Napoleon Bonaparte is born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769 and dies in exile on St. Helena on 5 May 1821, and this film tracks the fifty-two years between as a rise built on battlefield genius and a fall built on overreach. His command in the Italian campaign makes his name, Egypt in 1798 ends in a naval defeat to Nelson that forces his retreat, and by 1799 he is First Consul, ruling France under a constitution he treats as a formality. Austerlitz in 1805 is presented as his greatest victory, while installing his brother Joseph as king of Spain turns into a running disaster he never contains. The 1812 invasion of Russia wrecks the Grande Armee and marks the start of the collapse: exile to Elba in 1814, a hundred-day return to power in 1815, and final defeat at Waterloo. The film follows him through two marriages, to Josephine and later Marie-Louise, and an empire that at its height governs more than 70 million people before it comes apart.