Movie Smarts

Gladiator Quiz: Give the Crowd Something to Cheer

A few easy wins, a few head-scratchers, and an explanation after every answer.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Gladiator: The Career Change Was Not Voluntary

A respected commander expects to go home after serving his empire. Instead, a struggle for power strips away his old life and throws him into a world where survival is a public show. He fights his way toward the people responsible, winning over crowds who have no idea who he used to be. There is plenty of shouting, a deeply unhealthy workplace, and an emperor who handles criticism badly.

The crowd is waiting. Give them a score worth cheering.

1. Who plays Maximus?
- Hugh Jackman
- Gerard Butler
- Russell Crowe
- Mel Gibson
Crowe won the Best Actor Oscar for it, having been nominated the year before for The Insider. Mel Gibson was offered the part first and turned it down, feeling he was too old to play the general.
2. Who directed Gladiator?
- Ridley Scott
- Oliver Stone
- Tony Scott
- Wolfgang Petersen
Scott signed on after the producers showed him Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting Pollice Verso, of a gladiator awaiting the crowd's verdict. He shot the opening battle in a Surrey wood already due to be felled, which is why he was allowed to burn it.
3. Who plays Commodus?
- Jude Law
- Edward Norton
- Christian Bale
- Joaquin Phoenix
Phoenix was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and lost to Benicio Del Toro for Traffic. The real Commodus ruled for a dozen years and was strangled in his bath by a wrestler, not killed in the arena.
4. What is Maximus's full name?
- Marcus Julius Severus
- Lucius Aelius Varro
- Maximus Decimus Meridius
- Gaius Flavius Cassius
He gives it in full when Commodus orders him to remove his helmet, adding that he is commander of the Armies of the North and general of the Felix Legions. The speech is the moment Commodus learns that the man he ordered killed is alive.
5. Which emperor is Commodus's father?
- Marcus Aurelius
- Nero
- Hadrian
- Julius Caesar
Richard Harris plays him, in the last days of a long campaign on the Danube, asking Maximus to take power and hand Rome back to the Senate. The real emperor died at Vindobona, now Vienna, in 180, and did leave the throne to his son.
6. What nickname does Maximus earn in the arena?
- The Roman
- The Spaniard
- The Wolf
- The Hammer
Maximus's farm is in the hills above Trujillo, in Spain, and he describes the place to Marcus Aurelius in the opening scenes. The name is the only one the Roman crowd has for him until he removes his helmet, and Juba calls him Spaniard too.
7. Who owns and trains Maximus as a gladiator?
- Proximo
- Quintus
- Gaius
- Gracchus
Proximo buys Maximus and Juba in the provincial town of Zucchabar and runs a gladiator school there until Commodus's games bring them to Rome. He was once a gladiator himself, freed by Marcus Aurelius with a wooden sword.
8. Who plays Proximo?
- Oliver Reed
- David Hemmings
- Richard Harris
- Derek Jacobi
Reed died of a heart attack in a bar in Malta during the shoot, with several of his scenes still to film. The production finished the part with a body double and a digitally grafted face, and the film is dedicated to him.
9. What is Lucilla's relationship to Commodus?
- She is his mother
- She is his cousin
- She is his wife
- She is his sister
Commodus wants more than a sister from her, and threatens her young son Lucius to keep her in line. The real Lucilla was Commodus's elder sister and was exiled, then executed, after a plot against him failed.
10. Where was the film's partial Colosseum set built?
- Rome
- Malta
- Morocco
- Tunisia
Ridley Scott's crew built the lower tier of the arena at Fort Ricasoli, on Malta's Grand Harbour, and added the upper tiers and most of the crowd digitally. The real Colosseum had been standing for about a century by the time of the film's events.
11. What is the name of Maximus's fellow gladiator played by Djimon Hounsou?
- Hagen
- Tigris
- Juba
- Lucius
Juba is a Numidian hunter taken from his family, and the two men are chained together on the road to Proximo's school. In the last scene he buries Maximus's figurines of his wife and son in the sand of the arena, promising to see him again, but not yet.
12. What animals are released during the fight with Tigris of Gaul?
- Wolves
- Tigers
- Lions
- Bears
Commodus arranges the match against Rome's only undefeated gladiator and has chained tigers released around the fighters to tilt it. Maximus wins and refuses to kill Tigris, which earns him the crowd's new name, Maximus the Merciful.
13. What does Maximus do before battle that connects him to the earth?
- He draws a circle
- He buries a coin
- He plants a seed
- He rubs soil in his hands
He does it before the battle in Germania and again before each fight in the arena, a farmer's habit from his home in Spain. His prayers to his ancestors go with it, said over the small clay figures of his wife and son that he carries.
14. Which historical battle is the gladiators' first fight in the Colosseum staged to re-create?
- The Battle of Actium
- The Battle of Cannae
- The Battle of Thermopylae
- The Battle of Carthage
The announcer bills it as the fall of Carthage, with Proximo's men cast as the barbarian horde to be slaughtered by chariots playing Scipio's legions. Maximus turns the massacre around by getting the gladiators to fight as a unit, which Commodus notices.
15. Which top Oscar did Gladiator win?
- Best Documentary Feature
- Best International Feature Film
- Best Picture
- Best Animated Feature
It took five Oscars in all, including Best Actor for Crowe, Costume Design, Sound and Visual Effects, while Ridley Scott lost Best Director to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Hans Zimmer's score was nominated, without co-composer Lisa Gerrard's name on it.

All the answers

1. Who plays Maximus?

Russell Crowe

Crowe won the Best Actor Oscar for it, having been nominated the year before for The Insider. Mel Gibson was offered the part first and turned it down, feeling he was too old to play the general.
2. Who directed Gladiator?

Ridley Scott

Scott signed on after the producers showed him Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting Pollice Verso, of a gladiator awaiting the crowd's verdict. He shot the opening battle in a Surrey wood already due to be felled, which is why he was allowed to burn it.
3. Who plays Commodus?

Joaquin Phoenix

Phoenix was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and lost to Benicio Del Toro for Traffic. The real Commodus ruled for a dozen years and was strangled in his bath by a wrestler, not killed in the arena.
4. What is Maximus's full name?

Maximus Decimus Meridius

He gives it in full when Commodus orders him to remove his helmet, adding that he is commander of the Armies of the North and general of the Felix Legions. The speech is the moment Commodus learns that the man he ordered killed is alive.
5. Which emperor is Commodus's father?

Marcus Aurelius

Richard Harris plays him, in the last days of a long campaign on the Danube, asking Maximus to take power and hand Rome back to the Senate. The real emperor died at Vindobona, now Vienna, in 180, and did leave the throne to his son.
6. What nickname does Maximus earn in the arena?

The Spaniard

Maximus's farm is in the hills above Trujillo, in Spain, and he describes the place to Marcus Aurelius in the opening scenes. The name is the only one the Roman crowd has for him until he removes his helmet, and Juba calls him Spaniard too.
7. Who owns and trains Maximus as a gladiator?

Proximo

Proximo buys Maximus and Juba in the provincial town of Zucchabar and runs a gladiator school there until Commodus's games bring them to Rome. He was once a gladiator himself, freed by Marcus Aurelius with a wooden sword.
8. Who plays Proximo?

Oliver Reed

Reed died of a heart attack in a bar in Malta during the shoot, with several of his scenes still to film. The production finished the part with a body double and a digitally grafted face, and the film is dedicated to him.
9. What is Lucilla's relationship to Commodus?

She is his sister

Commodus wants more than a sister from her, and threatens her young son Lucius to keep her in line. The real Lucilla was Commodus's elder sister and was exiled, then executed, after a plot against him failed.
10. Where was the film's partial Colosseum set built?

Malta

Ridley Scott's crew built the lower tier of the arena at Fort Ricasoli, on Malta's Grand Harbour, and added the upper tiers and most of the crowd digitally. The real Colosseum had been standing for about a century by the time of the film's events.
11. What is the name of Maximus's fellow gladiator played by Djimon Hounsou?

Juba

Juba is a Numidian hunter taken from his family, and the two men are chained together on the road to Proximo's school. In the last scene he buries Maximus's figurines of his wife and son in the sand of the arena, promising to see him again, but not yet.
12. What animals are released during the fight with Tigris of Gaul?

Tigers

Commodus arranges the match against Rome's only undefeated gladiator and has chained tigers released around the fighters to tilt it. Maximus wins and refuses to kill Tigris, which earns him the crowd's new name, Maximus the Merciful.
13. What does Maximus do before battle that connects him to the earth?

He rubs soil in his hands

He does it before the battle in Germania and again before each fight in the arena, a farmer's habit from his home in Spain. His prayers to his ancestors go with it, said over the small clay figures of his wife and son that he carries.
14. Which historical battle is the gladiators' first fight in the Colosseum staged to re-create?

The Battle of Carthage

The announcer bills it as the fall of Carthage, with Proximo's men cast as the barbarian horde to be slaughtered by chariots playing Scipio's legions. Maximus turns the massacre around by getting the gladiators to fight as a unit, which Commodus notices.
15. Which top Oscar did Gladiator win?

Best Picture

It took five Oscars in all, including Best Actor for Crowe, Costume Design, Sound and Visual Effects, while Ridley Scott lost Best Director to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Hans Zimmer's score was nominated, without co-composer Lisa Gerrard's name on it.