Trivia / 300

• Acting for Two: Leonidas's father is played by Tim Connolly, who was also Gerard Butler's stunt double.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Leonidas was not supposed to yell "THIS IS SPARTA!" initially. Gerard Butler made several takes saying it on a firm but low-key tone (which is how the line was delivered in the comic) and thought it didn't achieve much effect, then did one take yelling it. Zack Snyder loved it and they did another take with him yelling it, the one that ended up in the movie.
• Adaptation Sequence: Actual events —> unreliable historical document by a man who was taking a break from writing about giant ants —> Movie —> Graphic Novel —> Movie —> Video Game
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Gerard Butler noted that he's wanted the role so badly that when afraid that Alan Horn (president of Warner Bros. at the time) would veto him, he'd prepared an entire speech about how his entire life and career had led to him taking the role of Leonidas.
• Banned in China: This film is banned in Iran because of Persians being portrayed as slavering, inhuman monsters, particularly Xerxes I (who is a revered figure in the country).
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Two minor examples:
  • There's a good twenty-second pause between the Persian emissary saying "This is madness!" and Leonidas responding with his famous line. Understandably, people usually omit the long pause when they're quoting the film. In addition, Leonidas says "Madness? THIS. IS. SPARTA!" but is usually quoted as "No. THIS. IS. SPARTA!"
  • Leonidas full quote is "Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty, for tonight we dine IN HELL!", but it has been commonly shortened to "Spartans! Tonight we dine in hell!" as it is in the trailer.
• Breakthrough Hit: While Dawn of the Dead gave Zack Snyder much notice, it's 300 that truly put him on the map.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Rodrigo Santoro was auditioning for Astinos, but Zack Snyder was so impressed that he was offered the part of Xerxes.
• Dyeing for Your Art: The movie is a gigantic parade of special effects. The monsters, the blood, the surreal colors, none of it is real. But the ludicrously chiselled bodies of the Spartans? Quite authentic. The actors playing the Spartans, as well as the stunt crew, went through Training from Hell in order to earn those abs the hard way. For a sense of solidarity with his actors and to "feel like a Spartan" himself, director Zack Snyder did too. Unfortunately, the Training from Hell had long-term ramifications and Gerard Butler developed a painkiller addiction due to the toll it had on his body.
• Fake Nationality: There is not a single Greek or Iranian actor in a film about a battle between Greeks and Iranians (And Syrians. And Assyrians. And Chaldeans, Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians and everyone else in the Achaemenid Empire.)^note  This is hardly without precedent, though. In British translations of classical Greek literature, it's traditional to render the Spartan's Doric Greek dialect into English with a heavy Scots accent, to give them the feeling of a more rough, "unrefined" culture compared to the Athenians, who usually speak RP. In American translations, the Spartans are usually Texans.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Follows Sin City, also an heavily stylized adaptation of Frank Miller comics. Also follows the general Sword and Sandal trend revived by Gladiator, and more loosely, the action fantasy trend revived by The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the costume drama/adventure film department it wound up making a path of its own by leading to other more hyper-stylized and fantastical Greco-Roman themed films that followed.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand clearly followed the influence of 300 with its heavily stylized Rated M for Manly depiction of Greek and Roman history (only with plenty of sex and nudity added in). Peter Mensah even starred in the latter as well.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Zack Snyder asked the writers to add more "weirdness" into the movie.
• I Am Not Spock: As far as the internet is concerned, Gerard Butler is Leonidas. Even though he actually has had many other notable roles, 300 is likely to be the first one you think of when he's mentioned.
• Prop Recycling: To keep the budget down, many of the weapons props were reused from Alexander and Troy.
• Real-Life Relative: Zack Snyder's son plays the young Leonidas.
• Recursive Adaptation: The film was based on a Frank Miller comic based on his view of the film The 300 Spartans... as in he loved it when he saw it as a child, later saw it as an adult and hated it, so he wrote a comic using his childhood memories as the basis - he used a Nostalgia Filter to enhance the work! The reason it hits the Rated M for Manly button is because it's based around that integral process!
• Referenced by...: Most of them are Punctuated! For! Emphasis! references to the "This! Is! Sparta!" line. But some are not:
  • Homecoming, 2026: To kick off a Halloween event:
    This! Is! Halloween!
  • Pokémon Talk: From "Counting", in a Shout-Out to the "This. Is. Sparta!" line of 300, Squirtle's response to Bulbasaur's "This is madness!" line:
    Squirtle: This! Is! Squirtle!
• Star-Making Role: For Gerard Butler. Subverted with Lena Headey and Michael Fassbender; both would later be cast in roles that would truly define them as actors (Headey landing a major role as Ceresi Lannister in Game of Thrones, Fassbender starring in Band of Brothers, then later being cast as young Erik Lensherr fron X-Men: First Class onward.)
• Stunt Double: Tim Connolly, who plays Leonidas' father in the flashback intro, also doubled for Gerard Butler.
• Throw It In!:
  • The memetic delivery of the line "THIS! IS! SPARTA!!!" was actually not that highly emphasized in the comic book novel, nor the original script. According to Gerard Butler, after they'd finished filming the scene as scripted, he asked them to do "one more take" and then delivered the line in the now-famous manner. The crew loved it so much that they used that take instead, and the rest, as they say, is history.
  • The Oracle's words are actually just ad-libbed gibberish by the actress who played her. Zack Snyder was delighted that she worked the word "Carneia" into it.
• Underage Casting: The actual Leonidas was over sixty when he died. Gerard Butler was well thirty-seven when he played the Spartan king.

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