KINGDOM OF HEAVEN [2005]

Be Without Fear In The Face Of Your Enemies. 
Safeguard The Helpless, 
And Do No Wrong

 It is almost 100 years since Christian armies from Europe seized Jerusalem.
Europe suffers in the grip of repression and poverty.
Peasant and lord alike flee to the Holy Land in search of fortune or salvation.
One Knight returns home in search of his son.

The German: Have you been at war?
Balian: On horse. And as an engineer also.
The German: Against whom and for whom did you fight?
Balian: For one lord against another, on a point which cannot be remembered.
The German: There's better game now, one god against another.
The pay is proportionate. 

What man is a man who does not make the world better?

God has made us man. We must suffer all.
~Godfrey de Ibelin

Some say Jerusalem is the very center of the world for asking forgiveness.
For myself, I call it here. Now.
I knew your namesake.
I knew your mother.
To be courteous, I should say that it was against her objections.
But I was the lord's brother and she had no choice.
But I did not force her.
I have forgiveness to ask of you. [bow to Balian]
~Godfrey de Ibelin

Godfrey: I am Godfrey, the baron of Ibelin.
I have 100 men at arms in Jerusalem.
If you will come with me, you will have a living, and you will have my thanks, there it is.
Balian: Whoever you are, my lord, my place is here.
Godfrey: What made it your place is now dead.
You will never see me again.
If you want anything of me, take it now.
Balian: I want nothing.

[to Balian]
Jerusalem is easy to find.
You come to where the men speak Italian, then continue until they speak something else.
We go by Messina.
~Godfrey de Ibelin

Godfrey: Do you know what lies in the Holy Land? A new world.
A man who, in France, had not a house, is, in the Holy Land, the master of a city.
He who was the master of a city begs in the gutter.
There, at the end of the world, you are not what you were born,
but what you have it in yourself to be.
Balian: I hope to find forgiveness.
That's all I know.

Balian: What could a king ask of a man like me?
Godfrey: A better world than has ever been seen.
A kingdom of conscience. A kingdom of heaven.
There is peace between Christian and Muslim. We live together.
Or, between Saladin and the king, we try.

When the king is dead, Jerusalem will be no place for friends of Muslims or traitors to Christendom like your father.
I am Guy de Lusignan.
Remember that name. And me.
~Guy de Lusignan, to Balian

Be without fear in the face of your enemies.
Be brave and upright that God may love thee.
Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death.
Safeguards the helpless and do no wrong.
That is your oath.
[gave Balian the ring and slaps him]
And that's so you remember it.
[gave him his sword]
Arise a knight and baron of Ibelin.
Defend the king, if the king is no more protect the people.
~Godfrey de Ibelin

You sail now for Jerusalem, as your father wished. I'll follow within the week.
Now the voyage is perilous.
If God has purpose for you there, he'll keep you safe in his hands.
If not, God bless you.
~Hospitaler, to Balian

Imad: Very good horse.
Balian: Take the horse, and be about your business.
Imad: This is your prize of battle.
I am your prisoner, your slave, should you wish it.
Balian: I have been slave, or very near to one.
I will never keep one, nor suffer any to be kept.
Go.

Your quality will be known among your enemies before ever you meet them, my friend.
~Imad

How can you be in hell when you're in my heart?
~Balian de Ibelin

Hospitaler: So, how you find Jerusalem?
Balian: God does not speak to me.
Not even on the hill where Christ died.
I am outside God's grace.
Hospitaler: I have not heard that.
Balian: At any rate, it seems I have lost my religion.
Hospitaler: I put no stock in religion.
By the word "religion" I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of God.
I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers.
Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves.
And goodness, what God desires, is here [point to forehead] and here [point to Balian's heart]
By what you decide to do everyday, you will be a good man. Or not.

Hospitaler: The king had made a peace with Saladin these past 6 years.
He holds Jerusalem as a place for prayer for all faiths as the Muslims did before we came.
These men are Templars. They killed Arabs.
Balian: So they are dying for what the pope would command them to do.
Hospitaler: Yes. But not Christ, I think. Nor this king.

A woman in my place has 2 faces.
One for the world, and one which she wears in private.
With you I'll be only Sibylla.
~Sybilla

 I'm glad to meet Godfrey's son. He was one of my greatest teachers.
He was there when, playing with the other boys, my arm was cut.
And if was he, not my father's physicians, who noticed that I felt no pain.
He wept when he gave my father the news that I am a leper.
The Saracens say that this disease is God's vengeance against the vanity of our kingdom.
As wretched as I am, these Arabs believe that the chastisement that awaits me in hell
is far more severe and lasting.
If that's true, I call it unfair.
~King Baldwin

King Baldwin: The whole world is in chess. Any move can be the death of you.
Do anything except remain where you started and you can't be sure of your end.
Were you sure of your end once?
Balian: I was.
King Baldwin: What was it?
Balian: To be buried a hundred yards from where I was born.
King Baldwin: And now?
Balian: Now I sit in Jerusalem and look upon a king.

When I was 16 I won a great victory.
I felt, in that moment, I would live to be 100.
Now I know I shall not see 30.
None of us know our end, or what hand will guide us there.
A king may move a man.
A father may claim a son.
That man can also move himself.
And only then does that man truly begin his own game.
Remember, how so ever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone,
even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power.
When you stand before God, you cannot say, "But I was told by others to do thus",
or that virtue was not convenient at the time.
This will not suffice.
Remember that.
~King Baldwin

You will go to your father's house at Ibelin, your house now,
and then from there you will protect the pilgrim road.
Safeguard in particular the Jews and the Muslims.
All are welcome in Jerusalem.
Not only because it's expedient, but because it is right.
Protect the helpless.
And then maybe one day, when I am helpless, you will come and protect me.
~King Baldwin

Sibylla: I could stay here forever.
Balian: This house is yours.
Sibylla: Why do you think I'm here?
Balian: I know that Ibelin is not on the way to Cana.
Sibylla: What else do you know, my lord?
Balian: I know that you are a princess, and I am no lord.
Sibylla: You're a knight.
Balian: Neither earned nor proved.
Sibylla: I'm not here with you because I'm... I'm bored or wicked.
I'm here because... because in the east, between one person and another, there is only light.

Sibylla: What become of us?
Balian: The world will decide. The world will always decide.

Mullah: Why did we retire? Why?
God did not favor him. God, alone, determines the results of battles.
Saladin: The results of battles are determined by God, 
but also by preparation, numbers, the absence of disease and the availability of water.
One cannot maintain a siege with the enemy behind.
How many battles did God win for the Muslims before I came?
That is, before God determined that I should come.
Mullah: Few enough. That's because we were sinful.
Saladin: It is because you were unprepared.
Mullah: If you think that way, you shall not be king for long.
Saladin: When I am not king, I quake for Islam.

If I do not deliver war, I have no peace.
~Saladin

Sibylla: We can't meet in the city.
Balian: Then we will leave it.
Sibylla: And live how? Live where?
Balian, my brother's dying.
My son will be king and I his regent. I must rule for him.
And not just in Jerusalem, but Acre, Ashkelon, Beirut.

King Baldwin: So, my friend, the time has come to conclude my affairs.
If I leave the army with Guy, 
he will take power through my sister and make war on the Muslims.
We have decided that you shall take command of the army of Jerusalem.
Will you defend my nephew when he's king?
Balian: Whatever you ask, I will serve.
King Baldwin: No, hear it all before you answer.
Would you marry my sister, Sibylla, were she free of Guy de Lusignan?
Balian: And Guy?
Tiberias: He will be executed along with his knights who do not swear your allegiance.
Balian: I cannot be the cause of that.
Tiberias: "Whatever you ask, I will serve".
Balian: "A king may move a man," you said, "but the soul belongs to the man."
King Baldwin: Yes, I did.
Balian: You have my love and my answer.
King Baldwin: Oh, so be it.

Tiberias: Fulfill the salvation of this kingdom.
Would it be so hard to marry Sibylla?
Jerusalem has no need of a perfect knight.
Balian: No. It is a kingdom of conscience or nothing.

Sibylla: Who are you to refuse a king?
I will have power, without Guy or with him.
Guy is indebted to your say-so and my brother's, but it's mine.
Balian: Do you have any idea of Jerusalem except that it is yours?
You will never hold it in peace as your brother did. It will be war.
Sibylla: My grandfather took Jerusalem in blood.
I'll keep it the same way or any way I can.
I am what I am.
I offer you that, and the world.
[try to kiss him, but Balian refuse]
You say no...
Balian: Do you think I'm like Guy, that I would sell my soul?
Sibylla: There'll be a day, when you will wish you had done a little evil to do a greater good.

Hospitaler: One may stare into the light until one becomes the light.
I've done it many times.
Balian, throw the stone to bushes and it light the fire: There's your religion.
One spark, a creosote bush.
There's your Moses. I did not hear it speak.
Hospitaler: That does not mean that there is no God.

Jerusalem is dead, Tiberias.
No kingdom is worth my son alive in hell.
I will go to hell instead.
~Sibylla

The boy's dead. The boy was leprous like his uncle.
She gave him peace.
She let him go and Jerusalem along with him.
~Tiberias

Were you not close enough to a great king to learn by his example?
~Saladin, to Guy de Lusignan

It has fallen to us to defend Jerusalem
and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made.
None of us took this city from Muslims.
No Muslim, of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost.
We fight over an offense we did not give against those who were not alive to be offended.
What is Jerusalem?
Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down.
The Muslim places of worship lie over yours.
Which is more holy? The wall? The mosque? The sepulcher?
Who has claim? No one has claim. All have claim!
We defend this city not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.
~Balian de Ibelin

Saladin: Who defends?
Imad: Balian of Ibelin, the son of Godfrey.
Saladin: Godfrey. 
Godfrey nearly killed me in the Lebanon.
Truly, I did not know he had a son.
Imad: It was his son at Kerak.
Saladin: The one you let live.
Imad: Yes.
Saladin: Perhaps you should not have.
Imad: Perhaps I should have had a different teacher.

Priest: When a body is burnt, it cannot be resurrected until Judgement Day.
Balian: If we do not burn these bodies, we will all be dead if disease in 3 days.
God will understand, my lord.
And if he doesn't, then he is not God, and we need not worry.

Balian: What is Jerusalem worth?
Saladin: Nothing.
Everything.

If this is Kingdom of Heaven, let God do with it as he wills.
~Balian de Ibelin

Your brother's kingdom are here [point to his head] and here. [point to his heart]
That kingdom can never be surrendered.
~Balian, to Sibylla

Sibylla: What should I do?
I'm still the queen of Acre, Ashkelon, Tripoli.
Balian: Decide not to be a queen and I will come to you.

If God does not love you, 
how could you have done all the things that you have done?
~Imad, to Balian

Richard Coeur de Lion: We've come by this road to find Balian who was defender of Jerusalem.
Balian: I am the blacksmith.
Richard Coeur de Lion: And I am the king of England.
Balian: I am the blacksmith.

The King, Richard the Lionheart,
went on to the Holy Land and crusaded for 3 years.
His struggle to regain Jerusalem ended in an uneasy truce with Saladin.
Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive.


*****

BLACK HAWK DOWN [2001]

 Leave No Man Behind

Atto: Mr. Garrison, I think you shouldn't have come here.
This is civil war. This is our war. Not yours.
Garrison: 300,000 dead and counting.
That's not a war, Mr. Atto, that's genocide.

You Delta boys are a bunch of undisciplined cowboys.
Let me tell you something, Sargeant.
When we get on a 5 yard line, you're going to need my Rangers.
Y'all better learn to be team players.
~LTC Danny McKnight

These people, they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future.
We have 2 things that we can do.
We can help or we can sit back and watch the country destroy itself on CNN.
~SSG Matt Eversmann

Hoot: It don't really matter what I think. 
Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit... 
just goes right out the window.
Eversmann: I just want to do it right today.
Hoot: Just watch your corner.
Get all your men back here alive.

Good luck, boys.
Be careful.
No one gets left behind.
~MG William F. Garrison

We got a Black Hawk down, we got a Black Hawk down
Super 61 is down.
We got a bird down in the city.
Super 61 is on the deck now.

Thomas: I can't go back out there.
Struecker: Thomas, everyone feels the same way you do, all right?
It's what you do right now that makes a difference.
It's your call, hoo-ah?

Durant: What do you want with me?
Firimbi: You have taken hostages, we have you.
Durant: My government will never negotiate for me.
Firimbi: Then perhaps you and I can negotiate, huh?
Soldier to soldier.
Durant: I'm not in charge.
Firimbi: Of course not. 
You have the power to kill, but not negotiate.
In Somalia, killing is negotiation.
Do you really think if you get General Aidid,
we will simply put down our weapons and adopt American democracy?
That the killing will stop?
We know this, without victory, there can be no peace.
There will always be killing, you see?
This is how things are in our world.

Smith: I'm sorry.
Eversmann: You don't have anything to be sorry for.
You saved Twombly. You did perfect.
You did what you were trained to do.
You should be proud of that.
Be proud of that.
Smith: Ev, do me a favor.
You tell my parents that I fought well today.
And that I fought hard.
Eversmann: You're going to tell them yourself, okay?

Hoot: You're thinking. Don't.
Because, Sergeant, you can't control who gets hit or who doesn't.
Who falls out of a chopper or why.
It ain't up to you.
It's just war.
Eversmann: Yeah, well, Smith's still dead.
This all happened because Blackburn fell.
Hoot: Should have, could have, don't matter.
You'll get plenty of time to think about all that later, believe me.
Sergeant, you got your men this far.
You did it right today.
You need to start thinking about getting these men out of here.

When I go home and people ask me, 
"Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? Why? You some kind of war junkie?"
I won't say a goddamn word.
Why?
They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it.
They won't understand it's about the men next to you.
And that's it, that's all it is.
~SFC Norm "Hoot" Gibson

A friend of mine asked me before I got here, it was when we were all shipping out,
"Why are you going to fight somebody else's war?
What, do y'all think you're heroes?"
I didn't know what to say at the time, but if he asked me again, I'd say no.
I'd say there's no way in hell.
Nobody asks to be a hero.
It just sometimes turns out that way.
~SSG Matt Eversmann

*****

GLADIATOR [2000]

Strength and Honor

Commodus: Here he is.
[introduce the senators to Maximus] Senator Gaius, Senator Falco.
Beware of Gaius. He'll pour a honeyed potion in your ear,
and you'll wake up one day and all you'll say is "Republic, Republic, Republic."
Senator Gaius: Well, why not? Rome was founded as a republic.
Commodus: Yes, and in a republic the senate has the power.
But Senator Gaius isn't influenced by that, of course.
Senator Falco: Where do you stand, General?
Emperor or Senate?
Maximus: A soldier has the advantage of being able to look his enemy in the eye, Senator.
Senator Gaius: Well, with an army behind you, you could be extremely political.

Maximus: 5000 of my men are out there in the freezing mud.
3000 of them are bloodied and cleaved.
2000 will never leave this place.
I will not believe that they fought and died for nothing.
Marcus Aurelius: And what would you believe?
Maximus: They fought for you and for Rome.
Marcus Aurelius: And what is Rome, Maximus?
Maximus: I've seen much of the rest of the world.
It is brutal and cruel and dark.
Rome is the light.
Marcus Aurelius: Yet you have never been there.
You have not seen what it has become.
I am dying, Maximus.
When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life.
How will the world speak my name in years to come?
Will I be known as the philosopher?
The warrior?
The tyrant?
Or will I be the Emperor who gave Rome back her true self?
There was once a dream that was Rome.
You could only whisper it.
Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it so fragile.
And I fear that it will not survive the winter.

Marcus Aurelius: There is one more duty that I ask of you before you go home.
Maximus: What would you have me do, Caesar?
Marcus Aurelius: I want you to become the protector of Rome after I die.
I will empower you to one end alone.
to give power back to the people of Rome,
and end the corruption that has crippled it.
Will you accept this great honor that I have offered you?
Maximus: With all my heart, no.
Marcus Aurelius: Maximus, that is why it must be you.
Maximus: But surely a prefect, a senator,
somebody who knows the city, who understands her politics.
Marcus Aurelius: But you have not been corrupted by her politics.
Maximus: And Commodus?
Maximus: Commodus is not a moral man.
You have known that since you were young.
Commodus cannot rule. He must not rule.
You're the son that I should've had.

Lucilla: Commodus expects that my father will announce his succession within days.
Will you serve my brother as you served his father?
Maximus: I will always serve Rome.

Maximus: Cicero, do you find it hard to do your duty?
Cicero: Sometimes I do what I want to do.
The rest of the time, I do what I have to.

 Marcus Aurelius: Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?
Commodus: Yes, Father.
Marcus Aurelius: You will not be Emperor.
Commodus: Which wiser, older man is to take my place?
Marcus Aurelius: My powers will pass to Maximus,
to hold in trust, until the Senate is ready to rule once more.
Rome is to be a republic again.
[trying to embrace Commodus, but he refuse it]
My decision disappoints you?
Commodus: You wrote to me once, listing the 4 chief virtues.
Wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
As I read the list, I knew I had none of them.
But I have other virtues, Father.
Ambition, that can be a virtue when it drives us to excel.
Resourcefulness, courage,
perhaps not on the battlefield, but there are many forms of courage.
Devotion to my family, to you.
But none of my virtues were on your list.
Even then it was as if you didn't want me for your son.
Marcus Aurelius: Oh, Commodus, you go too far.
Commodus: I searched the faces of the gods for ways to please you, to make you proud.
One kind word, one full hug,
where you pressed me to your chest and held me tight,
would have been like the sun on my heart for 1000 years.
What is it in me you hate so much?
Marcus Aurelius: Commodus...
Commodus: All I ever wanted was to live up to you, Caesar... Father.
Marcus Aurelius: Commodus, your faults as a son is my failure as a father.

Thrust this into another man's flesh, and they will applaud and love you for that.
And you may begin to love them for that.
Ultimately, we're all dead men.
Sadly, we can't choose how, but we can decide how we meet the end,
in order that we are remembered as men.
~Proximo

Senator Gracchus, reffering Commodus: He enters Rome like a conquering hero.
But what has he conquered?
Senator Gaius: Give him time, Gracchus, he's young.
Senator Falco: I think he could do very well.
Senator Gracchus: For Rome, or for you?

Commodus: My father spent all his time to study, at books of learning and philosophy.
He spent his twilight hours reading scrolls from the senate.
And all the while the people were forgotten.
Senator Gracchus: But the senate is the people, sire,
chosen from among the people to speak for the people.
Commodus: I doubt many of the people eat so well as you do, Gracchus.
Or have such splendid mistresses, Gaius.
I think I understand my own people.
Senator Gracchus: Then perhaps Caesar will be so good as to teach us,
out of his own extensive experience.

Senator Gaius: You really think the people are going to be seduced by that?
Senator Gracchus: I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob.
Conjure magic for them, and they'll be distracted.
Take away their freedom, and still they'll roar.
The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate.
It's the sand of the Colosseum.
He'll bring them death, and they will love him for it.

All you do is kill, kill, kill.
The crowd don't want a butcher, they want a hero.
We want them to keep coming back.
So don't just hack them to pieces, remember you are an entertainer.
~Proximo

Maximus: You were a gladiator?
Proximo: Yes, I was.
Maximus: You won your freedom?
Proximo: A long time ago, the Emperor presented me with a rudius.
It's just a wooden sword, the symbol of your freedom.
He touched me on the shoulder and I was free.
Maximus, laughing: You knew Marcus Aurelius?
Proximo: I did not say I knew him, I said he touched me on the shoulder once.
Maximus: You asked me what I want.
I, too, want to stand in front of the Emperor, as you did.
Proximo: Then listen to me, learn from me.
I wasn't the best because I killed quickly.
I was the best because the crowd loved me.
Win the crowd, and you'll win your freedom.
Maximus: I will win the crowd.
I will give them something they'll never seen before.

Commodus: Your fame is well deserved, Spaniard.
I don't think there's ever been a gladiator to match you.
As for this young man, he insists you are Hector reborn.
Or was it Hercules?
Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name?
You do have a name.
Maximus: My name is Gladiator.
[walk away from Commodus]
Commodus: How dare you show your back to me?
Slave! You will remove your helmet and tell me your name.
Maximus, remove his helmet and turn to Commodus: 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.

Maximus: My family was burnt and crucified while they were still alive.
Lucilla: I knew nothing.
Maximus: Don't lie to me!
Lucilla: I wept for them.
Maximus: As you wept for your father?
As you wept for your father?!
Lucilla: I have been living in a prison of fear since that day.
To be unable to mourn your father for fear of your brother.
To live in terror every moment of every day, because your son is heir to the throne.
I have wept.
Maximus: My son was innocent!
Lucilla: So is mine.
Must my son die, too, before you'll trust me?
Maximus: What does it matter if I trust you or not?
Lucilla: The gods have spared you, don't you understand?
Today I saw slave become more powerful than the emperor of Rome.
Maximus: The gods have spared me?
I am at their mercy, with the power only to amuse a mob.
Lucilla: That is power.
The mob is Rome.
And while Commodus controls them, he controls everything.
Listen to me, my brother has enemies, most of all in the Senate.
But while the people follow him, no one would dare stand up to him until you.
Maximus: They oppose him, yet they do nothing.
Lucilla: There are some politicians who have dedicated their lives to Rome.
One man above all.
If I can arrange it, will you meet him?
Maximus: Do you not understand?
I may die in this cell tonight, or in the arena tomorrow.
I am a slave!
What possible difference can I make?
Lucilla: This man wants what you want.
Maximus: Then have him kill Commodus!
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: The man is gone.
Your brother did his work well.
Lucilla: Let me help you.
Maximus: Yes, you can help me.
Forget you ever knew me, and never come here again.

You have a great name.
He must kill your name before he kills you.
~Juba

Proximo: He knows too well how to manipulate the mob.
Maximus: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo.
This is not it! This is not it!
Proximo: Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus.
We mortals are but shadows and dust, shadows and dust, Maximus.

Commodus: What am I going to do with you?
You simply won't die.
Are we so different, you and I?
You take life when you have to, as I do.
Maximus: I have only one more life to take, then it is done.
Commodus: Then take it now.
[Maximus walks away from Commodus]
Commodus: They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross.
And your wife moaned like a whore when they ravaged her, again and again and again.
Maximus: The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end, [bow to him] Highness.

Maximus: You can buy my freedom and smuggle me out of Rome?
Senator Gracchus: To what end?
Maximus: Get me outside the city walls.
Have fresh horses ready to take me to Ostia.
My army is encamped there.
By nightfall of the second day, I shall return at the head of 5000 men.
Lucilla: But the legions all have new commanders, loyal to Commodus.
Maximus: Let my men see me alive, and you shall see where their loyalties lie.
Senator Gracchus: This is madness.
No Roman army has entered the capital in 100 years.
I will not trade one dictatorship for another!
Maximus: The time for half measures and talk is over, Senator.
Senator Gracchus: And after your glorious coup, what then?
You'll take your 5000 warriors and leave?
Maximus: I will leave.
The soldiers will stay for your protection, under the command of the senate.
Senator Gracchus: So, once all of Rome is yours, you'll just give it back to the people?
Tell me why.
Maximus: Because that was the last wish of a dying man.
I will kill Commodus.
The fate of Rome I leave to you.
Senator Gracchus: Marcus Aurelius trusted you.
His daughter trusts you.
I will trust you.

Proximo: I know that you are a man of your word, General.
I know that you would die for honor.
You would die for Rome.
You would die for the memory of your ancestors.
But I, on the other hand, I'm an entertainer.
Maximus: He killed the man who set you free.

Lucius will stay with me now.
And if his mother so much as looks at me in a manner that displeases me, he will die.
If she decides to be noble, and takes her own life, he will die.
And as for you, you will love me, as I have loved you.
You will provide me with an heir of pure blood,
so that Commodus and his progeny will rule for 1000 years.
Am I not merciful?
AM I NOT MERCIFUL?
~Commodus

Commodus: The general who became a slave.
The slave who became a gladiator.
The gladiator who defied an emperor.
A striking story.
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: You would fight me?
Commodus: Why not?
Do you think I'm afraid?
Maximus: I think you have been afraid all your life.
Commodus: Unlike Maximus The Invincible, who knows no fear?
Maximus: I knew a man who once said,
"Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."
Commodus: I wonder, did your friend smile back at his own death?
Maximus: You must know. He was your father.


*****