The race of giants are the main antagonists of the 2013 movie Jack the Giant Slayer. They are native to the land of Gantua, a floating island in the skies of Albion (Ancient Britain), and seek to invade the surface world to eat its people.
Description[]
As the name implies, giants are huge humanoids far larger than humans. Giants are about four times taller than humans, averaging around 23 feet in height. While this is their most notable feature, giants differ from humans in a number of other ways. They have exaggerated facial features and thick, leathery brown skin. Additionally, they are implied to live many times longer than human beings.
Giants usually wear simple outfits made of animal skins and woven plants, but in times of war they wear huge suits of plate armor. Regardless of dress, giants are always filthy and unwashed.
Abilities[]
Giants have no supernatural powers, but they are formidable enemies. Giants have the great strength expected of such large creatures, but they are also extremely fast for their size. Because of how long their strides are, giants running at full speed can overtake galloping horses. Giants also have an acute sense of smell.
Society & Behavior[]
The giants of Gantua are brutish, predatory barbarians. They seem to eat mostly meat and have no qualms about hunting and eating humans. In fact, most giants hold a grudge against humans for thwarting their first invasion and banishing them back to Gantua. The giants hope to find a way back to Earth's surface in order to conquer and feast on mankind, and as a group they are elated when they get their second chance.
Curiously, the giants seem fairly egalitarian. Their leader General Fallon is explicitly not a monarch and is bound by giant laws and customs. The only known giant law is the "law of the hunt," which states that any creature a giant catches on a hunt is his to do with as he pleases, and other giants cannot force him to give it up.
History[]
Giants hail from Gantua, a land "between heaven and earth" in the skies of Albion. Giants and humans first learned of each other when an order of monks created magical beans that grew beanstalks meant to reach all the way to Heaven. Instead of Heaven, the towering beanstalks brought the monks to Gantua. Under the command of General Fallon, the giants used the beanstalks to invade Albion, feasting on livestock and humans alike. Eventually, King Erik of Albion created a mystical crown that could control the giants. Erik used this crown to banish the giants back to Gantua before having the beanstalks cut down so that they could never return.
The giants were trapped in Gantua for centuries and eventually faded into myth. However, Lord Roderick hoped he could use the giants to conquer Albion and set out to find the magic crown and beans. He acquired the crown, but a monk managed to keep Roderick from getting the beans by giving them to the peasant boy Jack. Jack later inadvertently watered the beans, creating a massive beanstalk that launched his house and Princess Isabelle, who was fleeing from Roderick, to Gantua. Jack, the Guardians, and Roderick took the beanstalk to Gantua, where Roderick used the crown to take control of the giants and turn on his supposed allies.
Roderick was quickly defeated and killed by Lord Elmont, and Jack, Isabelle, and the surviving Guardians returned to Albion before the King had the beanstalk severed. However, the beans were dropped in gantua, and Fallon found and planted them to create more beanstalks. The giants bent the beanstalks downward toward Albion and used them to mount a second invasion.
The giants laid siege to Albion's capital of Cloister and very nearly won, even though Fallon himself was killed. However, Jack took King Erik's crown from Fallon's corpse just as the giants breached the fortress. He used the crown to once again banish the giants to their homeland, ending the giant threat to Albion.
The magical crown is later forged into the St Edward's Crown and is last seen in the exhibition in the London Museum.
Trivia[]
- No female giants are ever seen in Jack the Giant Slayer. This is apparently because the filmmakers did not want to show Jack killing women.