The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1998 adventure film directed, produced, and written by Randall Wallace. It uses characters from Alexandre Dumas' D'Artagnan Romances and is very loosely adapted from some plot elements of The Vicomte de Bragelonne. The film centers on the aging Musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan and the reign of King Louis XIV of France. It attempts to explain the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, using a plot more closely related to 1929 Fairbanks' version, The Iron Mask, and the 1939 version by James Whale, The Man in the Iron Mask, than the original Dumas book. Despite receiving a rather mixed to negative critical response, it was successful financially, benefitting greatly from Leonardo DiCaprio's post-Titanic boost in popularity. France is under the reign of the militaristic King Louis XIV, who is bankrupting the country with his unpopular wars. When starving peasants in Paris start rioting for food, he responds by ordering his chief adviser Pierre, ...