The Knight of the Dragon

The people of Roque are terrorised by the arrival of a "dragon" and refuse to pay their taxes to the Count. The Count's enforcer, Klever, dreams of being knighted and marrying the Count's daughter Alba, but the Count and Alba both consider him a fool. The Count's preoccupation is with his health, and he places great trust in his alchemist Boecius, who has cured him of various ailments and is searching for the Elixir of Life. Seeking adventure, Alba sneaks out of the castle and encounters the Green Knight, who swears his allegiance to her and promises to stop further travellers following her across a bridge (a promise he endeavours to keep, ineffectually, for the remainder of the film). While swimming in a lake shortly afterwards, Alba is pulled underwater and vanishes. The Count declares a period of mourning.

Fray Lupo, the Count's spiritual advisor, blames all the ills on Boecius, who he considers a devil-worshipper. His condemnation of Boecius is interrupted when Alba returns in a catatonic state. Boecius restores her to her normal state and she tells him of an apparently spiritual experience and where to find the "dragon". Boecius travels there and discovers that the dragon is actually an alien spacecraft. Its pilot, IX, who resembles a human, tells him of his purpose as a researcher and gives Boecius a crystal device containing further information. Boecius tells Alba of IX's affection for her, but that IX cannot remove his spacesuit as the local atmosphere will kill him. IX later visits the castle and absconds with Alba. Klever tries to stop him, but the spacesuit proves impervious to his weapons. Klever then lies to the Count that Alba was violently abducted and promised him her hand in marriage and half the Count's lands if he would save her. The Count offers the same reward to whoever slays the dragon and rescues Alba.

Using IX's crystal, Boecius distills a version of the Elixir, but is arrested by Lupo and Klever in a palace coup. Boecius manages to save one drop of the Elixir before Lupo destroys his laboratory and the crystal. From Boecius's notes, Klever determines how to remove IX's armour, and that whoever wears the armour will control the spaceship. Lupo forces the Count to knight Klever, then confines the Count to his quarters. With Boecius as a hostage, Lupo and Klever ride to the spaceship where Klever announces a knightly challenge to IX. IX does not fight, and a disappointed Alba leaves the spaceship. Klever then attacks the spaceship with his lance and flail and claims victory when it flies off. On the way back to the castle, however, IX appears to answer the challenge, having stolen a horse and weapons from the Green Knight. Using his knowledge of IX's suit, Klever manages to remove it, killing IX, then rides off with Lupo to claim the spaceship.

Boecius revives IX with his last drop of the Elixir, which has the side effect of giving him a glowing effect reminiscent of a halo. Klever and Lupo are unable to control the spaceship, which flies into space on autopilot. Alba dresses IX in Klever's armour and they return to the castle with IX, where she and Boecius give IX credit for defeating the dragon and he is hailed as a saint by the people due to his halo. The Count grants IX the promised reward of Alba's hand in marriage and half his land. Klever and Lupo argue as the spaceship continues to fly uncontrollably through deep space.

The film had initially a 200 million pesetas budget, and received an additional 50% subsidy. Eventually the budget had to be raised to 300 million, making for a 400 million total (equal to about $4 million USD, adjusted for inflation), the highest in Spanish cinema at the time.^[3]

The film was theatrically released in Spain on 20 December 1985.^[5] After the film's theatrical run in its native Spain, CineTel Films picked up the film for a US theatrical release in the summer of 1986. However, the film was not released on videocassette in the US until 1992, when it was released by Vidmark Entertainment.

• List of Spanish films of 1985