GLADIATOR

[Maximus looks at images of his wife and son] Juba: Can they hear you? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Who? Juba: Your family. In the afterlife. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Oh yes. Juba: What do you say to them? Maximus Decimus Meridius: To my boy, I tell him I will see him again soon. To keep his heels down while riding his horse. To my wife... that is not your business. Gracchus: I don't pretend to be a man of the people, senator. But I do try to be a man for the people. Gracchus: He enters Rome like a conquering hero. But what has he conquered? Falco: Give him time, Gracchus. He's young, he may do very well. Gracchus: For Rome, or for you? Lucilla: Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome. Commodus: Am I not merciful? AM I NOT MERCIFUL? [To his dead friend] Juba: I will see you again... but not yet. Not yet! Commodus: The general who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. Striking story! But now, the people want to know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. And what could be more glorious than to challenge the Emperor himself in the great arena? Maximus Decimus Meridius: You would fight me? Commodus: Why not? Do you think I am afraid? Maximus Decimus Meridius: I think you've been afraid all your life. Lucilla: Let me help you. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Yes, you can help me... Forget you ever knew me, and never come here again. Maximus Decimus Meridius: I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back." Commodus: I wonder, did your friend smile at his own death? Maximus Decimus Meridius: You must know. He was your father. Commodus: You loved my father, I know. But so did I. That makes us brothers, doesn't it? [stabs him] Smile for me now, brother. Maximus Decimus Meridius: At my signal, unleash hell. Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life? [Watching Lucius sleep] Commodus: He sleeps so well because he is loved. Maximus Decimus Meridius: What we do in life, echoes in eternity. Maximus Decimus Meridius: I am required to kill, so I kill. That is enough. Proximo: That's enough for the provinces, but not enough for Rome. [after swiftly dispatching another gladiator] Maximus Decimus Meridius: Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here? Maximus Decimus Meridius: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next. Quintus: People should know when they are conquered. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Would you, Quintus? Would I? Marcus Aurelius: When was the last time you were home? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Three years, two hundred and sixty-four days and this morning. Lucius: Are you the one they call the Spaniard? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Yes. Lucius: They said you were a giant. They said you could crush a man's skull with one hand. Maximus Decimus Meridius: A man's? No. A boy's? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Five thousand of my men are out there in the freezing mud. Three thousand of them are bloodied and cleaved. Two thousand will never leave this place. I will not believe they fought and died for nothing. Marcus Aurelius: There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Ancestors, I ask for your guidance. Blessed mother, come to me with the Gods' desire for my future. Blessed father, watch over my wife and son with a ready sword. Whisper to them that I live only to hold them again. Ancestors, I honor you and will try to live with the dignity that you have taught me. Maximus Decimus Meridius: I may die here in this cell tonight or in the arena tomorrrow. I am a slave, what possible difference can I make? Gracchus: He will bring them death, and they will love him for it. Gracchus: But the Senate IS the people, sire. Chosen from AMONG the people. To speak FOR the people. Commodus: I doubt if any of the people eat so well as you, Gracchus. Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Strength and honor. Commodus: It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed. [addressing his troops] Maximus Decimus Meridius: If you find yourself alone, riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Elysium, and are already dead. Titus: We who are about to die salute you. Proximo: Those giraffes you sold me,they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer giraffes. I want my money back. Proximo: Listen to me. Learn from me. I was not the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd and you will win your freedom. Maximus Decimus Meridius: You risk too much. Lucilla: I have much to pay for. Maximus Decimus Meridius: You have nothing to pay for. Marcus Aurelius: Let us pretend that you are a loving daughter, and I am a good father. Lucilla: Is this not a pleasant fiction? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Proximo, are you in danger of becoming a good man? Lucilla: My brother hates all the world and you most of all. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Because your father chose me. Lucilla: No. Because my father loved you. And because I loved you. Proximo: [addressing his new recruits] I am Proximo! I shall be closer to you for the next few days, which will be the last of your miserable lives, than that bitch of a mother that brought you screaming into this world! I did not pay good money for your company. I paid it so that I might profit from your death. And just as your mother was there at your beginning, I shall be there at your end. And when you die -- and die you shall -- your transition will be to the sound of... [claps his hands] Gladiators... I salute you. [Looking at some slaves] Proximo: Can any of them fight? I've got a match coming up. Slave Trader: Some are good for fighting, others for dying. You need both, I think. Proximo: [holding up a sword] Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that. You may even begin to love them, for that. Proximo: Some of you are thinking that you won't fight. Others, that you can't fight. They all say that. Proximo: Ultimately, we're all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how, but what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered as men. Commodus: I think I understand my own people, Senator. Gracchus: Then perhaps Caeser will be so good as to teach us, out of his own extensive experience? Commodus: I call it love, Gracchus. I am their father, the people are my children. I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly-- Gracchus: Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, Sire? Commodus: No, but if you interrupt me again, I assure you that you shall. [Upon seeing the Coliseum for the first time.] Juba: I didn't know men could build such things. Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him. Proximo: We mortals are but shadows and dust. Gracchus: The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate. It is the sand of the Colosseum. Marcus Aurelius: You have proven your valor once again, Maximus. Let us hope for the last time. Maximus Decimus Meridius: There is no one left to fight, sire. Marcus Aurelius: There is always someone left to fight. How can I reward Rome's greatest general? Maximus Decimus Meridius: Let me go home. Marcus Aurelius: Ah, home. Marcus Aurelius: Won't you accept this great honor that I have offered you? Maximus Decimus Meridius: With all my heart, no. Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, that is why it must be you. Juba: You have a great name. He must kill your name before he kills you. Maximus Decimus Meridius: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo. This is not it. This is not it! Proximo: So Spaniard, we shall go to Rome together and have bloody adventures. And the great whore will suckle us until we are fat and happy and can suckle no more. And then, when enough men have died, perhaps you will have your freedom. Maximus: You know dirt cleans a lot easier than blood, Quintus. Commodus: Whyi s he still alive? Lucilla: I don't know. Commodus:He shouldn't be alive. It vexes me, I'm terribly vexed. Commodus: Tell me what you have been doing, busy little bee. Or I shall strike down those dearest to you. You shall watch as I bathe in their blood. Marcus Aurelius: Tell me again, Maximus, why are we here? Maximus: For the glory of the empire, Sire. Marcus Aurelius: Ah yes. Ah yes. I remember now Lucilla: I knew a man once, a noble man. A man of principle who loved my father and my father loved him. This man served Rome well. Maximus: That man is gone, your brother did his work well. Maximus: (to Proximo) He killed the man who set you free. ~ Home ~ Movies ~ Songs ~ Anonymous ~ Women ~ ~ Friendship ~ Life and Success ~ Poems ~ Shakespeare ~ Star Trek ~