Awesome / Gladiator

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

The film

Shots likes this make you wonder how anyone could be surprised that this led to a Genre Relaunch for the Sword and Sandal Epic Film.

• "At my signal, unleash hell."
• Maximus's Battle Cry in the opening battle.
  Maximus: (as he leads his cavalry in a charge) ROMA INVICTA!^note "Unconquered Rome!"
  • And his victory cry as well: ROMA VICTOR!^note "Rome is victorious!"
• Maximus dispatching all the praetorians sent to kill him.
  • "It's the frost. Sometimes it makes the blade stick". Max says this before dispatching the last praetorian.
  • Don't forget Maximus killing a mounted Praetorian by throwing a sword at him from at least thirty feet away, in deep woods. With his hands chained together.
  • Adding to all that, one of the Praetorians does manage to wound him during the scuffle, and Maximus still curb-stomps them.
• The second Zucchabar arena fight, where Maximus stabs a guy in the chest with two swords, then pulls both of them out and decapitates him.
  • The same fight has him kill six men in less than a minute. In a "blink or you'll miss it" moment, he takes down a helmeted gladiator by punching him in the head with his less dominant hand.
  • The fight gives the film its most famous line, as Maximus is simply so lethal in single combat that he'll take down a whole arena in a brutal and uncomfortable fight that the audience is disturbed into silence by.
  Maximus: ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
• Juba, upon seeing the Colosseum: "I didn't know men could build such things."
• Maximus leading his men to victory at the Colosseum, despite that it was supposed to have been a recreation of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  Commodus: My history is a little hazy, Cassius, but shouldn't the barbarians lose the battle of Carthage?
  Cassius: Uh, yes, sire... umm, forgive me sire.
• Maximus risking his own life against a rampaging chariot in order to save Hagen, who until this point was effectively his enemy. This changes Hagen's attitude entirely.
• This:
  Commodus: You do have a name?
  Maximus: My name is Gladiator. [turns away]
  Commodus: (furious) How dare you show your back to me! Slave, you will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
  (Beat)
  Maximus: [removes helmet and faces Commodus] 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.
  • Made even better at Commodus's Oh, Crap! expression.
• Maximus' multiple burns toward Commodus. From revealing his identity, sparing Tigris' life and keeping his head cool when Commodus describes his wife's and son's deaths, while at the same time draining all popularity from Commodus until even his own men hate him.
  • On that note, the fight against Tigris the Gaul. Particularly when Maximus is pounced on by a tiger that had escaped its restraint, and he quickly dispatches the cat while his stunned opponent looks on. Despite his face being completely hidden by a helmet, Tigris' reaction is very much evident. And then, after Maximus had defeated the guy and received the pollice verso from Commodus, he spares Tigris anyway, just to piss off the Emperor of Rome.
    Maximus! Maximus, the Merciful!
    • And that single line, shouted out over the din of the ENTIRE ROMAN COLOSSEUM, is none other than noted very loud person BRIAN BLESSED.
  • Same subject, but a nod must go to Sven-Ole Thorson, who lobbied HARD to get the part of Tigris. Worked out well for him as his is a most memorable character.
  • Also from the same fight, Maximus dislodging another tiger on his back that lunged at him from behind with a well-placed Shield Bash.
• Proximo is a former gladiator who won his own freedom, and has some of the best lines of the movie, not to mention the gleeful cackle he gives when the gladiators — HIS gladiators — win the Unwinnable Fight in the Battle of Carthage reenactment.
• The Final Battle, where Maximus and Commodus confront each other in a duel to the death. Points go to Maximus, who remains terrifyingly calm while Commodus is losing it as the battle goes on. Even when Commodus stabbed him to ensure an advantage, Maximus held his own and even when Commodus resorts to outright cheating, he still won.
  • Maximus forcing Commodus' hand backwards to stab him in the throat.... all the while bleeding to death.
  • At one point Maximus is actually disarmed... so he simply beats the crap out of Commodus barehanded and dumps him on his ass with a kick before recovering his sword.
  • Also, Quintus giving one last "Fuck you" to the Emperor by refusing to give him his sword and ordering the guards surrounding him to sheathe their swords. Commodus is killed as a result.
• "Who will help me carry him?"

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