishop's guards and save Phillipe.
Navarre orders Phillipe to take the hawk, who is the worse injured of the two of them, and ride ahead to the ruined castle of a monk named Imperius for help. The hawk is sequestered in a room, but a curious Phillipe picks the lock and finds the mysterious woman inside, her chest struck with the bolt. After tending to her wound, Imperius explains that she is Isabeau of Anjou, who had once refused the Bishop's unwelcome advances. After a drunken Imperius leaked the fact that Navarre and Isabeau had secretly wed, the enraged Bishop put the couple under a satanic curse. Isabeau becomes a hawk by day and Navarre a wolf by night; despite being always together, they are eternally apart. Just before dawn, Imperius' castle is invaded by the Bishop's soldiers; while escaping, Isabeau falls off a tower, but Phillipe is able to hold onto her for a moment, letting her go just as the sunrise turns her into a hawk so she can fly away.
When Navarre catches up, Imperius tells him that the curse can be broken if the couple faces the Bishop, both as humans, on "a day without a night and a night without a day". Navarre dismisses Imperius as an old drunk, and continues on his way to Aquila, intent on simply killing the Bishop for revenge. Now invested in the lovers' story, Phillipe volunteers to accompany them. After the group's perilous encounter with Cezar, a wolf-trapper hired by the Bishop, Phillipe saves Navarre from a frozen river, earns his friendship, and convinces him to try to break the curse.
At night, Imperius and Isabeau smuggle the Navarre-wolf into Aquila, while Phillipe swims back through the sewers to get inside the cathedral. Seeing no divine sign on the day that he and Isabeau are to appear as humans together, Navarre reverts to his original plan to kill the Bishop. He orders Imperius to euthanize the hawk should the cathedral bells ring, which would mean he had failed.
Phillipe infiltrates the cathedral and unlocks its doors. Navarre rides in and duels with Marquet. Suddenly noticing a solar eclipse through a window, Navarre realizes Imperius was right. He tries to get back to Imperius, but fails to keep the guards from ringing the bell. Believing that Imperius has killed Isabeau, Navarre continues his fight and eventually kills Marquet.
As Navarre is about to execute the unarmed Bishop, a human Isabeau enters the cathedral and stops him. Together, she and Navarre face the Bishop and break the curse. The maddened Bishop tries to kill Isabeau, only to die by Navarre's sword. Isabeau and Navarre finally embrace in joy.