Directed by: Richard Donner
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, Alfred Molina, Rutger Hauer, Leo McKern
Factual error: When the bishop is told Navarre is back and the bishop from the balcony claps and orders for Cezar, the portico behind the servant has a sprinkler pipe running from the first column to the opposite wall. Kind of advanced for a medieval castle. (00:33:00)
Other mistake: Just after Isabeau falls from the abbey tower and turns into Ladyhawke, a soldier emerges onto the roof of the tower and questions Phillipe. An arrow is then fired (by Navarre) into the left-side of the soldier. However, he initially grabs at his right-side. After a couple of seconds he correctly grabs at his left-side, before falling off the tower. (01:00:26)
Phillipe: When you kneel before the altar, how do you get up again?
Imperius: You sacrilegious young imp.
Trivia: In the days before ubiquitous digital technology, the majority of visual effects in film were "practical" effects using stuntmen and props on wires, springboards, flash-pots, et cetera. In "Ladyhawke" (which was decidedly on the low-end of visual effects budgets), one of the most dangerous practical effects is seen when Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer have a heated discussion in the woods and seem about to part company. As Broderick turns to leave, Hauer's 53" longsword sizzles past the boy's left shoulder and embeds in a tree trunk, to Broderick's horror. In fact, the steel sword was real and hurtled to its target on a guide-wire, barely 8 inches from Broderick's back. If you slow-advance the scene, you can see the sword actually changing trajectory in-flight, it was so unstable. The sword came up in a Hollywood memorabilia auction in 2002 but was not sold. http://www.icollector.com/Rutger-Hauer-prop-special-effects-sword-from-Ladyhawke_i169815.
Answer: Wasn't specified, but probably to rob him.
raywest ★