The Great Wall (Chinese: 长城) is a 2016 monster filmdirected by Zhang Yimou, with a

screenplay by Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy, from a story by Max Brooks,
Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. An American and Chinese co-production starring
Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, and Andy Lau, the plot centers
around two European mercenary warriors (Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal) imprisoned by
imperial Chinese forces within the Great Wall of China after arriving in search of
gunpowder, eventually joining forces with the Chinese to help combat an alien threat. The
[5]
Great Wall is Zhang's first English-language film.
Principal photography for the film began on March 30, 2015, in Qingdao, China, and it
premiered in Beijing on December 6, 2016. It was released by China Film Group in China
on December 16, 2016, the United States on February 17 by Universal Pictures, and in
Japan on April 14 by Toho-Towa. The film received mostly mixed reviews from critics, but
[6]
received some praise for its action sequences. Although it grossed $335 million
worldwide, the film was still considered a box office bomb due to its high production and
marketing costs, with losses as high as $75 million.

Plot[edit]
During the reign of Renzong Emperor, a group of European mercenaries travels to China,
searching for the secret to gunpowder. A few miles north of the Great Wall, they are
attacked by a monster. Only Irishman William Garin and Spaniard Pedro Tovar survive.
They sever the monster's arm and bring it with them. Upon reaching the Wall, they are
taken prisoner by the Nameless Order. Led by General Shao and Strategist Wang, the
Nameless Order exists to combat Tao Tie, alien monsters that arrived from a meteorite
[7]
and attack once every sixty years. The Order's commanders are surprised by the
monsters' first assault, which has come one week early.