A depiction of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The story opens in the Garden of Olives where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, the controversial Jesus who has performed 'miracles' and has publicly announced that he is 'the Son of God' is arrested and taken back within the city walls of Jerusalem. There, the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy; subsequently, his trial results with the leaders condemning him to his death. Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, the prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, for his sentencing. Pilate listens to the accusations leveled at Jesus by the Pharisees. Realizing that his own decision will cause him to become embroiled in a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in deciding the matter of how to persecute Jesus. However, Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who, in turn, gives the crowd a choice between which prisoner they would rather to see set free Jesus, or Barrabas. The crowd chooses to have Barrabas set free. Thus, Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and is brutally flagellated. Bloody and unrecognizable, he is brought back before Pilate who, once again, presents him to the thirsty crowd assuming they will see that Jesus has been punished enough. The crowd, however, is not satisfied. Thus, Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Whipped and weakened, Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, all the way up to Golgotha. There, more corporal cruelty takes place as Jesus is nailed to the cross suffering, he hangs there, left to die. Initially, in his dazed suffering, Jesus is alarmed that he has been abandoned by God his father. He then beseeches God. At the moment of his death, nature itself over turns.  Stars  Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern  & many other fine actors. Movie Trivia Jim Caviezel experienced a shoulder separation when the 150lb cross dropped on his shoulder. The scene is still in the movie. In interviews with Newsweek magazine and several other media, Jim Caviezel spoke about the difficulties he experienced while filming. This included being accidentally whipped twice, which has left a 14-inch scar on his back, and dislocating his shoulder from the weight of the cross. Caviezel also admitted he was struck by lightning while filming the Sermon on the Mount and during the crucifixion. His hair actually caught fire from this, but he was otherwise miraculously unharmed. The scenes of him hanging on the cross in the dead of Italian winter (with temperatures of 25°F/-4°C and 30-knot winds) caused him to contract hypothermia and pneumonia. Finally, because make-up was used to create a swollen eye, his lack of depth perception gave him migraine headaches. This is the highest grossing foreign language film or subtitled film in U.S. box office history. It is also the highest grossing religious film in the worldwide box office of all time. It would usually take over 10 hours to put Jim Caviezel into the scourged makeup. On some of those days, it would happen that the weather conditions turned out to be unsuitable for filming. To avoid spending more hours to have it removed and re-applied the next day, he kept it on and went to bed in full make-up. The name of the Roman soldier who pierced Christ with a spear is Cassius, as we heard Abenader shout his name when giving him a spear. This is a reference to the Catholic tradition that the name of the soldier who pierced Christ's side was Cassius Longinus, who was later believed to convert to Christianity and is venerated in Roman Catholicism as a saint. Mel Gibson had a Canadian priest, Fr. Stephen Somerville, celebrate the Traditional Roman Catholic Latin Mass of the Apostolic Rite for the film crew each day before production began Jim Caviezel is the only American in the cast. The figure of Christ during the crucifixion is actually Jim Caviezel in many scenes. The movie's make-up effects creator/producer Keith VanderLaan also forged an articulated, rubber stand-in for Caviezel that even made breathing motions, who could be suspended on the cross for certain wide shots to allow the actor some physical relief, and for some dangerous shots (such as the turning of the cross). Contrary to popular rumor, Malaysia did not ban the film. The Malaysian government allowed Christians to see it, and only Christian churches could sell tickets.