Synopsis
In the year 1307, Switzerland is a province under the rule of the Austrian royal house of Habsburg. The Swiss people are resenting this foreign occupation, and rebellion is brewing, especially since the Habsburg soldiers brutalize the population at their whim. Some Swiss nobles, like Rudenz of Attinghausen and Werner Stauffacher, try to remain in good standing with the Habsburgs, either out of self-interest, fear of retribution, or - in Rudenz's case - his love for Bertha, the niece of Albert, Duke of Austria and King of Germany. Bertha is of Swiss blood, and she resents her uncle's tyranny over Switzerland.
In the canton of Unterwalden, an Austrian tax collector known as "the Wolfshot" arrives at the home of farmer Konrad Baumgarten, and rapes and murders his wife. Baumgarten murders the Wolfshot, sustaining a stab wound, and becoming a fugitive. When he attempts to cross a storm-tossed lake to escape his pursuers, he is aided by William Tell, a war-weary former Crusade soldier renowned for his skill with the crossbow, while the village he fled through was ransacked by the Austrians. As a result of the Wolfshot's assassination, King Albert installs Albrecht Gessler as a bailiff to maintain order in the canton of Schwyz. Gessler also pursues Bertha, and Albert encourages the relationship, to Bertha's annoyance.
Werner Stauffacher was a fellow Crusader who fought beside William Tell, so Baumgarten and Tell seek temporary shelter with him and his wife Gertrude. While searching for Baumgarten, Gessler and his enforcer Stussi enter the Stauffacher household. Not seeing Baumgarten hidden in plain sight, Gessler and Stussi leave, but Gessler suspects that the Stauffachers simply hid him too well.
Gertrude urges Tell to help the Swiss organize a rebellion against the Austrians, but Tell is reluctant to involve himself. He still agrees to help Baumgarten and Werner in contacting his friend Furst, a priest in Altdorf, to act as a spokesman in uniting the cantons. During the journey, the trio stumble across a village being pillaged by the Austrians and they assist a young farmer, Melchtal, in killing the soldiers there, while euthanizing his mortally wounded father. The four of them arrive in Altdorf to find that the Austrians have occupied it and are overworking the peasants, but they manage to make contact with Furst that night, and the five of them begin plotting to unify the cantons against Habsburg Austria.
Meanwhile, to further humiliate the Swiss, Stussi has a post erected in the centre of Altdorf, and a helmet placed on its tip. The next morning, a public decree is passed, ordering the population to bow to the helmet when passing by the post, in reverence to the king's authority. Tell returns back to his farm, in the canton of Uri, where he reminisces on his time in the Crusades, where he met his wife, while killing his commanding officer to save her from death.
King Albert requests that Gessler teach Bertha how to hunt. As Gessler and Bertha spend the morning together, surrounded by guards, he still does not appeal to her. Among the guards is Rudenz; as Stussi arrives to inform Gessler of the planned Swiss rebellion, Bertha privately urges Rudenz to choose his people over his love for her. She confesses that her uncle is using her to keep Rudenz loyal to Austria, but that her love for him is genuine.
That same morning, Tell returns to Altdorf with his wife and son. When Tell and his son refuse to bow before the post, Stussi and his henchmen have clause to arrest him. As the people of Altdorf rise in protest, Gessler, Rudenz, Bertha, and the guards arrive. For his own cruel amusement and despite the outcry of all onlookers, Gessler challenges Tell to shoot an apple off his son's head in return for his freedom. Rudenz protests and even challenges Gessler's authority only to be detained. Baumgarten surrenders himself to Gessler in a bid to have Tell released, but Gessler kills him. To prevent any more needless death, Tell agrees to the challenge and succeeds in hitting the apple. In the aftermath, Tell confesses that he would have struck down Gessler if he had killed his son, so Gessler has Tell seized and locked away, to the continued uproar of the people of Altdorf. Ordering Stussi to take Tell away by boat, Gessler then tries to bring himself upon Bertha, and when she tries to stab him, he overwhelms her, and she is also placed in Stussi's charge. In the commotion, Melchtal helps Rudenz escape Altdorf and return to Attinghausen, just in time for Rudenz to speak briefly to his uncle shortly before his death. Rudenz now pledges himself to his people's cause, and that night, in a hidden cave near Rütli, the leaders of the cantons of Unterwalden, Schwyz, and Uri assemble and unify their forces.
Tell is transported across the same lake over which he carried Baumgarten to safety, tied to the ship's mast while Bertha is locked up in the hold. A storm strikes, grounding the vessel at the lake's shore. Bertha takes advantage of the storm and frees Tell while helping him kill some of the soldiers, and they escape into the nearby woods. The duo learn from the local huntsmen that Gessler is on his way to Küssnacht.
After learning that Stussi lost both Tell and Bertha, Gessler allows him to redeem himself by taking command at Castle Sarnen and holding it as he travels to Küssnacht. With Bertha guiding him through the mountains, Tell takes shots at Gessler's caravan in a ravine leading to the town, but only wounds him while killing some of his men. Tell is forced to flee after receiving an arrow wound in his arm. Before she parts with Tell to try and dissuade King Albert from helping Gessler, Bertha reminds Tell to pursue his goal with more caution instead of blind revenge. King Albert orders Gessler to take charge at Altdorf and await reinforcements, while Tell joins the resistance, who are encamped near the town. His wife tells him that an attack on Sarnen was betrayed by a turncoat, which had allowed Stussi's forces to ambush the Swiss and kill Gertrude Stauffacher. Tell assumes leadership of the resistance, reigniting their hopes for a free Switzerland, and helping them prepare for an assault on Altdorf.
At Castle Habsburg in the Aargau, King Albert is about to send his reinforcements to Gessler when Bertha interrupts. When she stands up to her uncle and his tyranny, she is arrested and sentenced to death, but she is freed by her cousin Leopold, allowing her to assassinate Albert in his bed. While Tell challenges Gessler at the town gates of Altdorf to draw his attention, several resistance fighters enter the town through a secret tunnel and open the city gates the next morning, allowing Tell's forces to storm the town. During the fighting, Gessler kills Rudenz and Werner Stauffacher, before capturing Tell's son Walter, and holding him and the town's people hostage. King Albert's army appears on the hills around the city, in full view of the fighters in Altdorf, but the army retreats after learning of their king's death. As Gessler's soldiers surrender around him, and Stussi abandons him, Walter fights free. Tell prepares to kill Gessler, but spares him upon Walter's insistence and walks away from him. Three days later, as Tell wearily attempts to return to his old life, Bertha reunites with him and reports that Albert's daughter Agnes has sworn vengeance on the Swiss people, including him, for her father's death, marking the start for another, bloodier conflict for Switzerland's freedom.
