"Before the time of the pyramids," a horde from the East invades the ancient world, led by the ruthless Memnon, who by their law, is king for being their greatest warrior. His many victories come from the help of a sorcerer who predicts the outcomes of battles, leaving only a few free tribes to oppose him.
As a young boy, d'Artagnan witnesses the murder of his parents at the hands of Febre (Tim Roth), chief henchman of Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea). d'Artagnan is nearly killed after using his dead father's sword to fight Febre which leaves him with a permanent scar and blinds him in one eye. d'Artagnan is taken in by family friend Planchet (Jean-Pierre Castaldi), a former musketeer, one of the loyal protectors of King Louis XIII (Daniel Mesguich).
France is under the reign of a cruel and self-centered version of King Louis XIV (DiCaprio), who spends his time declaring a war against the Dutch, distributing rotten food to the rioting citizens of Paris, and seducing women trying in vain to win his heart and become queen.
In 1700 in Nevers, France, a skilled swordsman named Lagardère (Daniel Auteuil) challenges Duke Philippe de Nevers (Vincent Pérez) to a friendly duel in order to learn his secret lethal maneuver known as the "Nevers Attack". Nevers agrees and quickly dispatches the upstart whom he soon befriends. Nevers learns that he has a "son" by Blanche de Caylus—a fact previously concealed by his cousin and would-be heir, the wicked Comte de Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini). That night Nevers escapes an assassination attempt by Gonzague's men.
In 1668 Jamaica, Morgan Adams hunts down her uncle and fellow pirate Dawg Brown, who has captured her father, Black Harry. Black Harry has one of three pieces of a map to a huge stash of gold on the remote Cutthroat Island. Dawg has another piece, having stolen it from the corpse of a third brother, Richard, while a fourth brother, Mordechai, has the last piece. Harry refuses to give Dawg his piece and escapes with Morgan's help, but not before being mortally wounded. A dying Harry reveals to his daughter the location of the map piece: on his scalp.
In Scotland, 1713, Rob Roy MacGregor (Liam Neeson) is the Chief of Clan MacGregor. By selling the Lowland gentry protection against cattle rustling, he barely manages to feed his people. Longing to alleviate their poverty, MacGregor borrows £1000 from James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose (John Hurt), with the intent of buying and selling Highland cattle. Impoverished London aristocrat Archibald Cunningham (Tim Roth) has been sent to stay with Montrose, who is implied to be related to him. Cunningham's mother hopes that the cold Scottish climate will, "cool the fever in his blood". Heavily in debt, Cunningham learns about the loan from Montrose's factor, Killearn (Brian Cox), who has been charged with looking after him. Killearn first converts the credit to cash without the knowledge of Montrose or MacGregor.
In the autumn of 1654, an escaped slave seeks refuge at a convent in southern France. After the nuns take him in, his pursuers break into the convent and assault the nuns, searching for the slave. After wounding the mother superior (Pascale Roberts), they close in on their prey. One feisty novitiate, Eloise (Sophie Marceau)—the daughter of the renowned swordsman D'Artagnan (Philippe Noiret) of the famed Three Musketeers—stands up to the intruders, but is shoved aside as they ride off after the frightened slave, who escaped from the evil Duke Crassac de Merindol. Eloise finds a blood-stained piece of paper (a simple laundry list) that the slave used to stop a bleeding wound, and believes it holds some secret code. Later, Eloise is with the mother superior when she dies from her wound. Swearing a sacred oath to avenge her and dressed in men's clothes, Eloise sets out for Paris to elicit the help of her father in tracking down the murderers.
In 1625 France, following in his late father's footsteps, D'Artagnan (Chris O'Donnell) sets off to Paris in hopes of becoming a member of the Musketeers, a band of men sworn to serve and protect the King of France. D'Artagnan is pursued by Gérard and his brothers, who accuse him of blemishing their sister's honor. Gérard saw his sister kissing d'Artagnan goodbye or as d'Artagnan put it "she wanted to give me something to remember her by!" At Musketeer Headquarters, Captain Rochefort (Michael Wincott) and the cardinal's guards have disbanded the musketeers as per the orders of Cardinal Richelieu (Tim Curry), the King's minister, ostensibly to help fight in an impending war with England. Rochefort confides to the Cardinal that there are three musketeers that have refused to relinquish their duties: Athos (Kiefer Sutherland), Porthos (Oliver Platt), and Aramis (Charlie Sheen).
Robin of Locksley (Costner), an English nobleman who joined Richard the Lionheart, King of England in the Third Crusade, is imprisoned in Jerusalem along with his comrade Peter. After witnessing an amputation at the hand of the Ayyubid prison guards, Robin escapes, saving the life of a Moor named Azeem (Freeman) in the process, Robin, Peter and Azeem escape through a sewer and climb up into a alley but Peter is shot by an archer while escaping and has Robin swear to protect his sister Marian (Mastrantonio). Peter then grabs a scimitar and attacks an Ayyubid patrol giving Robin and Azeem enough time to to run down a small closed market. Azeem then grabs a fruit from one of the market stands and gives half of it to Robin and after nearly being spotted by a Ayyubid soldier and with the whole town on a lookout for them Robin and Azeem escape. Robin returns to England with Azeem, who has vowed to accompany him until the debt of saving his life is repaid.
The film begins when a miller, who is poaching deer on lands belonging to the King of England, is detected by a hunting party led by the evil knight Sir Miles Folcanet (Jürgen Prochnow). The miller flees the hunting party until he runs into a Saxon earl, Robert Hode (Patrick Bergin), and his friend, Will. The miller pleads for help as the Normans arrive and threaten to poke the miller's eyes out. Before they can carry out the punishment, Hode (urged by Will) stops them. Folcanet is enraged and demands that Hode be punished by the local Sheriff (shire-reeve), Roger Daguerre (Jeroen Krabbé).
Twenty years after the events of The Four Musketeers, Cardinal Mazarin has imprisoned the Duke of Beaufort. Mazarin hires d'Artagnan to bring together Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, to work for him. Porthos accepts, but Athos and Aramis decline. By this time, Athos has a son named Raoul.
The film begins with a narrator telling us that Cromwell's tyranny is coming to an end, when we see several men approaching on horseback. We learn that King Charles II and several of his Cavaliers have been on an exploratory tour in England, checking to see if the populace is ready to back his return. At the moment he is being hounded by a troop of Roundheads. King Charles stops to bid one of his supporters, a Royalist Lord Lucius Vyne (Hugh Grant) who he gives one of his favorite rings, telling Lucius to send it if he ever needs his help. Taking the ring Lucius borrows the King's distinctive plumed hat and leads the King's pursuers away, allowing Charles and Lucius' cousin, Lord Richard Vyne to reach a waiting boat bound for France. Lucius manages to lose the Roundheads in a cavernous entrance of a quarried chalk cliff face.
Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red and his first mate, Frog, are stranded aboard a raft at sea. Close to death from starvation and dehydration, Red tries to kill and eat Frog, but they are rescued by a Spanish galleon and are forced into slavery. Red inspires the slaves to mutiny and takes control of the vessel. Frog falls in love with the niece of a Spanish colonial governor, and unsuccessfully romances her. Red covets a golden throne that the Spanish have taken from an Aztec king. Through several adventures, Red recruits a crew of cutthroats to steal the throne. Despite their efforts, Red and Frog are ultimately stranded on a raft again, where Red sits on his golden throne and urges Frog to "fatten up".
Frederic (Rex Smith) was sent in the care of his nursemaid, Ruth (Angela Lansbury), to be apprenticed to a pilot. But she misunderstood her instructions, being hard of hearing, and apprenticed him instead to a pirate (Kevin Kline). Now he is turning 21 years old, and his service is finished, so he decides to leave the Pirates of Penzance. Ruth wants him to take her with him, but he soon meets some young maidens, the daughters of Major-General Stanley (George Rose), and realizes that Ruth is "plain and old". Frederic quickly falls in love with one of them, Mabel (Linda Ronstadt). He has a strong "sense of duty" and has vowed to lead a blameless life and to exterminate the pirates. Soon, however, the pirates return and seize the girls. Their father then arrives and lies to the pirates, telling them that he is an orphan. He knows that they are orphans themselves and never attack an orphan.