Mr. Car and the Knights Templar, or Pan Samochodzik i Templariusze, is a new Polish adventure film on Netflix that is mostly a children’s film with little serious matter. The plot follows a renowned but egoistic art historian and treasure hunter named Tomasz, who finds an ancient Templar cross and sets out on an unusual adventure to find the grand treasure that it leads to. While charming at moments, particularly with the three children characters, Mr. Car and the Knights Templar is good for a light casual watch and should not be expected to be too serious.
Spoilers Alert
‘Mr. Car And The Knights Templar’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
Mr. Car and the Knights Templar begins in the Latvian coastal town of Liepaja, where the protagonist of the film, Tomasz, arrives in his distinct and unique amphibious car. Being a famous art historian and treasure hunter, Tomasz is clearly on some sort of search mission here, and he is not alone at the place either. An elderly man named Petersen also joins in, and it is revealed that he and Tomasz are very good friends despite being professional rivals. Along with them, a third mysterious man with a hat and a Spanish accent also joins in, but this third man wants to kill and stop the protagonist from reaching the treasure. Atop the nearby lighthouse, Tomasz solves the clue that had brought him here, and while defeating the hatted attacker, he also finds out the exact location of the treasure he is in search of. Finally reaching the spot ahead of Petersen, Tomasz gets his hands on an ancient Templar cross that is supposed to lead to an entire stash of Templar treasure.
A press conference is soon held at the National Museum in Poland, where Tomasz has turned in the cross to be put up for display. In answer to a popular question about what treasure the cross would lead to, the art historian explains that Jacques de Molay and the Knights Templar found great wealth and powerful artifacts during the Crusades. One such treasure trove was being led to by the cross since it bore the signature of de Molay himself. Tomasz’s boss, Gierymska, later meets with him and informs him about a woman calling herself Laima, who has been claiming that there is more than one Templar cross in existence, and one is apparently hidden on her own family lands. Tomasz agrees to talk to Laima, but he ignores Gierymska’s warning that someone has been killing treasure hunters one after another. Very soon, though, Tomasz’s close friend Petersen is also killed, and now the protagonist decides to take the warning seriously.
Who Is Laima, And What Does She Want?
Tomasz goes over to the hotel where Laima had been staying, and he breaks into her room to gather some more intel on her. However, two other men also do the same and instantly attack Tomasz, making it feel like they have been following the protagonist for some time. These two men had been sent by a man known as Adios because he had been the one killing treasure hunters for all this time. Adios himself is also a treasure hunter, and he is the same man wearing a hat seen at the beginning of the film attacking Tomasz. Adios keeps trying to hurt Tomasz and other treasure hunters so that he can be the first and only one to find clues and pick up the treasure. Petersen comes to the rescue of Tomasz in the hotel room before the elderly man is killed by Adios with a car bomb.
Tomasz learns from a note inside Laima’s hotel room that he is to meet with the woman the next day, and when he does, it is revealed that Laima is a direct descendant of the Yotvingian people, who were skilled warriors and had been quite prominent around the time of the Crusades. Laima says that an old family legend claimed that one of her ancestors had come across a Teutonic Knight on their lands sometime during the Crusade era. This knight then supposedly handed over a Templar cross similar to the one found by Tomasz to the Yotvingian warrior, asking him to keep it safe and hidden. Since then, this cross has been hidden somewhere at Laima’s family estate in Milkokuk. Laima now wants Tomasz to find the cross, which is the next clue to the Templar treasure, get hold of the treasure, and give it to Laima. Tomasz does not take this invitation seriously, and he remains unfazed when Laima announces an open competition among all treasure hunters to find the cross at her estate.
Can A Second Cross Be Found At Milkokuk?
It is at Laima’s family estate at Milkokuk that Tomasz joins the group that is to be his company for the rest of the film. This group consists of a young journalist named Anka Modzelewska and three children from a nearby scout camp who are eager to find the lost Templar treasure. These three kids call themselves Mentor, Squirrel, and Eagle Eye, with the last being the most intelligent one and also an abandoned orphan. While arriving at the estate, Tomasz also meets with a young woman named Karen, who tries multiple methods to stop the man from reaching the place. Karen is also a treasure hunter and is actually the daughter of Tomasz’s friend Petersen. However, instead of having any good bond between them, Karen firmly believes that it was Tomasz who was responsible for her father’s death, and she wants to stop him in any way. Among the treasure hunters at Laima’s competition is also Adios, who instantly starts to kill off the other competitors and cheat his way toward the treasure.
Since Laima states that the adventurers must all be in a group of six, Karen temporarily joins Tomasz, Anka, and the three kids, but her loyalty always remains questionable. It is ultimately Eagle Eye, with the help of Tomasz, who solves the clue given to them and finds the location of the second cross. The burial mound, or kurgan, at the estate, is arranged in the shape of a solar cross, which is the symbol of Saule, the Baltic goddess of the sun. Tomasz states how Saule is often portrayed riding a white horse, and Eagle Eye instantly connects it with a horse carved on the Yotvingian shield earlier held by Laima. The cross had indeed been hidden behind that very shield, but it is Adios who gets hold of it first after eavesdropping on the two. Adios takes away the cross, sets fire to Laima’s estate, and also kidnaps Karen.
The cryptic inscriptions on the two Templar crosses stated that the treasure had been hidden exactly where the heart was, and the protagonists have to figure out the meaning of this clue next. Eagle Eye now reveals that the second cross actually bore the signature of a different man—Siegfried Von Feuchtwangen, the Grand Master of the Knights of the Teutonic Order. With this information, Tomasz understands that the treasure must be in the Polish town of Malbork, for the Teutonic capital, and therefore the heart of the order, was Malbork at the time. Driving over to the place, the group enters Malbork Castle, where they also find Adios and his men taking Karen. Together, the five then bravely manage to rescue their kidnapped companion, and Karen once again becomes part of the group. Eagle Eye and Mentor then also manage to find the secret entrance to a hidden pathway that leads to a chamber under the castle.
Where Was The Treasure Hidden All This While?
As the group of six reaches the underground vault, they come across an inscription that makes things clearer to Tomasz. As the art historian deciphers the inscriptions, it is revealed that Jacques de Molay and Siegfried von Feuchtwangen had worked together to find out the secret treasure, and there were others in their group as well. King Philip IV of France, also known as Philip the Fair, was also among this group, and he represented the Order of the Knights of the Tau, which is not really documented in history and so is a part of the film’s fiction. Mr. Car and the Knights Templar bases the next parts of the mystery on this very fiction, as Tomasz realizes that the group of the Knights had found something with extraordinary power inside the treasure vault.
All of the members had decided to keep it a secret, and they made six crosses for the six members, with the crosses all acting as guideposts to take them to the place later. However, Philip the Fair betrayed this promise as he made use of his part of the treasure and waged war with its extraordinary powers. Desiring the shares of the other five Knights, too, Philip the Fair took away their crosses and then, unable to understand the inscriptions, got them tortured and killed. Historically, too, King Philip IV was the one who got Jacques de Molay captured and burned at the stake.
Following this discovery, the group has to fight against Adios and his henchmen, but after succeeding and exiting the place, Tomasz and Anka are arrested by the police. Since the three children had gone missing from their scout camp, the police had been searching for them, and they arrested the two adults, mistaking them for kidnappers. By the time this problem is solved, Tomasz cracks the final code on the inscriptions of the crosses and realizes that the final treasure is resting at a place called Kortumowo. Karen had gone missing from the group once again, and when Tomasz and the others reach the place, they realize that Karen has now finally teamed up with Adios.
Since the ultimate treasure was promised to have unbelievable magical powers, Adios and Karen interpreted it as being able to bring people back from the dead. While Karen had recently lost her father, Petersen, Adios had lost his young son some years ago, and both now wanted to access the power of the treasure and bring them back to life. In the final stages, though, Adios betrays Karen and wants the treasure all for himself, but the greedy man dies from the safety contraption built just outside the treasure vault. The vault was supposed to be accessed by a group of six individuals, and so when Adios tries to do it by himself, he is immediately killed. When the six members of the group step on six particular stones, a scroll is released by the contraption, following which the entire vault starts to crumble and fall in. Karen seems to get stuck in this debris, while Tomasz, Anka, and the three children successfully escape with the scroll.
Ending Explained: What Was The Ultimate Templar Treasure?
As is revealed on the scroll and then through the statements of Laima, the ultimate Templar treasure that Jacques de Molay and his group of Knights found in the vault was a group of six children. These six kids had been the only children to have survived the Crusade, and they had been gifted with special magical powers ranging from destruction to healing. The six Knights had decided to take one child with each of them and hide them from the world since they could be misused for power. However, Philip the Fair betrayed this promise, and he used the child in his possession to wage horrific war and destruction. Although he wanted to get hold of the other five children, too, they had been well hidden by the other Knights. In fact, it is revealed in the end that Laima herself was the descendant of one such child, for she still has the ability to magically heal wounds. The scroll that Tomasz finds bears the names of the six children and the location where they had been hidden. Laima takes this scroll and keeps it with herself so that none of the descendants of the other five children can be found by anyone, and their powers cannot be misused.
It was to prevent another instance of Philip the Fair that Laima had appointed Tomasz and the other treasure hunters to find the scroll and hand it over to her. As the two Templar crosses are returned to the National Museum in Poland, Tomasz and Anka continue to be friends, with the possibility of becoming lovers in the future. They still keep in contact with Mentor, Squirrel, and Eagle Eye. At the end of Mr. Car and the Knights Templar, Gierymska informs Tomasz of another immediate case in which someone has been stealing very old icons and sending them out of Poland. With these icons apparently linked to another ancient mystery, Tomasz takes up the job, and the doors to a possible sequel film are kept wide open.
