Half-Assed Internet Research
Research covers the cost of digitally completing Oliver Reed footage, historical Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Maximus, and Lucilla, Crowe’s injuries, the Gladiator effect, sequel plans, Nick Cave’s script, and the film’s unusual finality.
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:19Read transcript
- Digitally completing Oliver Reed footage reportedly cost an extra $3.2 million.
- Marcus Aurelius died during the Antonine Plague rather than being murdered by Commodus.
- Historical Commodus fought in arenas, brutalized disabled people, ruled after his father, and was strangled in his bath by the wrestler Narcissus.
- Maximus is identified as a fictional character.
- Lucilla was implicated in an assassination plot, exiled, and later executed on her brother’s order.
- Russell Crowe accumulated numerous injuries, including finger numbness, Achilles trouble, broken and cracked bones, tendon injuries, and a wound visible on screen.
- The film is credited with a “Gladiator effect” that revived popular interest in classical history and historical epics.
- Years of sequel ideas included a Maximus prequel and Lucius sequel.
- Nick Cave wrote an unmade sequel in which Maximus returns from hell, fights through history, and ends as a modern Pentagon general.
- The panel notes that a comparable modern action film would likely reserve its hero for sequels, while Gladiator gains power from Maximus dying.