The Dark Ages (or even earlier, I don't know): To unite all vikings under his
command, Thorsson (Patrick Bergin) has to form an uneasy alliance with his
renegade son Boar (Craig Scheffer), who has become a berserker, an inhuman,
bloodlusting but supernatural & almost immortal warrior (he can only be
killed by fire or a blow to his head). But Boar demands the soul of his brother
Barek (Paul Johansson) in return, to which Thorsson agrees.
However, after Thorsson has become the viking's king, he cheats Boar &
insteasd of giving him his brother's soul he intends to burn him alive. Only
thanks to Barek, who can't see the slaughter any longer & offers his soul
to Boar can Boar's life be saved in the very end.
6 how is he turned into a berserker ? He is bitten by the valkyrie Brunhilda
(Kari Wuhrer), the woman the brothers once saved & now each of them claims
for himself.
Present day: Barek is kept chained in a high security hospital (?), but the
hospitals new head, doctor green, who bears a remarkabkle resemblance to the
Valkyrie (& is thus played by Kari Wuhrer as well), orders him to be
released of his chains ... & not a moment too soon it seems, as th very
same night, Boar - still prowling about - sends some of his berserkers to kill
Barek. Barek of course manages to dispose of them, flee the hospital, catch up
with doc Green & wouldn't you know it, the 2 fall in love, & again,
wouldn't you know it, she starts to have memories of a past life as the
Valkyrie.
As it turns out in these memories, Boar wanted to save the Valkyrie from
Odin's ring of fire, but since he was not purehearted, he instead got horribly
burned. Barek on the other hand (pure hearted) managed to get the Valkyrie out
of the ring, & to heal his own brother, he asked her to turn Boar into a
berserker. Since then their path was pretty much set, Boar wants to iether
claim of kill the Valkyrie while Barek has to save her, & the modern age
changes only very little of this pattern ...
But then, in their final confrontation, Boar seeds some doubts in Barek's
brain, claiming the Valkyrie is only using Barek to protect her , even froces
him to fight his own brother, & he, Boar, wants to help Barek (apparently
his idea of helping is sending berserkers after Barek, who are told to kill
him). Barek kills Boar though, but the doubts remain ... & in the end, they
are confirmed by doctor Green, who turns out to be the genuine Valkyrie after
all, so Barek decides to kill her as well, finally freeing himself of her evil
power.
Now all he hjas to do is to wait for Boar to be reborn,l to make up for all
the wrongs he has done him.
Berserker is mainly Highlander, with much of that movie's
panache gone & instead some Norse myths tagged on - which somehow turns the
movie into a mess, as these myths are on one hand too complex for the otherwise
simplistic action story, on the other hand much of the mythological overtones
is left too vague for the non-expert to understand, and on the third hand, the
story isjust really muddled - what do you know, I ran out of hands !
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