There are people who will feel Gladiator II is a wholly unnecessary sequel to a standalone story that didn’t need a continuation. But didn’t it? Gladiator’s ending was emotional, powerful, but it did not provide closure. The death of Commodus at the hands of Maximus paved the way for Marcus Aurelius’s “dream of Rome” to come true. But then the movie ends. There’s closure for Maximus, as he sees himself reunited with his family in the afterlife. Rome, though? The fate of the city is left hanging.
Obviously, people could run to the history books and learn a thing or two. It’s just not the same as seeing the story of the movie told to completion. That’s what Gladiator II provides: closure. Along the way, Ridley Scott has some things to say about government.
Gladiator II ending explained
The dream of Rome
Over at Screen Rant, Padraig Cotter said “the way [Gladiator 2] mirrors the original makes it feel like a remake rather than a true sequel.” This kind of happens a lot. The Force Awakens was a famous example of going right back to the same narrative playbook. Jurassic World followed many of the same beats as Jurassic Park, except the theme park was opened instead of closed. The Blair Witch sequel from 2016 also repeated most of the original without adding much that was new. The third movie in the Riddick franchise, Riddick, was an obvious attempt to recreate the first film, Pitch Black.
Sometimes it really is just studios playing it too safe because they’re afraid to stray from what worked. But there can be narrative reasons. For example, in The Force Awakens, one might argue that the similarities in the stories are purposeful because the Star Wars universe has themes related to fate and destiny. So Rey having the same character arc as Luke is actually core to the artistic statement.
I think that’s the case in Gladiator 2. Within the world of the film, Marcus Aurelius was a good man who wanted to ensure another would follow in his footsteps. That’s why he hoped Maximus would succeed him, because Maximus would return power to the Senate and allow Rome to transition from an empire back to a republic and thus be less about the ruler and more about the people. Except Commodus derails those plans by murdering his father and assuming the role of Emperor. The ruler continues to reign over the public. By slaying Commodus, Maximus opens the path for the return of the republic. But his death leaves a void. The champion of the idea is no more.
And so we pick up with Gladiator 2. The dream never came to fruition and the new emperors are like Commodus. History has repeated itself. Like it often does. Even if that means the same villains recur, it also means new heroes emerge. Lucius having a similar journey to his father reinforces this theme. To put that into real life terms, just think about elections in America. Every 4 years, you see most of the same things. Fresh candidates and people of interest emerge, but they’re all cut from the same cloth as those who came before them. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other.
With Gladiator 2, the duology conveys what I think is a message of hope. Dictators may win, dreams may get deferred, but the people will always find a new champion. It may take generations. But history has taught us that the hero is inevitable.
Revenge
It’s worth noting that Denzel’s Macrinus has the background of a protagonist. He was, like Maximus, like Lucius, a former slave who found his way out of the arena and into the upper echelons. He also wants to bring about the downfall of Rome’s corrupt leaders and transform the empire. We cheered on Maximus when he slew Commodus. Wouldn’t we have cheered on Lucius for doing the same to Geta and Caracalla? Except Macrinus got there first. There’s a world where we cheer for him too.
Except Macrinus doesn’t have a dream of Rome. He has a dream of himself on the throne and everyone else bowing down to him. That’s what turns him from a would-be liberator to just another tyrant. And why, despite his sympathetic background, we find ourselves unable to cheer for him. At the end, when he squares off against Lucius, it’s not two good guys who simply have different points of view. It’s the narcissism of yet another overlord versus the selflessness of someone who would rather unite than divide.
By showing mercy to Marcus Acacius, Lucius had let go of his anger, of his need for revenge. That allowed him to prioritize people, compassion, and leadership. To finally embrace his name and his destiny. While Macrinus never found such peace. One rediscovered humanity in the arena, while the other literally sacrificed humans there to fuel his own ambition.
This difference in how Lucius and Marcrinus view people—as allies versus expendable—is what differentiates them as leaders. And is a broader statement about the kind of people who would be leaders. It almost always comes down to one who cares about people and one who cares about their own ambition.
To put all this in context, let’s look at Lucius’s victory speech.
Lucius’s final speech
Lucius: You look to me to speak. I know not what to say other than we have all known too much death. Let no more blood be spilled in the name of tyranny. My grandfather Marcus Aurelius talked about a dream that would be Rome, a dream that my father, Maximus Decimus Meridius, died for. An ideal. A city for the many and a refuge for those in need—a home worth fighting for, a home Maximus spent his life defending. That dream is lost. But dare we rebuild that dream together? What say you?
To that final question, two opposing armies cry out “aye!” The irony is that both forces were Roman. If they had fought, they would have only been hurting their countrymen. Which seems silly, right? But you see it around the world every day. Nations consumed by internal strife, ruptured by clashing ideologies, on the brink of conflict. Will it be possible for them to, one day, all say aye?
Does Lucius die? What’s the deal with seeing Maximus’s hand at the end?
So Lucius seemed fine after the fight. His father’s armor protected him from the dozen-plus stabs to the chest. And his mom’s words, from the afterlife, encouraged him. We don’t see any wounds. No blood. The only thing that gets me is that when he falls to his knees, back in the Colosseum, there’s a shot where we see the sky behind Lucius and it’s purple and the clouds move very fast. It feels almost supernatural. And then he says “Speak to me, Father.” And then we see the hand of Maximus gliding through the wheat of the spirit world, just like in the original. The end.
You could argue that the sky being so crazy is just part of the whole vibe of the moment. It doesn’t mean Lucius himself is about to enter the spirit world but simply foreshadows this moment of connection between worlds. Maximus responds to Lucius’s request to speak. That does resonate with the fact that we heard his mother, Lucilla, say “Strength and honor, my son” during the fight with Marcinus. It bridges the second movie’s river afterlife with the original’s Elysian Fields.
It would be poetic if Lucius didn’t survive, just like Maximus. But we saw how that went last time—the dictator’s resumed. My sense is that Ridley Scott wanted to end with some hope. That he liked Lucius, especially Paul Mescal as Lucius, so would want to have him fulfill the dream in a way that Maximus could not. I think that also kind of resonates with where Scott is in life. Francis Ford Coppola did something similar with Megalopolis.
Coppola is 85. He knows he doesn’t have much time. So he used Megalopolis to compare America to Ancient Rome in an attempt to leave a lasting statement about society and politics, based on his lifetime of experience. Scott’s 86 (87 on November 30th, 2024) and also has some thoughts about modern politics. In an interview with Den of Geek, he said that between the past and the present “There’s no difference. It’s the same, except I think now it’s much worse. The weapons are much mightier than a sword, and one hopes deeply that they don’t get into some stupid exchange…. One hopes common sense prevails, but I’m not sure it does.”
I see Gladiator 2 as Ridley’s Megalopolis (and I mean that in the best way possible). It’s his attempt to say something while he still can, to leave a statement about how the world works. And offer a degree of hope, where common sense does prevail. He told Deadline: Well, actually, [Gladiator 2’s] an iteration of what the f*ck is happening today right in front of us. Every time I switch on CNN, there it is, dude, some asshole is territory-hunting and shouldn’t be and has no right to have that. Therefore it would seem to be a good beginning to touch on: present day politics and terrible actions.
That’s a long way of saying I think Lucius is alive. Especially since Ridley has already said he has an idea for Gladiator 3 (that takes place away from the Colosseum).
Cast
- Lucius Verus – Paul Mescal
- Lucilla – Connie Nielsen
- Marcus Acacius – Pedro Pascal
- Macrinus – Denzel Washington
- Emperor Geta – Joseph Quinn
- Emperor Caracalla – Fred Hechinger
- Senator Gracchus – Derek Jacobi
- Jabartha – Peter Mensah
- Ravi – Alexander Karim
- Senator Thraex – Tim McInnerny
- Arishat – Yuval Gonen
- Written by – David Scarpa
- Directed by – Ridley Scott
