History Film / Pompeii

*** Pompeii was older than Rome. Part of the Greek colonies since the 8th century B.C., it defended itself from Etruscans in the 6th century. Back then it was a major trading city, far superior to Rome. It joined the Roman alliance after the Samnian War, and became organized after the Campanian War. As it was more Greek than Roman historically, the animosity towards Rome could actually be more of an example of ShownTheirWork, and not an ArtisticLicenseHistory.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: [[spoiler: The film's poster shows the movie's last scene]].

[[caption-width-right:184:[[TagLine A City Will Fall, A Hero Will Rise.]]]]

[[quoteright:184:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pompeii_5148.png]]

Pompeii is a 2014 American disaster-adventure film produced and directed by Creator/PaulWSAnderson. It stars Creator/KitHarington, Creator/EmilyBrowning, [[Creator/AdewaleAkinnuoyeAgbaje Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje]], Jared Haris, Jessica Lucas and Creator/KieferSutherland.

* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Parents]]...and burned my village to the ground.

* TemptingFate: Severus (no, [[HarryPotter not that one]]) refuses to postpone the gladiator games after seeing cracks beneath the amphitheater, saying that the structure has withstood earthquakes for a century.

* DiedStandingUp: [[spoiler: Atticus does a damn good impersonation of [[FistOfTheNorthStar Raoh]] in the face of the ash cloud.]]

* InvincibleHero: Through no readily explained reason, Milo is an absolute stunning fighter with unlimited amounts of stamina, fighting ability and pain tolerance. For example, the day before he has to engage in the fight of his life, he [[ATasteOfTheLash endues 15 lashes]] without even calling out, let alone losing consciousness. Afterwards the whip lashes are treated as a minor inconvenience, and he's able to outfight everyone the next day without any problems (even put on armor and slapped on the back without reacting). In real life, he would need a month to recover at the very least (if he survived at all). Instead he goes on to fight many, many battles against perfectly healthy opponents and he easily defeats them all, one after another. The best explanation given is that he was descended from the "horse clan," but that was 17 years ago, and we didn't even see him have any training.

*** Pompeii was older than Rome. Part of Greek colonies since 8th century B.C., it defended itself from Etruscans in 6th century. Back then it was a major trading city, far superior than Rome. It joined Roman alliance after Samnian War, and became organized after Campanian war. As it was more Greek than Roman historically, the animosity towards Rome could actually be more of an example of ShownTheirWork, and not an ArtisticLicenseHistory.

** Historical gladiators were essentially the rock-stars of their day; they were slaves, yes, but they weren't mistreated or killed off rather than let them go free. Also, rather than being slim and muscular, they were ''fat'' and muscular, so they could take more cuts, bleed more, put on a better show and generally last longer.

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler: Milo and Cassia at the end.]]

* MamaBear: Aurelia would want to keep her daughter Cassia safe from Senator Corvus' advances as soon as Cassia's uneasiness becomes clear to her, but the senator's political high ground makes her unable to do anything against him. [[spoiler:After Vesuvius' eruption has began, she urges Severus to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown kill the seemingly unconscious Corvus]].]]

* ButtMonkey: The nameless brute of a gladiator that has it out for Milo from the beginning. First he's ForcedToWatch when his brother gets effortlessly slaughtered in the arena by Milo. He tries to avenge him later in the barracks and gets the crap beaten out of him, again by Milo. Once he and the other gladiators have been transferred to Pompeji, he attempts to backstab Milo with a shiv while our hero is brawling with Atticus on the arena floor. He gets Atticus' boot in the face for his troubles, knocking him out cold - again. Finally, things are looking up for him when he's chosen for a staged arena battle whose odds are heavily weighted in his side's favor. All his comrades end up dead anyway, and he gets curbstomped by Milo ''again'', this time for good.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Once in Pompeji, several well-built gladiators including Milo and Atticus are put on display during an upperclass party for the local women to... admire. One of them marvels at Atticus' physique (he appears to actually like it, or at least doesn't mind), then asks his owner about inspecting Atticus' "lance". The guy replies that this kind of interaction, unlike everything else she did up to this point, is not free of charge.

* {{Retirony}}: Vesuvius erupts on the last day of Atticus' slavery. (Not that they were actually going to let him live anyway...)

* ShowSomeLeg: Cassia in particular does this increasingly often the more her dress/toga gets torn apart when the plot approaches its climax.
* SmugSnake: Senator Corvus.

*** Pompeii was older than Rome. Part of Greek colonies since 8th century B.C., it defended itself from Etruscans in 6th century. Back then it was a major trading city, far superior than Rome. It joined Roman alliance after Samnian War, and became organized after Campanian war. As it was more Greek than historically, it is more of an example of ShownTheirWork than FailedHistoryForever.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Milo and Cassia [[OneHitKill die instantly]] from thermal shock and Atticus looks he went out the same way. Corvus doesn't suffer such a mercy and dies screaming in agony as the pyroclastic flow burns him alive.]]

* DullSurprise: Milo - and by extension [[Creator/KitHarington his actor]] - isn't exactly big on displaying emotions. The only times his face shows any reaction at all (aside from pain during combat) is when he sees Cassia. A benevolent reading might chalk it up to the trauma he experienced as a child and that just kept torturing him ever since.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Gladiator battles feature heavily into the story, so naturally there're a lot of muscular, half-naked men to be admired. Both male protagonists spend much of their screentime showing lots of skin under their light armor.

* DullSurprise: Milo - and by extension [[Creator/KitHarrington his actor]] - isn't exactly big on displaying emotions. The only times his face shows any reaction at all (aside from pain during combat) is when he sees Cassia. A benevolent reading might chalk it up to the trauma he experienced as a child and that just kept torturing him ever since.

* CurbStompBattle: Milo, unarmed, versus three heavily-armed gladiators. Milo kills them all in under 10 seconds.

* EvilIsBlack: Proculus and his elite guard wear black lorica segmentata armor to leave no doubts as to who's the bad guy in town. Corvus dons one as well once he stops pretending to be a benefector to Cassia and her family.

* DiedStandingUp: [[spoiler: Atticus does a damn good impersonation of [[FistOfTheNorthStar Raoh]] in the face of the ash cloud.]]

* TheDragon: Proculus is this to Senator Corvus.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/CarrieAnneMoss is billed second, above female lead Creator/EmilyBrowning (billed third) and Creator/AdewaleAkinnuoyeAgbaje who plays TheLancer (billed fourth).

* XMeetsY: Peplum meets Disaster movie.