Due to the arrogance of the new Templar Grandmaster Gerard de Ridefort, the Crusaders are destroyed in the ensuing Battle of Hattin.

Arn wakes in Damascus, his wounds treated; Saladin sends him home with his friendship as he prepares to take Jerusalem.

[3] Cecilia is finally allowed to leave the monastery where she has done penance for twenty years, meeting her son Magnus for the first time.

She soon hears of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Templars and believing Arn dead decides to become a nun for the rest of her life, being offered the post of Abbess by the Folkung clan.

The film concludes with an epilogue foreshadowing the completion of the consolidation of Sweden into a unified kingdom a generation later through Birger Jarl, identified as Arn's grandson.

The important matter for Sturtevant and the core of the movie, is the epic and myth of the national foundation of Sweden itself.

[6] Sturtevant also adds that contemporary Sweden takes pride in neutrality and pacifism which is reflected in Arns's last battle speech: "Listen to me!

Through this statement, the fictional character Arn is paving the way for his grandson Birger Jarl, who was a real-life statesman in thirteenth-century Sweden.

Sturtevant sees Arn's final act in The Kingdom at Road's End as the beginning of forging the Swedish nation and identity.