Pair them up: Red with yellow.
MAN 2: Next!
HAGEN: Move!
[Cheers]
[Solemn instrumental music continues]
[People cheering]
[Gripping instrumental music]
[People cheering]
[Sweeping instrumental music]
MAN 3: Usurper!
[Stately instrumental music]
MAN 4: Go away! MAN 5: You'll never rule us, Commodus!
He enters Rome like a conquering hero. But what has he conquered?
Give him time, Gracchus. He's young.
I think he could do very well.
GRACCHUS: For Rome, or for you?
[Stately instrumental music continues]
GRACCHUS: Go to your mother, Lucius. It's what she'd like.
LUCILLA: Lucius! LUCIUS: Mother!
BOY 1: Hail, Caesar.
Senators.
Rome greets her new emperor.
Your loyal subjects bid you welcome, Highness.
Thank you, Falco.
And for the loyal subjects, I trust they weren't too expensive.
GRACCHUS: Caesar. COMMODUS: Gracchus.
All Rome rejoices in your return, Caesar.
There are many matters that require your attention.
GRACCHUS: To order, please. To order.
For your guidance, Caesar, the Senate has prepared a series of protocols...
to begin addressing the many problems in the city...
beginning with basic sanitation for the Greek Quarter...
to combat the plague which is already springing up there.
GRACCHUS: So, if Caesar...
Don't you see, Gracchus?
That's the very problem, isn't it?
COMMODUS: My father spent all his time at study...
at books of learning and philosophy.
COMMODUS: He spent his twilight hours reading scrolls from the Senate.
And all the while, the people were forgotten.
But the Senate is the people, sire...
chosen from among the people to speak for the people.
I doubt many of the people eat so well as you do, Gracchus.
Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius.
I think I understand my own people.
Then perhaps Caesar will be so good as to teach us...
out of his own extensive experience.
[Senators chuckling heartily]
I call it love.
I am their father. The people are my children.
I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly.
Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, sire?
No, but if you interrupt me again...
I assure you that you shall.
Senator, my brother is very tired.
Leave your list with me. Caesar shall do all that Rome requires.
My lady, as always, your lightest touch commands obedience.
COMMODUS: Who are they to lecture me?
Commodus, the Senate has its uses.
What uses? All they do is talk.
It should be just you and me and Rome.
Don't even think it. There's always been a Senate.
COMMODUS: Rome has changed.
It takes an emperor to rule an empire.
Of course, but leave the people their...
COMMODUS: Illusions?
Traditions.
My father's war against the barbarians...
He said it himself: It achieved nothing. But the people loved him.
The people always love victories.
Why? They didn't see the battles.
What do they care about Germania?
They care about the greatness of Rome.
"The greatness of Rome. "
Well, what is that?
It's an idea. Greatness.
LUCILLA: Greatness is a vision. COMMODUS: Exactly. A vision.
Do you not see, Lucilla?
I will give the people a vision of Rome, and they'll love me for it.
And they'll soon forget the tedious sermonizing of a few dry old men.
I will give the people the greatest vision of their lives.
[Slow instrumental music]
[Sweeping instrumental music]
TRADER: White and red wine for your drinking pleasure!
Games.
One hundred and fifty days of games.
He's cleverer than I thought.
Clever. The whole of Rome would be laughing at him...
if they weren't so afraid of his Praetorians.
Fear and wonder. A powerful combination.
You really think the people are going to be seduced by that?
I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob.
Conjure magic for them, and they'll be distracted.
Take away their freedom, and still they'll roar.
The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate.
It's the sand of the Colosseum.
He'll bring them death...
and they will love him for it.
[Sweeping instrumental music]
[People cheering]
All you do is kill, kill, kill.
The crowd don't want a butcher, they want a hero.
We want them to keep coming back.
So don't just hack them to pieces, remember you are an entertainer.
MAN: Spaniard.
So entertain!
[Pants]
Are you not entertained?
[Tense instrumental music]
Is this not why you're here?
CROWD: Spaniard!
[Triumphant instrumental music]
[People cheering]
What do you want?
Girl?
Boy?
- You sent for me. - Yes, I did.
You're good, Spaniard, but you're not that good.
PROXIMO: You could be magnificent.
I'm required to kill, so I kill. That is enough.
That's enough for the provinces, but not for Rome.
The young emperor has arranged a series of spectacles...
to commemorate his father, Marcus Aurelius.
I find that amusing...
since it was Marcus Aurelius, the wise...
the all-knowing Marcus Aurelius, that closed us down.
So finally, after five years of scratching a living...
in flea-infested villages...
we're finally going back to where we belong:
The Colosseum.
You should see the Colosseum, Spaniard.
Fifty-thousand Romans...
watching every movement of your sword...
willing you to make that killer blow.
The silence before you strike and the noise afterwards.
It rises. It rises up...
like a storm.
As if you were the thunder god himself.
- You were a gladiator? - Yes, I was.
[Somber instrumental music]
You won your freedom?
A long time ago, the Emperor...
presented me with a rudius.
It's just a wooden sword.
The symbol of your freedom.
He touched me on the shoulder, and I was free.
[Chuckles heartily]
You knew Marcus Aurelius?
I did not say I knew him. I said he touched me on the shoulder once.
MAXIMUS: You asked me what I want.
I, too, want to stand in front of the Emperor...
as you did.
PROXIMO: Then listen to me. Learn from me.
I wasn't the best because I killed quickly.
I was the best because the crowd loved me.
Win the crowd, and you'll win your freedom.
[Solemn instrumental music]
I will win the crowd.
I will give them something they've never seen before.
[Proximo laughs]
PROXIMO: So, Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together...
and have bloody adventures.
PROXIMO: And the great whore will suckle us...
until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more.
And then...
when enough men have died...
perhaps you will have your freedom.
Here. Use this.
[Somber instrumental music]
JUBA: It's somewhere out there, my country.
My home.
JUBA: My wife is preparing food.
My daughters carry water from the river.
Will I ever see them again?
I think, no.
Do you believe you'll see them again when you die?
I think so.
But then, I will die soon.
They will not die for many years.
JUBA: I'll have to wait.
But you would? Wait?
Of course.
You see...
my wife...
and my son are already waiting for me.
You'll meet them again. But not yet.
Not yet.
- Unless... - Not yet.
Not yet.
[Thunder rumbling]
[Lively instrumental music]
BOY 2: There it is.
[Lively instrumental music continues]
MAN: Out.
Move, go, out!
PROXIMO: Good to see you again, old friend.
Bring me fortune.
[Tense instrumental music]
Have you ever seen anything like that before?
I didn't know men could build such things.
Win the crowd.
MAN: Get inside. Move.
Inside.
[Slow instrumental music]
[Slow instrumental music continues]
He sleeps so well because he's loved.
Come, brother. It's late.
COMMODUS: I will make Rome the wonder of the ages.
That is what Gracchus and his friends don't understand.
COMMODUS: All my desires are splitting my head to pieces.
Commodus, drink this tonic.
COMMODUS: I think the time is almost right.
I could announce the dissolution of the Senate...
at the celebration to honor our father.
COMMODUS: Do you think I should?
COMMODUS: Are the people ready?
I think you need your rest now.
[Grave instrumental music]
Will you stay with me?
Still afraid of the dark, brother?
Still.
Always.
- Stay with me tonight. - You know I won't.
Then kiss me.
Sleep, brother.
[Grave instrumental music continues]
[Knocking on door]
Having servants who are deaf and mute...
at least ensures I live a little longer.
LUCILLA: They're arresting scholars now.
Anyone who dare speak out. Even satirists and chroniclers.
GAIUS: And mathematicians.
And all to feed the arena.
The Senate did not approve martial law.
GAIUS: This reign of terror is entirely the Praetorians.
GAIUS: I'm afraid to go out after dark.
You should be more afraid of your activities during the day.
The Senate is full of his spies, led by that whore master, Falco.
But what is in his mind? That's what I trouble myself with.
He spends all his days singularly obsessed...
planning the festival to honor your father.
He neglects even the most fundamental task of government.
So just what is he planning?
GAIUS: And what pays for it?
These daily games are costing a fortune, yet we have no new taxes.
The future.
The future pays for it.
He's started selling the grain reserves.
GAIUS: This can't be true.
LUCILLA: He's selling Rome's reserves of grain.
The people will be starving in two years.
I hope they're enjoying the games...
because soon enough they'll be dead because of them.
- Rome must know this. - And how?
He's going to dissolve the Senate.
And who will tell them before it's too late? You, Gracchus?
LUCILLA: You, Gaius.
Will you make a speech on the floor of the Senate, denouncing my brother?
And then see your family in the Colosseum?
Who'd dare?
[Solemn instrumental music]
LUCILLA: I have been living in a prison of fear every day...
because my son is heir to the throne.
[Sobbing]
He must die.
GAIUS: Quintus and the Praetorians would simply seize control for themselves.
No. Cut off the head and the snake cannot strike.
GRACCHUS: Lucilla, Gaius is right.
Until we can neutralize the Praetorians, we can achieve nothing.
So we do nothing?
GRACCHUS: No, child. We keep our counsel.
We prepare.
As long as the people support him, we are voices without steel.
We are air.
GRACCHUS: But with every day that passes, he makes enemies.
One day, he'll have more enemies than friends.
And on that day, we will act.
Then we will strike.
But until then...
we are docile.
We are obedient.
And we are treacherous.
[Somber instrumental music]
MAN: Come on!
MAN: All right, that's enough.
The Emperor wants battles, and I don't want to sacrifice my best fighters.
The crowd wants battles, so the Emperor gives them battles.
- You get the battle of Carthage. - Massacre of Carthage.
Well, why don't you go down to the prison, round up all the beggars and thieves?
We've done that.
If you want to give away the best gladiators in the whole of the empire...
then I want double the rates.
You'll get your contract rates, or you'll get your contract cancelled.
You don't like it?
Then you can crawl back down that shit hole that you came from.
MAN: Cassius, please. You can free us.
Gladiator, are you the one they call the Spaniard?
Yes.
LUCIUS: They said you were a giant.
They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand.
A man's? No.
A boy's.
- Do they have good horses in Spain? - Some of the best.
This is Argento and this is Scarto.
They were my horses.
They were taken from me.
I like you, Spaniard. I shall cheer for you.
- They let you watch the games? - My uncle says it makes me strong.
- And what does your father say? - My father is dead.
Master Lucius, it is time.
I have to go.
Your name is Lucius?
Lucius Verus, after my father.
[Tense instrumental music]
MAN: Lower!
SOLDIER: Claudius!
CLAUDIUS: Yes? SOLDIER: More shields!
CLAUDIUS: All right.
SOLDIER: When the Emperor enters, raise your weapons, salute him...
and then speak together.
Face the Emperor and don't turn your back on him.
Go, and die with honor.
[All cheering]
[Tense instrumental music continues]
[Crowd cheering]
[Horns blowing]
SOLDIER: Hail, mighty Caesar!
CROWD: Caesar!
[Crowd cheering]
GLADIATORS: We who are about to die salute you!
CASSIUS: On this day...
we reach back to hallowed antiquity...
to bring you a re-creation of the second fall...
of mighty Carthage!
[Crowd cheering]
On the barren plain of Zama...
there stood the invincible armies...
of the barbarian Hannibal.
CASSIUS: Ferocious mercenaries and warriors...
from all brute nations...
bent on merciless destruction...
conquest.
Your emperor is pleased to give you...
the barbarian horde!
[Tense instrumental music]
Anyone here been in the army?
SOLDIER: Yes. I served with you at Vindobona.
You can help me.
Whatever comes out of these gates...
we've got a better chance of survival if we work together.
Do you understand?
If we stay together, we survive.
The Emperor is pleased to bring you the legionnaires...
of Scipio Africanus!
[Fast-paced instrumental music]
To the death!
CROWD: Kill!
Stay close.
Come together!
Stay close. Staggered columns!
MAN: You don't have a chance.
[Valiant instrumental music]
[Chuckling heartily]
MAXIMUS: Lock your shields. Stay as one.
Hold!
Hold! As one!
Well done.
Hold. Down low!
CROWD: Yes!
[Fast-paced instrumental music]
Hagen!
[Intense instrumental music]
This column to the chariot! This column stay with me!
MAXIMUS: Quickly!
- Get out there. - Hurry!
[Growls]
[Grunts]
[Crowd cheering]
[Gripping instrumental music]
JUBA: Maximus!
[Heroic instrumental music]
Single column!
[Tense instrumental music]
[Chuckling heartily]
[Triumphant instrumental music]
[Crowd cheering]
We win!
My history's a little hazy, Cassius...
but shouldn't the barbarians lose the battle of Carthage?
Yes, sire.
Forgive me, sire.
COMMODUS: No, I rather enjoy surprises.
Who is he?
They call him the Spaniard, sire.
I think I'll meet him.
Yes, sire.
MAN: Hail to the barbarians!
[Horns blowing]
SOLDIER: Forward! Arms at ready!
Drop your weapons.
[Tense instrumental music]
Gladiator, the Emperor has asked for you.
I am at the Emperor's service.
[Crowd cheering]
[Menacing instrumental music]
Rise.
Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard.
I don't think there's ever been a gladiator to match you.
As for this young man, he insists you are Hector reborn.
Or was it Hercules?
Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name?
[Tense instrumental music]
You do have a name.
My name is Gladiator.
How dare you show your back to me? Slave!
You will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
[Sighs]
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius...
commander of the armies of the north...
general of the Felix Legions...
loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius...
father to a murdered son...
husband to a murdered wife...
and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
Arms!
CROWD: Live!
[Crowd chanting]
[Crowd cheering]
SOLDIER: Arms, at rest!
[Triumphant instrumental music]
[Crowd cheering]
[Triumphant instrumental music continues]
SOLDIERS: Maximus!
Father.
[Sobs]
[Panting]
Why is he still alive?
I don't know.
He shouldn't be alive.
It vexes me.
I'm terribly vexed.
I did what I had to do.
If Father had had his way, the empire would have been torn apart.
You do see that.
Yes.
What did you feel when you saw him?
I felt nothing.
He wounded you deeply, didn't he?
No more than I wounded him.
They lied to me in Germania.
They told me he was dead.
If they lie to me, they don't respect me.
If they don't respect me, how can they ever love me?
Then you must let the legions know...
their treachery will not go unpunished.
COMMODUS: Poor sister.
I wouldn't want to be your enemy.
What will you do?
[Tense instrumental music]
GUARD: This way.
Rich matrons pay well to be pleasured by the bravest champions.
I knew your brother would send assassins.
I didn't realize he would send his best.
Maximus, he doesn't know.
My family was burnt and crucified while they were still alive.
- I knew nothing... - Don't lie to me!
I wept for them.
As you wept for your father?
I have been living in a prison of fear since that day.
To be unable to mourn your father for fear of your brother.
To live in terror every moment of every day...
because your son is heir to the throne.
I have wept.
My son was innocent.
So is mine.
Must my son die, too, before you'll trust me?
What does it matter if I trust you or not?
LUCILLA: The gods have spared you. Don't you understand?
Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome.
The gods have spared me?
I am at their mercy, with the power only to amuse a mob.
LUCILLA: That is power.
LUCILLA: The mob is Rome.
And while Commodus controls them, he controls everything.
Listen to me.
My brother has enemies, most of all in the Senate.
But while the people follow him...
no one would dare stand up to him until you.
They oppose him, yet they do nothing.
There are some politicians who have dedicated their lives to Rome.
One man above all.
If I can arrange it, will you meet him?
Do you not understand?
I may die in this cell tonight, or in the arena tomorrow. I am a slave!
What possible difference can I make?
This man wants what you want.
Then have him kill Commodus!
I knew a man once...
a noble man.
A man of principle who loved my father...
and my father loved him.
This man served Rome well.
[Sentimental instrumental music]
That man is gone.
Your brother did his work well.
Let me help you.
Yes, you can help me.
Forget you ever knew me, never come here again.
Guard! The lady is finished with me.
[Drum beats]
[Somber instrumental music]
What's your name?
Julian Crassus.
Name?
Marcus, sire.
COMMODUS: My father's name.
They must have known of Maximus' escape when they found the bodies of the four men.
They thought it was a barbarian raid.
These are good men, sire. Loyal to the Emperor.
SOLDIER: Load your arrows!
[Drums beating]
SOLDIER: Prepare to fire!
[Tense instrumental music]
COMMODUS: Then perhaps it was you who knew...