Ironclad is a 2011 action film directed by Jonathan English. Written by English and Erick Kastel, based on a screenplay by Stephen McDool, the cast includes Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy, Brian Cox, Vladimir Kulich, Mackenzie Crook, Jason Flemying, Derek Jacobi and Kate Mara. The film chronicles the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in 1215. The film was shot entirely in Wales in 2009, produced on a budget of $25 million.

The film opens with a prologue describing how the barons of England, aided by the Knights Templar, rebelled against King John in a war that lasted three years and ended with King John signing Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), a document granting equal rights to all Englishmen and reducing the power of the monarchy. Not long afterwards, he breaks his word and begins a bloody campaign of revenge against the barons who humiliated him, commanding an army of Danish mercenaries to whose leader he has promised that the Pope would keep his missionaries out of Denmark.

The abbot Marcus, leading three Templar knights who have taken vows of silence, shelters from a storm at Darnay Castle on his way to Canterbury for pilgrimage. Abbot Marcus speaks with Thomas Marshall, one of the knights and promises he will secure Marshall's release from the Templar Order once they reach Canterbury. The next morning, King John arrives with his Danish army and overruns the castle. John orders Darnay hanged, and Abbot Marcus has his tongue cut out by the Danes when he tries to intervene. Marshall and the two other knights fight the Danes, during which Marshall manages to escape the castle on horseback, carrying the abbot, while the other two knights are slain. The abbot dies of his wounds shortly after, and Marshall breaks his vow of silence to swear that his sacrifice will not be in vain.