A brutal historical thriller with an incredibly random cast battles back against streaming invaders

Any action-packed historical epic worth its salt tends to populate a sprawling ensemble with a cavalcade of big names, recognizable faces, and veteran character actors. While 2019’s brutal The Rising Hawk (also known as Fall of a Kingdom in certain territories) sticks to the playbook, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more random assemblage of talent.

To be fair, we are talking about a co-production between Ukraine and the United States that was made for just $5 million, a drop in the ocean compared to what the typical Hollywood sword-swinger will set a studio back. Then again, that doesn’t make it any less strange to see Robert Patrick heading up the cast as Zakhar Berkut in a 13th Century adventure that features a small band of locals fighting back against the overwhelming might of the Mongol Empire.

Sons of Anarchy‘s Tommy Flanagan is there, too, along with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade‘s Alison Doody, and Charmed veteran Poppy Drayton, just to let you know that we weren’t underselling the bizarre roster on display. In the end, though, a 29 percent Rotten Tomatoes score was all The Rising Hawk could muster, and it flopped in theaters to rub further salt into the wounds after topping out at a shade over $1.5 million in ticket sales.

However, the on-demand circuit has seen many a failed epic find a renewed sense of vim and vigor, and it’s the iTunes customer base that’s willed this one back into life. As per FlixPatrol, The Rising Hawk has risen from the grave of irrelevancy to impale a new set of viewers, even if many of them may be left wondering what on earth Peacemaker’s old man is doing defending the Carpathians from an army the likes of which history has never seen.