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Gladiator (2000)

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• Anacronismi: When Maximus returns home to his fields, tractor tracks are visible in a field of wheat by the road.
  
  
• Anacronismi: Stirrups can be seen being used on some of the horses, but while they were invented during the Roman Empire period (by either the Chinese or Asian barbarians), the Romans never adopted them (they are used in the movie for obvious safety reasons, a proper Roman saddle being very difficult to ride).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the fight with the tigers, one of the tigers leaps onto Maximus' back. As he falls down to the ground under the tiger, you can see that Maximus has been switched with a tiger-handler dressed as a gladiator, and is holding up a big piece of meat for the tiger to eat.
  
  

• Anacronismi: Characters in this movie are shown smoking cigarettes. Tobacco is a New World crop not introduced to Europe until 1600 A.D.
  
  
• Factual errors: "Maximus Decimus Meridius" is not a name in line with Roman naming conventions. For men a classical Roman name would consist of a first name (praenomen), family name (nomen gentile) and sub-family name (cognomen). The list of possible praenomen is very short and "Maximus" isn't one of them. "Decimus" is though, so maybe it's just the order of names that got jumbled.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the Battle of Carthage, Maximus frees a horse from the chariot and rides it. The horse is wearing a saddle but it should not be if it was supposed to pull a chariot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Maximus takes his helmet off at the end of the Roma-Carthage battle you can see indents where he places his fingers showing it is made of rubber.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At one point in the chariot battle, one of the gladiators calls out, "Maximus!" While most only know him as the Spaniard at that point, at least one gladiator said he fought under Maximus in Vindibona; others may have also fought under him. While the shouting gladiator, Juba the African hunter, probably had not, he may have heard from another gladiator.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Various characters use modern Italian (Maximus' son) or modern German (the Germanian chief in the opening). This is consistent with most of the characters speaking modern English.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maximus enters the Colosseum to fight against Tigris of Gaul, he's holding the sword in his right and the shield in his left hand. And in the last shot you see him walking towards Tigris, the sword is in his left and the shield in his right hand. In the next shot, sword will again be in his right and shield in his left hand.
  
  
• Continuity: In the fight against Tigris, Maximus kicks him down and his mask slides open, in the next shot, Maximus opens his mask with his ax.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end of the first fight in Rome, Maximus is seen holding his sword in his left hand and handling the horse with his right, but his hands switch in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end of the Roma-Carthage reenactment, Maximus picks up a spear and holds it up while mounted on the white horse. Commodus then asks who he is and what he is called. While being explained to, a shot is shown of Maximus throwing down the spear into the ground. After Commodus says "I'd like to meet him" there is another close-up of Maximus, he is still holding the spear in his right hand and throws it down again.
  
  
• Continuity: After beheading the boar-helmeted enemy with two swords in Zucchabar, he ends up throwing one of his two gladius (short-swords) into the spectator's box. His remaining sword changes hands several times around the time that he shouts "Are you not entertained?"
  
  
• Continuity: During Maximus' second fight in Zucchabar: when he wounds the third of his enemies, we see blood splashing on Maximus' right arm and left hip; next shot the blood has vanished.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During Maximus' second fight in Zucchabar, he cuts the stomach of the fourth gladiator he confronts in the first shot of that duel. Two shots later, there is no wound to be seen on the man's torso, while Maximus thrusts his sword between the man's left arm and torso.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: You can see Marcus Aurelius breathing when Lucilla greets Commodus as the new emperor.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus did not really die in the way the film depicts. But there is a notice to the effect that despite the use of historical characters, this is a fictional story.
  
  
• Factual errors: The movie suggests that Marcus Aurelius had made the gladiator fights come to an end for ethical reasons. In fact they were considered as religious events, beneficial for the youngsters' morals. It would not be until Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, some 200 years in the future, that gladiatorial fights would be abolished. It is more likely that Marcus Aurelius greatly reduced the frequency of gladiatorial games for fiscal reasons; they were drains upon the public treasury. Marcus Aurelius was not so much a good person as a wise administrator. Money saved by not squandering money on gladiatorial games could be out to better use, such as defense against barbarians or public sanitation to combat epidemics. The story line indicates that Commodus depletes the treasury with his excessive sponsorship of the gladiatorial games.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During gladiator fights bread is thrown into the audience like into a pigstall. While some claim the bread was handed out by slaves, the film's researchers found bread was indeed thrown to the audience, and sometimes there were even snakes concealed in the baskets, as a sort of personal amusement to Commodus.
  
  
• Factual errors: Horses were a very valuable asset those days, they were certainly not used as draught animals, certainly not to carry slaves; instead asses, mules and oxen were deployed.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first battle in the Colosseum, when Maximus turns his horse, there's blood on the blade. Then it vanishes, just to reappear again in next scene.
  
  
• Continuity: As Tigris hits the floor after being kicked over by Maximus you can see that his face (just at the very last second of the shot) is free of blood. In the next shot when the visor is lifted, you see Tigris' face smeared with blood.
  
  
• Anacronismi: Many of the helmets worn by the gladiators are of types introduced up to 700 years later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the fight vs Commodus, one can see a piece of sky where the Colosseum's upper tiers should be.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Lucilla puts her hand to shut Maximus' eyes after he dies, his eyes are seen to flicker before touched. This could be a dying movement, or even a post-mortem muscle spasm.
  
  
• Varie: When the two armies run together in the opening battle, when they clash one of the Roman legionaries in the centre of the screen is clearly laughing at the battle, and generally not taking part. (Some report several others laughing.)
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: After Maximus defeats Tiger (clean shaven) he is led out of the Colosseum by several soldiers, including one with a beard that looks like, but is not, Tiger.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Maximus orders "Unleash Hell". Even if Hell is not a concept of his religion, he seems to be an educated man; he might be aware of the concept and use the word for rhetorical value. Also, since the movie is in modern English, "hell" could be reasonably assumed to be not from the Christian religion, but the modern translation of a Latin word having the alternate meaning of "hell" as in any burning, deadly place.
  
  
• Anacronismi: In a close up of Lucilla you can see her contact lenses.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The term "Colosseum" was not the original name; it was built as the "Flavian Amphitheater," but gained its name from a colossal statue of Nero outside. Sources vary on whether the name only applied to the statue, or if it was also in use for the amphitheater, in the time period.
  
  
• Anacronismi: In the opening battle scene in Germania there is a banner marked "Pratoria XIV" (behind Marcus Aurelius). The "subtractive" form of Roman numerals was not normally used in 180 AD. The form at the time would have been "Pratoria XIIII".
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Maximus is a general in the professional roman army (SPQR), but as he is Spanish and not a Roman by birth he would be in the Auxilia. However, you did not need to be a native Roman to serve in the legions, only a Roman citizen. Since Spain was a Roman province at the time the movie is set, it is very likely that Maximus was a Roman citizen in addition to being a native of Spain.
  
  
• Continuity: At the opening fight in Germania, when the Barbarians show up and begin inciting the Roman army, there's a scene revealing the ground full of arrows. These are supposed to be thrown from the opposite front but the Roman archers didn't even load their bows.
  
  
• Factual errors: Contrary to what one of the Roman officers says to Marcus Aurelius, in Aurelius' tent after the opening battle scene, Rome was not "founded as a republic". It was a monarchy long before becoming a republic.
  
  
• Continuity: After the final fight when Maximus lies on the ground, Hagen, who died two nights before riddled by arrows, is standing in the crowd. He is even one of the bearers when they carry Maximus out of the arena.
  
  
• Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: During the Rome vs. Carthage battle a chariot slides sideways and then hits a wall. Just before it hits, a blanket lifts up and a large tank and some pipe fittings can be seen on the back of the chariot.
  
  
• Errori geografici: In one scene we can see the river Tiber from the Colosseum, yet the Colosseum was in a position near one of Rome's hills from which no road led unblocked towards the river.
  
  
• Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: The morning after the battle, when General Maximus is patting his horse, you can see a crew member in blue jeans walking backwards through the space underneath the horse's head and neck.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the "recreation battle" involving chariots vs standing men, there is a very quick shot showing men shooting with crossbows. While the Romans knew the crossbow (or manuballista), they rarely used it; this may have been one of those rare times. Similarly, the mace was rarely used at the time.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Colosseum as depicted in the film is bigger than it really was (and is today). When we get to see the interior it has the correct proportions but the exterior looks about 1.5 times bigger.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lucilla leans over the dying Maximus, the sun is directly behind her head, and should thus cast a shadow on Maximus' face. But when we see his face, it is sunlit and there's no trace of Lucilla's shadow.
  
  
• Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: During the initial Colosseum fight in Rome when a chariot crashes into a wall, an air ram tank is visible.
  
  
• Continuity: Commodus has a facial scar over his lip on his left side (to the right of the screen). When he and Lucilla are entering Rome via chariot, Commodus' scar is on the other side. Since this scar is real, this probably indicates reversed film.
  
  
• Factual errors: Traditional Roman combat strategy of the era taught soldiers to lunge with their swords while under cover of their shields, instead of the hacking seen in the movie.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On close examination, during the execution scene, Maximus misses both praetorian's head with the sword's haft and blade.
  
  
• Anacronismi: When the hilt of his sword is shown, his name is spelled MARCUS AURELIUS, but the letter U did not yet exist separate from V, so it should be MARCVS AVRELIVS.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Colosseum did not have the fourth story until 220AD which is after the film takes place (180AD), although when viewed from the outside this plain fourth story is quite visible.
  
  
• Factual errors: Roman legions always fortified their encampments. They never camped on open space.
  
  
• Anacronismi: Locks as portrayed in the movie were not yet invented.
  
  
• Anacronismi: Most of the Roman clothes are not consistent with the time period.
  
  
• Continuity: During the fight with Tigris, Maximus kills the tiger and shoves it off of him to the side and we see clearly a shot of the tiger away from Maximus. However when we cut back to Maximus and he is fighting on the ground, we can see the tiger still on top of Maximus.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Maximus changes horses on the ride home. He has two horses with him.
  
  
• Continuity: Right before Proximo is killed, he looks up and says, "shadows and dust". This is clearly, from the background and his clothes, reuse of footage from when he says the same thing to Maximus before the fight with Tigris. This was made necessary by the death of 'Oliver Reed' during production.
  
  
• Continuity: In the "Roma - Carthage" battle, Maximus rides a white horse, carrying his sword in his right hand and wearing the shoulder armor on his left shoulder. After the "Romans" are defeated, he has the sword in his left hand and the armor on his right shoulder. This changes back in the next shot.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Roman legions used spears called pila. Doctrine called for them to be thrown while the enemy closed. The Romans would then draw their swords and fight, while remaining in formation. Though the Romans are shown holding their pila in the opening scenes, they are never used against the barbarians, and we clearly see no pila-riddled shields and/or corpses in the background.
  
  
• Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: At the end of the second battle in Zucchabar, Maximus throws his sword, the shot changes showing Maximus and his fallen competitors as he taunts the crowd. A crew man (blue jeans, white T-shirt) and camera can be seen on the left of the screen, first row.
  
  
• Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: In the Roma-Carthage battle reenactment, when one of the archers is cut in two by a chariot's wheel blade, a crew member can be seen kneeling in the chariot from the rear camera shot.
  
  
• Anacronismi: During the fight with the tigers, Maximus falls and rolls over, clearly showing Lycra bike-style shorts.
  
  
• Anacronismi: In the film, flags are shown flying around the top of the Colosseum on "flag poles." Those "flag poles" in reality held pulleys which were used with tackle to roll a covering down over the Colosseum to protect the people from the sun. Flags didn't appear until a thousand years later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the first fight in Zucchabar, Maximus thrusts into one of the opposing gladiators. The sword is seen to pass between the man's side and his arm.
  
  
• Anacronismi: During the chariot battle, a woman in the crowd standing and clapping, near the center of the screen above the entrance, is wearing a pair of modern sunglasses.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Commodus returns to Rome, he parades on a large place. Actually, there was no such empty space in Rome where so many people could have found place.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Near the end of the Battle of Carthage, we see Juba running towards a "Roman" fighter. As he runs, the "metal" spike on the top of his helmet can be seen to wave back and forth - it's clearly made of rubber.
  
  
• Anacronismi: The streets of Rome are shown as very sandy, although actually the streets were paved with stones.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the pan & scan version, when the chariots make their way out into the Coliseum during the Roma-Carthage battle, a gladiator calls out and we can clearly see blue sky and scaffolding above his head where the remaining CGI tiers of the arena should be.
  
  
• Continuity: The soldier who fires the first flaming arrow at the start of the battle changes the orientation of his bow between shots. In the first shot he is holding it horizontally, like a cross-bow; in the next shot (which comes immediately after) he is holding it vertically.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus to tell him about his home, he mentions the soil is "black, like my wife's hair". When we see her later, and at the film's end, Maximus' wife is a brunette (the entire description of home was ad-libbed).
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The poisonous snake that was slipped into the bed was not poisonous - it was a harmless milk snake. But it was clearly acting, and playing the part of a deadly coral snake for the movie. Then again...
  
  
• Anacronismi: The coral snake is native to the Americas, so no Roman assassin would have owned one.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Near the end of the movie, when Commodus and Maximus are struggling for the knife, both of them are gripping it and it bends at a serious angle, indicating that it's rubber.
  
  
• Anacronismi: At one of the games, a spectator is shown holding and discarding a beautiful, folded paper program that could only have been printed. Although block printing was used in China at that time, the Romans used no printing methods.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maximus kicks Tigris of Gaul to the ground, we see Tigris' face plate pop up, revealing his face. When Maximus is looming over his body and is about to kill Tigris, he has to lift the face plate (which should have already been raised).
  
  
• Continuity: After the final fight sequence with Comodus, Maximus is seen from behind falling onto a patch of flat earth covered with petals. In subsequent shots of him on the ground (as Lucilla comforts him) a raised "pillow" of earth can be seen under Maximus' head.
  
  
• Factual errors: The helmets of the Roman soldiers lack the cross brace, which was a cross-shaped metal fitting welded to the top of a Roman helmet to allow it to better resist blows by heavy weapons. The Romans adopted the cross brace during the Wars with Dacia in the early 2nd Century AD.
  
  
• Continuity: The masks in the play When Cicero meets Lucilla.
  
  
• Anacronismi: Domes in the background scenes show lanterns on top of the domes. These were not used till the Renaissance - Roman domes had an open top called an oculus.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During battle preparations in the opening scenes, when Quintus says, "The danger to the calvary..." instead of "cavalry".
  
  
• Factual errors: Commodus tells Lucius about their ancestors, and mentions Emperor Claudius. Commodus and his family were in no way related to Claudius, whose family line died off permanently after Emperor Nero was killed over 100 years earlier.
  
  
• Factual errors: Catapults were siege weapons and would not have been used against a mobile target such as an army, because they were very cumbersome and if they missed it would take a great deal of time to adjust their aim.
  
  
• Anacronismi: The roman soldiers were branded with tattoo as the slaves, but none of the slaves has the tattoo on the upper arm.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the emperor and crowd put their thumbs up for 'live' and down for 'kill'. However, in reality the emperor would use his four fingers to cover his thumb as the sign to let the gladiator live. When he wanted the gladiator to die he would put his thumb straight out to the side symbolizing the sword. The gladiator could also be let to live if the emperor threw a piece of cloth or something of the sort showing mercy or yelling the Latin word for "dismissed". Study of ancient artwork suggests that the "thumbs up" gesture was actually an affirmation to proceed with the kill.
  
  
• Factual errors: By 180AD (when the film is set), Emperors were given the honorific 'Augustus', with 'Caesar' usually being reserved for the heir to the throne.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the battle against the barbarian army at the beginning of the movie, there is a wide shot of the barbarians taunting the Romans, and hundreds of Roman arrows are already sticking in the ground in front of them, long before the order is given for the Roman archers to launch their first volley.
  
  
• Factual errors: Roman tactics of the time relied heavily on close-order formations and high levels of discipline among the troops. Roman soldiers would first have thrown their heavy pila to weigh down the shields and thin the ranks of the opposition, then either advance in a wedge formation or wait in a tight shield-wall to receive the charge. The Germanic tribes in particular were feared warriors on an individual basis, whereas the conscripted Roman army's strength was in its discipline, and a Roman army breaking into a disorganised charge as shown in the movie would be likely to have been massacred.
  
  
• Continuity: One of Gracchus's servants warns him of the Praetorians coming to arrest him. The servant tells him, 'Praetorians, master'. However, Gracchus's servants are earlier in the movie referred to as being deaf and mute and therefore couldn't speak.
  
  
• Continuity: When praying to protect his wife and child, Maximus clearly has both figures in one hand, the camera angle switches, and he has one in each hand. The angle switches back and they've miraculously switched back to the one hand again.
  
  
• Factual errors: Generally speaking, Roman generals did not ride with the cavalry let alone involve themselves in physical combat. The number of men shown on the battle field in Germania appeared to be the size of cohort ( 1/10th of a Legion ) which would have been commanded by several Centurions, and Optios. A Legion, in turn was commanded by a Legatus, and more than one Legion, making an Army was commanded by a general. Generals also had their own Praetorian guard which seemed conspicuously absent in the case of Maximus.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maximus approaches Tigris, he picks up a handful of dirt and the shield disappears from his left hand and the reappears.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After the first fight in the Colosseum, Commodus refers to the battle being reenacted as "The Battle of Carthage." The actual name of the battle is "The Battle of Zama," as it took place on the plain of Zama. The city of Carthage stood for decades after Hannibal's defeat until the 3rd Punic War.
  
  
• * Since they could not seduce men in the position they held in society,Vestil virgins were often in attendance at games such as gladitorial fights. In the film we see women sitting with the men. During that time period, women were not allowed to attend events at the Colosseum. The Romans felt that all women (even those of great social status) were seductresses and would only serve as a distraction. Vestil virgins however, were allowed to be in attendance.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the ride home, Maximus' horse falls and as it is falling, a black lunge whip is briefly seen, cueing the horse to fall.
  
  

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