Gladiator Scene 18 Summary

  • Music's playing, and Proximo's guys are walking under a bunch of nasty-looking red streamers.
  • The large man who was training with Maximus in the previous scene is behind Maximus. He tells him that the gods favor him. Red is their (the gods) color.
  • We see the outside of the arena, and lots and lots of people are cheering.
  • Back in what must be the Roman equivalent of an African locker room, Proximo is giving his guys a pep talk.
  • He says the crowd will rant and rave if they kill a man with the sword he is wielding, and that they begin to love the crowd for loving the fact they've killed a man.
  • Everybody is dead no matter what, he goes on, and you don't get to choose how you die, but you can choose how you meet your end so that you're remembered afterwards as a man.
  • Yikes.
  • The crowd gets louder, shouting "Kill, kill, kill."
  • Maximus prepares for battle, rubbing his hands in the dirt like always.
  • We see the crowd, and the outside of the arena.
  • We see guys in armor in the arena, waiting, one of them swinging a very large, metal ball.
  • Then we're in the tunnel with the gladiators, who are waiting to enter the arena. One man loses control of his bladder. Maximus notices.
  • The gate opens, and one guy's immediately taken out with the swinging ball.
  • The gladiators run out, and chaos ensues. Proximo's guys seem to be doing well, chopping down guys right and left.
  • Even Maximus has found his long-lost soldierly instincts.
  • The scene is bloody, gruesome, and violent, but the guys work together to save each other's lives.
  • In one violent scene, a guy is thrust into the spikes that adorn the walls of the arena.
  • Maximus and Juba together take down several guys, and the crowd goes wild.
  • The camera circles them, the music fades, and things get very quiet as they watch the cheering crowd.