The Passion of the Christ

On the night of Passover, Jesus prays in Gethsemane, asking for his father to protect him as his followers Peter, James and John fall asleep. After Jesus rebukes Satan for tempting him to escape his fate, another of his followers, Judas Iscariot, having been bribed by Caiaphas and the Pharisees with thirty pieces of silver, leads temple guards to the garden and betrays Jesus' identity. The guards arrest Jesus and beat him on the way to the Sanhedrin. John informs Jesus' mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene of the arrest, and they reunite with Peter, who has followed Jesus and his captors.

Caiaphas tries Jesus, where false accusations are made against him, while Pharisees who secretly support Jesus and object to the trial are expelled from the court. Jesus claims he is the divine Son of Man, causing Caiaphas to angrily condemn him to death for blasphemy. As Jesus is brutally beaten, Peter is confronted by the mob and he denies being a follower of Jesus; remembering Jesus precisely predicted this, he weeps bitterly. Guilt-ridden, Judas attempts to return the money to have Jesus freed, but is refused by the priests. Haunted by demons in the form of children, Judas hangs himself outside Jerusalem.

Jesus is brought to be condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. At the urging of his wife, Claudia, Pilate questions Jesus and finds no fault in him, transferring him to the court of Herod Antipas since Jesus is from Antipas' domain of Galilee. When Antipas deems Jesus harmless and returns him, Pilate offers the crowd the choice of freeing Jesus or the convicted murderer Barabbas. When the crowd demands Barabbas be freed and Jesus crucified, Pilate attempts to appease the crowd by ordering Jesus flogged, and he is brutally scourged by the Roman guards. Using cloths provided by Claudia, Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene clean up his blood, where Mary Magdalene reminisces on Jesus saving her from a stoning.

The guards hurl insults at Jesus and place a crown of thorns on his head. Pilate presents him to the crowd and Caiphas, who all again demand that he be crucified. Unwilling to instigate unrest, Pilate orders Jesus' crucifixion, claiming no responsibility. Jesus carries a heavy wooden cross on the road to Golgotha with two thieves, Dismas and Gesmas, following behind. Along the way, he is harassed by the guards and rampant mob, is momentarily comforted by his mother and replenished by a woman who wipes his bloodied face with her veil. An unwilling Simon of Cyrene is pressed with helping Jesus carry the cross to Golgotha, where Jesus is crucified with Mary, Magdalene, John, and others witnessing.

Jesus prays to God to forgive his tormentors, who mock him for not being able to come down from the cross, while providing salvation to Dismas, crucified beside him, for his faith and repentance, and comforts his mother. Finally succumbing to his wounds, Jesus surrenders his spirit and dies. A single droplet of rain falls, triggering an earthquake which damages the Second Temple and rips the veil covering the Holy of Holies, to the horror of Caiaphas and the Pharisees. The guards seek to expedite the thieves' deaths by breaking their legs and, upon seeing Jesus dead, order tribune Cassius to spear his side to be sure. As Satan screams in defeat in the depths of Hell, Jesus' body is taken down from the cross and entombed; days later, he rises from the dead and exits the tomb.