A fisherman named Spyros (Pete Postlethwaite) finds a coffin adrift in the sea, discovering a baby, Perseus, and his dead mother, Danaë (Tine Stapelfeldt), inside. Spyros decides to raise Perseus as his own. Years later, Perseus (Sam Worthington) and his family are fishing when they witness a group of soldiers from Argos destroying a statue of Zeus as a declaration of war against the gods. Hades appears and commands harpies to massacre the soldiers before he himself destroys Perseus's family's fishing boat. Perseus tries to save his family, but to no avail.