Ico

In a remote, sunlit forest, several masked men ride on horseback to the edge of an enormous sheer cliff overlooking the sea. Off the coast stands an otherworldly, dilapidated fortress built atop tall rocky spires, and some of the men wear horns on their helmets, echoing those of Malus. They descend a winding path to sea level, climb into a small boat, and row silently toward the castle. With them is a prisoner: Ico, a boy marked by two large horns growing from his head — the result of an ancient curse that has plagued his village for generations and made him the target of its hatred and blame for every misfortune. The men have brought him to the castle after his twelfth birthday to seal him inside a mysterious coffin deep within the fortress's darkened halls, where he will either starve or freeze. To reach the coffin, they use an enchanted sword capable of opening the idol-shaped gates that guard the room, and they force Ico inside, telling him not to resist and that they do this "for the good of the village." After they leave, a tremor from the castle's many aged moving parts dislodges the coffin from the wall, shattering it open but knocking Ico unconscious. He experiences a strange vision: a spiked stone cage hangs from the ceiling of an enormous cylindrical room, and as he approaches it along a spiral path, a shadowy substance pools at the cage's bottom and overflows, while another shadow emerges from the walls to engulf him. He wakes and begins exploring the castle, pulling levers and opening doors in search of escape, only to find himself at the bottom of the very room from his vision. Climbing the spiral path, he reaches the cage — now holding a quiet young girl named Yorda. Ico calls out and promises to free her, finds a lever that lowers the cage near the ground, and leaps onto it, sending it crashing down and breaking the door open to free Yorda.