Trivia / The Eagle (2011)

• Dated History: It's now a matter of some academic disagreement whether the Ninth Legion disappeared in Britannia, but when the novel was written in the 1950s it was the prevailing theory.
• Dueling Movies: With Centurion, which is based on the same legend about the Ninth Legion.
• Enforced Method Acting: Channing Tatum is in legitimate pain and discomfort for the scenes where Marcus is in the river. In order to avoid hypothermia, he had to have hot water poured down his wetsuit between takes. A mistake led to the water being too hot in one instance - resulting in him having the "skin on my pee-pee" scalded off.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Well obviously. The Roman characters are all played by American actors. Mark Strong uses an American accent to play a Roman now living amongst the Celts.
  • The son of the Seal tribe's chief is played by Thomas Henry, who is Northern Irish.
  • The Seal prince is played by Tahar Rahim, a French actor of Algerian descent.
• On-Set Injury: When filming in a freezing river, a crew member forgot to mix the hot water with the river water during filming; as a result, Channing Tatum was scalded with boiling water that burned the skin off the tip of his penis.
• Playing Against Type: Mark Strong is usually an Evil Brit. So it's quite surprising that he plays a more sympathetic character, with a Fake American accent to boot.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The filmmakers had just one night to shoot the climactic battle scene, resulting in a disorganised and ragged looking fight between Romans and Celts.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A deleted scene featured an elaborate chariot race between Marcus and the druid, but got cut for pacing reasons.
  • An alternate ending showed Marcus deciding to burn the eagle instead of handing it over to the Roman emperor. He and Esca would then be seen approaching Hadrian's Wall on horseback, discussing their plans for the future.

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