Goofs for
Gladiator (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: When Maximus returns home to his fields, tractor tracks are visible in a field of wheat by the road.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Some of the saddles have stirrups. They were invented during the Roman Empire, by either the Chinese or Asian barbarians, but the Romans never adopted them. A true Roman saddle is very difficult to ride; the stirrups are there for safety reasons.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the fight with the tigers, one of them leaps onto Maximus' back. As he falls down to the ground, the tiger is now on top of a tiger-handler dressed as a gladiator, holding up a big piece of meat for the tiger to eat.
  
  

• Factual errors: "Maximus Decimus Meridius" doesn't follow Roman naming conventions. A classical Roman man's name consists of a first name (praenomen), family name (nomen gentile), and sub-family name (cognomen). The list of possible praenomen is very short and doesn't include "Maximus", though it includes "Decimus."
  
  
• Factual errors: During the Battle of Carthage, Maximus frees a horse from the chariot and rides it. The horse is wearing a saddle, which it wouldn't wear if it was pulling a chariot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Maximus takes his helmet off at the end of the Roma-Carthage battle, his fingers make indentations in his helmet, revealing that it's 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 speak modern Italian (ex. Maximus' son) or modern German (the Germanian chief). 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: Maximus kicks Tigris down, and his mask slides open. In the next shot, Maximus opens Tigris' mask with his ax.
  
  
• 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 Maximus explains, he throws the spear into the ground. After Commodus says "I'd like to meet him," Maximus throws the spear down again.
  
  
• Continuity: After Maximus beheads the boar-helmeted enemy with two swords in Zucchabar, he throws one of his two gladius (short-swords) into the spectator's box. When he shouts "Are you not entertained?", his remaining sword changes hands several times.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maximus wounds his 3rd enemy during the second fight in Zucchabar, blood splashes on Maximus' right arm and left hip. In the next shot, the blood is gone.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During Maximus' second fight in Zucchabar, he cuts the stomach of the fourth gladiator he confronts in the first shot. Two shots later, when Maximus thrusts his sword between the man's left arm and torso, there is no wound on the man's torso.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Lucilla greets Commodus as the new emperor, Marcus Aurelius is breathing.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus didn't die in the way the film depicts. They're real characters in a fictional story.
  
  
• Factual errors: The movie suggests that Marcus Aurelius ended gladiator fights for ethical reasons. They were actually considered religious events, good for youngsters' morals. It's more likely that Marcus Aurelius reduced the frequency of gladiatorial games for fiscal reasons. The story line indicates that Commodus' excessive sponsorship of gladiatorial games depleted the treasury. Marcus Aurelius was a wise administrator, and the savings could be used to defend against barbarians or improve public sanitation to combat epidemics. The fights were abolished 200 years later, when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During gladiator fights, someone throws bread into the audience. While some claim the bread was handed out by slaves, the film's researchers learned that bread was indeed thrown to the audience. Sometimes snakes were concealed in the baskets.
  
  
• Factual errors: Horses were very valuable in Roman times; they were never used as beasts of burden, certainly not to carry slaves. Donkeys, mules and oxen were used instead.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first battle in the Colosseum, when Maximus turns his horse, blood is on his blade. It vanishes, then reappears 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Many of the gladiators' helmets were introduced up to 700 years later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the fight against Commodus, a piece of sky appears where the Colosseum's upper tiers should be.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Lucilla shuts Maximus' eyes after he dies, his eyes flicker before they are touched. This could be a death throe, or even a post-mortem muscle spasm.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the opening battle, when the two armies run together, a Roman soldier in the center of the screen is clearly laughing at the battle, and not taking part. Some report several others laughing.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: After Maximus defeats Tiger, who is clean-shaven, several soldiers lead him out of the Colosseum. One with a beard looks like Tiger, but it's not him.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Maximus says "Unleash Hell!" Hell may not exist in his religion, but he seems educated. He might be aware of the concept, and use the word for rhetorical value. Since the movie is in modern English, "Hell" could be the modern translation of a Latin word referring to a burning, deadly place.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Lucilla's contact lenses are visible in a close-up.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The "Colosseum" was built as the "Flavian Amphitheater," but it got 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 used for the amphitheater at the time.
  
  
• Anachronisms: 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 he was Spanish by birth. The Legions were open to any Roman citizen, not just native-born Romans. Since Spain was a Roman province at the time, it's very likely that Maximus was a Roman citizen as well as Spanish native.
  
  
• Factual errors: In Marcus Aurelius' tent, after the opening battle scene, an officer says Rome was founded as a republic. It was actually a monarchy long before it became 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.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the Rome vs. Carthage battle, a chariot slides sideways and hits a wall. A blanket lifts up just before it hits, revealing a large tank and some pipe fittings on the back of the chariot.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In one scene, you can see the Tiber river from the Colosseum. The Colosseum was built near one of Rome's hills, and no road lead directly from there to the river.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The morning after the battle, when Maximus is patting his horse, a crew member in blue jeans walks 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: In the film, the Colosseum is bigger than it really was (and is today). The interior proportions are correct, 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.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the initial Colosseum fight in Rome when a chariot crashes into a wall, an air ram tank is visible.
  
  
• Continuity: FLIPPED SHOT: When Commodus and Lucilla are entering Rome via chariot, Commodus' scar is on the other right side.
  
  
• 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: During the execution scene, if you look closely, Maximus' sword misses both praetorian's heads.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The name on Aurelius' sword is MARCUS AURELIUS. The letter U didn't exist then, so it should be MARCVS AVRELIVS.
  
  
• Factual errors: Roman legions always fortified their encampments; they never camped on open space.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Locks as portrayed in the movie were not yet invented.
  
  
• Anachronisms: 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 dies, he looks up and says "Shadows and dust." From the background and his clothes, it's clearly a repeat of earlier footage, when he said the same thing to Maximus before the fight with Tigris. This was necessary because Oliver Reed died 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.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: At the end of the second battle in Zucchabar, Maximus throws his sword. The next shot shows Maximus and his fallen competitors as he taunts the crowd. A crew man, in blue jeans and white T-shirt, and a camera are visible on the left side of the screen, in the first row.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the fight with the tigers, Maximus falls and rolls over, revealing Lycra shorts.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the film, flags are flying around the top of the Colosseum on flag poles. In reality, those poles held pulleys, which were used with tackle to roll a covering over the Colosseum, to protect the people from the sun. Flags appeared 1000 years later.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the first fight in Zucchabar, Maximus stabs one of the opposing gladiators. The sword passes between the man's side and his arm.
  
  
• Anachronisms: 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, Juba runs towards a "Roman" fighter. As he runs, the metal spike on the top of his helmet waves back and forth, revealing that it's rubber.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the film, the streets of Rome are very sandy. In reality, they were paved with stones.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the pan-and-scan version, when the chariots make their way into the Coliseum during the Roma-Carthage battle, a gladiator calls out. You can see 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, he is holding it vertically.
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• Anachronisms: 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, indicating that it's rubber.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At one of the games, a spectator holds and discards a beautiful, folded, printed paper program. Block printing existed in China at the time, but the Romans didn't use it.
  
  
• Continuity: After the final fight sequence with Comodus, Maximus falls onto a patch of flat earth covered with petals. As Lucilla comforts him, in subsequent shots of him on the ground, a raised "pillow" of earth appears 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.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Domes in the background have lanterns on top. Those first appeared in the Renaissance. Roman domes had an open top called an oculus.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the opening scenes, during battle preparations, 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 would not have been used against a mobile target like an army; they were very cumbersome, and if they missed, it would take a great deal of time to adjust their aim.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, the emperor and crowd put their thumbs up for "live" and down for "kill." In reality, the emperor would to cover his thumb with his four fingers for "live." The gladiator would also live if the emperor yelled the Latin word for "dismissed," or threw a piece of cloth, showing mercy. When he wanted the gladiator to die, he would put his thumb straight out to the side, symbolizing the sword. Studies of Roman artwork suggest that the "thumbs up" gesture was actually an affirmation to proceed with the kill.
  
  
• Factual errors: By 180 AD, Emperors were given the honorific "Augustus," with "Caesar" usually reserved for the heir to the throne.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the battle against the barbarian army, a wide shot shows the barbarians taunting the Romans. Hundreds of Roman arrows are already sticking in the ground in front of them, long before the order for the Roman archers to launch their first volley.
  
  
• Factual errors: Roman army tactics of the time relied heavily on close-order formations and high levels of discipline among the troops. Roman soldiers would first throw 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 were feared individual warriors, while the conscripted Roman army's strength was in its discipline. A Roman army breaking into a disorganized charge, as shown in the movie, would most likely be massacred.
  
  
• Continuity: Gracchus's servant warns him of the Praetorians coming to arrest him by saying, "Praetorians, master!" Earlier in the film, Gracchus's servants were referred to as being deaf and mute, unable to 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: Roman generals usually didn't ride with the cavalry or engage in physical combat. The number of men on the battlefield in Germania appeared to be a cohort, 1/10th of a legion, which would have been commanded by several Centurions, and Optios. A legion was commanded by a Legatus. An army (more than one legion) was commanded by a general. Generals also had their own Praetorian guard; Maximus' is conspicuously absent.
  
  
• 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." It was actually called "The Battle of Zama," as it took place on the plain of Zama. Carthage stood for decades after Hannibal's defeat, until the 3rd Punic War.
  
  
• Factual errors: The 'lorica segmentata' style of segmented armor worn by the legionaries laced down the front and back, not the sides.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Praetorian Guard uniforms are not realistic, and are based on artistic convention so common of the time. The exact colour they wore is not known for certain, but is quite likely red - the same as legionaries - based on ancient sources. In battle, they used the same equipment as the legions, including 'Gallic' or 'Italic' helmets, not the 'Atic' helmets shown here. On duty in Rome they wore no armor, and carried their sword concealed under a toga. Depending on the cohort, their shield emblems were scorpions or an elaborate foliage design, not the wreath-and-lightning-bolt design of the film. The only accuracies were the tall 'Republican' scutum (shield), which they continued to use long after the legions adopted the rectangular version, and the fact that their body armor laces down the front.
  
  
• Continuity: When Commodus stabs Maximus before their 1-on-1 fight, Maximus' left chest is covered in blood. However, once the camera gets back to him, his chest is clean.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Maximus is returning home he rides past a cornfield which clearly has tractor tracks through it.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the reenactment of the battle of Carthage, after Maximus yells "Single Column", and kills two more gladiators, you can see his chain mail sleeve slip off, revealing that he is not wearing a chain mail tunic at all. This happens again, right before the battle ends and Maximus holds up his sword in victory.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Characters in this movie are shown smoking cigarettes. Tobacco was introduced to Europe in 1600. However, Romans had smoked cannabis since 100 BCE, and opium since 300 BCE. Marcus Aurelius smoked opium regularly, to sleep and to cope with the difficulty of military campaigns.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Colosseum did not have a fourth story until 220 AD.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus to tell him about his home, he says the soil is "black, like my wife's hair". When we see her later, Maximus' wife is a brunette.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Roman soldiers were branded with tattoos, like the slaves. However, no slaves had tattoos on their upper arms.
  
  
• Factual errors: Women sit with men at the battles. At the time, women weren't allowed to attend events at the Colosseum. The Romans felt that all women, even those of high status, were seductresses, and would only distract the men.
  
  
• Continuity: When Commodus loses his sword in fight against Maximus he asks for sword from Praetorians. Maximus was holding his sword in that time, but in one shot we can see that he is standing with empty hands. In the next shot Maximus again holds sword and later drops it on ground.
  
  
• Factual errors: To advertise the games in the movie, fliers are handed out that say Gladiatores Violenta. First, individual fliers would be way too expensive, it would have been a public posting or a town crier. Second, there are no such words as Gladiatores or Violenta.
  
  
• Factual errors: The tunics that the gladiators wore were colored. Dyed fabric was considered very high class, almost royal, and would not have been used for slaves.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cicero is hanged, his arms are at his sides. When Maximus is holding him up, his hands are bound together on the front of his body.
  
  
• Continuity: During the initial battle with the barbarians, Maximus kills one by cutting his head off, but then his sword gets cut in the tree he was standing against. In the next shot, his sword is still in his hand. Then it back in the tree.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene between Maximus and Marcus Aurelius, Maximus says that Rome is corrupt to which Marcus says "yet you've never been there". Later Lucilla refers to she and Maximus' childhood together. Maximus clearly could not have known her without being in Rome itself, where Lucilla would have been raised.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the opening battle with the barbarians, their war chant is actually the war chant from the film Zulu (1964), sung by the Zulu warriors in preparation for an attack.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene where the senators stand (on the top of the stairs to the senate) to welcome Commodus and Lucilla from the Germanic campaign, some shots show a dark background (curtains or drapes covering the inside of the senate). However, in a couple of close shots of Sen. Grachhus, the background drapes are partially apart to show the blue sky behind the actors, which would mean that this was not the entrance to a large cavernous room like the senate (as shown in the next few scenes), but a set standing-in for the senate entrance.
  
  
• Continuity: The shots of the senate and Commodus' throne room are shot at the same location. The dark pillars with gold base are strikingly similar.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Towards the end when Commodus is killed by Maximus and laid to rest by Lucilla, you when she closes his eyes shut, you can see Maximus' right carotid still pulsating, although he is supposed to be dead.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A lunge whip is visible when Maximus' horse falls on the ride home.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Just before the execution attempt on Maximus toward the beginning of the film, the praetorians are leading him into the graveyard and there is a brief close-up of the bound hands of a recently hung man. Only a few frames before the shot changes again, the thumb of one (supposedly dead) hand very clearly moves upward.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Roman province of North Africa where Maximus first becomes a gladiator is called "Zucchabar" in the film. Zucchabar was a real place and is now present-day Miliana in Algeria. However, it was never a Roman province but was a small area located inside the Roman province of Afrikiya, and the "Arab" slave- market center, dress, language, and general appearance in the film would have been completely alien to 2nd century North Africa.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Maximus is on his horse he shouts "Roma Victa!", when means "Rome has been conquered!"
  
  
• Factual errors: When Maximus kills one of the tigers, it emits the scream of an American mountain lion. The mountain lion is a purring cat (genus Felis), which is incapable of roaring. Tigers, lions, leopards, and jaguars are all genus Panthera, and are not capable of the high-pitched scream heard in the scene.
  
  
• Continuity: In Commodus-Maximus fight, when Maximus picks up his sword from ground we can see that shadows of two fighters are very small. So it means that sun is on top. When Commodus asks sword from Quintus we can see that their shadows are much bigger, like in sunset. That is impossible because fight was only few minutes long.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Commodus is explaining how Cleopatra died, he says she was bitten on the breast by an asp. However, that image comes from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. It was generally agreed by earlier sources that she was bitten on the arm.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maximus stabs jag in Commodus' neck, the blood pearl on Commodus' right cheek appears and disappears between shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Whilst Marcus Aurelius is informing Maximus of his plans to make him his successor, in the background are visible many portraits. One of these is of an emperor who came to power after the death of Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, who gained power after the assassination of Commodus in A.D. 196.
  
  
• Factual errors: The opening battle is wildly inaccurate. The Roman legions were trained to fight as a regimented force, and to maintain formation for mutual support. In the film, the formation collapses instantly upon contact with the enemy; in addition to being inaccurate, this would have almost certainly led to a Roman defeat, as, on a solo basis, the barbarians were by far the better warriors. Further, 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 see no pila-riddled shields and/or corpses in the background.
  
  

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