GLADIATOR

♦ SCREENSHOTS

PART ONE
PART TWO


Commodus: He sleeps so well because he is loved.



Lucius: They said you were a giant. They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand.
Maximus: Man's? No. A boy's
Lucius: They have good horses in Spain?
Maximus: Some of the best. This is Argento. This is Scato. They were my horses. They were taken from me.



Cassius: On this day we reach back to hallowed antiquity to bring you a recreation of Second Fall of Mighty Carthage. On the barren straits of Zama, there stood the invincible armies of the Barbarian Hannibal. Ferocious mercenaries and warriors from all brute nations bent on merciless destruction conquest. Your Emperor is pleased to give you THE BARBARIAN HORDE!



Maximus: Whatever comes out of these gates, we've got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? We stay together, we survive.



Commodus: My history's a little hazy, Cassius, but shouldn't the Barbarians lose the battle of Carthage?
Cassius: Yes, Sire. Forgive me, Sire.



Commodus: Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name. You do have a name...?
Maximus: My name is gladiator.
Commodus: How dare you show your back to me. Slave! You will remove your helmet and tell me your name...



Maximus: 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.



Lucilla: 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.
Maximus: That man is gone. Your brother did his work well.
Lucilla: Let me help you.
Maximus: Yes. You can help me. Forget you ever knew me. Never come here again. Guard! The lady has finished with me.



Maximus: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo. This is not it. This is not it!
Proximo: Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus. We mortals are but shadows and dust, shadows and dust, Maximus.



We who are about to die salute you.



Maximus, Maximus the Merciful!



Commodus: What am I going to do with you, you simply won't...die. Are we so different, you and I? You take life when you have to, as I do.
Maximus: I only have one more life to take and then it is done.
Commodus: Then take it now... They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross. And your wife, moaned like a whore when they ravaged her again, and again, and again.
Maximus: The time for honouring yourself will soon be at an end, Highness.



Juba: What do you say to them?
Maximus: To my boy, I tell him I will see him again soon, and to keep his heels down when he's riding his horse. To my wife...that is not your business.



Maximus: You have done all this?
Lucilla: Yes.
Maximus: You risk too much.
Lucilla: I have much to pay for.
Maximus: You have nothing to pay for. You love your son. You are strong for him.
Lucilla: I am tired of being strong. My brother hates all the world and you, most of all.
Maximus: Because your father chose me.
Lucilla: No, because my father loved you ... and because I loved you.
Maximus: A long time ago.



Lucilla: Was I very different then?
Maximus: You laughed more.
Lucilla: I have felt alone all my life, except with you.



Commodus: If you're very good, tomorrow night I'll tell you the story of Emperor Claudius. He was betrayed, by those closest to him ... by his own blood ... they whispered in dark corners and went out late at night and conspired and conspired. But the Emperor knew they were up to something. He knew they were busy little bees. And one night he sat down with one of them and he looked at her and he said, "Tell me what you have been doing, busy little bee, or I shall strike down those dearest to you. You shall watch as I bathe in their blood." And the emperor was heartbroken. The little bee had wounded him more deeply than anyone else could ever have done. And what do you think happened then, Lucius?
Lucius: I don't know Uncle.
Commodus: The little bee told him everything.



Maximus: Proximo, are you in danger of becoming a good man.



Commodus: And what of my nephew and what of his mother? Shall they share her lover's fate or should I be merciful? Commodus the merciful. Lucius will stay with me now and if his mother so much as looks at me in a manner that displeases me, he will die. And if she decides to be noble and take her own life, he will die. And, as for you, you will love me as I have loved you. You will provide me with an heir of pure blood so that Commodus and his progeny will rule for 1,000 years. Am I not merciful? AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!



Commodus: Maximus. Maximus. Maximus. They call for you. The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. A striking story. Now the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. What could be more glorious than to challenge the emperor himself in the great arena.
Maximus: You would fight me?
Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid?
Maximus: I think you have been afraid all your life.
Commodus: Unlike Maximus the invincible, who knows no fear?



Sorry, couldn't help it. From another angle.
Maximus: I knew a man who once said, death smiles at us all. All that man can do is smile back.
Commodus: I wonder. Did your friend smile at his own death?
Maximus: You must know. He was your father.



Commodus: You loved my father, I know. But so did I. That makes us brothers, doesn't it? Smile for me now, brother!



Historical Commodus did partake in gladiatorial contests, but never with a Roman general burning with vengeance as far as I know.



Maximus: Quintus, free my men. Senator Gracchus is to be reinstated. There was a dream that was Rome, it shall be realized. These are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius.



Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again.



Lucilla: Go to them.



Maximus's homecoming like Odysseus. Maximus even had a haircut on the way.



This is no way to treat your Emperor.



Juba: Now we are free. I will see you again. But not yet, not yet...


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